Title: Legacy of empire : Britain, Zionism and the creation of Israel /
Authors: Thompson, Gardner
Year: 2019
Subjects: Balfour Declaration; Balfour Declaration; Zionism Great Britain History; Zionism Great Britain History; Jewish-Arab relations History; International relations; Zionism; Great Britain Foreign relations Israel.; Israel Foreign relations Great Britain.; Palestine History; Great Britain; Israel
Abstract: The focus is on British imperial motivation, action, responsibility and failure. The unexpected British adoption of Zionism in 1917 (and, more significant, its consolidated commitment in the 1922 Mandate) was neither inevitable nor (at that time, especially) necessary. It was ill-judged and defied argument, evidence, reason, and British interests (and contemporary experience in Ireland). 0As the correspondent John Jeffries noted in 1939, from 1923 there were only consequences. British sponsorship of Jewish colonisation directed towards a Jewish National Home/state in Palestine led inexorably to bitter conflict. Arab revolt and the Peel Commission brought a fatally divided "Israel" into embryonic existence before World War Two.
Contents: Introduction -- 1. The Birth and Emergence of Zionism, 1897-1914 -- 2. Zionism in 1914 -- 3. The British Adoption of Zionism, 1914-1917 -- 4. The British Commitment to Zionism in Palestine, 1918-1922 -- 5. Palestine in 1922 -- 6. Zionism and Britain in Palestine, 1922-1939 -- 7. The Second World War and After, 1940-1947 -- 8. The Legacy -- 9. Has It Been Colonialism? -- Conclusion.