ABSTRACT
The political-national conflict that existed between Arabs and Zionists prior to the Balfour Declaration was exacerbated by that document's legitimation of Zionism. Zionists were, however, divided in the views about the size of this obstacle and the ways to overcome it, as they were divided in their general attitudes toward Palestinian Arabs. The Official Zionists, who represented the mainstream of Zionist thought, included members of the Jewish Agency, which became the sounding board of Official Zionist policy. The 1929 "disturbances," yet another manifestation of Palestinian Arab hostility, took the lives of many Jews, causing the Official Zionists to reevaluate their views on the roots of the Arab problem. The ease with which Arabs could be persuaded by payment, their requests for Zionist financial aid, and the fact that many Palestinian Arab leaders had sold land to Jews apparently led the Zionists to conclude that Arabs could usually be motivated materialistically.
