In fact, all the evidence points the other w ay. N or do the records confirm the assumption that, when the form ula for a declaration was considered at the Foreign Office, the key-words were ’asylum’ or ‘refuge’. This was the Zionists’ strength, o f which they were not fully aware. W ith the belligerents proclaiming themselves strongly in favour o f the principle o f selfdetermination, as opposed tc^annexation, the nature o f Jewish representa tions at the future Peace Conference (so it was reasoned) could have made all the difference. In ig i7 jy i Allied victory_wa?.by no means certain, and it was generally believed that, at best, the conflict w ould end in a negotiated peace. These were manifold the most important was to_counter the possibility o fa T urco^German protectorate o f a Jewish Palestine emerging in tbe aftermath o f the war. The Foreign Office files, the W ar Cabinet papers, and other previously untapped sources gave me a coveted opportunity to find more satisfactory answers to here tofore unanswered questions, prim arily on the motivations o f British policy towards the Zionist movement. N or could I subscribe to the view, dominant among British historians, d u t the Balfour Declaration was the result o f miscalculation, a product o f sentiment rather than o f considered interests o f state. Y et the more I delved into the new ly available records at the Public Record Office in London, to which M r Stein had no access, the more convinced I be came that there was room for a m ore ambitious undertaking. It w ill certainly remain a classic in this particular freíd. His is a monumental study, a model o f scholarship and objectivity, written in a superb style that could hardly be bettered. This w ork developed from w hat originally was intended as an article to supplement M r Leonard Stein’s book The Balfour Declaration, published b y Vallentine & M itchell in 1961. VW CONTENTS The M eaning o f the Declaration The Conjoint Foreign Com m ittee and die Zionists The Sykes-Picot Agreem ent, die Arab Question, and ZionismĪ Separate Peace w ith Turkey or an Arah-Zionist-Arm enian Entente? The McMahonrHussein Correspondence and the Question o f Palestine The Samuel Proposal and British Policy in Turkey-in-Asiaĥ Jewish Palestine- A Propaganda Card 6 7 Palestine- a Strategie Bulw ark o f Egypt? T o my father, Jonah Friedman, who died somewhere in Soviet Russia during the Second W orld W ar and whose burial place is not known 10016 Copyright © 1973 by Isaiah Friedman Library o f Congress Catalog Card No. The Question o f Palestine, 1914-1918 British-Jewish-Arab Relations Isaiah Friedman 1 Palestine-a Strategic Bulwark of Egypt?Ģ The Samuel Proposal and British Policy in Turkey-in-AsiaĦ The McMahon-Hussein Correspondence and the Question of Palestineħ The Sykes-Picot Agreement, the Arab Question, and Zionismġ3 A Separate Peace with Turkey or an Arab-Zionist-Armenian Entente?ġ4 The Conjoint Foreign Committee and the Zionists
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