Britain (and France) promised a homeland for Jews during World War I, in the hope of getting greater support from Jewish groups. The Balfour declaration was seen as a betrayal by Arabs who had been encouraged to revolt against Turkish rule and made promises about decolonisation and self-rule. Instead, France assumed colonial control over Syria and Lebanon, and Britain took control of Palestine, Trans-Jordan and Iraq, albeit under Hashemite kings. The initial resistance of the Arabs was not antisemitism of itself, but indignation that the British were treating Palestine as if it were terra nullius, open to the transplantation of...