Palestine in Turmoil

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 publications include The Federal Writers¿ Project (1977); The Jews Were Expendable: Free World Diplomacy and the Holocaust (1983); The Emergence of Zionist Thought (1986); The Holocaust and Israel Reborn: From Catastrophe to Sovereignty (1994); Decision on Palestine Deferred: America, Britain and Wartime Diplomacy, 1939-1945 (2002); Twentieth Century Jews: Forging Identity in the Land of Promise and in the Promised Land (2010), and The Swastika's Darkening Shadow: Voices from Before the Holocaust (2013). The Jews Were Expendable received the B¿nai B¿rith A.D.L. Merit for Educational Distinction and, together with The Emergence of Zionist Thought, garnered the second Samuel Belkin Memorial Literary Award from Yeshiva University.

This comprehensive account examines the growing confl ict 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 réalpolitik.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.'