20. “was reasonable enough …” MacMillan, Peacemakers, 394. Though very briefly treated, this is pretty much the verdict also in Segev, One Palestine; in Barr, Setting the Desert; and in Darwin, Britain, Egypt.
CHAPTER 7: THE ARAB REVOLT BEGINS
1. the Ottoman governor in Medina. The Ottoman governor in Medina was Basri Pasha. Arab Bulletin, no. 27, p. 387.
2. “less ready to sink …” Hogarth, Hejaz, 54.
3. “assuming powers on the …” Djemal Pasha, Memories, 215, 220.
4. “The Jehani Kadi has …” Ali to Hussein, n.d., NA, FO371/2767/88001.
5. a rival sheikh … He was the Awagir El Ghazu; the three other sheikhs were Al Awali, Ibn El Sifr, and Al Sawaid.
6. Djemal had sent … In some accounts it is Gallipoli; in others, Mesopotamia.
7. Historians estimate … Tauber, Arab Movements, 37.
8. “I decided to take …” Djemal Pasha, Memories, 207.
9. They received bread … Tauber, Arab Movements, 37–38.
10. “The bodies of the hanged …” Great Britain and the Near East, September 24, 1915.
11. “Eight more …” Ibid., December 31, 1915.
12. “as the greatest proof …” Djemal Pasha, Memories, 214.
13. “There can be no trust …” Feisal to Hussein, n.d., NA, FO371/2767/88001.
14. “some of the best known …” Antonius, Arab Awakening, 188.
15. “In my opinion …” Djemal Pasha, Memories, 214.
16. “He came to see …” Ibid., 217.
17. “O paradise of my …” Robert Fisk, Independent, May 21, 2005.
18. “Death will now …” Antonius writes of Feisal’s cry, “Literally it is equivalent to: ‘Death has become sweet, O Arabs!’ But the Arabic is much richer in meaning and amounts to an appeal to all Arabs to take up arms, at the risk of their lives, to avenge the executions in blood” (191).
19. “I swear by the …” Djemal Pasha, Memories, 220.
20. “Since this war …” Hussein to McMahon, April 18, 1916, NA, FO370/2767/95498.
21. “The movement should …” Ali to Hussein, n.d., NA, FO371/2767/88001.
22. A Turkish force … It was led by the Ottoman general Khairy Bey.
23. Neufeld had brought … Hogarth, “Mecca’s Revolt,” 410.
24. “Sharif’s son Abdallah …” Report written June 14, 1916, Storrs Papers, reel 5, box 2, folder 4, Egypt 1916–17. See also Storrs, Memoirs, 169.
25. “Will send Storrs …” Quoted in David Gill, “David George Hogarth,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 6.
26. “We made the near acquaintance …” Hogarth, “Mecca’s Revolt,” 169.
27. “I deeply regret my inability …” Abdullah’s cousin was Sharif Shakir, emir of the Ataibah. Ibid.
28. “Please order by …” Storrs’s report to McMahon, June 14, 1916, Storrs Papers, reel 5, box 2, folder 4, Egypt 1916–17; Storrs, Memoirs, 174.
29. All these actions … But in the letter that Oreifan delivered to Storrs, the grand sharif wrote that Ali and Feisal would launch the attack against Medina on the coming Monday.
30. “We had not come so far …” Hogarth, “Mecca’s Revolt,” 411.
31. “I stepped into Oreifan’s …” Storrs Papers, reel 5, box 2, folder 4, Egypt 1916–17; Storrs, Memoirs, 172.
32. “He is about 5.5′ …” Storrs Papers, ibid.; Storrs, Memoirs, 174.
33. The grand sharif wanted guns … Hogarth, “Mecca’s Revolt,” 411.
34. “Zeid struck me …” Hogarth Report, June 10, 1916, Storrs Papers, reel 5, box 2, folder 4, Egypt 1916–17.
35. “The conception …” Storrs’s report written June 14, 1916, Storrs Papers, ibid.
36. “Far too much …” Hogarth Report, June 10, 1916, Storrs Papers, ibid.
37. “Had the sherifian revolt …” Hogarth, “Mecca’s Revolt,” 411.
38. “two or three battalions …” Djemal Pasha, Memories, 222–23.
39. “The volunteers were …” Quoted ibid., 224.
40. On the evening of June 4 … Djemal writes (ibid.) that this event took place on June 2, but that makes no sense, because it was the evening before Ali and Feisal declared the revolt, which occurred on Monday morning, June 5.
41. Then on the morning of June 9 … The Turkish vali was Ghalib Pasha.
42. “If there was any trouble …” For this episode see Graves, Memoirs of King Abdullah, 144–46.
