"We Arabs look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. Our deputation here in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted yesterday by the Zionist Organisation to the Peace Conference, and we regard them as moderate and proper. We will do our best, in so far as we are concerned, to help them through; we will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home. I look forward, and my people with me look forward, to a future in which we will help you and you will help us, so that the countries in which we are mutually interested may once again take their places in the community of the civilised peoples of the world."

-- Emir Faisal about Zionism in 1919.

Emir Faisal bin al-Hussein Bin Ali al-Hashemi was the son of Sayyid Hussein bin Ali, the last Sharif of Mecca (legitimate ruler of Mecca before the Saudi family occupied it), the brother of Abdullah I bin al-Hussein, King of Jordan, and the great uncle of Abdullah II bin al-Hussein, the current King of Jordan. He was born near Mecca in 1883.

An ally of the British in World War I he was to rule an Arab empire before the French expelled him from Syria, where he commanded considerable popular support. He died in Iraq in 1933. His dynasty eventually fell to Iraqi Nazi sympathisers, who took over Iraq in 1941 and allied it with Germany, and his grand son, King Faisal II of Iraq was murdered by Abd al-Karim Qasim, a Soviet sympathiser who was eventually himself overthrown by the Baath party (Arab Nazis) who held power until 2003.

He was most famous for the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement in which he attempted to lay the foundations for an Arab empire of several countries under his suzereignty and a Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael as a motor for the economy and a connection to the west.

When Arab military nationalism and World War II destroyed his dream of a mighty Arab empire (the nationalists never managed to come close to building what Faisal had nearly constructed already) his vision was reduced to laying the groundwork for the good, compared to other Arab countries, relations between Israel and Jordan.

His nephew, King Abdullah I of Jordan, was murdered in Jerusalem by an Arab nationalist who feared that Jordan might sign an official peace treaty with Israel. And in 1970 the PLO unsucessfully tried to take over Jordan from King Hussein, Abdullah's son.

"The two main branches of the Semitic family, Arabs and Jews, understand one another, and I hope that as a result of interchange of ideas at the Peace Conference, which will be guided by ideals of self-determination and nationality, each nation will make definite progress towards the realization of its aspirations. Arabs are not jealous of Zionist Jews, and intend to give them fair play and the Zionist Jews have assured the Nationalist Arabs of their intention to see that they too have fair play in their respective areas. Turkish intrigue in Palestine has raised jealousy between the Jewish colonists and the local peasants, but the mutual understanding of the aims of Arabs and Jews will at once clear away the last trace of this former bitterness, which, indeed, had already practically disappeared before the war by the work of the Arab Secret Revolutionary Committee, which in Syria and elsewhere laid the foundation of the Arab military successes of the past two years."

-- Emir Faisal before signing the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement in 1919

Emir Faisal came close to becoming a second Cyrus the Great for Arabs and Jews. His vision was ultimately not strong enough to compete with anti-Semitism, Arab nationalism, and the power of Nazi sympathisers in the Arab military.

If Faisal had been successfull in his bid to build and lead an Arab empire, the wars against Israel, the pogroms against Jews in Arab countries, the wars against the Kurds and Iran, the genocide in Darfur would probably not have happened.

Quite in contrast to many self-proclaimed Muslims of today Emir Faisal not only believed in the Quranic prophecy of an eventual return of the Children of Israel to their land, but he believed that what Muhammed stated as fact about the Children of Israel and G-d's plan for them was the way to transform the region into a world power.

"we will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home"

People like Faisal would have contributed a lot to greater understanding between Muslims and Christians and certainly Jews if only people had listened to them. A Faisal-led federation of Arab states and Israel would have been, I am sure, an economic and military power not easily ignored. Just imagine if Intel's research labs in the middle east were located not only in Haifa but in Lebanon and Syria too, if the oil of the Gulf would benefit all Arab lands (and Israel), and if the president of Israel was just one of many regional heads of state travelling to the Hashemite court in Syria or Jordan to discuss federal policy and react to world events together.

I don't know if Faisal's vision is still an attainable goal today; but I am convinced that Israel would be ready for it. But the world would have to stop supporting Hamas and the PLO and other groups opposed to Faisal's vision, groups opposed to the remaining Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and groups opposed to peace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feisal_I_of_Iraq

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal-Weizmann_Agreement