Friends Indeed or Accomplices in Need? The Jewish Agency, Emir Abdullah and the Shaykhs of Transjordan, 1922–39

This chapter discusses a relatively underexplored period in relations between the political leadership of the Yishuv and Transjordan, between 1922 and 1939, one that has traditionally been overshadowed by the period between 1945 and 1951 and the armed conflict over Palestine. It is argued here that any understanding of the relationship that emerged between Transjordan and the newly declared State of Israel after 1948 has to take account of ties between the Jewish Agency and Emir Abdullah, ties that came to shape both the perceptions and expectations of officials in Amman and Jerusalem. The chapter begins with a preliminary account of the early phase of the relationship between the Jewish Agency and the Transjordanian potentate during the 1920s, outlining the basic attitudes of both sides which came to determine relations in the period under discussion.