David Ben-Gurion and the American Alignment for a Jewish State (The Modern Jewish Experience)

" Gal... has written an impressive account of an important period in the history of political Zionism.... detailed, scholarly... " —Library Journal

"... important... " —Choice

"A provocative post-Zionist critique of the fundamental concepts of Jewish peoplehood, Zionism, and Israeli nationalism." —Choice

"The book is readable, structured and systematic, and for all its wideness of scope it maintains continuity and connections betrween the different topics discussed." —The Jerusalem Post

"This is a comprehensive and well documented study of the interaction between Ben-Gurion and other leaders between 1938 and 1942." —AJL Newsletter

"While this is an intensively detailed book, Gal always sustains his story and moves it ahead. He has written a fine study of a critical phase of Zionist and American Jewish history, as well as a revealing study of David Ben-Gurion." —Lloyd P. Gartner, Tel-Aviv University, Studies in Contemporary Jewry

Israel's military restraint, at America's request, during the recent Persian Gulf War is not so surprising when viewed in light of the Zionist-American bonds forged by David Ben-Gurion in 1948. Against the background of Kristallnacht and Britain's retreat from the Jewish mandate for Palestine, Ben-Gurion shaped a new Zionist foreign policy based on the assumed rise of the United States as a world power that would determine the future of the Middle East.