― Daniel Yergin, quote from The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power A few days after Israel’s proclamation of statehood, James Terry Duce of Aramco passed word to Secretary of State Marshall that Ibn Saud had indicated that “he may be compelled, in certain circumstances, to apply sanctions against the American oil concessions… not because of his desire to do so but because the pressure upon him of Arab public opinion was so great that he could no longer resist it.” A hurriedly done State Department study, however, found that, despite the large reserves, the Middle East, excluding Iran, provided only 6 percent of free world oil supplies and that such a cut in consumption of that oil “could be achieved without substantial hardship to any group of consumers.” The Arab League launched a full-scale attack. It was recognized almost instantly by the Soviet Union, followed quickly by the United States.

On May 14, 1948, the Jewish National Council proclaimed the state of Israel.

In 1948, Britain, at wit’s end, gave up its mandate and withdrew its Army and administration, plunging Palestine into anarchy. An Arab “Liberation Army” seized the Galilee and attacked the Jewish section of Jerusalem. In 1947, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine recommended the partition of Palestine, which was accepted by the General Assembly and by the Jewish Agency, but rejected by the Arabs. Yet the creation of Israel had its own momentum.

That possibility greatly alarmed not only the interested companies, but also, of course, the U.S. In his opposition to a Jewish state, Ibn Saud held what a British official called a “trump card”: He could punish the United States by canceling the Aramco concession. He was reassured the oranges were from California. American support of a Jewish state, he told Truman, would be a death blow to American interests in the Arab world, and should a Jewish state come into existence, the Arabs “will lay siege to it until it dies of famine.” When Ibn Saud paid a visit to Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters in 1947, he praised the oranges he was served but then pointedly asked if they were from Palestine-that is, from a Jewish kibbutz. He said that Jews had been the enemies of Arabs since the seventh century. Ibn Saud was as outspoken and adamant against Zionism and Israel as any Arab leader. But the emergence of a Jewish state, along with the American recognition that followed, threatened more than transit rights for the pipeline. It was also the time when the partition of Palestine and the establishment of the state of Israel were aggravating American relations with the Arab countries. “Another obstacle was the stubbornness of the countries the pipeline had to cross, particularly Syria, all of which were demanding what seemed to be exorbitant transit fees.

The prize book oil