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Nancy Benjamin
Professor McKeever
English 1020
June 27, 2016
The Birth of the State of Israel #82
An Annotated Bibliography

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Creation of Israel, 1948, Office of the Historian, Department of State, United States of America.
Washington D.C. Web. 21 June 2016
This U.S. government document outlines the steps taken by the U.S. President, Harry S.
Truman, in 1946 to study the establishment of a Jewish State within the United Kingdoms mandated Palestinian territory. It also emphasizes the United Nations recommendation for the division of the territory into two separate States for the Arab and Jewish
people. This recommendation was adopted as Resolution 181 (aka the Partition Resolution). This U.S. Government report does not go into detail on the findings and opinions
of the special cabinet committee appointed to research the matter. It does not give the
back room politics that helped decide the Presidents decision to give his favor on the
Creation of a separate State for the Jewish people. A more complete and writing on the
politics and movements that help shaped Trumans decision to back the establishment of
the state of Israel is found in John Snetsingers book noted below.

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The Creation of the State of Israel. Perspectives on Modern World History Series. Farmington
Hills, MI. Greenhaven Press. 2010. Print.
Written for High School and College level history students, this series incorporates primary and secondary sources in its material. Each subject chapter is written by a different
author. These include both Jewish and Arab writers giving their viewpoint on the proposed partition of Palestine. The most moving piece was written by a Jewish-American
Teen who toured Israel and met with a young Arab-Christian women who expressed her
bitterness on losing her home. The teen was able to understand the feelings the Israeli
Arabs feel in being treated as second class citizens within their own homeland as well.
Reading both sides of the struggle to call Palestine home was important to have a balanced view and understanding for both Jew and Arab.
Hoffman, Bruce. Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917 - 1947. New York. Alfred
A. Knopf. 2015. Print.
Mr. Hoffman is the director of the Center for Security Studies and director of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown Universitys Edmund A. Welsh school of Foreign
Service. He is also a senior fellow at the U.S. Military academys combating Terrorism
Center. Mr. Hoffman took advantage of having access to classified government documents that had just been released from retention to the public on the events leading up to
Britains decision to abandon their mandate in Palestine. The Jewish Zionists, supporters
for the State of Israel, realized that Britain had backed themselves into a corner by trying
to pacify both the Jews and Arabs with promises they soon found they could not keep.

The Zionists resorted to Terrorist measures, assassinations and the infamous King David
hotel bombing to force Britains hand and out of the country.
Mr. Hoffmans point of view is on reflecting on the on the methodology of terrorism.
Why it continues to be often a successful means of obtaining political goals by unsupported national groups. I was greatly surprised by the methods used by the Israeli zionists to achieve their goals and I am not surprised now why the Arab Palestinians use
these same tactics against them.
Levin, Aaron. Testament: At the Creation of the State of Israel. New York, Artisan. 1998. Print.
On its 50th anniversary of Statehood, the Author looks back at individual Israelis who
witnessed the fight for Israel; including Holocaust survivors. These are their personal
stories. A photograph accompanies each personal narrative and the book is beautifully
laid out. Mr. Levin is an American professional photographer and writer specializing in
archaeological sites and artifacts. His work has appeared in several books about Roman
and Near Eastern archaeology. Mr. Levin includes synopsis of the Israeli struggle to
return to the land they have always looked on as their homeland. Their national identity
never left them even when they lived in distant countries. This connection to the land of
their forefathers gave them a reason to hope for a return Next year in Jerusalem. This
inherited connection to the land that they once inhabited 2000 years ago is likely why the
early Jewish immigrants totally ignored the fact that the land was already occupied by
the Palestinian people.

Renton, James The Balfour Declaration: Origins and Consequences. Jewish Quarterly, 25 March
2008. Web. 23 June 2016
Mr. Renton seeks to enlighten his readers on the hidden agendas moving the British
Government to seek to establish a separate State for the Jewish people in the Palestinian
lands. This agenda leads to the Kingdoms subsequent occupation of the territory. This
agenda became known as the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917. The Mandate
was to hold and control the land allowing immigration of Jewish settlers into Palestine to
live amongst the Arabs of the land. His research on the topic is important for understanding the motivation for creating the independent State of Israel which began long
before the Holocaust of World War II. Mr. Rentons historical background on the subject is straightforward, eye opening and is does not seemed marked by any racial bias,
but seeks to show how National political aspirations uses racial bias for its purposes.
Mr. James Renton is Senior Lecturer in History at Edge Hill University, and an Honorary
Research Fellow at University College London. His book The Zionist Masquerade: the
Birth of the Anglo-Zionist Alliance, 1914-1918, was published in 2007. He has also
written for a number of Journals, gives public talks and is a committee member of the
British Association for Jewish Studies, an Honorary Senior Research Associate in the
Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London, and a Fellow
of the Royal Historical Society.

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Snetsinger, John. Truman, the Jewish Vote and the Creation of Israel. Hoover Institution Press.
Stanford, CA. 1974. Print.
Mr. Snetsinger chronicles the campaign launched by prestigious American Jews to persuade President Harry S. Trumans administration to support the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine after World War II.
Snetsinger is Professor Emeritus of History at California Polytechnic State University,
San Luis Obispo. He has written numerous articles on the relationship between the
United States and Israel. Professor Snetsinger also writes on the influence of ethnic
groups within the U.S. on foreign policy.
The authors interest in the subject matter is in the formulation of United States foreign
policy. His research comes from the presidential papers of Harry Truman and the White
House papers on Palestine-Israel.
Truman was not always pro-Zionist. Alienating the relationship of the Arab countries in
Palestine was not in Americas best interest. The growing dependence on Arab oil and
the threat of Russia courting the Arab countries and inserting its military power there
were to much of a risk to full-heartedly back the creation of a Jewish state. But the
overwhelming push by well organized and funded Zionist organizations were able to
change Trumans mind and write foreign policy that is still controversial today.!

Tuchman, Barbara W. Bible and Sword; England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour.
New York: Funk & Wagnalls. 1956. Print.
The author looks at the long political and religious relationship between England and
Jerusalem going back to the Middle Ages. With the spread of Christianity in the Middle

Ages to Britain, the call to recapture Jerusalem for Christendom by the Pope led
Britains armies on Crusades for the Holy Land.
Barbara Tuchman is a writer of historical non-fiction and has been awarded the Pulitzer
Prize in History for The Guns of August and Stilwell and the American Experience in
China.
One of Englands motivations for involving itself in the outcome of Palestines destiny
is its connection to the Judeo-Christian birthplace of Jerusalem. Ms. Tuchmans work is
told in narrative style that makes it easier to read at length. It bringing in all of the legends to the facts that fueled the emotions that drove the policies of the Kingdom. One
such legend is the lineage of King Arthur being traced to Joseph of Arimathea. Of
course King Arthur in himself is a legend.
I added this work to my research to seek the deeper reason behind Englands decision to
agree to the Balfour Declaration that sought to give back a national homeland to the Jewish people. Although England was not without additional political agendas in this matter. Mainly control of the Suez canal, which would secure its shorter access to India and
its interest there.

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