43. No copy survives … Ibid., 136; Djemal Pasha, Memories, 215.
44. “Everyone reclaims …” “Translation of an Account of the Events leading to the Revolution in Arabia as given by Bimbashi Mehmed Zia Bey, Acting Governor and Commandant at Mecca,” Arab Bulletin, no. 21, pp. 256–60, September 15, 1916.
45. “The men who form …” Djemal Pasha, Memories, 215–16.
46. “He [Hussein] considered himself …” Ibid., 225.
47. “They were simply …” “Translation of an Account,” Arab Bulletin, no. 21, p. 257.
CHAPTER 8: PREWAR BRITISH JEWS
1. Nahum Sokolow … Sokolow owned and edited a Warsaw newspaper, Ha Tzefira; he served as editor of two Zionist journals, the movement’s official organ, Die Welt, and the Hebrew weekly Ha-Olam; he regularly contributed articles on Russian and Jewish subjects to a range of European newspapers, including The Times of London. In addition he wrote histories, biographies, geographical studies, and language primers, even a historical novel.
2. “His handsome appearance …” Sacher, Zionist Portraits, 36.
3. “It [is] to the advantage …” For Sokolow’s first visit to the Foreign Office, see NA, FO371/1794. See too Rawidowicz, “Nahum Sokolow.”
4. “a preparatory step” … Sokolow to executive committee of the Zionist Organization, quoted in Rawidowicz, “Nahum Sokolow.”
5. “I think … we can safely …” NA, FO511/2136.
6. the English Zionist Federation … For membership figures, see Cohen, English Zionists, 106–07.
7. But Herzl died … In fact he died of pneumonia.
8. “pre-eminently what the …” Sieff, Memoirs, 67.
9. Weizmann put him … Ibid., 68.
10. “repressive cruelty” … Quoted in Segev, One Palestine, 104.
11. two parent bodies … For this treatment of the Board of Deputies and the Anglo-Jewish Association, I rely primarily upon Levene, War, Jews, 1–19.
12. Lucien Wolf … Wolf wrote for and edited The Jewish World, an English newspaper. He edited the centenary edition of Disraeli’s novels. He wrote a biography of Moses Montefiore. His journalism brought him into touch with European politicians, diplomats, and officials. He courted their English counterparts. By the 1890s he was contributing a remarkably well-informed regular column called “The Foreign Office Bag” to The Daily Graphic. He wrote frequently for The Fortnightly Review as “Diplomaticus.” In addition he served as London correspondent of the French Le Journal. He claimed to have influence over events, notably in 1898, when possibly at Arthur Balfour’s prompting he suggested to the Russian ambassador in London a solution to Anglo-Russian difficulties over Manchuria, which Russia adopted.
13. “almost indistinguishable.” Quoted in Finestein, Scenes and Personalities, 209.
14. “once said of me …” Wolf to Sam G. Asher, September 28, 1915, Yivo Institute, Wolf Papers, microfilm reel 2.
15. “anti-Semitism is …” Finestein, Scenes and Personalities, 214.
16. He did not identify … Wolf to Asher, September 28, 1915.
17. He cemented relationships … Levene, War, Jews, 16.
18. His last great prewar … Ibid., 19.
19. “he conveys no impression …” Quoted in Wasserstein, Herbert Samuel, 129.
20. “Zionism was the one …” Ibid., 204.
21. The link came … Samuel’s wife was Beatrice Miriam Franklin. The childhood friend who went on to marry Gaster was Lucy Friedlander.
22. “I remember Dr. Gaster …” Samu
el to Stein, December 6, 1951, OUNBL, Stein Papers, box 7.
23. “a benevolent goodwill …” Quoted in Stein, Balfour Declaration, 109; see also Samuel, Memoirs, 139.
CHAPTER 9: WEIZMANN’S FIRST STEPS
1. “The fate of Palestine …” Ahad Ha’am to Weizmann, November 1, 1914, WI.
2. “Our colonies …” Weizmann to Jacobus Kann, November 2, 1914, Stein, Letters, letter no. 27, 7:33.
3. “The moment Turkey …” Samuel, Memoirs, 139.
4. He kept a record … Numerous historians have quoted these pages, for example, Stein, Balfour Declaration, Sanders, High Walls, and Friedman, Question of Palestine, to name a few.
5. “Perhaps … the opportunity …” Samuel, notes to himself, November 9, 1914, House of Lords Record Office, Herbert Samuel Papers, Correspondence, vol. 1, 1915–17.
