Looking at Nazi policy in the prewar years, 1933-1940, Nicosia comes up with some surprises. Using a great number of archival sources in Germany, France, England, the United States, and Israel, plus first-hand information from Third Reich officials, he makes a convincing 'case that prewar German policy in the Middle East was conservative and cautious. "Between 1933 and 1940, German policy encouraged and actively promoted Jewish emigration to Palestine, recognized and respected Britain's imperial interests throughout the Middle East and remained largely indifferent to the ideals and aims of Arab nationalism."
German officials approved of Zionist emigration to Palestine because they saw this as a way to remove Jews from Europe. But their enthusiasm dimmed in 1937 when the Peel Partition plan raised. the specter of an independent Jewish state (a very fearful prospect for convinced Nazis). Hoping to maintain cordial relations with Great Britain, they avoided any step that would seriously challenge British predominance in the Middle East. All of this left little scope for pro-Arab policies, but self-determination for Arabs hardly fit the Nazi world order anyway.
Wartime conditions changed all three of these policies but, Nicosia is correct to point out, it is important not to extrapolate backwards from Hitler's policies of the 1940s to the very different approach of the 1930s.
