Zionism/Palestine in World War I

Question 1

What is problematic about criticising Israel based on Zionism?

Answer 1

Assumes continuity, an unchanging ideology - ideology as genie of history. Assumes that ideas have the power to shape policies and to continuously shape them.

Question 2

How should we approach movements in the study of history?

Answer 2

Contingent factors operating within historical context

Question 3

What is the best way to study ideology?

Answer 3

Through dialectics, tensions, contradictions - never monolithic

Question 4

What are the five key ways we can look at Zionism?

Answer 4

Safe haven, refuge, national movement, colonial movement, multifaceted phenomenon

Question 5

What are three distinct versions of Zionism?

Answer 5

European Zionism, Ottoman Zionism, Bourgeois Zionism

Question 6

How did Ottoman Zionism perceive itself?

Answer 6

As a movement of national Jewish rights rather than territorial independence - context of Armenians, etc.

Question 7

What would have perhaps meant that Zionism’s relationship with Arabs be not necessarily one of conflict? What is the flip side of this?

Answer 7

Aim of normalising would necessarily mean an inclusive society. On the there hand, project seeking to maintain cultural specificity - problematic for native population.

Question 8

What determined the path that Zionism took? (Inclusive vs. exclusive)

Answer 8

Historical context of 1930s and 1940s

Question 9

What has the study of wars in the Middle East tended to neglect?

Answer 9

Impact on society

Question 10

What does Tamari argue about the historiography of the Ottoman period?

Answer 10

Rewritten and squished down into four miserable years of tyranny. Also ‘high politics’, excepting study of Yishuv.

Question 11

What is important to remember about Zionism in this period and interfaith relations?

Answer 11

Zionism was not necessarily the determining element in relations

Question 12

What points to inter-religious/ethnic solidarity in the early years of the war?

Answer 12

Jerusalem municipality meeting - called for unity regardless of nationality or religious beliefs. Also meeting of Jewish and Muslim residents in November 1914.

Question 13

Who argues that it was the experience of war and crisis which enabled inter-communal cooperation?

Answer 13

Elamliach

Question 14

When was the Red Crescent Society established?

Answer 14

1915, Jerusalem

Question 15

Who did Sakakini give shelter to in 1917?

Answer 15

Levine, Russian Zionist Jew with US citizenship

Question 16

What does Jacobson argue about the Zionist movement in WWI?

Answer 16

Gained power and support from the Jerusalem community, where it had not been particularly influential. Independent network of relief and support - ‘quasi-state’ at times.

Question 17

What provided the Jewish community with paper money and credit? What was significant about it?

Answer 17

Anglo-Palestine Bank Company - due to American diplomacy. Key to helping Jewish community through crisis.

Question 18

When did American Jewish aid arrive in Jerusalem? What did it facilitate?

Answer 18

1915-17. ‘Tea and Bread’ Houses.

Question 19

Whose diary does Tamari compare with al-Turjjeman’s?

Answer 19

al-Fasih

Question 20

Who points out that even at the end of the war there were more Arabs fighting for the Ottoman Empire than Arab revolt? How many?

Answer 20

Goncu - 300,000

Question 21

Who argues that Jerusalem was a junction for the Empire and local society in WWI?

Answer 21

Winter and Robert

Question 22

What happened by October 1914, impacting life and politics in Palestine?

Answer 22

End to foreign postal services - almost complete halt in delivery of foreign newspapers and news from outside Palestine - feeling of almost complete isolation

Question 23

What was shut down in December 1914?

Answer 23

Arabic newspaper al-Karmil.

Question 24

What Hebrew newspaper was shut down upon accusations of Zionist propaganda and anti-Ottomanism?

Answer 24

ha-Ahdut (December 1914)

Question 25

What Hebrew newspaper continued functioning until 1917?

Answer 25

Sephardic newspaper, ha-Herut.

Question 26

By how much does McCarthy estimate the population declined during the war,, owing to famine, disease, war casualties, deportations?

Answer 26

6%

Question 27

When was the locust invasion?

Answer 27

1915

Question 28

What was an unexpected effect of the war, as suggested by Tamari?

Answer 28

Socially transformative - unanticipated emancipatory impact on society.

