List of Figures; Preface; Acknowledgements; A Note on Style; 1. Introduction; 2. Zionist Momentum and the War Crimes Issue in the United States, 1944-1945; 3. American Liberals and Leftists Support Zionist Aspirations, 1945-1947; 4. Haj Amin al-Husseini and the French Government: May 1945-May 1946; 5. The 'Question of Palestine' at the United Nations General Assembly's First Special Session: April-May 1947; 6. The Truman Doctrine, the Cold War and Jewish Refugees, Spring 1947; 7. The French Government, Jewish Immigration to Palestine, and the Exodus Affair; 8. Zionist Momentum and the U.S. and British Governments' Counteroffensive: September to December 1947; 9. The U.S. State Department Policy Planning Staff Memos Oppose the UN Partition Resolution: January-February 1948; 10. The U.S. and UN Arms Embargo: November 1947-May 1948; 11. Responses in Washington, the United Nations, and in Europe to the Establishment of the State of Israel: May and June 1948; 12. International Responses to the Arab-Israeli War I: May-June 1948; 13. International Responses to the Arab Israeli War II: July-August, 1948; 14. The U.S. and Britain Again in Opposition: The Bernadotte Plan to the End of the 1948 War; 15. Israel's Admission to the UN, and Sharret's (Shertok's) and Ben Gurion's Retrospectives; 16. Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.
A new account of support for and opposition to Zionist aspirations in Palestine in the United States and Europe from 1945 to 1949.
Jeffrey Herf is a Distinguished University Professor of Modern European history at the University of Maryland. He is the author of Undeclared Wars with Israel: East Germany and the West German Far Left, 1967-1989 (2016). He is a member of the American Historical Association and the German Studies Association.
'… the author of several esteemed works of modern German history,
presents a vivid portrait of this dramatic period and a trenchant
analysis of the forces at work. Along the way, he reminds us of how
contentious the debate was-within the UN itself and within the most
powerful governments of the time.' Joshua Rubenstein, Wall Street
Journal
'Herf uses a wide lens. He covers topics like the state of the
Zionist movement in the immediate aftermath of World War II;
attitudes on the American left toward the Zionist project; the role
of the French, British, and Russian governments in the critical
periods; the politics of the post-World War II refugee crisis; and,
of course, the complex inner workings of the US government, in
which President Harry Truman's sympathetic view of the Jewish cause
was fiercely contested by underlings in the Departments of State
and Defense and the fledgling Central Intelligence Agency. … but
despite the breadth of this picture, Herf zooms in closely. He has
combed the relevant archives both in the United States and abroad
and pieced together in vivid detail the operations of the most
important institutions involved in the great internal battles
surrounding Israel's establishment.' Gabriel Schoenfeld, American
Purpose Magazine
'Israel's Moment is a fine and highly persuasive history of how the
anti-Communist mandarins of the US State and Defense Departments
and the imperialist bureaucracies of the British and French foreign
ministries - unintelligibly ignoring the Holocaust that had just
ended - tried and failed to prevent the creation of Israel and its
victory over the Arab states in 1948.' Benny Morris, author of The
Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
'Israel's Moment is an absorbing new study of a familiar historical
topic - the disarray in US Middle East policy in the wake of World
War II caused by conflicts between the White House and many members
of Congress, on one side, and career officials at State, the
Pentagon, and the CIA, on the other.' Bob Rackmales, Foreign
Service Journal
'Jeffrey Herf provides a very fresh look at the foundations of
modern Israel in the international arena. Using previously
unexamined sources, he situates Israel's oft-misunderstood
beginnings squarely within the context of contemporary
understandings of the Holocaust and the Cold War, while also
showing that for much of the world, Zionism was a worthy national
liberation movement deserving of fulfilment. There are also
numerous surprises concerning the thinking of American officials
and intellectuals, the reasoning and discourse of the Communist
world, and the baleful efforts of Palestine's Arab leaders. A
necessary book and a terrific read.' Norman J. W. Goda, lead editor
of Envoy to the Promised Land: The Diaries and Papers of James G.
