Promises and Dreams

The Arabs were loyal to their Ottoman overlords in the First World War, but the British incited sedition among them, bribing a man in high religious office to head a rebellion. The inducement they offered him was power and glory, rule of an Arab independency of undefined dimensions.

The man was Hussein Ibn Ali, of the clan of the Hashemites and the tribe of the Quraish, Sharif of the Holy City of Mecca, a descendant of the Prophet. The British gave him arms, supplies, subsidies and advisers. When asked also for a firm definition of his dream-kingdom, the British High Commissioner in Cairo, Sir Henry McMahon, sent him a 'clarification' in a letter of 24 October 1915, which made it clear that the British could not promise to give the Arabs territory which the French might claim; but as they did not know what the French might claim, the promises remained unclear. Ever since, the Arabs have interpreted the letter one way – that the Palestine region was included in the promised Arab state – and the British another way – that it was not. The vagueness was useful. Britain's immediate need was to gain an alliance with the Sharif without promising anything that could not be denied if a different need arose later. Britain was pursuing, as states must, the politics of interest. The Suez Canal route to India was her essential interest. If she conquered the Middle East, she would try to retain control of the region and keep out the French and Russians.

Two years later, on 2 November 1917, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, which promised the Jews 'a national home' in Palestine, provided that 'nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities in Palestine'. There were several motives behind it. One was compassion for the Jewish people who had suffered persecution for centuries; another was gratitude for their contribution to mankind in general and the British in particular. Lord Balfour felt that Britain had special reason to be grateful to Chaim Weizmann, the famous Zionist and scientist, for inventing a method of synthesizing acetone which was badly needed during the First World War. But there were two more compelling purposes. One was to induce American Jews to help persuade the United States government to enter the war; another to provide a pretext for keeping that part of the Middle East from France, a keen rival for power and influence there.

In 1916 the British and French had agreed, in a secret document known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, on how they would divide up the territory between them once they had conquered it from the Turks. It was against the spirit of the times, when high principles were asserted against the old ideas of empire, principles which President Wilson of the United States soon afterwards set out in fourteen points which were later enshrined in the Covenant of the League of Nations. By the new ideal, never again would the great powers impose their will on little nations.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement fell into the hands of the Bolsheviks when they seized power, and they published it, to the embarrassment of the British and French. It was never implemented, but it is important because it shows what the Powers intended, irrespective of any promises they made.

The British made another 'promise' to the Arabs in 1918. It is known as the Declaration to the Seven. The 'Seven' were Syrians, who came to Cairo to ask the British what their intentions were in the Middle East; they were given a pledge that Britain would recognize 'the complete and sovereign independence of any Arab area emancipated from Turkish control by the Arabs themselves'. It was a rash undertaking. It may have helped to prompt a deception that was to give the Arabs a false understanding of their own military power and achievements.

In order to provide Sharif Hussein and his sons, Ali, Abdullah and Faisal, with territory to claim on these conditions, T.E. Lawrence arranged a ruse whereby the Arab rebels seemed to 'liberate' Damascus. In fact, Damascus was taken from the Turks by the Australian Light Horse Brigade, and only after that did Lawrence and the Arab forces enter the city. But the British allowed the fiction of a conquest by the Arabs to be treated as true.

After the British and French won the war, kingdoms were created for the Sharifians. Sharif Hussein was made King of the Hejaz, although he did not keep his crown for long. In 1924 Ibn Sa'ud, ruler of the neighbouring Nejd, deposed him, and joined the Hejaz and the Nejd into a new kingdom which he named Saudi Arabia after himself.

Ali, the Sharif's eldest son, was heir to the fleeting kingdom of the Hejaz, so the British did not have to provide him with a throne. Iraq was proposed for Abdullah, but meanwhile, Faisal, who had become King of Syria (but only from March to July 1920), was thrown out by the French. He was then given Iraq, and the British had to find something else for Abdullah. What remained in their power to give away, or so they made out, was Palestine, over which they had been granted a mandate. So, in September 1922, they presented three-quarters of it, stretching eastward from the River Jordan to a chosen line in the desert, to Abdullah, who named it Transjordan. They also paid him a handsome annual stipend from the pocket of the British taxpayer for ruling over it.

Transjordan immediately became one part of Palestine in which the Jewish national home policy 'promised' by the Balfour Declaration was not to be implemented; although it was because of the Declaration and the duty it imposed on...