The Zionist Masquerade

The Zionist Masquerade

The Zionist Masquerade The Birth of the Anglo-Zionist Alliance, 1914 1918 James Renton

James Renton 2007 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-0-230-54718-6 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2007 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-36156-4 ISBN 978-0-230-28613-9 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230286139 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Renton, James, 1975 The Zionist masquerade : the birth of the Anglo-Zionist alliance 1914 1918 / James Renton. p. cm. Includes index. 1. Balfour Declaration. 2. Zionism History 20th century. 3. Zionism Great Britain History 20th century. 4. Zionism United States History 20th century. 5. Great Britain Foreign relations Middle East. 6. Middle East Foreign relations Great Britain. 7. Palestine History 1799 1917. 8. Palestine History 1917 1948. I. Title DS125.5.R46 2007 956.94'04 dc22 2007023313 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 Transferred to Digital Printing in 2014

For Monica

Contents Illustrations Acknowledgements ix x Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Perceptions of Jewry and Ethnicity in the Official Mind 11 Race, nationalism and identity 13 The Jew as an outsider 18 Mythologies of the Jewish nation in British culture 19 Chapter 2 Jews, Ethnicity and the Propaganda War in the USA 23 Jewish power in the context of total war 24 British propaganda and ethnicity 26 British policies towards ethnic groups in the USA 29 Chapter 3 Turning Perceptions into Policy: The Role of Jewish Activists, 1914 1917 43 Sowing the seeds for the Balfour Declaration 44 Sir Mark Sykes and Moses Gaster 54 Chapter 4 The Making of the Balfour Declaration 58 Establishing the motives for a pro-zionist policy 58 Securing the Balfour Declaration 64 Chapter 5 The Anglo-Zionist Propaganda Machine 73 The Jewish Section of the Department of Information 73 The historicisation of the Balfour Declaration 81 Chapter 6 National Space and the Narrative of a New Epoch in Palestine 90 The capture of Jerusalem 91 Different visions of Palestine 97 Palestine as the site of Jewish national transformation 99 The Zionist landscape and the narrative of British liberation 104 vii

viii Contents Chapter 7 Performing the Rebirth of the Jewish Nation 109 A visible symbol of the Anglo-Zionist entente 110 Exhibiting the American Zionist Medical Unit 111 Performing the myth of national liberation in Palestine 112 The Jewish Legion: a political performing company 122 Chapter 8 Perception vs. Reality: American Jewish Identities and the Impact of the Balfour Declaration 130 Zionism and American Jewry before the Balfour Declaration 131 Patriotism and Jewish identities in wartime America 134 The impact of the Balfour Declaration 138 The response of immigrant Jewry 144 Conclusion: The Consequences for Palestine 149 Notes 156 Bibliography 206 Index 223

Illustrations Figure 6.1 General Allenby s official entry into Jerusalem, 11th December 1917. 94 Figure 6.2 General Allenby at the steps of the Citadel (entrance to David s Tower) listening to the reading of the Proclamation of Occupation in seven languages. 95 Figure 6.3 General Allenby receiving the notables of the city and heads of religious communities in the Barrack Square. 95 Figure 6.4 Hebron. The wooded hill is said to have been the ancient stronghold of David. 98 Figure 6.5 Changing the Mohammedan Guard outside the Mosque of Omar [sic], Jerusalem. 98 Figure 6.6 Grape Pickers in the vineyard at Richon le Zion. 102 Figure 6.7 Richon le Zion Wine Industry. The freshly extracted juice is pumped into the vats for preliminary fermentation. 102 Figure 7.1 The tour of the Zionist Commission through the Jewish Colonies. Outside the school at Nes Zionah. 16 th April 1918. 113 Figure 7.2 Zionist Commission in Palestine. Banquet in the Palm Alley under the wine cellars. Rishon-le-Zion. 16th April 1918. 115 Figure 7.3 Procession in Tel Aviv. 116 Figure 7.4 The Reception to the Commander-in-Chief, Sir E.H.H. Allenby, in Jerusalem, by the Jewish Community, 24th May 1918. Guard of Honour of the Members of the Makkabi Athletic Association (Jewish Boy Scouts [sic]). 117 Figure 7.5 Chaim Weizmann and Emir Feisal, June 1918. 121 Figure 7.6 Medal given to every recruit. 124 Figure 7.7 Some of the 1,000 recruits for the 40 th (Palestinian) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, obtained in Jerusalem, Summer 1918. 127 ix

