The Bernadotte Plan, the Project for Jordanian Conquest as an Avenue for the Restoring direct British Colonial Rule over the West Bank

This article is the third in a three‐​part series on the background to the Soviet Union’s vote on the partition of Palestine. It covers the Soviet and Middle Eastern opposition to the Bernadotte Plan. The first part deals with the relationship between the British Empire and the Zionist movement. Part two deals with the history of the Soviet vote in the UN.

Introduction: The Anglo‐​American imperialists pitted the Hashemite Jordanian regime, the military of which was run directly by the British agent and commander Glubb Pasha, to conquer the West Bank. One of the programs they put forward before the international community was the ›Bernadotte Plan‹, which entailed Jordanian control over the West Bank along with the provision of »support services« for the Palestinian refugees. The Soviet opposition to the Bernadotte Plan has been noted as supposed ›evidence‹ of USSR’s hostility to the livelihood of Palestinian refugees, when in fact, the USSR, the left in Israel, and major Arab states (mainly excluding Jordan) vocally denounced this plan on the ground that it was a clear attempt at reinstating direct British colonial rule, along with Hashemite Jordanian reaction’s rule, over the West Bank. This article examines the history of the opposition to the Bernadotte Plan.

The Soviets also worked against the Bernadotte Plan, which was aimed towards restoring British colonial rule in Palestine. An American diplomatic document noted the:

»British emphasis on Bernadotte’s recommendation for merging two areas rather than on his statement that disposition Arab Palestine should be left to government of Arab States; (2) recent pressure on Arab States … against recognition [of] Arab Government Palestine interpreted by most Arab leaders as rising less from reasons advanced than from British desire promote Transjordan and their interests.«¹

There was also: »British argument that greatly enlarged Transjordan necessary to security of ME.«²

An untitled US intelligence document also stated:

»US Ambassador Douglas in London transmits a message sent by the UK Foreign Office to British Representatives in the Arab capitals strongly urging Arab acceptance of UN Mediator Bernadotte’s recommendations for Palestine. The Foreign Office endorses the Mediator’s proposal that Arab Palestine be incorporated in Transjordan because of the British view that Arab Palestine … could not maintain itself as a separate state military, economically, or politically…«³

The ›British Chargé Chapman‐​Andrews’, the US ambassador to Egypt said, was:

»inclined [to] believe (1) destruction of AGP [is] of overriding importance and; (2) that British emphasis on Bernadotte proposal re[garding the] disposition of Arab Palestine by Arab States would encourage Arab Government’s support AGP with adverse effects. He also maintained enlarged Transjordan would enhance British ability maintain security of ME.«⁴

To summarize, the British plan was to establish a Greater Jordanian state over what little remained of Palestine, so to establish a neo‐​colony of Britain. This British plan was also endorsed by the United States:

»Secretary Marshall had publicly expressed this Government’s [i.e. USA’s] support of the Bernadotte plan in its entirety, and that the Department was in complete agreement that the most logical disposition of Arab Palestine would be its incorporation in Transjordan.«⁵

The increase in the influence of the Anglo‐​American imperialists, via the Hashemite Jordanians, in the West Bank would have blocked the progressive Arab forces from increasing their influence in the West Bank, thus further weakening the already weak Palestinian Arab revolutionary resistance in the West Bank, while strengthening the fascist forces in the West Bank. In time, MI6‐​backed Jordanian control over the West Bank could allow for an easy Zionist conquest of the West Bank, as happened in the 1967 War. The ›Arab‹ face, the Jordanian mask, which the Anglo‐​American imperialists were using to take control of the West Bank was a trap in favour of British imperialism. The Egyptians, strategically aligned with the Soviets, disagreed with such plans:

»Egyptian opposition to Bernadotte Plan has greatly increased due to widely held belief that British support for plan is based principally on desire secure merger Arab Palestine and Transjordan as step in enlarging their sphere of influence and toward creation Greater Syria.«⁶

So did the Syrians, also strategically aligned with the Soviets. Perhaps thanks to the influence of the pro‐​Soviet faction of Prince Faysal (see C4S8), Saudi Arabia ended up denouncing such an agenda too: »Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia also opposed Bernadotte’s plan…«⁷

Referring to the Arab states, the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs stated:

»In the fall of 1948, at the Paris session of the General Assembly, they rejected the Bernadotte plan which would have turned over the entire Negev, the Palestine desert, to Jordan.«⁸

The Palestinian government, headed at the time by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al‐​Husseini, was also opposed to Jordanian plots to take over Palestine:

»On the 10^th August, the Mufti of Palestine made a violent attack on the Hashemites in the Sadat Mosque in Damascus, calling them the slaves of British imperialism, and terming Abdallah the ›number one Zionist agent‹ and the man responsible for the catastrophe in Palestine.«⁹

»Palestine has been represented at meetings of the Arab League, first by independent individuals and then by the representatives of the new Arab Higher Committee, formed in 1945. At the conference of the Political Committee of the Arab League in October 1947 it is significant that the Mufti, as Chairman of the Arab Higher Committee, played a leading role.«¹⁰

Of course, there can be no doubt that the Mufti, himself a Nazi Muslim Brotherhood terrorist agent of the Italian Fascist secret service, of the MI6, and of the SS, would have hailed a Hashemite Jordanian conquest of Palestine behind the scenes. Nonetheless, outwardly, because he had to officially represent the Palestinian Arabs, he opposed the Jordanian plots on the overt level. Along with the Arabs, and in line with 1946 Soviet treaties with Lebanon and Syria, the Soviets opposed the Bernadotte Plan on the ground that it was a British attempt to regain control over the Levant through an aggressive expansionist Jordanian Hashemite regime:

»the Arab coalition rejected the plan. So did the Soviet bloc. (…). The Soviet bloc was also vehemently opposed to Bernadotte’s plan, considering it an attempt to reestablish British control over parts of Palestine.¹¹

In the meantime, the Amir Abdallah of Transjordan, under the stimulus of Iraq’s Arab unity plan, had intensified his own campaign for a Greater Syria oriented toward Jordan. This project of Abdallah’s — like that of Iraq — was motivated by a long‐​standing resolution to restore the Hashimite rule over Syria which had collapsed when the French drove Abdallah’s brother Faysal from Damascus in July 1920.¹²

Soviet propaganda against Greater Syria was particularly strong and stressed that it was ›foreign circles‹ which were behind Abdallah.«¹³

The Ben‐​Gurion faction, agents of Anglo‐​American intelligence, inevitably would have supported the Bernadotte Plan behind the scenes, but thanks to the pressures of the kibbutzniks and proletarians who opposed the British imperialist presence, publicly had no choice but to continue to stick to the ostensible ›hostility‹ of Zionism to the British Empire.

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