THE HOPE FULFILLED The Rise of Modern Israel Leslie Stein Praeger Series on Jewish and Israeli Studies PRAEGER Westport,Connecticut london Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Stein, Leslie The hope fulfilled : the rise of modern Israel / Leslie Stein, p cm.—(Praeger series on Jewish and Israeli studies) Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index ISBN 0-275-97141-4 (alk paper) — ISBN 0-275-97815-X (pbk.: alk paper) Jews—Palestine—History—19th century Jews—Palestine—History— 20th century Zionism—Palestine—History Palestine—History— 1917-1948 I Title II Series DS125.S73 2003 956.94^04924—dc21 2002070879 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available Copyright © 2003 by Leslie Stein All rights reserved No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002070879 ISBN: 0-275-97141-4 0-275-97815-X (pbk.) First published in 2003 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc www.praeger.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984) 10 To my late grandparents, Rachel and Chaim Morchechai Stein, pious lovers of Zion of a bygone era, who readily ministered to those in need, regardless of race and creed This page intentionally left blank Contents Illustrations Preface ix xiii Introduction: The Early Beginnings The First Aliyah: 1882-1903 19 Modern Political Zionism 51 The Second Aliyah: 1904-1914 87 The First World War and the Balfour Declaration 123 The Early Years of British Rule in Palestine: 1917-1930 145 Foreboding Times: Palestine in the 1930s 195 World War II Years 227 The Postwar Struggle for Independence 245 Glossary 277 Bibliography 281 Index 289 This page intentionally left blank Illustrations MAPS Palestine in the Mandate Period Some Major Jewish Settlements in Central and Northern Palestine in 1947 xi xii The Peel Commission's Partition Proposal 217 The UN Partition Scheme 258 PHOTOGRAPHS Jaffa in the late nineteenth century 20 Herzl with a British Zionist delegation 6g Grape harvesting at Rishon Letzion, at the beginning of the twentieth century Early days at Degania 94 203 Members of Hashomer 207 Founding meeting of Tel Aviv 218 Pounding rocks for road construction 260 Breaking ground in the Jezreel Valley 273 Moshav Nahalal 275 A youngster at Kibbutz Ein Harod, in the late 1920s 277 Model of tower and stockade settlement 213 x Illustrations The Jewish Brigade at morning prayer The Exodus and some of its passengers at Haifa Crowd in Tel Aviv celebrating the UN partition resolution Ben Gurion reading Israel's Declaration of Independence 232 257 262 271 Palestine in the Mandate Period xi ... canvassed the need for the formation of Jewish colonies in Palestine as a sine qua non for the coming of the Messiah Then with the onset of the "Damascus affair" he felt the need to clarify why the. .. paraphrased the sentiment of Ignatyev, the minister of the interior, to the effect that "if the eastern frontier is closed to the Jews, the western frontier is open to them; why don't they take... under the influence of the pogrom panic had already made up their minds to flee the land of slavery, produced a staggering effect upon the Jewish public The last ray of hope, the hope for legal justice,