Palestine Betrayed

The 1947 UN resolution to partition Palestine irrevocably changed the political landscape of the Middle East, giving rise to six full-fledged wars between Arabs and Jews, countless armed clashes, blockades, and terrorism, as well as a profound shattering of Palestinian Arab society. Its origins, and that of the wider Arab-Israeli conflict, are deeply rooted in Jewish-Arab confrontation and appropriation in Palestine. But the isolated occasions of violence during the British Mandate era (1920–48) suggest that the majority of Palestinian Arabs yearned to live and thrive under peaceful coexistence with the evolving Jewish national enterprise. So what was the real cause of the breakdown in relations between the two communities? In this brave and groundbreaking book, Efraim Karsh tells the story from both the Arab and Jewish perspectives. He argues that from the early 1920s onward, a corrupt and extremist leadership worked toward eliminating the Jewish national revival and protecting its own interests. Karsh has mined many of the Western, Soviet, UN, and Israeli documents declassified over the past decade, as well as unfamiliar Arab sources, to reveal what happened behind the scenes on both Palestinian and Jewish sides. It is an arresting story of delicate political and diplomatic maneuvering by leading figures—Ben Gurion, Hajj Amin Husseini, Abdel Rahman Azzam, King Abdullah, Bevin, and Truman —over the years leading up to partition, through the slide to war and its enduring consequences. __Palestine Betrayed__ is vital reading for understanding the origin of disputes that remain crucial today. Contents 7 Illustrations and Maps 8 Acknowledgments 10 Introduction 11 1. Jews and Arabs in the Holy Land 18 2. Pan-Arab Ambitions 49 3. “The Most Important Arab Quisling” 70 4. The Road to Partition 87 5. Kingdoms are Established over Dead Bodies and Skulls 110 6. Fleeing Haifa 134 7. Why Don’t You Stay and Fight? 153 8. Jerusalem Embattled 170 9. All Fall Down 186 10. The Scramble for Palestine 200 11. Shattered Dreams 220 12. A Self-inflicted Catastrophe 240 Epilogue 254 Dramatis Personae 268 Appendix: How Many Palestinian Arab Refugees Were There? 274 Abbreviations 283 Notes 284 Index 345