Book Review: Middle East: Cross Roads to Israel

AuthorEarl Berger
Published date01 December 1965
Date01 December 1965
DOI10.1177/002070206502000444
Subject MatterBook Review
BOOK
REVIEWS
575
deep
because
the
Arab
tradition
stresses
the
imperative
of
preserving
and
achieving
personal
dignity
and
the
fear
of
reproach
as
being
an
unworthy
or an
impotent
people.
The
quest
of
dignity,
Mr.
Polk
says,
has
been
at
the
heart
of
virtually
every
political movement
in
the
Arab
Middle
East
during this century.
The
second
point
which
he
wisely
emphasizes
is
that
the
so-called
Arab
socialism
of
today has
its
roots
deep
in
the tradition
of
the
river
basin
civilizations
of
the
Middle
East.
Modem
Arab
socialism
repro-
duces
today
a
pattern
of
a
minute
and
active
predominance
of
the
state
in
economic
life
which
goes
back to
the
ancient
economies
of
the
great
river
basins
of
the
Nile,
the
Tigris
and
the Euphrates.
"In
this
pattern
there
is
no
major
role
for
the
initiative
of
the
individual,
except as
he
operates
within
the
state
machinery,
and
no
respect
for
or
toleration
of
separate
bases
of
power."
Washington,
D.C.
EscoTr
REID
CRoss
ROADS
TO
ISRAEL.
Palestine
from
Balfour
to
Bevin.
By
Christopher
Sykes.
1965.
(London:
Toronto:
Collins.
479pp.
$9.25)
This
book
has
been
so
consistently
praised
that
the
reviewer,
anxious
not to
repeat
what
has
been
written
before,
is
tempted
to
dwell
solely
upon
its
weaknesses.
I
must
make
it
plain
at
the
outset,
therefore,
that
whatever
its
faults
this
book
equals
The
Struggle
for
Palestine
by
J.
C.
Hurewitz (to
whom
Mr.
Sykes
pays
his
respects)
in
its
exposition
of
the
Palestine
question.
Mr.
Sykes (son
of
Mark
Sykes,
co-author
of
the
Sykes-Picot
Agree-
ment)
has
written
an
illuminating,
highly-informed
and
balanced
study
of
the
development
of
the
Zionist
movement
into
the
State
of
Israel.
By
virtue
of
his
acquaintance
with
many
of
the
leading
persons
in-
volved,
Mr.
Sykes
has had
access
to
a
considerable
amount
of
unpub-
lished
material
upon
which
he
has
drawn
heavily to
clarify
much
that
was previously
obscure
about
events
in
the
unhappy
Holy
Land.
He
also
writes
with
an
easy,
lucid
style
so
that
apart
from
the
book's
intrinsic
merit
it is
immensely
readable.
His
account
of
the
genesis
of
the
Balfour Declaration,
of
the
ad-
ministration
of
the first
two,
often disregarded,
High
Commissioners
(Herbert
Samuel
and Lord
Plumer), and
of
the
steady
decline
into
irremediable
strife,
are
excellent.
He seems
to
have
overlooked
Frisch-
wasser-Ra'anan's
research
(Frontiers
of
a
Nation)
into
plans
for
Zionist
settlement
in
what
is
now
Jordan,
but
apart
from
this
his
description
of
these early
years
is
convincing.
His
detached
analysis
of
the
several
faces
and
tongues
of
Zionism
offers
a
useful corrective
to
some of
the myths
which
pass
for
history.
Particularly
valuable
is
Sykes'
account
of
how
the
Zionists
exploited
the
hapless
escapees
from
Nazi
Germany
for
propaganda
purposes.
If
Sykes
surpasses
Hurewitz
in
up-to-date
information,
he
falls
behind him
in
historical
detail.
In
his
preface
Sykes
writes
that
his
purpose
was
to
write an
outline
rather
than
a
definitive
history,
and
the
reviewer
cannot
in
justice
criticize him
for
the
book
he
did
not
try
to write.
But
the
consequence
of
his
approach
is
that
the
later
years,

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