Arthur Read’s Reviews > The Road to Jerusalem: Glubb Pasha, Palestine and the Jews > Status Update

The IDF was highly impressed by the Legion's performance. Intel wrote: "The enemy's efficiency, speed & accuracy stood out during the ops." Ben-Gurion himself was filled w/ admiration. He told his Cabinet: "I must say a word in praise...This is a trained, disciplined & brave foe. The Arab Legion sparked our respect. It knows how to fight, doesn't run away, & how to assault, if needed. It has good command & weapons."

Israeli minister Yitzhak Grunbaum commented: "We do not understand, why the Arab Legion didn't advance further. Had it advanced - perhaps it would have conquered all of Jewish Jerusalem. But we were miraculously saved from this catastrophe." It appears in mid-May Ben-Gurion & the Israeli hierarchy were not convinced Abdullah intended to abide by the Nov. 1947 understanding & occupy only the Arab areas of Palestine.

Gelber writes: "Highly bellicose propaganda accompanied the [Arab coalition] invasion was motivated primarily by domestic considerations & secondly by inter-Arab considerations. Nevertheless, the invasion's purpose was not to push the Jews into the Mediterranean but to save the Palestinians from total destruction. Israel claimed an Arab master plan, combining the strategy of all the Arab armies. No such plan existed"

One Haganah intelligence report stated: "Some of the women and children taken prisoner by the LHI were moved…Among the prisoners were a young mother and a baby... The guards killed the baby in front of its mother and after she fainted also murdered her. 7 old persons and women taken prisoner by the IZL were paraded through the streets in trucks. Afterwards the Arabs were taken to Deir Yassin's quarry and murdered."

Peake: "In order that the Jews may filch Palestine from the Arabs, we poor British taxpayers must again produce the money [to pay for the troops in Palestine]. All this trouble over some sentimental nonsense about a promise to the Jews. I do not think that it was ever intended that thousands of Arabs should be shot down in order to carry out a promise which Jews (notorious liars) say was made to them 5,000 years ago.

Glubb grew up in a professional and country gentry milieu in which a genteel superficial anti-Semitism was the norm. Jews were regarded as aliens, and not completely kosher ones at that; they had about them, at the very least, a hint of business malpractice, sharp dealing, manipulation, profiteering.

After (& despite) his humiliating ouster from Jordan, Glubb remained "a champion of the Arab cause." Indeed, his anti-Zionism increased with time. During the late 1950s & 60s Glubb concentrated on an autobiography & then a series of histories, rarely interviews or letters to newspapers. But from 1967 on, after the Six Day War & latest Palestinian tragedy, Glubb became a frequent & full-throated pro-Arab propagandist.

Concerning Israel, Glubb's thinking during 1949-56 was dominated by one abiding preoccupation: That it was bent on conquering the West
Bank & moving its eastern frontier to the River Jordan. Already in
July 1949 he noted many people believed the Jordan River to be Palestine's natural frontier, that "the Jews" intend to make it Israel's eastern border. [Declassified IDF papers] reinforces the cogency of Glubb's fears.

As to Israel, [Britain's Chiefs of Staff Committee] wrote: "Israel will menace the integrity of Transjordan", depending on the "final territorial settlement in Palestine." They believed that "extreme Zionism" aimed to absorb "the whole of Palestine & the greater part of Transjordan into the State of Israel" & there was "more than a possibility that these extreme elements will come to power & will pursue their claims"

Glubb responded with a poster, distributed in the West Bank, which stated that the Legion "is still defending the Holy Land, while the other armies have disappeared. When Jerusalem, the Holy City, was in danger, it was the Arab Legion alone which rescued it ... The Arab Legion inflicted more casualties on the Jews than any other Arab army... The Arab Legion is still defending the Holy Land from Jewish attack ..."