ABSTRACT
Continuing Uncertainty Towards the end of 1919, many months of uncomfortable uncertainty about the political future of Palestine were having their effect on the population. The mounting tension waited, from month to month, to be broken by the 'word' from the Peace Conference. During this period the 'National Demands' continued to serve as the optimal expectation of many Yishuv leaders, while many Arabs clung to the hope of Syrian-Palestinian union and independence,l with an end to any plans for Jewish immigration or a national home. The Arabs, in Col. R. Meinertzhagen's view, 'certainly [did] not realise' and were' not in a fit state to be told openly' at the time that the Powers were committed to a Zionist programme for Palestine. 2
A vivid indication of this persisting uncertainty may be gained from the following extract of a conversation between Musa Kazim Pasha al-Husaini (then Mayor of Jerusalem) and Menahem Ussishkin on 8th October 1919. Ussishkin had just arrived in Palestine to serve as acting Chairman of the ZC, and was asked about the latest news from Paris:
When Dr Weizmann arrived in Palestine later that month, he delivered a political report to the Va'ad Zmani and was questioned sharply on the fate of the Yishuv's 'National Demands'. Ben-Gurion also wanted to know why the official Zionist position before the Peace Conference had not been a demand for a Jewish state. He received the famous reply: 'We did not ask for a Jewish state because we would not have received it.'4 But, on another subject Dr Weizmann's outlook was quickly modified to resemble that of the Yishuv. The Zionist leader soon reduced his hopes of resolving local difficulties in Palestine by means of a deal with leaders of the pan-Arab movement. While Weizmann's 'friendly' relations
with Faisal in Europe were already considered to have resulted in frustration and disappointment, the Zionist leader was now able to see for himself the ominous face which the pan-Arab movement presented to Jews and Zionists in Palestine. He soon reported back to London that Damascus was 'full of agitators who preach massacre of everybody who is not Arab', and he sought (without success) to correct the situation by urging FaIsal that he was 'morally responsible for [the] serious consequences which may arise from' the violent Damascus propaganda.s During the next six months it would indeed be Damascus (rather than the elusive friendship of Faisal) which would preoccupy Zionist and Yishuv leaders.
