Djemal Pasha

Unfortunately for Ben-Gurion, a few months after the war began, he's forced to admit that he had been wrong.

Jemal Pasha, the newly instated Ottoman governor of the Levant, has absolutely zero sympathy for any form of non-Turkish nationalism.

Arab nationalists in Syria and Lebanon call him The Butcher for his unfortunate tendency to hang anyone who suggests that perhaps the Ottomans shouldn't control everything forever.

So I guess not such a fan of viewpoint diversity.

In my book, I talk about how Churchill had had his correspondence with some of the leaders of the Ottoman CUP, which is the Committee of Union Progress of Political Rulers there.

And the Ottoman Empire was controlled by a triumvirate of three men, Jamal Pasha, Talat Bey Pasha, and Enver Pasha.

Enver Pasha was hugely pro-Germany.

He was absolutely in love with the Kaiser.

whereas Jamal Pasha, who was in charge of the Navy, and Talibay Pasha, who was friends with Churchill, were more of the mind that that, Churchill believed that if he could put ships in the straits, that there would be enough internal turmoil inside the triumvirate of the Ottoman Empire that there may actually be an internal coup and the two of them could overthrow Inverpasha.

That was a stretch.

I mean, even at the best, even if that could work, even if you could get through the straits, this is an absolute stretch of a plan.

He remains supportive of the Ottomans during World War I.

In fact, as a result of his support for the Ottomans and his connections to the ruling party during that period, he is accused of kind of colluding with Jamal Pasha, who is known sometimes as the butcher, who was responsible for the killing of major nationalist figures during the war.

And so long story short, he's exiled after the French come to power.

And he spent some time in Berlin.