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? This study discusses the Fifth Avenue muti-millionaires who believed they could bring peace to the Middle East through secret diplomacy and a generous dose of Baksheesh (the Arabic word for bribery). Taken from documents unearthed on three continents, the story takes the reader from the elite Jewish social clubs of interwar Manhattan to the bustling bazaars of Baghdad, as it attempts to shed 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.