Israel's Moment is a major new account of how a Jewish state came to be forged in the shadow of World War Two and the Holocaust and the onset of the Cold War. Drawing on new research in government, public and private archives, Jeffrey Herf exposes the political realities that underpinned support for and opposition to Zionist aspirations in Palestine. In an unprecedented international account, he explores the role of the United States, the Arab States, the Palestine Arabs, the Zionists, and key European governments from Britain and France to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Poland. His findings reveal a spectrum of support and opposition that stood in sharp contrast to the political coordinates that emerged during the Cold War, shedding new light on how and why the state of Israel was established in 1948 and challenging conventional associations of left and right, imperialism and anti-imperialism, and racism and anti-racism. ‘… the author of several esteemed works of modern German history, presents a vivid portrait of this dramatic period and a trenchant analysis of the forces at work. Along the way, he reminds us of how contentious the debate was-within the UN itself and within the most powerful governments of the time.’ Joshua Rubenstein, Wall Street Journal 'Herf uses a wide lens. He covers topics like the state of the Zionist movement in the immediate aftermath of World War II; attitudes on the American left toward the Zionist project; the role of the French, British, and Russian governments in the critical periods; the politics of the post-World War II refugee crisis; and, of course, the complex inner workings of the US government, in which President Harry Truman’s sympathetic view of the Jewish cause was fiercely contested by underlings in the Departments of State and Defense and the fledgling Central Intelligence Agency. … but despite the breadth of this picture, Herf zooms in closely. He has combed the relevant archives both in the United States and abroad and pieced together in vivid detail the operations of the most important institutions involved in the great internal battles surrounding Israel’s establishment.’ Gabriel Schoenfeld, American Purpose Magazine 'Israel's Moment is a fine and highly persuasive history of how the anti-Communist mandarins of the US State and Defense Departments and the imperialist bureaucracies of the British and French foreign ministries - unintelligibly ignoring the Holocaust that had just ended - tried and failed to prevent the creation of Israel and its victory over the Arab states in 1948.' Benny Morris, author of The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited 'Israel’s Moment is an absorbing new study of a familiar historical topic - the disarray in US Middle East policy in the wake of World War II caused by conflicts between the White House and many members of Congress, on one side, and career officials at State, the Pentagon, and the CIA, on the other.' Bob Rackmales, Foreign Service Journal ‘Jeffrey Herf provides a very fresh look at the foundations of modern Israel in the international arena. Using previously unexamined sources, he situates Israel's oft-misunderstood beginnings squarely within the context of contemporary understandings of the Holocaust and the Cold War, while also showing that for much of the world, Zionism was a worthy national liberation movement deserving of fulfilment. There are also numerous surprises concerning the thinking of American officials and intellectuals, the reasoning and discourse of the Communist world, and the baleful efforts of Palestine's Arab leaders. A necessary book and a terrific read.' Norman J. W. Goda, lead editor of Envoy to the Promised Land: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1948–1951 ‘One of the prominent themes of this engaging and tightly argued book is the contrast between the later romanticized version of support for the founding of the State of Israel and the reality of opposition from the State Department's Arabists as well as leading military and other officials in the Pentagon and CIA. No other work connects so persuasively the beginning of the Cold War and the Zionist and anti-Zionist ideological currents of thought in the Middle East as well as Europe and especially Britain. Israel's Moment is based on wide-ranging research. It reveals in an original way how the intensity of the opposition to the plans for the new state came close to preventing its creation.' Wm. Roger Louis, author of The British Empire in the Middle East ‘Politics makes strange bedfellows. A pro-Zionist but anti-communist American president, a Soviet Bloc intent on rolling back British imperialism, and a mix of liberals and leftists still fired up by the anti-fascist élan born of the war: such was the international coalition that helped shepherd the State of Israel into existence. Jeffrey Herf ‘s lucid and well-researched new book provides a vivid account of how this coalition came to be. It is a story ful