Henry McMahon

The earliest British discussions of the Near and Middle East question revolve around Sharif Hussein ibn Ali, scion of the Hashimite (also seen as Hashemite) family that claims descent from the Prophet and acts as the traditional guardians of Islam's most holy sites of Mecca and Medina in the Arabian province of Hijaz, which Sharif Hussein governs for the Ottomans.

Amir Abdullah, the second of three sons of Sherif Hussein bin Ali, visits Cairo, where he holds talks with Lord Kitchener, the senior British official in Egypt, in February 1914.

Abdullah inquires about the possibility of British support should his father raise a revolt against the Ottoman Empire.

Kitchener's reply is necessarily noncommittal because Britain considers the Ottoman Empire a friendly power.

War breaks out in August, however, and by November the Ottoman Empire has aligned with Germany against Britain and its allies.

Kitchener is by now British secretary of state for war and, in the changed circumstances, seeks Arab support against the Turks.

In Cairo, Sir Henry McMahon, British high commissioner and Kitchener's successor in Egypt, carries on an extensive correspondence with Hussein.

Sir Henry McMahon, the first British High Commissioner in Egypt, begins secret correspondence with Hussein ibn 'Ali in July 1915, in which McMahon convinces Hussein to lead an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire, aligned with Germany against Britain and France in the war.

McMahon promises that if the Arabs support Britain in the war, the British government will support the establishment of an independent Arab state under Hashemite rule in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, including Palestine.

In a letter to McMahon enclosed with a letter dated July 14, 1915, from his son Abdullah, Hussein specifies an area for Arab independence under the "Sharifian Arab Government" consisting of the Arabian Peninsula (except Aden) and the Fertile Crescent of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.

McMahon declares British support for postwar Arab independence, subject to certain reservations and exclusions of territory not entirely Arab or concerning which Britain is not free "to act without detriment to the interests of her ally, France", in his letter of October 24, 1915, to Hussein on behalf of the British government.

The territories assessed by the British as not purely Arab include: "The districts of Mersin and Alexandretta, and portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama, and Aleppo." (As with the later Balfour Declaration, the exact meaning is not clear, although Arab spokespersons ever since will usually maintain that Palestine was within the pledged area of independence.)

Sir Henry McMahon, British high commissioner in Egypt, has worked to pave the way for a nationalist 'Arab revolt'.

The Hussein-McMahon correspondence concludes with an understanding of British-ensured postwar independence and the unity of the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, including Palestine.

While McMahon and Sharif Hussein correspond over the fate of the Near and Middle East, the British are conducting secret negotiations with the French and the Russians over the same territory.

Following the British military defeat at the Dardanelles in 1915, the Foreign Office seeks a new offensive in the Middle East, which it believes can only be carried out by reassuring the French of Britain's intentions in the region.

In February 1916, the Sykes-Picot Agreement (officially the "Asia Minor Agreement") is signed, which, contrary to the contents of the Hussein-McMahon correspondence, proposes to partition the Near and Middle East into French and British zones of control and interest.

Under the Sykes-Picot Agreement, Palestine is to be administered by an international "condominium"
of the British, French, and Russians, whereas Transjordan will come under British influence.

Hussein launches a revolt of Arabs in the Hejaz against the Ottoman state on June 5, 1916, although the Hussein-McMahon correspondence is not legally binding on either side, and ...

...declaring himself "King of the Arabs" on October 2, Hussein performs the ceremony of the bai'a, the traditional Arab custom in which the investiture is accompanied by a formal declaration of allegiance, although the Allies recognize him only as king of the Hijaz, a tide rejected by most peninsular Arabs.
 
Britain provides supplies and money for the Arab forces led by Abdullah and Faisal.

British military advisers also are detailed from Cairo to assist the Arab army that the brothers are organizing.

Of these advisers, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) is to become the best known.

The Balfour Declaration radically changes the status of the Zionist movement.

It promises support from a major world power and gives the Zionists international recognition.

Zionism is transformed by the British pledge from a quixotic dream into a legitimate and achievable undertaking.

For these reasons, the Balfour Declaration is widely criticized throughout the Arab world, and especially in Palestine, as contrary to the spirit of British pledges contained in the Hussein-McMahon correspondence.

The wording of the document itself, although painstakingly devised, is interpreted differently by different people, according to their interests. (Ultimately, it is found to contain two incompatible undertakings: establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jews and preservation of the rights of existing non-Jewish communities, i.e., the Arabs. The incompatibility will sharpen over the succeeding years and become irreconcilable.)

Palestine has been hard-hit by the war.

In addition to the destruction caused by the fighting, the population has been devastated by famine, epidemics, and Ottoman punitive measures against Arab nationalists.

Palestinian Arabs believe that Great Britain had promised them independence in the Hussein-McMahon correspondence, but the Balfour Declaration of government support for the establishment of "a Jewish national home in Palestine" conflicts with the Hussein-McMahon understandings.

The number of Zionist colonies, mostly subsidized by Lord Rothschild, has meanwhile risen from nineteen in 1900 to forty-seven in 1918, even though the majority of the Jews are town dwellers.