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This article examines the Foreign Relations documents of the U.S. and the papers of government officials in the Truman administration that reveals the possibilities for peace in the Middle East in 1949 and the opportunities present for the U.S. to have played a major role in the peace process. The first Arab-Israeli war came to an end with the signing of an armistice agreement between Egypt and Israel on the island of Rhodes, on February 24, 1949, under the direction of United Nations Mediator Ralph Bunche. Within the next five months, successful armistice agreements were concluded between Israel and Trans Jordan, Lebanon and Syria; and permanent peace negotiations were expected to follow before the year's end. In order to appreciate the possibilities for peace in the Middle East in 1949, we must go back to December 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly, in anticipation of the end of hostilities between the Arabs and Jews, established a Palestine Conciliation Commission consisting of representatives from France, Turkey and the U.S. Its major task, which was to be pursued concurrently with the armistice negotiations, was to negotiate peace treaties between Israel and the Arab states. Along with its pursuit of permanent peace, the Commission was also to formulate a plan for the internationalization of Jerusalem and to arrange for the repatriation and resettlement of approximately 725,000 Palestinian Arab refugees.

This article discusses the relationship between H. Saint John Philby and the Zionist movement. According to the author, Philby was one of the Englishmen that had been suspected by the Zionist movement. The author observes that Zionists felt that men who were so devoted to the Arabs were bound to sympathize with the latter's feelings regarding Palestine and consequently take an antagonistic attitude to Zionism. Moreover, the author explores the involvement of Philby in a plan for solving the Jewish-Arab in 1929.

This article offers a close reading of At-Talmud: Asluhu wa-tasalsuluhu wa-adabuhu (The Talmud: Its Origin, Transmission, and Ethics; 1909), an Arabic work published in Egypt by the Jaffa-born writer Shimon Moyal. The book was intended to be the first of a multivolume translation of the Talmud into Arabic. The article places this translation project into its historical context in the fin-de-siècle Middle East and explores the various ways in which Moyal, through his translation, attempted to present Judaism more favorably and familiarly to a mixed Christian and Muslim readership. It is further suggested that Moyal's description of ancient Jewish history, and especially his use of nationalist terminology in recounting this past, may be read for insights about Moyal's own approach to Zionism. The article thereby also contributes to the scholarly discourse on the character of Sephardi Zionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]