After the Balfour declaration the British issued a white paper in 1939 abandoning the ideas of the Balfour declaration, massively restricting Jewish immigration so that Jews would be unable to enter the country and sending refugees back to Nazi Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Paper_of_1939
The White Paper of 1939 was a policy paper issued by the British government under Neville Chamberlain in which, among several key provisions, the idea of partitioning Palestine was abandoned. (It was also known as the MacDonald White Paper after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary who presided over its creation).
The paper also provided (as alternative to partition) for creating an independent Palestine to be governed by Palestinian Arabs and Jews in proportion to their numbers in the population by 1939 (section I). Further: a limit of 75,000 Jewish immigrants was set for the five-year period 1940-1944 (consisting of a regular yearly quota of 10,000 and a flexible supplementary quota of 25,000); after 1944 the further immigration of Jews to Palestine would depend on permission of the Arab majority (section II); and restrictions were placed on the rights of Jews to buy land from Arabs (section III).
Then in 1947/1948 the British supplied faulty intelligence to the surrounding Arab countries encouraging them to attack Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/misc/iphone-article/.premium-1.615667
Provoking Egypt to join the war in Palestine was central to the British secret strategy. French sources give details of the British agents’ tactics – teaming up with Azzam to press King Faruq to instruct his army to join the war, despite the opposition of his prime minister. They also included an undertaking to supply the Egyptian army with weapons and ammunition from British stocks in the Canal Zone, and a deliberate underrepresentation of the military strength of the Jewish forces.
Brig. Clayton’s frequent visits to the Arab capitals in the last months of 1947, and his behind-the-scenes involvement in the Arab League’s meetings in Saoufar, Aley and Cairo, were part of the scheme hatched by the secret agents in Cairo, Baghdad and Amman. Nuri al-Sa’id, the Arab League’s Azzam, Mardam Bey and Sulh were used to implement it. King Abdullah was essential for its success, as he and his Arab Legion were to serve as a means to pressure Quwatli, Saudi King Ibn Sa’ud and Egypt’s Faruq, while forcing the Zionist leaders to acquiesce on Britain’s proposals.
Also part of the ploy were attempts by British agents in Transjordan to intimidate the Syrian president; the Iraqi government’s militant stand in Saoufar and Aley, and its insistence that the Arab League take action in Palestine; and Clayton’s proposal to split Palestine between the Arab states.
In this brief article, it is impossible to detail all the maneuvers and intrigues of the British Arabists in Cairo, Amman and Baghdad to instigate an Arab attack on the Jewish state. The British secret agents used almost all the “dirty tricks” in their arsenal – fear, jealousy, greed, false promises, misleading information and playing on inter-Arab rivalries – to provoke the Arab rulers into a war in Palestine. Nuri al-Sa’id (until the failure of the Portsmouth Treaty); King Abdullah (between June 1947 and May 1948); and Azzam, Mardam Bey and Sulh, and other co-opted “agents of influence” – all allowed the British secret services to operate behind-the-scenes to implement their schemes.
Provoking Egypt to join the war in Palestine was central to the British secret strategy. French sources give details of the British agents’ tactics – teaming up with Azzam to press King Faruq to instruct his army to join the war, despite the opposition of his prime minister. They also included an undertaking to supply the Egyptian army with weapons and ammunition from British stocks in the Canal Zone, and a deliberate underrepresentation of the military strength of the Jewish forces. Like other Arab rulers, King Faruq – under public pressure to take action – was vulnerable to British machinations. He could not remain on the sidelines while his rival, King Abdullah, was sending forces to Palestine.