Product Description

It was the Old Testament-inspired theology of Nonconformist British politicians which created the state of Israel. By looking into the actions of members of Lloyd George's War Cabinet, this work shows that these 10 Britons, with their shared Protestant Nonconformist backgrounds, steeped in Old Testament imagery and imbued with a sense of the historical destiny of the Jews, created the conditions for the emergence of Israel. Woven into the narrative is the story of David Ben-Gurion and other soldiers in the Jewish Legion which was formed within the British army. It follows them from the time of their first tottering steps on the moors of Devonshire, to their quarter-century as members of the secret underground army, the Haganah, to May 1948, when Ben-Gurion declared independence for the new state of Israel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1215605 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-15
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

About the Author
Jill, Duchess of Hamilton is a former newspaper journalist in both Australia and Fleet Street. Her three abiding interests have been military history-with a special emphasis on paying tribute to those lost in battles-animal welfare and conservation. She is currently working on the first anthology of poetry written by soldiers in the Middle East in World War One.

Customer Reviews

New perspective on the founding of Israel
This book provides a fascinating new perspective on the founding of modern Israel.

One British reviewer declared this book proves the "crime" of the Balfour Declaration. That shows the bias of the reviewer, not the author. Hamilton provides a thoughtful and (largely) sympathetic account of the the interactions between the British government and the Zionist movement in the period between WWI and the establishment of the Jewish state by the United Nations.

Far and away the most intersting part of the book is the first few chapters in which she charts the religious and political upbringing of the British wartime cabinet, mostly people with "chapel" and low church educations with a deep affection for the Old Testament. The main players, such as Lloyd George and Lord Balfour, brought a potent mix of religious sentiment, high-minded altruism toward the plight of modern Jews, and imperial self-interest, to the question of re-establishing a Jewish commonwealth.

The confluence of these forces with the visionary activism of the Zionist movement made the dream of restoring Jewish nationhood a reality. The middle of the book then maps the hesitations, complications, and the self-defeating conflicts that arose within British policy from the new reality of rising Arab nationalism, and from the inevitable changes in priority and favor that come with changes in government in a democratic society. Still, once the die was cast, Hamilton makes it clear that the anti-Jewish reversal in British foreign policy in the 1930's came too late, especially after a series of talented and ambitious pro-Zionist governors, artists, and soldiers helped put the project in motion. This was especially the case when the British incorporated Yishuv Jews into the British army in WWI (The Jewish Mule Corp/Legion) and WWII (Jewish Fusiliers), creating a cadre of militarily experienced leaders who could organize and defend against the British trained and supplied Arab armies of post-WWII.

The last third of the book, in fact, is the least interesting. A summary account of the actual founding of Israel, it is a well-ploughed field for writers and historians before Hamilton and she seems to have lost her enthusiasm for the narrative. The first half of the book is the most compelling and the most enlightening.

God,Guns and Israel
The roots of today's Middle East conflict are extremely deep and exceedingly tangled and Jill Hamilton has done a wonderful job in unravelling a highly complicated story. It was an entirely new thought to me that the drive to establish a Jewish homeland arose from the Protestant Nonconformist conscience of the (mainly British) statesmen of the early twentieth century. It had taken nearly a century since the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts in 1828 for nonconformism to play a major role in British affairs of state but, as the book so clearly reveals, by the time of the First World War so many nonconformists were prominent in government in Britain. It is a remarkable discovery to read that David Lloyd George, brought up in an obscure Welsh sect, was engaged as a solicitor to advise the Zionists in their submission to the Colonial Secretary in 1903. He is recorded as claiming that he knew more about the cities of the Bible than he did of those in Britain. His role is shown to be vital and the famous Balfour Declaration should perhaps be renamed the 'Lloyd George Declaration'. Intertwined within the whole sad story of mistakes and broken promises is the age-old rivalry between Britain and France over who should be dominant in the Middle East.

It could all have been so different and anyone who is a serious student of Middle East affairs should read this book. It is a considerable contribution to the historical debate.