The Birth of Israel, 1945-1949
by Joseph Heller Joseph Heller tells the story of the complex and often conflicting political calculations that led directly to the founding of the independent Jewish state of Israel in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust. Examining the positions of many competing parties, he explains how and why the charismatic David Ben-Gurion prevailed: by shrewdly maneuvering between radical extremes on the left and on the right, he says, Ben-Gurion managed to steer a successful middle-of-the-road policy in favor of partition. Heller also describes the vital links between internal and external factors in the postwar Zionist movement. He places events in the context of wider Cold War calculations to explain why much of Israel’s early military and diplomatic support came—surprisingly--from the Soviet Union, while the United States assumed a neutral position in order not to offend its British ally.
2000. 400pp. 6 X 9. Map, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. 0-8130-1732-7 Cloth, $55.00
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"Essential for anyone interested in the personalities, policies, and forces that led to the creation of the Jewish state. Richly documented, it is a most thorough examination of the internal decision-making process of the Zionist leadership in Palestine in the crucial years 1945 to 1949. [It] goes beyond any other study on the subject."—Isaac
Alteras, Queens College of the City University of New York |
