British Miscalculations

Professor Friedman is known for his writings on the relationship between the Arabs and Great Britain as well as the Palestinian conflict. The book under review deals with the most interesting and curious period of history, 1918–1925, from the point of view of the Muslim world, on the one hand, and the British on the other. The author has worked on piles of historical documents, as it ‘would not have been possible without the wealth of documents available at the pubic record office, London’ and delving into the archival materials in Jerusalem, and at various libraries in Great Britain to deal with a topic such as this. Friedman expresses his regret that the relationship between Arabs and Jews in Palestine was ‘nipped in the bud’ by the military adventure of Great Britain. The book has 14 chapters, each of which deals with a specific topic relating to the main theme, which is the root cause of what is happening today in the Middle East, especially the relationship between the Arabs and the Jews goes back to the events of the First World War, Anglo-Soviet rivalry and the Arabs’ rejection of the British presence in Mesopotamia and its involvement in the Greco-Turkish conflict in 1921–1922. Chapters 6 and 7 are devoted to the Mesopotamian issue while chapters 9 and 10 tackle the Greco-Turkish conflict and the misadventure of Great Britain in this conflict.