Arab leaders backed the Axis despite knowing Germany would promise them nothing concrete

Evidence

In Iraq under Rashı¯d ‘A¯ lı¯ and in Syria under Vichy occupation Arab leaders identified themselves openly with the Axis cause. This is the more remarkable in that the Arab leaders were well aware that Germany had conceded primacy to Italian interests in this region, and that the Italians were determined not to fetter themselves with any promises or commitments. In other Arab coun­ tries still under Allied occupation such activity was necessarily clandestine but was important and involved some leading figures of the post-war era. Even Nu¯rı¯ al-Sa’ı¯d, regarded as the faithful friend and ally of Britain, offered his services to the Germans, but once again, as when he had offered them to the Turks in 1918, his offer was refused in the wholly mistaken belief that it was inspired by a British ruse. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 890

Categorization

• QUESTION: What did Arab leaders actually hope to extract from an Axis that had openly subordinated its interests to Italy’s? The passage notes they knew this yet still aligned openly.
• DEEPTHINKING: Anti-colonial movements backing a brutal colonial power because it is the enemy of one’s own oppressor — a recurring pattern worth sitting with. The track record of Nu¯rı¯ al-Sa’ı¯d repeatedly offering services to whichever power might win against Britain, and being refused, says something about how the British misread even their most loyal clients.