Biblical Covenants
G-d promises Jews a great nation in return for observance of belief and practice of laws.
Assembled here are key sources that have shaped the modern Middle East, Zionism and Israel. We have included items that give texture, perspective and opinion to historical context. Many of these sources are mentioned in the Era summaries and contain explanatory introductions.
Liturgical References to Zion and Jerusalem
The Hebrew Bible, Prophetic Books, the Talmud, the daily prayer book, and ancient Jewish texts reinforce Judaism’s relationship to G-d and Eretz Yisrael.
Minister Andrew D. White on the Jewish Situation in Russia, 1893
Major motivations for some Jews to choose Zionism included their failure to gain civic equality with their non-Jewish neighbors, and increasing outbreaks of rampant anti-Semitism. This account of the miserable economic situation of Jews in eastern Europe was another impetus for Jews to change their economic, political, and social condition through immigration.
“The Jewish State,” Theodor Herzl
Eventual head of the World Zionist Organization, Theodor Herzl says anti-Semitism requires a Jewish state.
Max Nordau: Address at the First Zionist Congress, 1897
Nordau’s impassioned speech summarized the unique Jewish identity to belief, Torah, ritual and community. With those central elements as a people, their state of impoverishment and wretched physical insecurity, he argued, were vital for rebuilding the Jewish national territory.
First Zionist Congress, Hebrew Language Newspaper Reporting
Three European journalists provide their first hand accounts of the First Zionist Congress and reporting of the delegates attending.
1914-1915 Hussein-McMahon Correspondence
The Sharif of Mecca and Sir Henry McMahon, a British official in Cairo, speaking for the Foreign Office exchanged letters about the current war effort against the Turks, and the future political status of specific Arab lands in the Ottoman Empire. McMahon said then and he repeated the statement again in 1937, that the area of Palestine was definitely excluded from any area to be provided to an Arab leader after WWI. The British allowed the area of Palestine to develop as a “national home for the Jewish people.”
Chaim Weizmann Lobbies Lord Cecil for Britain to Control Palestine After World War I, 1917
Chaim Weizmann feverishly advocates for Great Britain to be Palestine’s post WWI administrator, seeking inclusion of specific territories for its boundaries; six months before the Balfour Declaration is issued.
Balfour Declaration, 1917
British Foreign Ministry promises to set up a Jewish National Home in Palestine with no harm to non-Jewish populations, or to Jews living elsewhere who might want to support a Jewish home.
Herbert Samuel’s Review of Present and Future Zionist-Arab Interactions in Palestine, 1920
Samuel would serve as Britain’s first and only Jewish High Commissioner (1920-1925) in Palestine; he noted reasons for Arab political in-fighting, origins of Arab dislike of Zionism, how land sales to Jews generated Arab jealousies, Jewish educational focus, and Palestine as a land area capable of supporting 4 million people.
San Remo Conference Agreement, 1920: Borders Set for Postwar Middle Eastern Mandates
April 25, 1920 In April 1920, the San Remo Conference in Italy determined the boundaries of the territories captured by the allies during World War I. These included boundaries for the political existence of Syria,…
Mixed Muslim and Arab Views and Actions Toward Jews, Zionism and Israel, 1920s-Present
For more than 100 years, Arabs and Muslims have expressed multiple attitudes toward Jews, Zionism and Israel. The remarks stretch along a spectrum from hatred, including the absolute, uncompromising need to prevent a Jewish state…
Haycraft Commission Reports on May 1921 Palestine Disturbances
In early May 1921, communal riots unfolded in the city of Jaffa and at Jewish settlements along the coast, with considerable loss of life and property for both communities. The British decided that both Arabs and Jews had real as well as exaggerated fears of the other.
1922 White Paper on Palestine
With intentioned ambiguity, Britain asserted that its goal in Palestine was not to make it wholly Jewish or subordinate the Arab population. Self-determination was not promised. Britain wanted to remain ‘umpire’ between the communities. Naively it thought it could control communal expectations and keep the peace.
League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, 1922
International legitimacy is granted to establish a Jewish National Home in Palestine. Rules for its establishment clearly give Jews in Palestine distinct advantages over the local Arab population.
American Officials on Zionism, Israel, the U.S.-Israeli Relationship and Resolving the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1922-2022
For more than seventy years the US government developed and revised its attitude toward Zionism and Israel. Using published archives, press conferences, speeches and numerous interviews, this compilation of 50 quotations traces how American views of Zionism and Israel changed.
League of Nations — Annual Reports, 1922-1939
Established in 1920, the League of Nations evolved out of the Paris Peace Conference. One of its objectives was to assist former territories evolve to self-government through Mandates. In the Middle East there were British Mandates for…
Vladimir Jabotinsky, “The Iron Wall,” 1923
April 11, 1923 Vladimir “Ze’ev” Jabotinsky (October 17, 1880-August 3, 1940) was a Russian-Jewish intellectual, writer, soldier and political activist who founded the Revisionist Zionist movement. A charismatic orator and prolific author, Jabotinsky broke with…
Composite Statements in KKL/JNF Discussions About Lands to Purchase, 1926-1948
Updated August 8, 2025, with a new introduction The Jewish National Fund (JNF), or Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael (KKL), was founded in 1901 after the Fifth Zionist Congress. The goal of the fund was to raise…
Palestine High Commissioner Sir John Chancellor Seeks to Stop Jewish National Home in Dispatch to Colonial Secretary, 1930
Palestine’s High Commissioner Chancellor seeks to halt the Jewish National Home in favor of the Arabs. He fails to overcome the Zionist drive and Arab unwillingness to cooperate with his intentions.
Jewish Agency’s Margalith Identifies Arab Peasant Displacement From Arab Landlord Sales to Jewish Buyers, 1930
Two letters detail how Arab peasants are sometimes swindled out of their lands by Arab land brokers and effendis, noting economic harm to them, and how they learn to avoid landlords and sell directly to Jewish buyers. Intra-Arab communal tension rises.
1931-1949: Arab Land Sales to Jews — Palestine Arab Press, British Reports and Zionist Accounts
These Palestinian Arab newspaper materials and other quotations about Arab land sales to the Zionists during the British Mandate were first read and collected at the National Library at the Hebrew University on the Givat…
The Census of Palestine, 1931: An Invaluable Glimpse at Gaping Socio-Economic Distances and Differences Among Muslims, Christians and Jews
An invaluable glimpse at Palestine’s population: gaping socio-economic distances and vast communal differences between Muslims, Christians and Jews that set the strong preferences for separation of the populations.
Ken Stein: Socio-Economic Differences Preface Palestine’s Political Partition — The Mandate
Primary sources, reputable scholarship and archival materials collectively show major communal (Arab-Jewish) socio-economic separation, factors that foreshadowed geo-spatial partition.
