The British Mandate for Palestine
"Following the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I, Palestine came under control of the British Empire in what is called the British Mandate for Palestine."
In his book Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn Daniel Gordis writes
Toward the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth, small numbers of Jews began to move to Palestine, some because they were certain that Europe would soon erupt in violence against Jews, but others out of sheer ideology. In an era of European nationalism, they felt that the Jews, too, should have a state. Sadly, though, it was not the Jews' prayers but the horrors of the twentieth century that transformed their dream into a reality.
Though the British had declared their support for the idea of a Jewish state in the 1917 Balfour Declaration, progress was slow. They turned from ambivalent to hostile; in the 1930s, the British began blocking Jews from immigrating to Palestine, frustrating Zionism's fledgling hope that it could create a viable state.
Why did the British declare support for the idea of a Jewish state in 1917 and then in 1930 begin blocking Jews from immigrating to Palestine? To answer that question we first need to understand the Balfour Declaration. What is it, and how did it come about?
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.
"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour
Gordis’ commentary on the Declaration:
CONSIDERING ITS HISTORIC IMPORTANCE, the Balfour Declaration of 1917 is an astonishingly ambiguous document. While it speaks of a "national home for the Jewish people," there is no mention of a Jewish state. There was no timetable as to when (or how) this "national home" would be created. There was no indication of how a "national home" for Jews could be created in Palestine without somehow impinging on "the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine." Nor was there any indication of what the declaration meant by "Palestine," for it provided no maps or definitions of the territory. Finally, the document did not acknowledge the fact that at the time of the declaration, Palestine was still under control of the Ottomans. Though the British were confident that they soon would, they did not then even have Palestine to offer.
There were, however, at least implicit answers to some of these questions. Among British political leaders, there did seem to be a sense that the intent was to create a state in areas where Jews constituted a majority of the population. The intended territory was apparently vast. Some twenty years later, the Palestine Royal Commission of 1937 stated that "the field in which the Jewish national home was to be established was understood at the time of the Balfour Declaration to be the whole of historic Palestine," meaning both sides of the Jordan River in what is today Israel and Jordan. (See Map 3.)
Let’s take a look at Map 3.
Gordis continues.
As for the fact that Britain did not yet control Palestine, they were certain that the Ottoman Empire was crumbling and that given the understandings outlined in Sykes-Picot, Palestine would soon be theirs. Indeed, within six weeks of the Balfour Declaration's publication, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force under the command of General Edmund Allenby drove the defending Ottomans out of Jerusalem. In a ceremony filled with British pomp, hundreds of onlookers and soldiers from armies that had fought for Jerusalem alongside the British lined the streets as Allenby entered Jerusalem's Old City through the Jaffa Gate on foot out of deference to the sanctity of the city.
The British now had Palestine—and they had promised it to the Jews. They would retain control of the Jew's ancestral homeland for thirty—one years, until May 1948—when the State of Israel would be established.
But before we get to 1948, we need to remind ourselves of this.
They [the British] turned from ambivalent to hostile; in the 1930s, the British began blocking Jews from immigrating to Palestine, frustrating Zionism's fledgling hope that it could create a viable state.
And then what happened?
Then, between 1939 and 1945, the Nazis murdered 90 percent of Poland's 3.3 million Jews—the most substantial Jewish community on Earth.
By the spring of 1942, one million Russian Jews and hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews had been murdered. Five million more would be killed over the next four years. By the time the war was over, one-third of the world's Jews would be dead; in Poland, the Jewish capital of the world and a place where Jews had lived in a thriving community for six hundred uninterrupted years, 90 percent of the Jews would be murdered.
What effect did this have on the creation of Israel?
Partially because of that unprecedented genocide, international consensus slowly began to shift. The Jews, it became clear, simply needed a place to go. The Zionists continued to build their prestate institutions and, eventually, forced the British to leave. In May 1948, the State of Israel was born.
Unfortunately, until now, there has been “no single historically rigorous and balanced volume to tell Israel’s story.”
AS MUCH AS ISRAEL has captured the world's attention, there has been, until now, no single historically rigorous and balanced volume to tell Israel's story to a broad audience the way that this book does. There are, to be sure, several excellent one-volume histories of Israel. But many of them are two or even three times as long as this book, if not longer, and unlikely to appeal to general readers. And while the greater length of those books affords them the opportunity to delve deeper into some of the issues only touched on here, or to discuss issues and events not addressed in these pages, that often obfuscates the overall "story" that this book tells.
Many of those books tell what happened without providing adequate explanation of why it happened or how all the various components of the story add up to a coherent whole. Yet Israel figures too centrally in world affairs for us not to understand it. So this book tells the story of the idea of a Jewish state—where that notion originated, how it was preserved, and how the dream was transformed into reality.
What are some of the questions this book seeks to answer?
As it tells the story of what happened, this book focuses especially on why things happened. Where did Jews get the idea of going to Palestine and building a country there? Why did the Zionists insist that their country had to be in Palestine, of all places? When and why did the world get behind the idea? How did people who came from mostly nondemocratic countries build a democracy that has chugged along admirably since its inception? Why do Israelis seem so hopelessly and vehemently divided on so many issues? Why have the Israeli and American Jewish communities long been so split on many critical issues? What lies in Israel's future?
Without a comprehensive understanding of Jewish and Israeli history it is difficult to understand the Israeli perspective on the atrocities of October 7.
This book also recounts many of the stories that are central to how Israelis understand themselves and their country. Just as the stories of Paul Revere's nighttime ride, George Washington against all odds crossing the frozen Delaware River, and the courageous fight to the end at the Alamo are central to the story that Americans tell about themselves, so too are the stories Israelis tell about their own history. These memories are key to understanding Israelis' mind-set, the way they view their history, their state, and how the world sees them; so this book tells the most important of those stories, as well.
This is a long and complicated history, but Gordis tells it deftly from a bird’s-eye view.
Also introduced here are the formidable, passionate, and quirky people behind all this history. In the aim of being relatively brief, though, this book covers many events in Israel's history from a bird's-eye view. When it comes to Israel's wars, for example, this book focuses on why Israel was drawn into particular wars, the essentials of what transpired, and what happened to both Israel's society and its international standing because of a specific war. There are other books that document the military exploits of each of Israel's wars; that is not our purpose.
This book doesn’t cover the economic history of Israel in depth.
Some other issues remain virtually untouched. The economic history of Israel, for example, is fascinating, but with the exception of moments such as German reparations, which saved Israel economically, or Israel's improbable high-tech boom, this book does not devote much attention to Israel's economy. Of necessity, many events and personalities are not included in a brief history such as
Gordis closes his introduction with:
Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn tells the history of a tiny country and the ancient idea from which it springs. It tells the story of a country that has long beaten the odds, but which still faces frightening some say insurmountable enemies and hurdles. It is the story of a people reborn, but at great cost. Israel's story is a complicated one, both dramatic and sad. It is a wondrous and inspiring story, one that affects our world almost everywhere we turn.
Now is the time to tell the story, to understand what has transpired, and even more important, why.
I recommend this book for those not familiar with Israel’s history.
Daniel Gordis writes at the Substack Israel from the Inside.