Zionism in an Arab Country explores the relations between the Zionist establishment in Israel, and the Jewish community in Iraq. This relationship is centred on two organizations: a Zionist movement and a defense organization. By reviewing the activity of these organizations, Esther Meir-Glitzstein examines the decade preceding mass immigration, and reveals the political, societal, economic and cultural developments that shaped the history of Iraqi Jewry in this crucial period.
Beyond the main focus on the sphere of Zionist activity, Meir-Glitzstein also uncovers the basic problems that shaped both the development of Iraqi Jewry in the 1940s and the policy of the Zionist establishment – trapped between Arab nationalism and Jewish nationalism. Finally, she elucidates the reasons and circumstances that led to the mass immigration of Jews from Iraq to the state of Israel.