BLOOD IN ZION: How the Jewish Guerrillas Drove the British Out of Palestine

During the 1940s, the Irgun Zvai Leumi (IZL) launched an intensive guerrilla campaign against the British Mandate authorities in Palestine. Its members embarked on a struggle not conducted in modern times by any Jewish organization. They blew up buildings, they sabotaged roads and bridges, they killed and maimed soldiers, they raided military bases, they robbed banks and they attacked strategic targets all over the country and abroad. By so doing, they endangered the very community on whose behalf they claimed to fight and placed themselves against the consensus represented by the official leadership. But was the Irgun instrumental in driving the British forces out of Palestine? Was it a factor which influenced the decision makers in London reluctantly to with draw from this part of the Middle East? How effective was the group in military terms? Did it, as argued, disrupt the country's daily life to the point of exhausting the British will to govern Palestine any longer? How solid was its Jewish backing? Did the community give it enough support? This book attempts to answer these questions.