Summary
The British brigadier who, in Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, was the liaison between the British Foreign Office and the Arab League and, in the book’s reconstruction, the planner of the Arab invasion of Palestine in 1948; Chapter 1 takes its title from Ben-Gurion’s phrase “Following Clayton’s Participation in the League’s Meetings” (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.17, p.24).
Details
- Ben-Gurion (speech, Davar, 18/2/48) named Clayton’s participation in the League’s meetings, following the Salah Jaber–Bevin accord, as the point after which the borders were opened for the invasions of Syrians, Iraqis and others; the book calls Clayton “one of the most influential and mysterious key figures in the Middle East at that time” and the liaison between the British Foreign Office and the Arab League (PDF p.24).
- Rozenblum (Yedioth Aharonoth, 13/5/48) placed Brigadier Clayton at the head of the Egyptian battalions heading toward the Yishuv (PDF p.25).
- Begin (Knesset, 3/5/50) described Abdullah as acting “on the command of Glubb and Clayton” in destroying Gush Etzion and storming Jerusalem (PDF p.27).
- The book’s summary of the shared Ben-Gurion/Begin assessment: Clayton, the British government’s official representative in the “League”, proposed the invasion of Palestine by irregulars, and when Qawuqji’s invasion failed, worked out at the conference of the Arab Chiefs-of-Staff in Bludan in Syria the details of the invasion plan by the regular Arab armies (PDF p.28).
- Shimoni’s evaluation of the Liberation Army, quoted in the book, calls its men “those gangs organized by Clayton, instructed in Syria and led into Palestine by Qawuqji” (PDF p.41).
Related pages
Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, Ernest Bevin, Arab League, Arab Liberation Army, Fauzi al-Qawuqji, John Glubb