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Jonathan Schneer: The Balfour Declaration (2010, Doubleday Canada) 5 stars

Interesting and informative

5 stars

Worth reading for anyone interested in understanding more about the roots of the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors. In a nutshell, Schneer paints a colorful and detailed picture of how Zionist Jews managed to convert several key officials in the British government to their cause, and how the British government ended up using the land of Palestine as a bargaining chip with Jewish people in the UK, the USA, Russia, and elsewhere, while also promising it to various factions involved in the first World War--Arabs, supported by T.E. Lawrence, seeking to establish a pan-Arab kingdom, plus the Ottoman Empire, if they would only split with Germany, and also France along the way.