Anglo-American Relations in Palestine 1919-1925: An Experiment in Realpolitik

Year 1997, Issue: 5, 3 - 18, 01.04.1997

Stuart Knee

Abstract

Sometime before 11 November 1918, the Ottoman Empire expired. Happily, Europe’s “sick man” did not die unattended; a host of kin survived to divide the legacy. Among the prospective inheritors were two giants, the United States and Great Britain. For Britain, her driving force was the maintenance of Empire. For the United States, mixed motives of idealism, business enterprise and preservation of historic isolationist prerogatives resulted in the development of a policy that was often hesitant and myopic. A spirit of internationalism did not prevail in the case of either nation and, as a result, Middle East problems were exacerbated, as is demonstrated in this article.

References

• Adler, Cyrus, and Aaron M. Margalith. With Firmness in the Right: American Diplomatic Action Affecting Jews 1840-1945. New York: American Jewish Committee, 1946.
• “American Jews United.” The Survey 28 Dec. 1918: 391-393.
• “American Rights in Palestine.” The Nation 12 July 1922: 53-54.
• Andrews, Fanny Fern. “American Rights and Interests in the Mandatory System.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science July 1921: 95-97.
• -----. The Holy Land Under Mandate. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1931.
• Bentwich, Norman. Palestine. London: Ernest Benn, 1934.
• Bickerton, Ian J. and Carla L. Klausner. A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. 3. ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.
• Campbell, John C. Defense of the Middle East. New York: Harper, 1958.
• Colby, Bainbridge. “The United States of America and the British Mandates.” Contemporary Review February 1921: 245-250.
• Congressional Record May/June 1922: 10210.
• “Cross-Currents in American Judaism.” Current Opinion May 1919: 314-315.
• DeNovo, Bernard. American Interests and Policies in the Middle East 1900- 1939. Minneapolis: University Press of Minnesota, 1963.
• Earle, Edward Meade. “Oil and American Foreign Policy.” New Republic 20 Aug. 1924, 355-357.
• Eisner, Joan. “American Policy Toward Palestine 1916-1948.” M..A. Thesis, New York University, 1955.
• Evans, Laurence. United States Policy and the Partition of Turkey 1914- 1924. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1965.
• FRUS Lansing = Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States: The Lansing Papers 1914-1920. 2 vols. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1939.
• FRUS 1920 = Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States 1920. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1935.
• FRUS 1921 = Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States 1921. 2 vols. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1936.
• FRUS 1922 = Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States 1922. 2 vols. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1938.
• FRUS 1923 = Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States 1923. 2 vols. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1938.
• FRUS 1924 = Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States 1924. 2 vols. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1938.
• FRUS 1925 = Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States 1925. 2 vols. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1940.
• Gregg, Alan. “Future in Europe.” An essay in the William L. Westermann Papers, Box 5, Columbia University, New York.
• Hall, Harvey P. American Interest in the Middle East. New York: US Foreign Policy Association, 1948.
• Hull, William L. The Fall and Rise of Israel. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1954.
• Hurewitz, J.C. Middle East Dilemmas: The Background of United States Policy. New York: Harper, 1953.
• Knee, Stuart E. “The King-Crane Commission of 1919: The Articulation of Political Anti-Zionism.” American Jewish Archives 29-1 (1977): 22-53.
• Manuel, Frank E. The Realities of American-Palestine Relations. Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press, 1949.
• Meinertzhagen, Richard. Middle East Diary 1917-1956. New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1960.
• Murray, Robert K. The Harding Era. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1969.
• “Oil Troubling the Diplomatic Waters” Literary Digest 11 Dec. 1920: 18-19.
• PPC = Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States: The Paris Peace Conference. 13 vols. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1942.
• “Part of the United States.” Review of Reviews Mar. 1919: 305-306.
• Polier, Justine Wise, and James Waterman Wise. The Personal Letters of Stephen Wise. Boston: Beacon, 1956.
• Research Committee of the Geneva Office. League of Nations Association. The Palestine Mandate. Geneva: League of Nations Association, 1930.
• Royal Institute of International Affairs. Great Britain and Palestine 1915- 1939. London: Oxford University Press, 1939.
• Safran, Nadav. The United States and Israel. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
• Speiser, Ephraim A. The United States and the Near East. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1960.
• Spielman, W.C. The United States in the Middle East. New York: Pageant, 1959.
• Storrs, Ronald. The Memoirs of Sir Ronald Storrs. New York: Putnam, 1937.
• Stoyanovsky, J. The Mandate for Palestine. New York: Longman’s 1928.
• “Were America at San Remo.” New Republic 5 May 1920, 300-301.
• Wright, Quincy. “Sovereignty of the Mandates.” American Journal of International Law October 1923: 691-703.
• Yale, William. The Near East: A Modern History. Ann Arbor, MI: University Press of Michigan, 1960.