Grobstein

The Second World War was a crucial period in the history of Jewish Palestine.
Between 1939 and 1945, the Zionist movement and Jewish Palestine underwent considerable transformation. This carefully documented work recounts the events of that period of time.
By way of background, the author describes how and why Britain moved from the pro-Zionism of the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the essentially pro-Arab policy of the 1939 British White Paper.
The major themes of the World War II era are dealt with in careful detail: the Jewish reaction to the White Paper; the intricate interrelations between the various Jewish underground movements – Hagana, Irgun, Stern group; the Palestine Jewish volunteer movement to the British Army; the development of Hagana commando units in the face of the German threat to Egypt and the Middle East; the internal disputes in the Zionist movement which resulted in the rift between Chaim Weizmann and Ben-Gurion; the ultimate failure of Zionism’s attempt to move Britain to abandon her anti-Zionist policy.
After the British victory at El Alamein, Palestine Jewry made frantic efforts to come to the aid of European Jews.
The book tells about those efforts. It examines the growing tension and strife between Hagana and Irgun, describes the effects of the murder of Lord Moyne, and contains a detailed account of the rise of the Hagana commando units that were later to form the nucleus of the Israeli Army in the 1948 War of Independence.