Ever since Britain was granted formal control over Palestine in 1919, as part of the settlement for the end of WW1, successive ministers were caught in a dilemma. Palestine was properly deemed by the British to be a vital military position for defence of the Suez Canal, of the shipping routes to the empire in India and of Britain's considerable investment in the emerging Middle East oilfields. Abandoning Palestine would have been both military and political folly. Britain's d