BLOOD IN ZION: How the Jewish Guerrillas Drove the British Out of Palestine

by Saul Zadka

On the first day of February 1944 an organisation of Palestinian Jews issued a proclamation to the Jewish Nation. It called for the immediate transfer of power in the land of Israel to a provisional Jewish government. The Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organisation) then launched an intensive guerilla campaign against the British on a scale never before conducted by a Jewish organisation in modern times.

Led by Menachem Begin, a future Prime Minister of Israel, the Irgun blew up buildings, sabotaged roads, raided military bases, robbed banks and attacked strategic targeta at home and abroad.

Was this campaign a major factor in the ending of the British mandate in Palestine and the founding of the Jewish nation? How did the intensive propaganda campaign win support in the Unites States? In Blood in Zion Saul Zadka examines the efforts made by the British Government to combat insurgency and the motives and the actions of the Irgun. It seeks to bridge the gap between distorted fact and historical truth and to give a clear impression of the Irgun's campaign of violence and the British government's attempts to thwart it until the mandate ended in 1948.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Middle East, Israel, Terrorism

240 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1995