Britain's Moment in Palestine Retrospect and Perspectives, 1917-1948 Israeli History, Politics and Society Series

In 1917, the British issued the Balfour Declaration for military and strategic reasons. This book analyses why and how the British took on the Palestine Mandate. It explores how their interests and policies changed during its course and why they evacuated the country in 1948.

During the first decade of the Mandate the British enjoyed an influx of Jewish capital mobilized by the Zionists which enabled them not only to fund the administration of Palestine, but also her own regional imperial projects. But in the mid-1930s, as the clouds of World War Two gathered, Britain?s commitment to Zionism was superseded by the need to secure her strategic assets in the Middle East. In consequence she switched to a policy of appeasing the Arabs. In 1947, Britain abandoned her attempts to impose a settlement in Palestine that would be acceptable to the Arab States and referred Palestine to the United Nations, without recommendations, leaving the antagonists to settle their conflict on the battlefield.

Based on archival sources, and the most up-to-date scholarly research, this comprehensive history offers new insights into Arab, British and Zionist policies. It is a must-read for anyone with an interest in Palestine, Israel, British Colonialism and the Middle East in general.

Preface Introduction 1 Britain and Zionism: the Domestic Context 2 World War One: How Britain assumes the Palestine Mandate 3 Palestine and the Near East, 1919-1923 4 The Military Administration, 1918-1920 5 Colonial Palestine 6 Re-defining Policy in Palestine 7 1923: The Balfour Declaration Challenged 8 Paying for Empire in the 1920s 9 The Yishuv Economy in the 1920s 10 The Unravelling of the Mandate, 1929-31 11 The Arab Rebellion I: April-October 1936 12 The Arab Rebellion II: July 1937-39 13 Appeasement in the Middle East, 1937-39 14 World War Two: The Jews 15 The Allies, the Zionists and the Holocaust 16 World War Two: The British and the Arabs 17 The Arabs and Nazi Germany 18 The Mufti of Jerusalem in Berlin: 1941-1945 19 Why the British Left 20 The British Lose Control 21 Conclusion

Michael Joseph Cohen was born in England, and earned his Ph.D. under the late Elie Kedourie at the London School of Economics. He is Professor Emeritus in History at Bar-Ilan University. He has published widely on the Palestine Mandate and the establishment of the state of Israel.