6. “a greedy, ambitious …” Quoted in Wasserstein, Herbert Samuel, 144. Samuel, notes to himself, November 9, 1914, House of Lords Record Office, Samuel Papers, Correspondence, vol. 1, 1915–17.
7. “Needless to say they …” Greenberg to Weizmann, October 10, 1914, WI, Letters to Weizmann.
8. “the unification of Jewry …” Weizmann to Levin, September 8, 1914, in Stein, Letters, letter no. 4.
9. “will be difficult to …” Greenberg to Weizmann, October 10, 1914, WI, Letters to Weizmann.
10. “I should find it …” Zangwill to Weizmann, October 28, 1914, WI, Letters to Weizmann.
11. “I tried to learn …” “Report submitted to the members of the Executive of the International Zionist Organization, January 7, 1915,” in Stein, Letters, letter no. 95, 7:113.
12. Crewe was related … Crewe had wed the granddaughter of a Rothschild, Lady Margaret Primrose, youngest daughter of the Earl of Rosebery, himself a former Liberal prime minister.
13. “our compatriots …” Dorothy Rothschild to Chaim Weizmann, November 19, 1914, CZA.
14. “Supposing that the Arabs …” Crewe to Hardinge, November 12, 1914, OUNBL, Stein Papers, box 3; Extracts from Crewe Papers; CUL, Crewe Mss I 19/2.
15. “You don’t—I am sure …” Weizmann to D. Rothschild, November 22, 1914, Stein, Letters, letter no. 43, 7:51.
16. “to try and influence …” “Summary of a conversation with Baron James de Rothschild, Wednesday, November 25, 1914,” WI.
17. Eventually Rozsika outdid … She introduced Weizmann to, among others, Lady Crewe, Theo Russell (private secretary of Sir Edward Grey), and Lord Haldane (Asquith’s lord chancellor).
18. “It is impossible …” August 18, 1915, NA, FO800/104 R.C.
19. “I saw before me …” Weizmann, Trial and Error, 1:149.
20. “I would like to do …” Ibid.
21. “Since Turkey had entered …” “Report submitted to the members of the Executive of the International Zionist Organization, January 7, 1915,” Stein, Letters, letter no. 95, 7:111–12.
22. “Messianic times …” Weizmann to Vera Weizmann, December 10, 1914, ibid., letter no. 65, 7:77–78.
23. “I have just remembered …” Weizmann to Ahad Ha’am, December 13, 1914, ibid., letter no. 68, 7:82. The letter was written in Russian, but the words in italics were written in English.
24. “feels the responsibility …” Weizmann to Scott, December 13, 1914, in Stein, Letters, letter no. 67, 7:79–80.
25. “it is very possible …” Ahad Ha’am to Weizmann, December 16, 1914, OUNBL, Stein Papers, box 7.
26. “Even in the West …” Appendix 1, Note A 189 (14–15), August 14, 1917, NA, Cab23/3.
27. “They have been different …” Quoted in Tomes, Balfour and Foreign Policy, 29.
28. “I have the liveliest …” Quoted in Stein, Balfour Declaration, 153.
29. “Balfour remembered …” Weizmann to Ahad Ha’am, December 14–15, 1914, in Stein, Letters, letter no. 68, 7:81–83.
30. “What a great difference …” “Report submitted to the members of the Executive of the International Zionist Organization,” January 7, 1915, ibid., letter no. 95, 7:115. Letters no. 68 and 95 both reprise the meeting in essentially the same terms.
31. “You probably will find …” C. P. Scott to Weizmann, January 14, 1915, WI.
32. “I answered …” Weizmann, Trial and Error, 150.
33. “It is hoped …” “The Future of Palestine,” January 1915, House of Lords Record Office, Samuel Papers, Break up of Ottoman Empire (Palestine) file, DR. 588.25.
34. “I am not attracted …” Quoted in Samuel, Memoirs, 142.
CHAPTER 10: THE ASSIMILATIONISTS
1. “They threatened to remain …” Wolf to Chief Commissioner of Police, August 31, 1914; Wolf to Assistant Commissioner of Police, September 7, 1914; Yivo Institute, Lucien Wolf Papers, microfilm reel 5.
2. Leo Maxse, editor … National Review, September 1914.
3. No non-Jewish … Levene, War, Jews, 34.
4. “My misfortunes extend …” Wolf to Coumbe, January 5, 1915, Yivo Institute, Wolf Papers, microfilm reel 2.
5. He threatened to sue … Wolf to Hutchinson, October 16, 1914, ibid., microfilm reel 5.
6. “All we have to consider …” Wolf to Bulloch, November 30, 1914, ibid., Wolf Papers.
