A hundred years ago this week, in the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917, Britain pledged its support for Zionism, the movement whose goal was a Jewish state in Palestine. Within a few weeks of this commitment being made public, British forces entered Jerusalem after driving out the Ottoman Turks, and turned Zionism – ­hitherto viewed by Jews and Gentiles alike as a madcap scheme – into a viable, and ­ultimately successful, enterprise.

A century on, the need for a dispassionate account of the clash between Arab and Jew which this wartime promise set in motion could hardly be more urgent.