Britain and Jordan: Imperial Strategy, King Abdullah I and the Zionist Movement

302 Pages·2012·5.15 MB·English

by  Tancred Bradshaw

Tancred Bradshaw received his PhD from the School of Oriental and
African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and has since taught at
Birkbeck College, University of London, City University and Florida
State University.
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BRITAIN AND
JORDAN
Imperial Strategy, King Abdullah I and
the Zionist Movement
Tancred Bradshaw
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Published in 2012 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
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175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
Distributed in the United States and Canada
Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright © 2012 Tancred Bradshaw
The right of Tancred Bradshaw to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been
asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof,
may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Library of Modern Middle East Studies 108
ISBN 978 1 84885 310 2
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress catalog card: available
Typeset by Newgen Publishers, Chennai
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
Maps ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Wartime Diplomacy and the Establishment
of the Mandatory Regime in Palestine and Transjordan 9
Chapter 2: Abdullah and the Special Relationship:
The Origins of Hashemite-Zionist Relations 55
Chapter 3: Diplomacy during the Arab Revolt: The British,
Abdullah and the Jewish Agency, 1931–1939 67
Chapter 4: The Complexity of Decolonisation: The End
of the Mandate, 1944–1947 103
Chapter 5: The Imagery of Collusion: From the Mandate
to Statehood, 1948–1951 141
Conclusion: The British Imperial Project in Jordan 189
Abbreviations 201
Notes 203
Bibliography 257
Index 277
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The idea for this book originated as whilst I was involved in my doctoral
research, which was undertaken at the School of Oriental and African
Studies. I would like to thank Professor Emeritus Colin Shindler for
his wise advice and consistent support. This book could not have been
completed without the assistance of a number of individuals who were
kind enough to provide me with invaluable feedback on earlier ver-
sions of the manuscript. They include Rose Esber, Matthew Hogan,
Alex Martin, Cristina Palomares and Kristos Vassilicos. I also ben-
efited from numerous conversations with Yoav Alon, and my good
friend James Onley.
This book is based on a wide range of archives located in the UK,
Israel and the United States. I would like to thank the staff at the
National Archives at Kew for their unfailing assistance. The National
Archives, despite budgetary cuts, has established the gold standard
for students and scholars. Archivists at the Liddell Hart Centre for
Military Archives, King’s College London, the Imperial War Museum
and Rhodes House, Oxford also deserve thanks for their help. I would
also like to thank Debbie Usher, the archivist at the Middle East
Centre in Oxford, who oversees a crucial collection of personal papers
with consummate skill. In Israel, I benefited from the advice of Yoram
Mayorek, formerly the directory of the Central Zionist Archives.
Yoram went out of his way to point me in the direction of some of his
more obscure collections. In the United States librarians and archivists
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viii BRITAIN AND JORDAN
at the National Archives in Washington, the Library of Congress,
Georgetown University Library Special Collections and the Harry S.
Truman Library, all provided invaluable assistance. I was fortunate to
meet a number of people in Jordan who were very generous with their
time and recollections of the early years of Jordan’s history.
I would like to offer thanks to various friends, including Julianna
Fuzesi, Shakireh Ispahani, Amelie Jousseaume, Nick and Anna
Klemz, Courtney and Joe Lodico, Jennie Reuvid, Raymond and Laura
Saba and Stephanie Seul. I am especially grateful to the Lodico and
Saba families in Washington who have wholeheartedly welcomed me
into their families during my lengthy visits to Washington. Finally, I
would like to thank my family for their forbearance.
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MAPS
Map 1 Pre-World War One Ottoman Administrative Districts
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Map 2 Jordan’s Frontiers
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