Palestine in Turmoil The Struggle for Sovereignty, 1933-1939 (Vol. I) [Hardcover]

This comprehensive account examines the growing conflict between Arab and Jew in Palestine that first surfaced clearly in the pivotal years 1933-1939, and which proved to be an irreconcilable rift once the leadership of both peoples refused to accept minority status. A compelling narrative, lucidly written and rooted in extensive archival sources, explores the deadly clash of two rival nationalisms against the broader backdrop of rising antisemitism across Europe, the intervention of Arab states, and international r?alpolitik. The various suggestions then advanced for resolving the Palestine dilemma, as well as the internal divisions which beset the two rivals for political independence, are also reviewed in these pages. The two volumes, one devoted to the years 1933-1936 and the second to the years 1937-1939, serve as a riveting prequel to Professor Penkower's Decision on Palestine Deferred: America, Britain and Wartime Diplomacy, 1939-1945.This is a thorough, painstaking analysis of the various forces that shaped Palestines fate in the decade that preceded the Second World War. Beyond its undoubted contribution to the historical knowledge of the 1930s, Penkowers book refutes convincingly the Palestinians claim that Israel has been an outcome of the Holocaust  an assertion that many Israelis and others axiomatically accept. He shows how the basis of Jewish statehood in the Land of Israel had been established already before the war and the destruction of European Jewry. Similarly, Penkower shows how Palestinian-Arab societys collapse had begun before the war.Monty Noam Penkower is Professor Emeritus of Jewish History at the Machon Lander Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem. He was Victor J. Selmanowitz Professor of Modern Jewish History at Touro College in New York City, and also taught at Bard College, Rutgers University, and Stern College, and in the graduate History Departments of New York University and Yeshiva University. His numerous publicatiol.