This book provides the historical context for the shifting alliances that ended with the termination of the British Mandate in Palestine during May of 1948. The Ottomans were hospitable to Jews, particularly after the expulsion from Spain in 1492 and for centuries thereafter. However that changed around the end of the 19th Century when Jewish interests in Palestine encountered a decaying Ottoman Empire administered by local, corrupt officials. British interests in the area seemed a welcomed change to European Jews seeking to make Palestine their national homeland. Though initially regarded as liberators, the British were frequently seen by the Jews as enemies, even when the two groups joined forces to fight the Turks in WWI and the Nazis in WWII. .