The Egyptian Revolution ••• 265valued their strategic position and continued to build up their base in the
Canal Zone.
Meanwhile, Egypt was being drawn into the web of Palestine. In the
next chapter we discuss conflicting Arab and Jewish claims to the Holy
Land, but let us state here that Egypt set its policies less to block any Zion¬
ist threat to Arab interests than to counter what the other Arab govern¬
ments might do. If Egypt ignored the Palestine issue, then Transjordan's
Amir Abdallah, a rival of King Faruq, would take the leading role among
the Arab rulers. If Abdallah resisted any Jewish attempt to form a state in
Palestine, he might seize control of much (or all) of the country, annexing
it to his desert kingdom. If he chose to make peace with the Zionists, they
might divide Palestine between them. Either outcome would strengthen
Amir Abdallah at King Faruq's expense.
The UN General Assembly voted late in 1947 to partition Palestine into
a Jewish state and an Arab one. Neither Egypt nor most other Arab govern¬
ments considered accepting the formation of an Arab state in the limited
areas allotted by the partition plan; instead, they resolved to fight the plan
and to throttle the Jewish state as soon as it came into being. Of course, the
Arabs had valid objections to a partition plan that (as you will soon see) as¬
signed over half of Palestine to Zionist Jews who constituted only one-third
of its 1947 population, but the Egyptian government cared more about Arab
power politics. Many Egyptians, especially the Muslim Brothers, called for a
jihad to free Palestine from Zionist colonialism. Faruq, sensing an easy vic¬
tory in a popular war, decided (without consulting his cabinet or the Egyp¬
tian General Staff) to commit his army to fight in Palestine in May 1948.
As you might have guessed, Egypt's army was unprepared for war. Inept
commanders, crooked politicians who bilked the government on arms pur¬
chases, an ill-timed UN cease-fire, and general demoralization of the Egyp¬
tian forces led to a crushing defeat. Some Egyptian units fought bravely
in Palestine, but the victories heralded in the Egyptian newspapers and radio
broadcasts were imaginary. Early in 1949 Egypt had to sign an armistice
agreement with the new State of Israel. But even then there was no peace.
The Fall of the Old Regime
Defeat in Palestine discredited Egypt's old regime: the king, the ministers,
the high-ranking army officers, and the democratic experiment itself. The
government clamped down on the Muslim Brothers after they assassinated
the prime minister, but the unrest continued in 1949. Free elections in 1950
brought back the Wafd Party, this time with an ambitious reform program