Herzl and the Palestinian Arabs: Myth and Counter-Myth

According to conventional Zionist historiography, Herzl thought little about Arabs, and what he did have to say about them reflected benign and progressive, albeit paternalistic, sentiment. Critics of Zionism, on the other hand, claim that underlying the paucity of Herzl's comments on Arabs was a conspiracy of silence, for already in 1895 he was allegedly planning the expulsion of the Palestinians, although he only confided this dark scheme to his diary. This essay throws new light upon Herzl's attitudes towards Palestine's Arabs. It explores a variety of historiographical questions raised by the gulf that separates the camps of scholars who have written on this subject, and it critiques the way that historians have read Herzl's diary and privileged it over his other writings.     

Anti-Semites on Zionism: From Indifference to Obsession

This article compares European and Middle Eastern anti-Semitism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From the 1870s through the 1930s, in parallel fashion anti-Semitism became a mobilizing, all-embracing ideology in Europe, while the Arab world witnessed an eruption of anticolonial and nationalist sentiment, often directed against the Zionist project. Arab anti-Semitism featured the irrational and fantastic qualities of its European counterpart, but it took form against the reality of the Zionist project. The article draws a distinction between the realms of systemic intolerance, aggravated by socio-economic crisis, and political strife, driven by discrete events and policies. Its main sources are fin-de-siècle European anti-Semites' writings on Zionism, which are shown to be fundamentally different from the anti-Zionist rhetoric emanating from the Middle East at that time.     

Dr John H. Kenneth

A technique for the detailed assessment of terrain capability is described. The method is used to evaluate the terrain capability of 81 sample farms in North East Scotland. The relevance of the technique is assessed by an analysis to determine the influence of terrain capability on type of farming. Results are also presented to indicate that farmers’ perception of their land type may be different to its actual capability. The need for a flexible approach to terrain capability evaluation is stressed.     

Book reviews

NATO AND THE FUTURE OF EUROPE. Ben T. Moore. For the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations. New York, Harper & Brs., 1958, pp. xviii + 264. Australian price 56/6.

THE ATLANTIC TRIANGLE AND THE COLD WAR. Edgar McInnis. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1959, pp. viii + 163. $4.50.

SURVEY OP BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS. PROBLEMS OP WARTIME CO‐OPERATION AND POST‐WAR CHANGE, 1939–1952. Nicholas Mansergh. Oxford University Press for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1958.

THE DECISION TO INTERVENE. George F. Ken‐nan. Faber and Faber, 1958. Pp. xii + 513. U.K. price 50/‐.

COMMUNIST CHINA TODAY. Peter S. Tang. Thames & Hudson, London, 1957–8, 2 vote., pp. 536 & 137. End maps. Australian price 97/6 and 42/‐.

THE BIRTH OF A DILEMMA: The Conquest and Settlement of Rhodesia. Philip Mason. Under the auspices of the Institute of Race Relations. Oxford University Press, 1958, pp. xi + 366. Australian price 49/9.

THE SMALLER DRAGON. A Political History of Vietnam. Joseph Buttinger. Praeger and Stevens, Atlantic Books, 1958, pp. 535, with 9 maps and 13 plates. A SHORT HISTORY OP CAMBODIA. Martin F. Herz. Stevens & Sons, Atlantic Books, 1958, pp. 141. Australian price 34/6.

THE RECONSTRUCTION IN IRAQ: 1950–1957. Fahim I. Qubain. London, Stevens and Sons, 1958.