Word: arabization
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Palestine's native Arabs were panicky, almost leaderless. Outside Palestine, the Arabs were little better prepared. The nations which had brandished the scimitar most fiercely-Syria and Iraq-were obliged to keep a good many troops at home. Iraq, for instance, had hostile Kurds to worry about. Their people were outraged at the prospect of losing part of Palestine after their leaders' boasts and promises. Of the 135,000 soldiers, many of them ill-trained, in the armies of all the Arab states, perhaps 40,000 could be spared for Palestine just now. Even they had arms...
Would Abdullah use his Legion merely to occupy Arab-majority parts of Palestine, or would he try to crush the Zionist state? Like all Arab leaders, he had to make warlike noises and gestures. "I am an Arab king of an Arab state," said Abdullah recently, "and my army is an Arab army. I shall do as I please...
...Abdullah, sometimes impetuous and hot-tempered, was also too shrewd to think that he could do just as he pleased. Three strong reins checked hasty action: 1) the jealous rivalry of other Arab leaders; 2) his dependence on British aid; 3) the proved strength of the Israelite armies, which for the moment probably outnumbered the forces that could be brought against them. Abdullah's Legion was his only asset; and it was an asset only so long as he kept it in being, and did not wear it away against the Jews...
39th Generation. The little man with the grave manner and impish smile, courtly graces and arrogant attitudes, had waited long to become cock of the Arab walk. He was not likely to risk losing that position...
...life had been one long schooling in the devious ways of Arab rivals-and of great powers. Abdullah was born in Mecca 66 years ago, into one of the proudest families of Islam, the Hashimites, in the 39th generation in direct line from the Prophet Mohamed. He was the son of Hussein, Sherif of Mecca. From the age of eleven he grew up at the court of the Turkish tyrant Abdul Hamid in Constantinople, where he was, like other children of notables, a hostage for the good behavior of his father. There the boy Abdullah learned languages .(besides Arabic...