The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, a new book by School of History, Technology, and Society Professor Jonathan Schneer, was released by Random House this month. An eminent American scholar of British history, Schneer reexamines Britain’s intentions in the Middle East during World War I. He shows that when Britain issued the Balfour Declaration she laid the foundation stone of modern Israel – but also of Arab dispossession – and thus the modern conflict in the Middle East.

Announced in 1917 in the midst of World War I, The Balfour Declaration committed Britain to supporting the establishment in Palestine of “a national home for the Jewish people.” Schneer demonstrates that, although most British leaders were sympathetic to Zionist aspirations, they were also extraordinarily duplicitous in their dealings with the Zionists -- and with the Turks and Arabs as well. At the same time the British were promising Palestine to the Jews they were promising its northern parts to France and to the Arabs. And they promised Turkey that she could keep Palestine if she would sign a separate peace treaty with the Allies.

“Basically, Prime Minister David Lloyd George was willing to promise anything to anybody in order to win the war,” said Schneer, “and we are living with the consequences.”

Almost anything about the Middle East raises controversy, but Schneer emphasizes the non-partisan nature of his scholarship and said that he “is sympathetic to both the Jews and the Arabs of the period.”

The Balfour Declaration is being widely reviewed by premier publications including the Wall Street Journal of August 10, Newsweek of August 16, the New York Times Book Review on August 22 and the London Sunday Times on August 29. A talk and book signing is planned for October 6, 6:00pm at the Carter Center. The event is free and open to the public.