Zionist leaders courted Arab and Armenian allies to embody the political Semite ideal

Evidence

Earlier in the year, Sokolow held meetings with Syrians and Armenians in Paris to further the alliance project, and in August 1917, Weizmann explained to a US colleague that the development of close relations with Arab and Armenian leaders was a present point of interest. After the Balfour Declaration, Sokolow and Weizmann, acting jointly, pushed to develop ties in the United States and Egypt, and Weizmann became the Zionist representative on Sykes’ London committee. Following the British occupation of Jerusalem in December 1917, the government sent a Zionist Commission to the Holy Land led by Weizmann, a principal aim of which was to ameliorate relations with the Arab population. And in June 1918, Weizmann performed the apogee of the narrative of the political Semite when he travelled for approximately two weeks from Palestine to Aqaba, via the Red Sea, and then to Waheida near Ma’an in present-­ day Jordan, to meet with the head of the Arab Northern Army and third son of Sharif Hussein, Prince Faisal. This meeting, which took place in the desert headquarters of the Arab army, produced an image that visually articulated Sykes’ dream of the political Semite: Weizmann and Faisal standing next to each other both wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress and quintessential Orientalist icon of Arabness (Fig. 5.3). — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 668

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on the Balfour Declaration and the Sykes-Picot era diplomacy that reshaped the Middle East mandate system.