Question 29

What opportunities did war present? (Quote)

Answer 29

Palestine transformed “into one major construction site”. Modernised communication and transportation system. Public hospitals, clinics, pharmacies in all provinces to combat epidemics. Transformation in lifestyles and work habits.

Question 30

Who lamented the decline of moral order during the war?

Answer 30

Totah and Barghouti

Question 31

Who was known as ‘The Butcher’ in arabic?

Answer 31

Ahmed Jamal Pasha

Question 32

What is a problematic element of the Hussein-Palestine debate?

Answer 32

Assumes that either had the right to negotiate the future of Palestine - neither represented the people of Palestine. To think Hussein was in a position to demand certain things from the British also misunderstands his position as a local puppet leader.

Question 33

Finish the quote by Shlaim: “By the stroke of the imperial pen…”

Answer 33

“…the Promised Land became twice promised”.

Question 34

What was the impact of WWI on the WZO?

Answer 34

Fractured - main constituents had been distributed among the warring states. Centre of political gravity shifted from Berlin to London.

Question 35

What had Sykes-Picot determined would happen to Palestine?

Answer 35

International regime in consultation with Sharif of Mecca and other allies - not necessarily contradictory - international regime perhaps best achieved through understanding with Zionist leaders

Question 36

What are the two main schools of thought regarding the origins of the BD? By which two historians are they represented?

Answer 36

Stein vs. Verte. Skill of Zionists and appeal of Zionism vs. hard-headed British pragmatism

Question 37

Who created the myth about chemicals and WWI and BD?

Answer 37

Lloyd George in his ‘War Memoirs’.

Question 38

How strong was the Zionist lobby at the time?

Answer 38

Not particularly - only in 1930s. Weizmann had not been part of the Anglo-Jewish establishment.

Question 39

What Irish comparison was made regarding the role that the Zionists could serve for the British?

Answer 39

‘Jewish Ulster’

Question 40

Who emphasises the significance of Christian Zionism?

Answer 40

Tuchman

Question 41

Who argues that BD was the result of a combination of fortuity and contingency related to WWI and personalities involved?

Answer 41

Matthew and Lacquer

Question 42

Who called Weizmann an “irresistible political seducer”?

Answer 42

Berlin

Question 43

What does Shalim argue about the significance of Weizmann?

Answer 43

Exaggerated but importance was more in keeping Britain to rash wartime promises

Question 44

Who argues that BD was a propaganda stunt, not intended to be the basis of subsequent British rule in Palestine, let alone commitment to establishment of Jewish state?

Answer 44

Renton

Question 45

Who has stressed the ‘unromantic’ nature of BD, that it was the result of hard-headed realism on both sides?

Answer 45

Kimche

Question 46

What does Segev argue motivated BD?

Answer 46

Neither military nor diplomatic interests, but prejudice, faith, sleight of hand

Question 47

Who suggests that because the British did not renege on their promise that the BD was issued for reasons beyond political expediency?

Answer 47

Reinharz

Question 48

What does Levene query about Zionism and the British?

Answer 48

That if a relationship with Zionism was what the British intended, why did this ‘cool so rapidly’? Anti-Semitism.

Question 49

Which two historians argue that Palestine was not ‘double promised’?

Answer 49

Kedourie and Friedman

Question 50

What did the British send to Hussein to explain BD? What did the say?

Answer 50

‘Hogarth’s Message’ - Affirmed commitment to Arab nation and that ‘no people shall be subject to another’ (re. Palestine).

Question 51

Who argues that British soldiers retrospectively thought they had fought in Palestine to liberate its people and bring righteous rule of British?

Answer 51

Fantauzzo

Question 52

What has Bar-Yosef focussed on re. propaganda?

Answer 52

Crusading themes

Question 53

What was the name of the European diplomar/consul in Jerusalem during he war?

Answer 53

Conde de Ballobar

Question 54

What was Ballobar’s experience of the war in Jerusalem?

Answer 54

Life not halted for elites - disruption not equivalent to annihilation

Question 55

What suggests that Britain superimposed religious boundaries, according to Ballobar?

Answer 55

Neighbourhoods had been key hub of communalism - shared festivals and ceremonies