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The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
 
 
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The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict [Kindle Edition]

Jonathan Schneer (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews) |
Kindle Price: $13.99 includes free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
This price was set by the publisher

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Book Description

Publication Date: August 10, 2010
Winner of the National Jewish Book Award

Issued in London in 1917, the Balfour Declaration was one of the key documents of the twentieth century. It committed Britain to supporting the establishment in Palestine of “a National Home for the Jewish people,” and its reverberations continue to be felt to this day. Now the entire fascinating story of the document is revealed in this impressive work of modern history.

With new material retrieved from historical archives, Jonathan Schneer recounts in dramatic detail the public and private fight for a small strip of land in the Middle East, a battle that started when the Ottoman Empire took Germany’s side in World War I. The key players in this conflict are rendered in nuanced and detailed relief: Sharif Hussein, the Arab leader who secretly sought British support; Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist folks-mensch who charmed British high society; T. E. Lawrence, the legendary British officer who “set the desert on fire” for the Arabs; and the other generals and prime ministers, soldiers and negotiators, who shed blood and cut deals to grab or give away the precious land.

A book crucial to understanding the Middle East as it is today, The Balfour Declaration is a riveting volume about the ancient faiths and timeless treacheries that continue to drive global events.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to Schneer (London 1900), an expert in modern British history at Georgia Tech, intrigue and British doubledealing defined the 1917 Balfour Declaration of British support for a Jewish "national home" in Palestine as much as bravery and vision, leading to the disillusionment, distrust, and resentment that still dominate the region today. British Jewish chemist and Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann orchestrated the campaign to persuade powerful men that support for Zionism would benefit Britain's wartime cause and the ensuing peace. Perhaps most shrewdly, Weizmann lobbied former prime minister Arthur James Balfour, then a member of Britain's War Council. Meanwhile, Grand Sharif Hussein and his sons had won British backing for an Arab kingdom, which would presumably include Palestine, and with British encouragement rebelled against the Ottomans in 1916. Through British duplicity, the French also believed they had a interest in Palestine. And three months after the Balfour Declaration, British prime minister Lloyd George proposed a separate peace with Turkey, with the Ottomans remaining in Palestine. This perceptive, complex book will best be appreciated by Middle East historians, analysts, and policy wonks possessing a substantial prior understanding of the intricacies of the region and its players. 16 pages of b&w photos; 7 maps.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In November 1917, the British government stated that it would “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” It was, in retrospect, a startlingly brief statement, which received little attention at the time. Since then, Zionists have regarded it as a declaration of the Jewish right to create an independent Jewish state; for Arabs, it is viewed as an outrageous case of imperialist manipulation and betrayal. Schneer writes a fascinating and scrupulously balanced account of the events and intense maneuvers that led to the issuance of the declaration. He superbly navigates between the various conflicting interests and lobbying efforts of Zionists, Arabs, and opposing elements within the British government. There are no heroes here; one is left with the impression that the Zionists “won” simply because they were more relentless and ruthless than their opposition, which included many non-Zionist Jews. --Jay Freeman
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Product Details

  • File Size: 1237 KB
  • Print Length: 465 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1408809702
  • Publisher: Random House (August 10, 2010)
  • Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B003EY7II6
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #148,518 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
43 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book, recommended by a local Jewish book club, surprised me in the fair & balanced nature of the research and scholarship involved in this tricky subject; yet, Schneer, a British labour historian employed copious first-hand sources to unravel the bewildering labyrinth that was British Middle East policy during the First World War. He was not defending Zionism, nor British imperialism nor the Arab revolt of the time; rather, he focused on the myriad ways diplomacy, imperialism, nationalism and Zionism intersected through the mechanisms of the "cast of thousands" who people this captivating history. The Balfour Declaration itself, a short denouement of political hubris on the part of the British Foreign Office to win over the world's dispersed Jews to their side in this "war to end all wars," is anti-climactic when measured against the promises they handed out like candy to the Arabs who fought for them against the Turks, their French & Russian allies and any other group who could assist in the war effort. Nothing describes the last faltering years if the storied British world Empire better than this duplicitous and often arrogant display of the "white man's burden" run amok in its imperial nation-building endeavor. Schneer clearly posits the fact that the British had no real intentions to meet her postwar obligations as the Paris Peace talks revealed in 1919. Taking us through this confusing yet essential journey of understanding some of the foundations of Arab-Israeli discontent in a readable manner, he had made this topic available to many who may have found earlier works too broad, to biased or too laden with footnotes to pursue. As a lecturer of Middle East history for the past 35 years, I would strongly endorse this book's inclusion in everyone's course syllabus and private library.
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36 of 44 people found the following review helpful
The Price of Deception September 18, 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have always been curious about the terrible injustices in the Middle East. How, I wondered, could such fear, resentment, hatred start and increase over so many years? This book introduces the reader to Balfour, Sykes, Picot, Hussein, the young Turks and the first Zionists. All of these characters, well described by the author with quotes from their letters and speeches, practice some form of deception. The peoples of the Middle East today, especially, but not only in Palestine and Israel, pay for the lies and tricks practiced by all these players. Ironically the backdrop of this story is WWI and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. It all worked together to create destruction, distrust and death.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Magnificent Overture December 22, 2010
Format:Hardcover
A Magnificent Overture for the Present Conflict in the Middle East.

