Lt. Gen. Sir John Bagot Glubb. the famous Clubb Pasha who organized and commanded the Arab Legion in Jordan, is in this country for a lecture tour and has unveiled, in this city, the substance of his doctrine.
His preachment was seen here, on the basis of his American lecture debut, in the capital, as advocacy of Western rapprochement with the Arab states and reversal of Anglo-American friendship policies regarding Israel.
The Balfour Declaration, issued by Great Britain in 1917, favoring the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, is seen by Glubb Pasha as the root cause of all present-Middle East difficulties. The United States, he holds, “fell into the same trap” of offending the Arab nationalists when it endorsed the Balfour Declaration.
Glubb Pasha made his American lecture-debut here before 1,000 members and guests of the Middle East Institute and the English-Speaking Union.
He declared that the Arabs believe Britain deliberately aimed at injuring the Arabs when it “built” a Jewish State. Asserting that he would “not for a moment defend the terrible muddles over these problems,” he held that the Western powers, in general, have sought to divide and exploit the Arabs.
Israel, he said, triumphed militarily over the Arabs in 1948 because the Western pressers refused to supply the Arab states with sufficient military materiel. The arms embargo enforced by the West in 1948, he held, worked against the Arab side.
The General, who was fired by Jordan’s King Hussein, said that Jordan’s present economic difficulties are largely attributable to the fact that the little Arab state has been cut off from “its natural export route” via Haifa.
“Warmer approaches” should be made toward the Arabs by Americans, he advised-He asked that the Arabs be given more understanding in regard to their pride and aspirations.
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.
