This chapter addresses two questions related to the alliance between the Palestinian Druze and the Zionists during the 1947–49 Arab–Israeli War. The first question is historical: how does the alliance between Druze and Jews during the Palestine War affect our understanding of the history of that brief but hugely important episode in modern Middle Eastern history? In my answer I shall discuss how the experience of the Druze during the war helps us gain a more subtle understanding of the birth of the Palestinian refugee crisis. The second question is historiographical: what do the descriptions of the alliance by its protagonists tell us about their own view of, and approach to, its history? In my answer I shall discuss how prominent figures from both the Druze and the Jewish sides have interpreted their respective histories in such a way as to make their wartime alliance appear inevitable or pre-determined.

So now to the first question. Partly because of the Palestine War's importance to the development of the modern Middle East, the war has been the subject of much recent controversy, specifically between those now labeled “traditionalists” and “new historians.” The new historians have sought to dismantle what they regard as the litany of myths surrounding the birth of Israel. One of the most important pieces of new history about the Palestine War has been Benny Morris’ book The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947–1949.