Palestine between Politics and Terror, 19451947 [Paperback]

British General Sir Allan Cunningham was appointed in 1945 as high commissioner of Palestine, and served in this capacity until the end of the British mandate on May 15, 1948. The three years of Cunninghams tenure were tremendously complex politically: players included the British government in London, the British army, the British administration in Jerusalem, and diverse military forces within the Zionist establishment, both Jew and Arab. Golani revisits this period from the perspective of the high commissioner, examining understudied official documents as well as Cunninghams letters, notes, and cables. He emphasizes especially the challenges of navigating Jewish and Arab terrorists, on the one hand, and the multiple layers of British institutional bureaucracies, on the other, and does an excellent job of establishing Sir Allans daily trials within the broad frame of the collapse of the British Empire following World War II.

MOTTI GOLANI is a professor in the Department of Land of Israel Studies at the University of Haifa.

Preface Abbreviations and Terms Prologue: On the Road to Jerusalem PART I: A POLITICAL PROCESS AS THOUGH THERE IS NO TERRORISM, NOVEMBER 1945-DECEMBER 1946 The Only Chance for Palestine Is Partition Toward a Clash with the Yishuv Saving the Jews from Themselves: Operation Agatha A State First, Immigration Later PART II: TO FIGHT TERRORISM AS THOUGH THERE IS NO POLITICAL PROCESS, JULY 1946-AUGUST 1947 The King David Hotel Crime The High Commissioner's Conciliation Policy Martial Law Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index