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Reviewed by Louise Leetch
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In the new book, The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, historian Jonathan Schneer explores a 1917 agreement that helped create the modern state of Israel. This is a must read for a clearer understanding of the vast changes that took place on the Arabian Peninsula in such a relatively short period of time and the impact of Foreign Secretary Balfour’s declaration of support for the establishment of a Jewish nation.
It’s common knowledge that the British were responsible the divisions of the Middle East after WWII but the machinations, maneuvers and manipulations truly began at the turn of the 20th Century. The Zionist movement was founded in 1897 in Switzerland and grew and spread very slowly.
Over the next few years, Jews bought up large tracts of land in Palestine in an effort to establish a substantial minority. The emergence of Chaim Weizmann as the Jewish leader expanded their efforts to seek more than that; a Jewish nation was now the goal.
Up until the outbreak of WWI, England had little use for either the Jewish requests or the petitions from the Arabs to establish an Arabian nation. When Turkey entered the war on the side of Germany, the British began to listen to both.
Hussein Ibn Ali aligned with many of the Arab tribes looking to break away from the Turks and their Ottoman Empire and establish an Arab nation. In 1916 the French and English together wrote the Sykes-Picot agreement, eventually the Tripartite Agreement, dividing up the Arabian Peninsula. There was no input from either Arabs or Jews.
The maps that author Schneer provides in this eye-opening book make it perfectly clear that the parties involved in the break up of the Arabian peninsula had very different images of the final divisions. The Arabs had no idea the British were promising land to the Jews. The Jews thought they would be taking over Palestine as an English Protectorate and the French assumed that Syria and most of Northern Arabia would be under their governance. The English set aside the southern half extending East to Bagdad for themselves. Anatolia and Constantinople were to be reserved for Russia, though she was not informed of the agreement until some time later.
The book really gives you a complete background for the ill feelings on all sides. We also realize the very simple concessions that could have avoided a great deal of grief and bloodshed.
Louise Leetch divides her time between Chicago and Wisconsin. Both houses are just crammed with books. She collects her reviews on her GoodReads page.