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Churchill and Zionism.

Article Excerpt
Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong Friendship, by Martin Gilbert. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2007. 359pp. $30.

Churchill's Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft, by Michael Makovsky. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. 342pp. $35.

Zionism had many gentile champions during the twentieth century. Statesmen like Harry Truman, intellectuals like Reinhold Niebuhr, and agronomists like Walter Clay Lowdermilk all helped to promote the reestablishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel in one way or another. Winston Churchill, who saw Great Britain through the darkest days of the Second World War as prime minister, is certainly one of the best known among these gentile champions.

Early on in his illustrious career of public service, Churchill became a defender of Zionism. Despite some later contretemps with the Zionist movement over specific British policies, he never abandoned his supportive stance. Two recent books, Churchill and the Jews and Churchill's Promised Land, trace the history of his efforts on behalf of Zionism. While both volumes portray Churchill in a fundamentally positive light, the former, not surprisingly, is somewhat more effusive in its praise than the latter. Martin Gilbert, after all, is Churchill's official biographer, while Michael Makovsky, a diplomatic historian,...

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