ONE of the most persistent problems facing Arab leadership in the twentieth century has been what to do about Palestine. The 'problem of Palestine' brings Arab leaders face to face with their inability to achieve unity, despite much rhetoric to the contrary, or to put their relationships with the West on a footing of greater parity. The issue of King Abdullah of Jordan's involvement in Palestine has always been especially controversial. Discussions of his role in Palestine have usually concentrated on his personality. He is generally characterized as an ambitious man, a man who was never satisfied with his fiefdom of Transjordan. In his own eyes he was a great man from a distinguished lineage, a man whom history had slighted. To rectify history's mistake he tried, throughout his lifetime, to project his political presence and influence beyond the borders of Transjordan. But, while character may determine how one acts in a given situation, it is important, first, to establish the historical circumstances that shape particular actions. Abdullah's territorial ambitions were more than the irrational outpourings of a frustrated personality. Like all Arab political leaders of the Mandate period, he occupied a median position between a European power, that held ultimate control, and a local social structure. His role was to mediate between the interests of the British and the Arabs of Transjordan in such a way as to keep the local social structure intact along with his position at its pinnacle. This was not difficult on the purely Transjordanian level since, for a variety of socio-economic and demographic reasons, there were no credible rivals for his position, at least after 1924. But, by the same token, there was not the interplay of varied interests within Transjordan that would have allowed him effectively to counteract Britain's preponderant weight in the internal Transjordanian configuration of power. In the region, Transjordan existed as an entity separate from Syria or Palestine or, for that matter, from Iraq or Saudi Arabia because of British strategic and political interests. Hence, Abdullah in Transjordan became irrevocably identified with Britain and with British policy in the region. The problem, for Abdullah, was that the thrust of Arab political activities in the interwar period was towards diminishing Britain's presence in the region. From the late 1920s, with Iraqi-British treaty negotiations, the trend in regional politics appeared to be moving in the direction of growing British remoteness from day-to-day affairs. On the one hand, Abdullah wanted very badly to keep step with Faysal's Iraq and to reap the benefits of increased possibilities for independent political action. But, on the other, he was painfully aware of Transjordan's vulnerability-of its material dependence on