418
CAIRO TO DAMASCUS
It was a critical hour for the Allies. With Iraq in Nazi
hands, the next Axis step would be to cut off the Allies'
Middle East oil supplies, block off Allied aid to the U.S.S.R.,
isolate British armies in the Middle East, and bring a junction
of the German and Japanese forces somewhere in Asia, sealing
the Allied fate.
But the Mufti was thwarted. First, British, New Zealand,
and Jewish units from Palestine fought a ferocious though
losing battle on the island of Crete, delaying German reinforcements of troops and planes intended for Iraq. The time
gained at Crete enabled Allied troops to be rushed from India
and Palestine; under Glubb Pasha, they routed the Iraq army
and the quisling gang. Fadhil Rashid Bey—the same Fadhil
Bey with whom I had heiled Hitler—was caught. As the
Mufti disappeared, the English placed a price of £25,000 on
his head, "dead or alive." Just before the Iraqis capitulated, a
blood feast took place in Baghdad: some 400 Jews were killed,
countless Jews stabbed, and enormous Jewish property destroyed by both the fleeing Arabs and the local Arab rabble.
Months later, the Rome radio announced: "The Mufti of
Jerusalem, last heard of as taking refuge in the Japanese Legation in Teheran, has arrived in Southern Italy. Italy, who
knows the Mufti's sentiments of friendship and admiration
for Fascism and the Duce, is glad to know he is safe."
The Mufti was lodged in a villa outside Rome, met Mussolini, made a number of broadcasts, and then went to Germany. The German Foreign Office welcomed him as "this
great champion of Arab liberation and the most distinguished
antagonist of England and of Jewry [who] is expected to remain in Berlin for a long time." The Mufti met with Hitler.
According to his diary—discovered later by Allied Intelligence
—the Mufti quoted Hitler as assuring him:
... we will reach the Southern Caucasus. . . . then the
hour of the liberation of the Arabs will have arrived. . . .
The hour will strike when you will be the lord of the supreme