The early years of Zionism are described almost entirely from the vantage of the Arabs, with a constant defense of Arab actions and a minimizing of Arab violence against the Jews. Thus the Arab riots of 1929 include a cryptic line about Jewish casualties without any specifics about the slaughter of Jews in their homes and the widespread burning and looting of Jewish property in the city and suburbs. Armstrong omits entirely the Arab massacre of Hebron's Jews. In her account of the late 1930's, the author is openly sympathetic to the Arabs wanting to keep Jews fleeing Hitler's death camps out of Palestine. It was an entirely valid and unanswerable question.
Errors litter the account.
In fact, the convoy included just one man from the Irgun injured at Deir Yassin, and seventy-eight Jewish medical staff were killed. On the contrary, Jordan, like all the Arab states, refused to recognize any cease-fire lines with Israel as legitimate borders. But most of the Israelis and many Jews in the Diaspora had been caught up in their new passion for sacred space and could not recognize the validity of these resolutions. The extent of withdrawal was undetermined, and to be settled in negotiation. The author's hostility toward Israel and Jews is unabashed in innumerable pejorative statements.