ABSTRACT
In the late forties, Toynbee acquired the reputation of being a passionate Arab protagonist and a fierce opponent of the State of Israel; by his own admission he became known as a "Western spokesman for the Arab cause." But during World War 1 and its aftermath, he was less than sympathetic toward the Arabs. Toynbee firmly believed that force of circumstances would drive both the Jews and the Arabs to settle their dispute by agreement. "This may happen before the termination of the Mandate or it may happen afterwards, but it will certainly happen in the end. Toynbee was also deeply troubled by what he believed was the inherent incompatibility between the obligation, enshrined in the Balfour Declaration, to make Palestine into a Jewish National Home and the clause of safeguarding the rights of the non-Jewish communities.
