Muhammad Ruhi Khalidi was proud of his Arabism, Ottomanism and loyalty to the Islamic Caliphate. This book reflects the view of Khalidi as an Arab statesman on Zionism, prior to the outbreak of the First World War and its re-formation of the European international system that existed before. The study includes the emergence of the United States of America as a powerful player in the new global system as a result of World War I.
Khalidi stressed the deep biblical and Talmudic religious roots of Zionism, and the dangers of its goals and ambitions in Palestine and the neighboring Arab countries. He considered the anti-Semitism that is rooted in Western Christianity another reason for the emergence of Zionism within the European Jewish communities. He examined the historical Islamic tolerance to the Jews over the centuries, and saw the greatest danger to Palestine and the Ottoman State as coming from mass Jewish immigration from Tsarist Russia due to the escalation of anti-Semitism in it.
Khalidi realized the extent and diversity of Zionist activities in Palestine, and was the first to systematically monitor it. He realized the extent of corruption of the local executive bodies and their collusion with the Zionist brokers in circumventing the state's declared policy of limiting Jewish immigration and the transfer of Arab land to their hands.
Khalidi saw in the restoration of the Ottoman constitution in 1908, the beginning of a new Ottoman era capable of addressing these challenges. He also considered that the United States' reception of millions of Jews from Tsarist Russia, and the latters’ collective preference for immigration to America over their emigration to Palestine as the biggest indication that Zionism could be managed in Palestine within limits that prevent its further consolidation.
Khalidi did not think that Arabs would declare Jihad against their caliph, and that Britain, Russia and France would assail Arab and Anatolian lands, and that the United States of America would close the doors of mass immigration to its shores and would collude with the Anglo-Saxon Protestant to establish the Zionist presence in Palestine.
The publication of the book was made possible thanks to a grant by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development managed by Welfare Association - Taawon.
