King Abdallah and Palestine: A Territorial Ambition

272 Pages·1996·17.3 MB·English

by  Joseph Nevo (auth.)

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