Arthur Koestler

Promise and Fulfilment - Palestine 1917-1949 Arthur Koestler

PROMISE AND FULFILMENT Palestine. PREFACE: THIS book consists of three parts, Background , Close-up and Perspective . The first part is a survey of the develop ments which led to the foundation of the State of Israel. It lays no claim to historical completeness, and is written from a specific angle which stresses the part played by irrational forces and emotive bias in history. I am not sure whether this emphasis has not occasionally resulted in over-emphasis as is almost in evitable when one tries to redress a balance by spot-lighting aspects which are currently neglected. But it was certainly not my intention, by underlining the psychological factor, to deny or minimize the importance of the politico-economic forces. My aim was rather to present, if I may borrow a current medical term, a psycho-somatic view of one of the most curious episodes in modern history. The second part, Close-up , is meant to give the reader a close and coloured, but not I hope technicoloured, view of the Jew