ABSTRACT
In the aftermath of the 1948 Palestine war the tiny desert Kingdom of Jordan held secret negotiations with the Israelis. It had been swamped with Palestinian refugees and had a border of several hundred miles with Israel which it could not effectively defend. Conversely, Israel viewed the Arab Legion with respect. It had acquitted itself well during the war, and was also backed up by the AngloJordanian treaty, of which the Israelis were wary. Britain, after opposing contacts for much of 1948, shifted its stance in January 1949 and allowed talks to occur. But how genuine was this policy shift? Did Britain, as argued by revisionist historians, develop ‘a gradually improving relationship with the Jewish State’ and act as an honest broker in the Jordanian-Israeli negotiations?1 This essay contends that far from seeking a rapprochement with Israel, between 1949 and mid-1951 at the very least Britain prevented the Jewish state from making peace with the one Arab state eager to do so, Jordan.