7. “It is not only the carnage …” Wolf to Neil Primrose, August 7, 1914, ibid., microfilm reel 4. Neil Primrose was a Liberal MP for the Wisbech division of Cambridgeshire and second son of Hannah Rothschild and former Liberal Prime Minister Lord Rosebery; ironically, he was later a Weizmann ally.
8. “We were bound …” Wolf to Lady Primrose, August 11, 1914, ibid., microfilm reel 7.
9. “the German people …” Wolf, Jewish Ideals and the War, 3.
10. “With their invincible …” Jewish Chronicle, December 11, 1914.
11. “To me there have always …” Wolf to G. De Wesseslitsky, May 25, 1915, Yivo Institute, Wolf Papers, microfilm reel 5.
12. Harry Sacher called upon Lucien Wolf … Sacher to Weizmann, November 17, 1914, WI.
13. In their ensuing correspondence … Wolf to Sacher, November 26, November 30, December 3, December 11, December 18, and December 24, 1914, WI. For example, Wolf had wanted to know more precisely whom Sacher represented; he wanted a written record of Sacher’s position; he wanted assurances that the meeting, when it finally did take place, would be with formal representatives of the Zionist organizations; he wanted to be sure that Sacher or other Zionists were not approaching other members of the Conjoint Committee.
14. “against unauthorized persons …” Wolf to Alexander and Montefiore, January 7, 1915, CZA, A7732.
15. “Whatever be the merits …” Palestine Memorandum, March 1915, House of Lords Record Office, Samuel Papers.
16. “inclined to the sympathetic …” Haldane to Samuel, February 12, 1915; Fisher to Samuel, illegible date but probably February 21, 1915, Reading to Samuel, February 5, 1915, ibid., Correspondence, vol. 1, 1915–17.
17. “does not care a damn …” Quoted in Reinharz, Weizmann, 26.
18. “fired about two hundred …” Jim Vincent, “Memoir” [of Edwin Montagu], Norfolk Post, November 22, 1924.
19. “children and animals …” Times, November 19, 1924.
20. the first formal meeting … “The Palestinian Question. Negotiations between the Conjoint Committee & the Zionists. London, July 20, 1915,” Yivo Institute, Wolf Papers, microfilm reel 6. All quotations are taken from this source. A fourth assimilationist at the meeting was H. S. Henriques, a lawyer.
21. Five months had elapsed … When Wolf realized that the Zionists were less interested in the cultural aspect than Sacher had claimed, he sought to pin them down, to nail them to it. Who better to provide the hammer than Herbert Samuel, with whom Weizmann had recently conferred? Wolf met with Samuel on February 28, 1915, in Samuel’s offices. As their discussion drew to a close, Wolf asked Mr. Samuel whether I might take it that we were agreed on the two following points:
Palestine does not and cannot offer an effective solution for the Jewish que
stion as we know it in Russia, Poland, Rumania, etc.
The “Cultural” plan, including perhaps a Hebrew University, free immigration and facilities for colonization, together with, of course, equal political rights with the rest of the population, should be the limit of our aim at the present time.
He answered unhesitatingly “Yes.” (Interview with Herbert Samuel, Yivo Institute, Wolf Papers, microfilm reel 6.)
Pleased with this outcome, Wolf sought to balance Weizmann’s meeting with Lloyd George too, for the chancellor was an even bigger hammer than the president of the Board of Trade. But Lloyd George must have been too busy to see him at this point, for the meeting does not appear to have taken place. (Wolf to Sir Charles Henry, March 30, 1915, CZA, A7731.)
22. Three additional men … The other two were Joseph Cowen, president of the EZF, and Herbert Bentwich, a veteran of the English Zionist movement, who in fact had been a founding member of the EZF and who currently served as president of the Ancient Order of the Maccabeans.
CHAPTER 11: THE ROAD FORKS
1. dömnes, or “crypto-Jews.” Dömnes were a community descended from the disciples and adherents of Sabbatai Tsvi, who abandoned Judaism and adopted Islam in the late seventeenth century. See Moorehead, Gallipoli, 19.
2. These Jewish puppeteers … Berridge, Fitzmaurice, 145–48.
3. Hugh James O’Bierne … O’Bierne served in St. Petersburg, Washington, D.C., and Constantinople, steadily rising in rank until being appointed minister plenipotentiary in the Russian capital in 1913. See his obituary in Great Britain and the Near East, June 9, 1916.
4. The two men came into contact … Miller, Straits.
5. After some hesitation … But this is a simplification. For a blow-by-blow account, see Hall, Bulgaria’s Road, 285–323.
The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict Page 51