Judaea Lives Again. By Norman Bentwich. (Gollancz. 8s. 6d.) PROFESSOR
BEhrrwtat was for some years Attorney-General of Palestine and has since 1932 held the Chair of International Rela- tions at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has set himself the difficult task of describing in a small compass, but in consider- able detail, the background, beginnings and growth of the Zionist Movement, -its practical achievements, the Arab-Jewish tug-of- war, and the successive phases of British policy in Palestine in the twenty years ending with the White Paper of 1939. The result is rather a crowded canvas and a picture which somehow does not quite come to life. The narrative flows smoothly on at an even pace, imparting useful knowledge but seldom stirring the imagination.
In the earlier part of his book Professor Bentwich travels over well-trodden ground, but he has performed a useful service by bringing the story up to date. Nowhere else is there to be found, in an equally convenient form, an account of events in Palestine from the publication of the Peel Report in 1937 to 1943. Many readers will be tempted to turn first to the chapters in which Professor Bentwich passes from his narrative to his vision of the future. He takes the view that after the war there will have to be a period of international supervision, and suggests that " the United Nations may entrust the responsibility to a body which will represent the interest and the concern of all their people, as well as of the Jews and Arabs themselves." It would have been inter- esting to see this proposal more fully worked out. Given an interval of international control, Professor Bentwich is not without hope that the Jews and the Arabs may somehow come together, though on what basis is not entirely clear. What he does make clear is his conviction that the problem will have to be seen in a large% perspective if it is ever to be solved—" both 'Jews and Arabs should be searching the sky for the wider horizon, knowing that the question will be finally judged by the world society. Securus judicat orbis terrarum. Wise words, which will, it may be hoped, find their mark.
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