BENNY MORRIS, The Road to Jerusalem: Glubb Pasha, Palestine and the Jews (London: I. B. Tauris, 2002). Pp. 307. $35.00

Extract

The Road to Jerusalem: Glubb Pasha, Palestine and the Jews is Benny Morris's latest scholarly endeavor to shed light on the events surrounding the 1948 Palestine war. Although, as he notes in his Introduction, it was in Jordan where Glubb, a British general-on-loan to (Trans)Jordan from 1930 to 1956 and leader of the Jordanian Arab Legion, made his main contribution to history, Morris focuses on how Glubb Pasha's actions affected Zionists during the Mandate period and, subsequently, in the State of Israel. The main point of departure for Morris is the notion that Glubb may have been anti-Semitic, thus adversely affecting the Zionists' efforts to establish their state. Yet in reading this book, the reader should pay careful attention to the author's approach, his choice of sources, and his political priorities, all of which inform the book and call into question the allegation of anti-Semitism.