Ali Shah al Khassib made no definite proposal.  He said that a man whom they all knew well had brought news to the effect that Emir Feisul was ready to make war on the French in order to drive them out of Syria.  That in a case like that, of Moslems against kafirs,* there could be no question on which side their hearts or their interests lay.  That several dependable men had brought word of great unrest in Palestine.  That in all likelihood the British would send their army to help the French, in which case the Arabs of Palestine were likely to rise in rebellion in the British army’s rear.  That was the situation.  They were invited to consider it, and to decide what action, if any, seemed called for. [Unbelievers.]

He sat down without having risked his leadership by any statement of his own attitude.  He had simply reported facts that he believed to be true—­facts that many of the notables plainly did not yet believe, or believed only in part.  There followed a perfect babel of argument, during which the servants passed the coffee and cakes around.  After that, during every interval between speeches there was more coffee and more cakes—­wonderful cakes made with honey and almonds, immensely filling; but the more full an Arab gets of stodgy food the more his tongue wags, until at last he talks himself to sleep.

For ten minutes men were shouting their opinions to one another to and fro across the room.  From what I could make of it there was not a man who did not advocate putting the whole of Palestine to the sword forthwith.  But it was noticeable that when their turns came to stand up and address the mejlis their advocacy was considerably toned down.  Everybody seemed to want somebody else to father the proposal for a raid, although every man pretended to be anxious to take part in one.

Old Anazeh on my right sat in grim silence, quizzing each talker in turn with puckered eyes.  The only comment he made was a sort of internal rumbling, suggestive of the preliminary notice of an earthquake.

At the end of ten minutes Sheikh Ali Shah al Khassib brought proceedings a step forward by calling for confirmation of the news of unrest in Palestine.  Man after man got up, and, since he was speaking of others, not of himself, painted the discontent of the Palestinians in lurid terms.  Each man tried to outvie the other.  The first man said they were anxious regarding the Zionists and keen for a solution of the problem.  The second said they hated the Zionists, and could see no way out of their predicament but by rebellion.  The third said that no Arab in Palestine could eat for thinking of the Zionist outrage, and that the heart of every man in El-Kerak should bleed for his distressed brethren.

To judge by what the fourth and fifth and sixth said, Palestine was in a state of scarcely suppressed rebellion, and every living Arab in the country was sharpening his sword in secret for the butchering of Zionists at the first opportunity.  The seventh man said that the Palestine Arabs had never under Turkish rule suffered and groaned as they did under the British, and that their cry was going up to heaven for relief from the ignominious tyranny of Zionist pretensions.