Mrs. Golda Meir, for many years Israel’s Foreign Minister, has disclosed that Jewish negotiators and King Abdullah of Jordan had initialed a peace agreement shortly before he was assassinated.
Mrs. Meir, now secretary-general of the Mapai Party, told a meeting of students in Haifa that in November 1947, the monarch promised her he would not join in the proclaimed Arab war on the planned State of Israel. She said they agreed in principle to meet after the United Nations expected recommendation for partition of Palestine to formulate ways of peaceful co-existence between Jews and Arabs.
She disclosed that she met King Abdullah once more on May 10, 1948 when the Iraqi Army had already moved into Jordan in preparation for the assault on the infant Jewish State. He then told her, she said, that “I thought I was free to decide by myself” on relations with the nascent Jewish State “but I am not.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
