British Pan-Arab Policy, 1915-1922: A Critical Appraisal - Hardcover

Friedman, Isaiah

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1412810744 ISBN 13: 9781412810746

Publisher: Routledge, 2010

Synopsis

In this myth-shattering study Isaiah Friedman provides a new perspective on events in the Middle East during World War I and its aftermath. He shows that British officials in Cairo mistakenly assumed that the Arabs would rebel against Turkey and welcome the British as deliverers. Sharif (later king) Hussein did rebel, but not for nationalistic motives as is generally presented in historiography. Early in the war he simultaneously negotiated with the British and the Turks but, after discovering that the Turks intended to assassinate him, finally sided with the British. There was no Arab Revolt in the Fertile Crescent. It was mainly the soldiers of Britain, the Commonwealth, and India that overthrew the Ottoman rule, not the Arabs.

Both T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") and Sir Mark Sykes hoped to revive the Arab nation and build a new Middle East. They courted disappointment: the Arabs resented the encroachment of European Powers and longed for the return of the Turks. Emir Feisal too became an exponent of Pan-Arabism and a proponent of the "United Syria" scheme. It was supported by the British Military Administration who wished thereby to eliminate the French from Syria. British officers were antagonistic to Zionism as well and were responsible for the anti-Jewish riots in Jerusalem in April 1920.

During the twenties, unlike the Hussein family and their allies, the peasants (fellaheen), who constituted the majority of the Arab population in Palestine, were not inimical towards the Zionists. They maintained that "progress and prosperity lie in the path of brotherhood" between Arabs and Jews and regarded Jewish immigration and settlement to be beneficial to the country. Friedman argues that, if properly handled, the Arab-Zionist conflict was not inevitable. The responsibility lay in the hands of the British administration of Palestine.

About this title

About the Author

Isaiah Friedman was professor emeritus of history at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He was elected senior fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford and was a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics. He is the author of Germany, Turkey and Zionism, 1897-1918; Palestine: A Twice Promised Land? Vol. 1: The British, the Arabs, and Zionism, 1915-1920; the editor of twelve volumes in the series Documents on the Rise of Israel; and co-editor of the new edition of Encyclopaedia Judaica,  (2007).

Review

“Isaiah Friedman returns again to a thorny and hotly disputed territory, which he has made his own... He fluently describes and analyzes the failure of British policy to maintain Britain’s status in the Middle East at the end of World War I and to make allies of the local Muslims... The author bases his research mainly on an abundance of documents from British government offices, private archives and on academic literature relating to the era. And he has struck archival gold by discovering the long-missing Arabic text of a letter sent by the British High Commissioner in Cairo, Sir Henry McMahon, to Hussein on October 24, 1915... Friedman’s analysis shows that the text did not create any such obligation, leaving the way clear for Britain to back the creation of a Jewish national home two years later... Friedman shatters popular historical assumptions.”

—Shlomo Yotvat, The Jerusalem Report

“A sterling work that enriches our appreciation of the battle waged by the Zionist founding fathers in their struggle to establish a sovereign state of Israel. It contains numerous lessons for present-day diplomats engaged in seeking a resolution to the Arab-Israeli dispute. A detailed study, with a vast array of footnotes and references to innumerable original documents, it reveals the mastery and erudition that Isaiah Friedman brought to bear in tracing the campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state even before its birth, and the manner in which that campaign was overcome. It is a monumental work, and serves as a fitting legacy to one whose life’s labor was genuine scholarship employed in defense of a vital cause.”

—Shlomo Slonim, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs

"British Pan-Arab Policy is a fundamental reassessment of the creation of the Palestine mandate and the futile attempt to reconcile Zionist and Arab aims. Comprehensively researched and closely reasoned, it is a work that will stand as a landmark in the subject."

– Wm. Roger Louis, University of Texas at Austin

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1412810744
• ISBN 13: 9781412810746
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 420