British historian and Churchill biographer Gilbert (Kristallnacht:
Prelude to Destruction, 2006, etc.) explores the great statesman's
early, fervent support of Zionism and wartime pleas to save the
Jews from Nazi persecution. Churchill believed the Jews, thanks to
Moses and the code of conduct he received at Mt. Sinai, "grasped
and proclaimed an idea of which all the genius of Greece and all
the power of Rome were incapable." Continuing his father Randolph's
friendship with prominent British Jews such as Lord Rothschild,
Churchill, as a young MP in 1904, became a vocal critic of the
Aliens Bill restricting Jewish immigration from Tsarist Russia. As
Home Secretary, he dispatched troops to restore order after the
pogrom at Tredegar, South Wales. Early on, he became friendly with
the one who would most shape Zionist policy, Chaim Weizmann, the
Manchester chemist whom he enlisted during World War I to
manufacture explosives for British ammunition. While supporting the
Balfour Declaration, Churchill was deeply wary of Bolshevism as
representing the "bad" Jews. Indeed, he hoped that Zionism would
work to counterbalance Jewish Bolshevik sympathies. Churchill
visited the Holy Land, excoriated Islam as a "retrograde force" and
lobbied against restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine,
especially as Arab resistance grew and Nazi persecution of the Jews
gained force. Regarding the rise of the Nazis, Churchill
demonstrated extraordinary prescience as early as 1933 and
continually warned in speeches and writings of the impending
menace. He led the debate against Partition and called the
MacDonald White Paper (devising a policy in Palestine of permanent
Arab majority) a "shameful act of appeasement." Gilbert diligently
pursues Churchill's attempts to save Jews throughout the war, his
disillusionment with Jewish terrorism and failure to bring up the
future of Palestine at Potsdam. The author masterfully sketches the
evolution of Israel through a long, difficult British Jewish
process of conception.Gilbert's deep, lifelong scholarship and
knowledge of his subject lend his book both authority and
accessibility. (Kirkus Reviews)
CHURCHILL AND THE JEWS covers the whole life of this greatest of
Britons -- from his youth, when he was shocked by the anti-Semitism
displayed during the Dreyfus Affair, to his last meeting with David
Ben-Gurion in 1960, when he gave Ben-Gurion an article he had
written about Moses. In the intervening years, during which
Churchill cemented his place in history, his affinity with the Jews
remained undimmed, even though his championing of Zionist issues
and interests was often like a red rag to the bull of the British
Establishment. One of those closest to Churchill once confided to
the author that "Winston had one fault -- he was too fond of Jews."
What does this mean? How did this fondness manifest itself?
Exploring all aspects of his life and career, CHURCHILL AND THE
JEWS sheds new light on a key figure of the twentieth century and
how his attitudes affected not just the prosecution of the Second
World War but the establishment of a Jewish state that followed it.
General
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