Acknowledgements It gives me great pleasure to thank all of those who helped me in the preparation and writing of this book. As a doctoral student and then a research fellow I had the good fortune to study and work with the wonderful staff, administrators and students in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London. My most profound debt is to Michael Berkowitz. His scholarship and teaching have been a formative influence, and his guidance, unceasing encouragement and sense of humour have been, and continue to be, an inspiration. John Klier and Ada Rappaport-Albert were hugely supportive, and always had their door open. I owe them a great deal. I am also very grateful to Lars Fischer, Helen Beer and Lily Kahn, who gave me essential help and advice during the final preparation of the manuscript. I benefited enormously from the comments and suggestions of those who read parts of this book as it evolved: Jonathan Frankel, Mark Levene, Joachim Schlör, Colin Shindler, Keith Neilson, Jens Hyvik and Kate Utting. I am especially grateful to Mark Mazower, David French and Ben Gidley who read the entire manuscript at different stages of its preparation, and whose comments were invaluable. I would also like to thank David Cesarani and Benjamin Fortna, the examiners of my Ph.D. thesis, from which this book is derived, for their very careful consideration of my work and insightful suggestions. Of course, any errors, omissions or other shortcomings in the pages that follow are my responsibility entirely. For their help and encouragement while I was in Israel, I would like to thank Scott Ury, Galia Arocas, Dafna Brosh and her family, Iris Abramovici- Tevet, Howard Patten, and, especially, Wang Xianhua. For the wonderful period that I spent in France as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Southern Mississippi Study-Abroad Centre, I am most grateful to Douglas Mackaman, Amy Cameron and the team in Pontlevoy, and the Barret family. Part of Chapter 3 originally appeared in an article in Nationalism, Zionism and Ethnic Mobilization of the Jews in 1900 and Beyond, edited by Michael Berkowitz. It has been reproduced with the permission of Koninklijke Brill N.V. The illustrations are produced courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London and the Weizmann Archives. I would also like to thank Eitan Bar-Yosef who gave me permission to read his x

Acknowledgements xi D.Phil thesis, Images of the Holy Land in English Culture, 1798 1917, before it was published. Every effort has been made to trace rights holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers would be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. During my research I was assisted by the excellent staff of a number of archives and libraries: the National Archives, Kew; the Imperial War Museum; the Central Zionist Archives; the Weizmann Archives; the Jabotinsky Institute; the American Jewish Archives; the New York Public Library; the Middle East Centre Archive, St. Antony s College, Oxford; the British Library; the Harvard Law Library; Yale University Library; Durham University Library; the John Rylands University Library; University College London Library; the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and the National Archives of Scotland. I would like to thank Sir Tatton Sykes for giving me permission to quote from the papers of Sir Mark Sykes. The research for this book was made possible by the generous financial assistance that I received from the Jewish Memorial Council; the United Jewish Israel Appeal; the Ian Karten Charitable Trust; the Central Research Fund, University of London; the UCL Graduate School and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The book was completed while I held post-doctoral fellowships from the Hanadiv Charitable Foundation and the Cecil and Irene Roth Memorial Trust. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their unfailing support and dedication throughout this period of my life, my father, who always made the time to read and discuss my work, my mother, my brother, Alex, and my sister, Clare. I owe them more than I can say. My greatest thanks are for my wife, Monica, whose patience, love and passionate support propelled me ever forward, and with whom I share the immense joy of our son, Clemente. It is to her that this book is dedicated.