⬆️ @homohortus

#McMahonHusseinCorrespondence refined the vague borders of the original #Kitchener letter and carved OUT specific areas, including #Palestine, from a future #Arabia.

SUBJECT to above modifications, the #British accepted rest of the limits, frontiers, and borders advocated by #DamascusProtocol.

Nov 5, 1915: #Hussein refused to budge on #Arab claims to land west of #Damascus, #Hama, #Homs & Aleppo, including #Alexandretta, giving rise to #Britain's #ForwardPolicy.

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This gave rise to #Britain's #ForwardPolicy, which meant the larger effort to:

1. attack #Alexandretta (now #Iskenderun, a port and naval base on the Mediterranean coast in southern #Turkey), and

2. “roll up #Syria,”

refashioning the #MiddleEast to suit #British imperial interests.

Proponents of the Forward Policy exhorted #London to deal with #Hussein's demands head on.

Speed was of the essence. They believed “if we don’t gain the #Arabs now we might well lose them altogether.”

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They reserved areas where #Britain had existing treaties with #Arab chiefs (Aden to Principalities on East Coast)

They reserved territories in which Britain was free to act without detriment to the interests of their ally, #France.

SUBJECT to above modifications, the #British accepted rest of the limits, frontiers, and borders advocated by #DamascusProtocol.

Nov 5, 1915: #Hussein refused to budge on #Arab claims to land west of #Damascus, #Hama, #Homs & Aleppo, including #Alexandretta

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The dispute regarding the extent of the coastal EXCLUSION in the #McMahonHusseinCorrespondence is at the heart of the #Israeli-#Palestinian conflict. #Zionism is just an adjunct to the conflict, not the primary reason.

#Britain excluded #Districts of #Mersina & #Alexandretta, portions of #Syria west of the districts of #Damascus, #Hama, #Homs & #Aleppo.

They reserved the right to administrative control in the #Vilayets of #Baghdad and #Basra because of their interests in #British #India.

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