KING ABDALLAH AND PALESTINE A Territorial Ambition King Abdallah and Palestine A Territorial Ambition Joseph Nevo Senior Lecturer Department ofMiddle Eastern History University of Halfa Israel in association with Palgrave Macmillan First published in Great Britain 1996 by ~ MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills. Basingstoke. Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This book is published in the 5, Anfony' s 5eries General editor: Alex Pravda ISBN 978-1-349-39917-8 ISBN 978-0-230-37883-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230378834 First published in the United States of America 1996 by ~ ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division. 175 Fifth Avenue. New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-16223-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nevo, Joseph. King Abdallah and Palestine: a territorial ambition / Joseph Nevo. p. cm. - (St Antony's series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-16223-8 I. Jordan-Foreign relations-Palestine. 2. Palestine-Foreign relations-Jordan. 3. Abdallah, King of Jordan, 1882-1951. I. Title. 11. Series. DSI54.16.PI9N47 1996 956.9504'3-dc20 96-13148 CII' © Joseph Nevo 1996 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1996 978-0-333-67408-6 All rights reserved. No reproduction. copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced. copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W I P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 To Nitsa Contents ListoJMaps ix PreJace xi lntroduction XIIJ Part One: Gambit East and West of the Jordan River 3 2 Ambition in the Making 10 Twofold Perception of the lews 12 Early Feelers 15 Economics - Prelude to Politics 21 3 A Fall-back Alternative 31 4 Between Syria and Palestine 44 Part Two: Check 5 Towards the End Game: Palestine 53 Partition Again 63 The Good Neighbour 76 6 The CruciaI Phase 84 Green Light from Britain 84 The Arab World: Disunity in Action 94 'Flirtation' with the lews 108 Abdallah vs. a Disintegrating Society 121 7 Invasion and Consolidation 133 The Unspoken Factor: lerusalem 134 De Facta Annexation 137 8 First Cracks 148 9 The Arab League Attempts to Call the Shots 155 10 Abdallah Retakes the Initiative 162 vii viii King Abdallah and Palestine 11 From Behind the Barn to the Middle of the Road 172 12 Achievement Consol idated 184 Postscript Incorporation Made Official 196 Conclusion 200 Annex The Amman Resolutions 208 Notes 210 Bibliography 237 Index 249 List ofMaps 1 Palestine Partition Plan, November 1947 83 2 Armistice Lines between Israel and its Neighbours, 1949 183 ix