The formation of the battalions had several motives: the expulsion of the Ottomans, gaining military experience, and the hope that their contribution would favorably influence the support for a Jewish national home in the land when a new world order was established after the war.

Supporters of Ilya Fondaminsky argued that the war would shake the tsarist regime and therefore should enlist and aid the British to bring the revolution closer.

The question arises as to what motivated Rutenberg, who was traveling on behalf of the SR to the capitals of Britain and France to pressure Russia for greater democratization, to engage with the Jewish people and meet Weizmann.

The evidence for maintaining ties and prioritizing the party's interests was Rutenberg's rapid and smooth integration into the government leadership after the February Revolution of 1917 during Alexander Kerensky's social-revolutionary administration.

The SR was aware of the Jews' animosity toward the autocratic regime in Russia, alongside the growing Jewish sympathy for Germany, which had granted them freedom and rights.

Dov Ber Borochov also arrived in Italy from Vienna after the Austrian police made it clear that it would be better for him to leave the Austro-Hungarian Empire, an ally of Germany.

According to Mintz, Rutenberg brought a booklet, manifesto, to the U.S., began participating in conferences, organized a committee, and started a newspaper for the Jewish Congress.

One of the most prominent figures supporting the activist line was Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who, knowing the Ottoman Empire, predicted its days were numbered during the war and that this would impact the future governance of Palestine.

In 1915, Jabotinsky arrived at Camp Jabari, near Alexandria, where 1,200 Jews expelled from Palestine by the Ottomans or who fled due to the harsh living conditions gradually gathered, along with Yosef Trumpeldor.

On the 18th of Adar, 5675, a document was drafted stating the decision to establish a Jewish battalion offering its services to the British army for the conquest of Palestine.

After the failed campaign, and as the British refused to transfer it to another front, the corps was disbanded, and some of its members joined the subsequent Jewish battalions.

Unlike Trumpeldor, Jabotinsky was not satisfied with the formation of the Zion Mule Corps, which was not a combat unit and did not participate in the fight against the Ottomans.

The people of the kingdom witnessed the heavy losses among the youth on the battlefields compared to the "café dwellers," many of whom were European refugees in London, including young Jews.

Two catalysts then appeared: an editorial supporting the idea in the influential newspaper "The Times" and a group of 120 former members of the Zion Mule Corps, along with Trumpeldor, who joined the 20th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers and formed a Jewish company within it.

After a decisive meeting between Trumpeldor, Jabotinsky, and senior officials at the War Office, the formation of a combat Jewish battalion was realized.

Trumpeldor, who had served as the deputy commander of the Mule Corps in Gallipoli and succeeded Patterson in its final months, was initially denied an officer's commission by the British, so he returned to Russia to promote his idea of forming a massive Jewish army to fight on the Caucasus front and advance toward Palestine.

In August 1917, two official notices were issued: one obligating Russian citizens residing in England to enlist in the army, and the other announcing the establishment of the Jewish battalion.

Great excitement was felt among the city's Jews, many shops hung blue and white flags, and the proud soldiers of the legion were received with loud cheers in the streets.

The desire of the local Palestinian Jewish youth to enlist met the initiative of Major General John Hill, commander of the 52nd Division, who called on the young men of the Yishuv in areas already conquered by the British to join the army and assist in further conquests of the land.

Most of the volunteers were young "activists" from the labor camp, members of the Jaffa Group and the Small Assembly, as well as high school students from Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, who campaigned vigorously for recruitment.

Moshe Smilansky and Eliyahu Golomb argued that joining the Jewish Battalions was a political endeavor that elevated the status of the Yishuv in the eyes of its new rulers and contributed to the strength of the community.

Members of the "HaPoel HaTzair" party, including Yosef Sprinzak and A.D. Gordon, were the main opponents, arguing that the Yishuv’s efforts should focus on settlement and agriculture, alongside a pacifist ideology that opposed participation in imperialist and bloody wars.

General Allenby was initially reluctant to the idea of a unit of Jewish soldiers under his command, but Zionist political activity in London led to its establishment, and 1,000 volunteers were accepted into its ranks.

The composition of the three battalions by country of origin was estimated as follows: 1,700 Americans, 1,500 Palestinian Jews, 1,400 English, 300 Canadians, 50 Argentinians, and about 50 Jewish prisoners released from Ottoman captivity.

For two months, uprisings broke out in Egypt, and the sense of Arab national awakening also reached Palestine, but it did not ignite significant actions.

The British military administration in Palestine did not align with the pro-Zionist sentiments of London and sought to disband the battalions, which they saw as potentially igniting conflict with the local Arabs.

Herbert Samuel planned to establish a "mixed militia" of Jews and Arabs, and some of the legion's soldiers and veterans joined its Jewish section.

During the 1921 Palestine riots, on Margolin’s initiative, several dozen armed soldiers of the battalion arrived in Jaffa and Tel Aviv and participated in defending the area against Arab rioters.

The disbandment of the "First Judean" battalion marked a British policy against an independent Jewish defense force in the Yishuv in response to Arab aggression.

This moral aspect is invaluable; and this is what the Prime Minister of South Africa—a great lover of peace himself—meant when he said: Letting Jews fight for the land of Israel is one of the most beautiful ideas I have ever heard in my life.To the members of his battalion who were about to return to their homes overseas, he said: You will return to your family far across the sea; and there, as you browse the newspaper, you will read good news about the freedom of Jews in a free Jewish land—about workshops and cathedrals, about plowed fields and theaters, and perhaps also about members of parliament and ministers.