ABSTRACT
Those who were to become the American and British planners of Operation Alpha at the end of 1954 embarked upon their joint peace project not in a void but against the background of a decade of Anglo-American experience at co-operating on the Palestine question. The first formal instance of an effort at such co-operation regarding Palestine dates back to 1945, with the work of the Anglo—American Committee of Inquiry. Six Americans and six Britons surprised all observers by producing a unanimous report, but a number of their recommendations proved unworkable. Revised Anglo-American proposals were drawn up during the subsequent Morrison-Grady talks, but these too fell by the wayside when the United Nations appointed, and acted upon, the report of its own Special Committee on Palestine in 1947. 1
