Business Innovation from Israel's Masters of Espionage

Chapter 2. In the Beginning…

British Mandate Palestine, 1948…

In the spring of 1948, nearly 30 years after its inception, the British Mandate over Palestine had ended. Battered and weary from ruling over the antagonistic and increasingly bloody aspirations of Zionism and Arab nationalism, and unable to implement a solution satisfactory to either side, the British finally gave up. On the morning of May 14, the last vestiges of British civil and military authority withdrew from their remaining positions in this ancient land. The Union Jack, flying over Jerusalem, was lowered for the last time. And at 4:00 in the afternoon, David Ben-Gurion stood under a large photograph of Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, and announced the establishment ...