Baksheesh Diplomacy: Secret Negotiations between American Jewish Leaders and Arab Officials on the Eve of World War II

Could the Arab-Israeli conflict have been avoided? Was it possible to achieve peace between Jews and Arabs in Palestine in the 1930s? Rafael Medoff's intriguing study reveals, for the first time, the story of the Fifth Avenue multimillionaires who believed they could bring peace to the Middle East through secret diplomacy and a generous dose of baksheesh (bribery). In documents unearthed from archives on three continents, Medoff has discovered an extraordinary and previously unknown chapter in the history of Middle East diplomacy. Here he brings the story to life. A work of history that reads like a thriller, this book takes the reader from the elite Jewish social clubs of interwar Manhattan to the bustling bazaars of Baghdad, as it sheds fresh light on the Arab-Jewish conflict, the relationship between American Jewry and the Holy Land, and the divisions within the Jewish community over the Palestinian Arab issue.