McDonald, 1948–1951
'One of the prominent themes of this engaging and tightly argued
book is the contrast between the later romanticized version of
support for the founding of the State of Israel and the reality of
opposition from the State Department's Arabists as well as leading
military and other officials in the Pentagon and CIA. No other work
connects so persuasively the beginning of the Cold War and the
Zionist and anti-Zionist ideological currents of thought in the
Middle East as well as Europe and especially Britain. Israel's
Moment is based on wide-ranging research. It reveals in an original
way how the intensity of the opposition to the plans for the new
state came close to preventing its creation.' Wm. Roger Louis,
author of The British Empire in the Middle East
'Politics makes strange bedfellows. A pro-Zionist but
anti-communist American president, a Soviet Bloc intent on rolling
back British imperialism, and a mix of liberals and leftists still
fired up by the anti-fascist élan born of the war: such was the
international coalition that helped shepherd the State of Israel
into existence. Jeffrey Herf 's lucid and well-researched new book
provides a vivid account of how this coalition came to be. It is a
story full of ironies and surprises.' Philip Nord, author of After
the Deportation: Memory Battles in Postwar France
'… a fascinating exploration of the unlikely players that helped to
secure Israel's place in the community of nations.' Jonathan
Schanzer, Jerusalem Post
'Israel's Moment is a fine work of history it also makes a rich
contribution to contemporary debates. Anyone concerned with the
Middle East will need Herf's book on their shelves.' John Strawson,
FATHOM Journal
'Israel's Moment is an excellent account of how the State
Department and its allies lost the battle over whether the US would
support the 1947 United Nations (UN) Partition Plan for Palestine
…' Robert Satloff, Jewish Review of Books
'None dared recall that, only a few years before, [I. F.] Stone and
[Freda Kirchwey], the editor of the Nation [magazine] had
forensically documented the collaboration between the Palestinian
Arab leadership and the Nazis, nor that these left-wing journalists
had once argued passionately that the birth of Israel was one of
the great moral triumphs of the 20th century. It is to Jeffrey
Herf's credit as an historian and scholar that he has provided this
important reminder of who actually defended and opposed
international justice for the Jewish people 75 years ago.' Sol
Stern, Israel's Perilous Moment, Then and Now
'In an era when book after book by credentialed frauds flush with
jargon and making spurious claims cross this reviewer's transom,
Herf's study is a relief: true scholarship, with extensive
research, clear prose, and sensible, convincing arguments.' Daniel
Pipes, Middle East Quarterly
'A comprehensive study by historian Jeffrey Herf, based on hundreds
of memos, postcards, situation assessments, confidential protocols
and personal correspondence, reveals how profound the US
administration's opposition to the Zionist enterprise was.' Tzach
Yoked, Haaretz
'Herf has again written a standard work that significantly expands
and deepens our knowledge of the early phase of the Middle East
conflict. It appears at the right time when, in the wake of
the Abraham Accords, Arab politicians and commentators are more
interested than ever in the causes of the failure of their
all-or-nothing strategy but also at a time when much of the western
academic left is increasingly focusing its 'anti-capitalist' hatred
towards Israel. It is to be hoped that not only the
professional world, but also the general public will take notice of
Herf's new book and that it will soon be published in German.'
Matthias Küntzel, Literaturkritik.de
'Many of Herf's previous works are dedicated to exploring the
history of Holocaust memory during the Cold War, both in the West
and the East. Unsurprisingly, he uses his expertise to weave the
early history of Holocaust memory into the broader political
discussions at the time. Herf devotes large sections of the book to
analyzing how the events of the Holocaust and its recent memory
were politically used, neglected, or downright ignored in the
international political arena in the time leading to Israel's
establishment.' Tom Eshed, Mosse Blog
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