The Jewish National Home has never acquired legitimacy in the eyes of its Arab environment. Zionist efforts to obtain Arab recognition through diplomatic formulations, practical co-operation and plain bribery have all failed. One solitary neighbour, Transjordan and its king, Abdullah, did not express such hostility to the Jewish National Home, for Abdullah needed the Jews no less than they needed him. Over the years mutual economic interest developed into a key political alliance.

In this innovative work, Yoav Gelber traces the relation between the Jewish National Home and the Hashemite dynasty of Transjordan, not by starting from 1946 and the Jewish agency's agreement with Abdullah, but by focusing on the connection between the two regions from as early as 1921 when Amir Abdullah first appeared on the Palestine scene, and by concentrating as much on Jewish sources as British records.