Dr. Jonathan Schneer has written a succinctly meticulous book on the origins of Zionism and the generated Arab mistrust of the West because of their betrayal by the British. That is the main theme of the book, on how the British put out to support two radically opposite groups to maintain their own hegemony in the Middle East. Under the augury of some esoteric and omnipotent international Jewry who the British thought had some control over the politics of The Great War, Effective Zionism was born under the handling of the charismatic (and perhaps duplicitous) Chaim Weizmann with the ultimate goal, of a settlement colony of Jewish people in Palestine under the rue of the British mandate. (Schneer does write very effectively and pedagogically on how there was a good amount internal almost sectarian conflict within the British Jewish community over the concept of Zionism...there was a good [perhaps virulent] anti-Zionist sector of the Jewish community]. The other side had the Arabs under Sayyid Hussein bin Ali and (his most prominent son) King Faisal who under the false pretense of the British revolted against Ottoman empire and were promised a Arab Kingdom that included the "Holy Land", or so they thought.

Ultimately, the book is written from British perspective, but does a superb job of having balanced point of view of the Arabs and the Zionists. One controversy that can be argued form the book is weather the British were actively being deceptive and perfidious with the Arabs, who did not found out about the Balfour Declaration until it was almost to late or was it just a whetting out the "Divide and Conquer" tactic that best fit the crumbling Empire. I think Scnheer makes it case for the latter, but not without a good exposition of the possible perfidious inclination of the Home Office, but let the reader make his own decision. (While the Zionist employed their suave persuasion skills in the conversations/dinners in England, the Arabs were putting their lives on the line in hope of a Kingdom, i.e. the almost suicidal track to Aqaba under the ambitious genius T.E. Lawrence aka "El Aurens", and revolt against a much better organized and efficacious Turkish military).

Schneer writing style is almost too good to be true...I read the book within a week. The book is intended for a non-academic audience and it does an excellent job in its narrative style, but Schneer does such a good job at organizing his well-analyzed research [the book is divided very effectively into chapters that deal with the Arabs, the Zionist, The British Home Office, etc.] that I think the book can be used for an academic audience as well. In fact, it would do well for an introductory book on the background & context of the history of the modern Middle East.

I personally read this book to help me prepare for reading Lawrence's romantic Seven Pillars Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph and I think it has done just that...also it most probably has help me prepare for reading Fomkin's A Peace to End All Peace A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East.

Overall: MUST READ!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Informative for today's world
I once read that to understand the Middle East one had to understand World War I. Although this book hardly covers the war in its entirety the author does a great job of... Read more
Published 10 months ago by jb256
RIDICULOUS KINDLE PRICE
Lame excuse that "the publisher set the price." Doesn't Amazon have any negotiating skills?

Refuse to pay MORE for a Kindle edition than a print edition. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Robert E. Maguire
Excellent Background for Understanding Today's Problems
I was looking for something to explain how today's middle east problems came to be. This book was it. Read more
Published 14 months ago by charles peterson
Excellent Background for Understanding Today's Problems
I was looking for something to explain how today's middle east problems came to be. This book was it. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Robert C. Peterson
A Serious Study in History
There are a plethora of books dealing with WWI and / or the Arab Israeli conflict, but this is one of the more readable ones out there. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Douglas K. Vander Brink
The Ghost of the Balfour Declaration
I am certain Professor Schneer is a learned expert on the period this work deals with. Unfortunately, the average non-expert - me - has difficulty following this badly organized... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Frances Abosch
A Solution That Became Part Of The Problem
When I first saw Jonathan Schneer's new book advertised, I knew this modern British history author would produce another book worth reading. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Regular Joe
Deception to an never ending fault
This is as well balanced an account of a conflict which seems to have no end.When an Empire is to be desolved,when a war is to be won,when allies are being sought,all manner of... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Lawrence Albert
saw it in the wall st journal
dry but good history of the early days of Palestine territories and how the Jews received their homeland from britian
Published 20 months ago by Boyle J. Henderson Jr.
Interesting
This work on the Balfour Declaration is an interesting narrative on the historical context into which the Declaration itself emerged. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Robby Ref
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Popular Highlights

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&quote;
If this country is the cradle of the Jews spirituality and the birthplace of their history, then the Arabs have another undeniable right [to Palestine] which is that they propagated their language and culture in it. [The Jews] right27 had died with the passage of time; our right is alive and unshakeable. &quote;
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Among the large towns of Palestine, Jerusalem was biggest and most important, containing sites holy to Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. In 1911 its 60,000 inhabitants included 7,000 Muslims, 9,000 Christians, and 40,000 Jews. &quote;
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&quote;
Thus recommenced the fatal McMahon-Hussein correspondence, whose conflicting interpretations have divided Jews, Arabs, and Britons for nearly a hundred years. &quote;
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