British Diplomacy in Palestine Essay -- Palestinians

I believe that British diplomacy in Palestine was consistently indecisive and hypocritical but at the same time the British wanted to keep their hands in Palestine’s economy and goods. The reasoning behind this statement is because of the events that played out during the Hussein-McMahon correspondence, the Sykes-Picot agreement, and the Balfour declaration. First, the Hussein-McMahon correspondence was a long-drawn-out exchange of letters between the Sharif of Mecca Hussein bin Ali and British High Commissioner Sir Henry McMahon dealing with the future political status of the Ottoman Empire. The Arab’s were planning on revolting against the Ottoman Empire because of the promise that after the war was over Britain would recognize the independence of the Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire now known as Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and Saudi Arabia. The British encouraged the revolt against the Ottoman Empire because they were allies with the Germans, during World War I. The British also knew that if the Arab’s would get into World War I and if they could overthrow the Ottoman Empire the British would be able to occupy key positions that could give them the advantage over the Germans in the war. Unfortunately, after the war had ended, McMahon and Hussein could not agree on what areas of the territory to r ecognize the independence of the Arab areas that Hussein had wanted. For a lack of better words this made the relationship between the Arab leader, Hussein bin Ali, and the British High Commissioner Sir Henry McMahon and their people very untrusting of each other and extremely tense. The Second thing that put a lot of tension on the relationship between the Arabs and the British was the Sykes-Picot agreement... ...ing colonizers at just the moment when other Europeans had given up on the idea?† That being said, I believe this statement effectively paraphrases the source of the tension between Jews and Arab opponents of the creation of the state of Israel. Works Cited Fromkin, David (1989). A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. New York: Owl. pp. 286, 288. ISBN 0-8050-6884-8. Peter Mansfield, British Empire magazine, Time-Life Books, no 75, p.2078 Balfour, Arthur J. "Balfour Declaration of 1917." Letter to Foreign Office. 2 Nov. 1917. MS. Huneidi, Sahar. A Broken Trust: Herbert Samuel, Zionism and the Palestinians 1920-1925. London: I.B. Tauris, 2001. Print. "Quotes About Israeli Palestinian Conflict." (19 Quotes). Web. 10 Mar. 2012. .