Governorate of the Levant

The **Governorate of the Levant** (Italian: **Governatorato del Levante**; Arabic: **محافظة الشام**; Hebrew: **הנפה של הרובע**) is an autonomous Italian governorate located in the Levant region. It is bordered by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the south, the Iraqi Republic to the east, the Syrian National State to the northeast, the Republic of Turkey to the north, and the Kingdom of Egypt to the west. As an Italian governorate, the Levant is part of the Triumvirate.

The Levant's territory consists of the former British colonies of Transjordan, Mandatory Palestine, and the Sinai, as well as the southern parts of French Syria and Lebanon. Following Mussolini's decision to welcome "undesirables" from Germany, The Levant has seen massive immigration of Jews coming to Palestine. This has caused tension in the region between the Arabs and the coming Jews. The Italian government's policy is to support the Zionists, but this could change. Turkey has also been eyeing the Levant, and if the Triumvirate were to collapse, may try and take over the Levant for themselves.

Governor Dalla Chiesa, a general of the Arma dei Carabinieri, an elite force with both police and military duties, has been able so far to strike a deal between the opposing factions of Jewish immigrants and local Arabs, exploiting their inner divisions and common hate of the Turks to broker an uneasy peace, where the Italian garrison is seen as a peace-keeping force rather than hated imperialists. This policy, coupled with the increasing reliance on local paramilitary police, on one hand greatly reduces occupation costs and losses, but on the other it means that the Governor has very little control over the governorate's affairs, something which hardliners see as weakness.

The governor himself wishes to reorganize the colony into a much more manageable two-states solution, where the Zionists are given exclusive control (of course, under Italian "protection") of the Promised Land, while Arabs are granted the rest of the colony for themselves. This would dramatically increase public order and reciprocate tolerance among the ethnic groups, allowing the colony to finally start actual economic investments rather than spending everything to pay soldiers and policemen. However, the hardliners are against this, saying that the Governor is already too lenient, and that a more "energetic" approach is needed to steer the colony towards complete Italian control.

## In-game

If Italy wins the war against Turkey, the Jerusalem Conference will be held. If it is successful, it will either transform the Governorate into the federative Levantine Confederation or partition it into three states: the neutral city of Jerusalem ruled by a council of representatives of the many religious and ethnic communities led Umberto La Rocca, the Republic of Israel centred around Tel Aviv, and the Republic of Palestine controlling most of the Levant. If the conference fails, the Levant might be handed over in entirety to Hussein ibn Talal or the Jewish Resistance Movement, or be taken over by either the Irgun led by Menachem Begin or George Habash's Arab Nationalist Movement.

If Turkey wins the Italo-Turkish War, it will annex the rest of Syria, Lebanon will become independent and soon collapse into civil war, while the Jerusalem Conference will not happen at all, and the rest of the region is likely to fall into the hands of the Irgun or the Palestinian Liberation Front.