"I just finished this book by Israeli historian Tom Segev, on Palestine between the world wars, and I thought it was terrific. Has anyone else read it? The anti-Semitic origins of the Balfour Declaration, and Segev's arguement that British policy was always pro-Zionist, were most astonishing."
Yes, I read it and thought it was very good. There are a lot of exceptionally good books on the Zionism/Palestine question. To mention just a few:
"Zionism, Israel, and the Arabs" -- Hal Draper; short; focuses mostly on 1948, a must-read.
"Dangerous Liasons" -- Leslie and Andrew Cockburn; medium long; focuses on the relationship between CIA and Israel, and the genesis of Israeli militarism from 48 on. Extraordinarily well written and readable book. I thought I couldn't last ten minutes, but I couldn't put it down.
"The Holocaust Industry" -- Norman Finklestein; focuses on the reparations scam. Short, great book.
All of these are exceptionally well-written, clear, readable books. (Trust me, I have no patience for acadmic writing.) There's also "The Fateful Triangle" by Chomsky, which, in comparison to the above comes off a little dour and bleak.
Joanna