Zionism and the Arabs 1882-1948 A Study of Ideology [Hardcover]

What are the roots of the Jewish-Arab conflict? How has it developed, and why does it still exist? In this intriguing investigation, Yosef Gorney contends that the ideological principles of Zionism were a decisive influence throughout the period when Jewish settlement began in Palestine and the foundations were laid for the re-establishment of Israeli sovereignty. He begins by identifying four basic attitudes of the Jewish settlers and Zionist leaders toward the Arab population before the First World War, and then shows how these attitudes persisted or changed in the face of subsequent political events--the Balfour declaration, the tension of the thirties, the Second World War, and the holocaust. Tracing in each period the delicate synthesis between politics and ideology, the book reveals the consistency of ideological principles in Zionist attitudes towards the Arabs, despite rapid changes in their political and historical context.

In this excellent book, Yosef Gorny presents clear and probing analyses of the origins and permutations of Zionist ideology toward the Arabs from 1882 until the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948...Gorny has enriched our historical understanding of Zionism's relationship with the Arabs of Palestine. --American Historical Review

Objective and well organized; it is a valuable contribution to the knowledge and understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict...Recommended for upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and informed general readers. --CHOICE

One of the most important books to be published in recent years on the subject of Israel, Zionism and the Middle East...Gorny has done a superb job of presenting the different and changing Zionist approaches toward Jewish-Arab relations in Palestine, using a vast amount of fascinating primary material. --Association for Israel Studies Newsletter

Gorny is to be praised for undertaking the daunting tls8