This is a book written in 1919, shortly after the conclusion of WWI and the British endorsement of a Jewish national home in Palestine, by American Jewish professor Morris Jastrow. It is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the conflict that to this day polarizes so many. The following is a key excerpt:

"It is assuredly a serious matter to propose a policy which must, even if involuntarily, work injustice and hardships for others as a condition of its being carried out. Mankind looks forward hopefully, though also timidly, to a time when animosities, particularly those arising through differences of religious belief, will tend to diminish and eventually disappear. There can be no substantial progress towards the ideals of peace unless we envisage the possibility of such a gradual decline in the unfriendly attitude of nations and of religious sects towards one another. The least that we ought to do is not to create new conditions which will intensify old animosities and promote new forms of unfriendliness. The program of the political Zionists, however, is precisely of a character to entail such a possibility."

The entire book can be read online:

http://books.google.com/books?id=j4w2AAAAMAAJ

Preface vii

I The Three Aspects Of Zionism . . 1

II The Roots Of Modern Zionism . . 13

III The New Era And Reformed Judaism . 41

IV Jewish Self-consciousness And Anti-

Semitism 50

V Nationality Versus Nation ... 68

VI The Trend Of Jewish History . . 85

VII Palestine Of To-day 97

VIII Political Zionism And The Jewish

Question 117

Appendix 151