Disenchantment

The newspaper that was closest to the creation of Israel - the Guardian - now finds itself at the vortex of a worldwide campaign holding it guilty of anti-Zionism and even of anti-Semitism. No outcome could have seemed less likely after the fateful meeting in 1914 of the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann and the formidable Manchester Guardian editor CP Scott, an encounter which led to the Balfour declaration of 1917, declaring Britain's backing for a Jewish national home in Palastine. Thirty years later the creation of Israel fulfilled that dream - a dream that was to become a nightmare for the indigenous Arabs. In Disenchantment, Israeli journalist Daphna Baram follows the decades-long trajectory of the Guardian's relationship with Israel, as the paper strives to match truthful reporting of the Palestinian tragedy with the growing sensitivities of the world Jewish community.