156 A Short History of the Middle East
snobbish in British, society.'1 A more candid admission comes, as
so often, from a Jewish Revisionist:2 It is to be assumed that a
clash between Jews and Arabs in Palestine would have taken place
even without any prompting from the British administration.
The Jews wanted Palestine for a Jewish state. The Arabs would
sooner or later object to that. . . . There had to come a psycholo-
gical clash between the Jew and the Arab, a clash between the
Jewish immigrant and the British colonial official. ... A clash
between Jewish dynamics and dormant Arabia was inevitable/
From the outset, the atmosphere of total lack of understanding
and sympathy, mistrust and suspicion, steadily darkened. Denied
the independence which they believed had been promised to them,
the Arab ruling-class was not slow to retaliate against the Jews
whom they held responsible. The scene was set for the agitator and
the killer; and at Easter 1920 occurred the first of the many com-
munal riots that have disgraced the Holy Land. The Chief Ad-
ministrator reported, "I can definitely state that when the strain
catne the Zionist Commission did not loyally accept the orders of
the Administration, but from the commencement adopted a
hostile, critical, and abusive attitude. It is a regrettable fact that,
with one or two exceptions, it appears impossible to convince a
Zionist of British good faith and ordinary honesty. They seek, not
justice from the military occupant, but that in every question in
which a Jew is interested, discrimination in his favour shall be
shown. ... In Jerusalem, being in the majority, they are not
satisfied with military protection, but demand to take the law into
their own hands; in other places where they are in a minority they
clamour for military protection. . . . The representative of the
Jewish community threatens me with mob law, and refuses to
accept the constituted forces of law and order.. . . My own
authority and that of every department of my Administration is
claimed or impinged upon by the Zionist Commission... . This
Administration .. , has strictly adhered to the laws governing the
conduct of the military occupant of Enemy Territory, but that has
not satisfied the Zionists, who appear bent on committing the
temporary military administration to a partialist policy before the
issue of the Mandate. It is manifestly impossible to please partisans
1 George Lichtheim, 4 June, 1946.
* Eliahu Ben-Horin, The Middle East: Crossroads of History, 132. For an ex-
planation of the term Revisionist, see below, p. 179f,