"God, Guns and Israel looks at the influences of Protestant Nonconformism and the Old Testament on the founding of the modern state of Israel. Untangling the complex mesh of motives behind the overt politics in the Middle East in 1917, Jill Hamilton looks back to Lord Shaftesbury and beyond, and explores David Lloyd George's long held determination to build a Jewish homeland within the British Empire." "God, Guns and Israel reveals why the British War Cabinet in 1917 completely miscalculated the reaction of the local Arabs in Palestine and Iraq and how they unwittingly laid the foundations of one of the bloodiest on-going conflicts of modern times. The origins of both Israel and Iraq can be firmly placed in London." "Woven into the narrative is the story of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and other soldiers in the Jewish Legion, the 38th battalion of the Royal Fusiliers which was formed within the British army. It follows them from the time of their first tottering steps on the moors of Devonshire, through their evolution into the secret underground army, the Haganah, until Ben-Gurion declared Independence in May 1948. To add to the coincidental symmetry of the history, within eleven minutes of Ben-Gurion's declaration President Harry Truman, another Baptist, recognized the new state of Israel and ensured its survival."--Jacket.