Dear Chaim,
Not many people realize this, but in the days leading up to the UN partition resolution in November 1947, the de facto govt of the Yishuv (led by Ben Gurion) was busy committing treason against the Jewish people. Not many people know what happened in the Season either, but this is about something additional, as if that wasn't bad enough by itself.
While the Irgun and Lehi were fighting for the Jewish right to all of the Palestine mandate and opening up Jewish immigration to all places including what was called "transjordan," the Jewish Agency (the shadow govt of the yishuv) and its puppets such as Ben gurion, sharett, the Haganah etc, were busy making deals with the nazi King Abdullah whereby they not only gave legitimacy to his usurping of half of the mandate East of the Jordan river, but they also offered him control over whatever land the UN would deem "Arab land" in the partition resolution, in exchange for his refraining from attacking the Jews with his nazi British-trained "Arab Legion" standing army. Golda Meir (then called Myerson) was the personal representation sent to King Abdullah in a secret meeting on November 27, who assured him that he could do as he wished with the "arab state" as it would be allocated by the UN in the coming days including occupying it militarily and holding a referendum. Abdullah was insistent that this area be annexed to his kingdom and NOT be an additional Arab state. At this meeting, Abdullah promised that he would not allow the Arab armies to cross through "his" country into Israel and that the situation called for compromise, not war. We see how reliable is the word of an Arab nazi like this. He of course allowed not only the regular arab army forces through his country, he allowed the ALA fighters, and his own Arab legion attacked the fledgling Jewish state.
This leads to my question. In the book Genesis 1948, historian Dan Kurzman publicizes the Mufti's secret attempt to negotiate with the Jewish leadership in the final days before the UN resolution. He was afraid apparently that the Arab states would foil his own plans to control the " arab " state of the resolution himself and his dream to eventually take control of all of the mandate by conquering the Jews, so he asked Mizrahi Party leader Dr. mordecai Eliash in a telegram to propose secret talks between Mufti and Jewish Agency prior to the UN resolution, without Arab state mediation. Eliash called Ben gurion, and the Jewish Agency Executive led by Ben Gurion had an emotional and long emergency meeting where in the end they drafted a letter rejecting the advance of the Mufti and expressed willingness to negotiate with ANY Arab leader except the Mufti. I realize that the Mufti was a nazi who committed atrocities against the Jews and helped Eichmann craft the final solution (they may not have known this detail at the time actually), he masterminded the Hebron massacre, but why were they so opposed to negotiating with the Mufti when they would negotiate with other Nazis like King Abdullah and Fawzi El-Koaukji who mobilized the arabs in 1936-1939 and actually led the arab revolt in which many Jews were murdered - even though Mufti tried to take credit for all of that. (El-Koaukji also ended up leading the ALA forces in attacks on Israel after the UN resolution). It was well known that he had to flee the country because of the failed arab revolt and that he personally led the guerilla fighting. So what was it about the mufti y''svz that the Jewish agency was so against him, yet they would cooperate and negotiate with these other nazis? I suspect that their opposition to the mufti was politically motivated in some way and not entirely honest. What do you think?
Topic: Ask JTF for Sunday, August 29, 2010 (Read 9331 times)