Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Cyril Washbrook (talk | contribs) at 23:16, 5 March 2006 (→External links). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War is referred to as the "War of Independence" (Hebrew: מלחמת העצמאות) or as the "War of Liberation" (Hebrew: מלחמת השחרור) by Israelis. For Palestinians, the war marked the beginning of the events referred to as "The Catastrophe" ("al Nakba," Arabic: النكبة). After the United Nations partitioned the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine into two states, Jewish and Arab, the Arabs refused to accept it and the armies of Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Iraq, supported by others, attacked the newly established State of Israel. It was the first in a series of open wars in the Arab-Israeli conflict. As a result, the region was divided between Israel, Egypt and Transjordan.

Background

Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the League of Nations granted the British and the French temporary colonial administration over former Ottoman provinces south of present day Turkey. These regions had been called vilayets under the Ottomans, but were referred to as mandates at the time, after the process that allocated them. The two powers drew arbitrary borders, dividing the area into four sections. Three of these -- Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon -- survive to this day as states.

The fourth section was created from what had been known as "southern Syria." The region was officially named the British Mandate of Palestine, and was called "Falastin" in Arabic and "Palestina (E.I.)" in Hebrew. The British revised its borders repeatedly, but under the direction of Winston Churchill the region was divided along the Jordan River, forming two administrative regions. The portion east of the Jordan River was then known as Transjordan, and later became the Kingdom of Jordan. The area to the west of the Jordan retained the former name of Palestine.

At this time (1922) the population of Palestine consisted of approximately 589,200 Muslims, 83,800 Jews and 71,500 Christians. However, this area gradually saw a large influx of Jewish immigrants (most of whom were fleeing the increasing persecution in Europe). This immigration and accompanying call for a Jewish state in Palestine drew immediate and violent opposition from local Arabs.

Under the leadership of Haj Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the local Arabs rebelled against the British, and attacked the growing Jewish population repeatedly. These sporadic attacks began with the riots in Palestine of 1920 and Jaffa riots (or "Hurani Riots") of 1921. During the riots in Palestine of 1929, 67 Jews were massacred in Hebron, and the survivors were driven out.

The Great Arab Revolt and Its Aftermath

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In the late 1920s and early 1930s several factions of Palestinian society became impatient with the internecine divisions and ineffectiveness of the Palestinian elite and engaged in grass-roots anti-British and anti-Zionist activism organised by groups such as the Young Men's Muslim Association. There was also support for the growth in influence of the radical nationalist Independence Party (Hizb al-Istiqlal), which called for a boycott of the British in the manner of the Indian Congress Party. Most of these initiatives were contained and defeated by notables in the pay of the Mandatory Administration, particularly the mufti and his cousin Jamal al-Husayni. The death of the preacher Shaykh Izz al-Din al-Qassam at the hands of the British police near Jenin in November 1935 generated widespread outrage and huge crowds accompanied Qassam's body to his grave in Haifa. A few months later a spontaneous Arab national general strike broke out. This lasted until October 1936. During the summer of that year thousands of Jewish-farmed acres and orchards were destroyed, Jews were attacked and killed and some Jewish communities, such as those in Beisan and Acre, fled to safer areas. In the wake of the strike and the Peel Commission recommendation of partition of the country into a small Jewish state and an Arab state to be attached to Jordan, an armed uprising spread through the country. Over the next 18 months the British lost control of Jerusalem, Nablus and Hebron. During this period from 1936-1939, known as the Great Arab Revolt or the "Great Uprising", British forces, supported by 6,000 armed Jewish auxiliary police, supressed the widespread riots with overwhelming force. This resulted in the deaths of 5,000 Palestinians and the wounding of 10,000. In total 10 per cent of the adult male population was killed, wounded, imprisoned, or exiled (see Khalidi, 2001). The Jewish population suffered 400 killed; the British 200. In another significant development during this time the British officer Charles Orde Wingate (who supported a Zionist revival for religious reasons) organized Special Night Squads composed of British soldiers and Haganah volunteers, which "scored significant successes against the Arab rebels in the lower Galilee and in the Jezreel valley" by conducting raids on Arab villages. The squads were known for an excessive and indiscriminate use of force, much of which has been documented by Israeli academic Anita Shapira. The Haganah mobilised up to 20,000 policeman, field troops and night squads; the latter included Yigal Allon and Moshe Dayan. Significantly, from 1936 to 1945, whilst establishing collaborative security arrangements with the Jewish Agency (see below for details), the British confiscated 13,200 firearms from Arabs, but only 521 from Jews.

In assessing the overall impact of the revolt on subsequent events Rashid Khalidi argues that its negative effects on Palestinian national leadership, social cohesion and military capabilties contributed to outcome of 1948 because "when the Palestinians faced their most fateful challenge in 1947-49, they were still suffering from the British repression of 1936-39, and were in effect without a unified leadership. Indeed, it might be argued that they were virtually without any leadership at all".

The attacks on the Jewish population by Arabs had three lasting effects: First, they led to the formation and development of Jewish underground militias, primarily the Haganah ("The Defense"), which were to prove decisive in 1948. Secondly, it became clear that the two communities could not be reconciled, and the idea of partition was born. Thirdly, the British responded to Arab opposition with the White Paper of 1939, which severely restricted Jewish immigration. However, with the advent of World War II, even this reduced immigration quota was not reached. The White Paper policy also radicalized segments of the Jewish population, who after the war would no longer cooperate with the British.

Yishuv/British Security and Intelligence Collaboration

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

From 1936 onward the British government facilitated the training, arming, recruitment and funding of a range of security and intelligence forces in collaboration with the Jewish Agency. These included the Guards (Notrim), which were divided into the 6,000 to 14,000-strong Jewish Supernumerary Police, the élite and highly mobile 6,000-8,000 strong Jewish Settlement Police and the Special Night Squads, the forerunner of Britain's Special Air Service regiments. There was also an élite strike force known as the FOSH, or Field Companies, with around 1,500 members, which were replaced by the larger HISH or Field Force in 1939. The SHAI, the intelligence and counter-espionage arm of the Haganah, was the forebear of Mossad.

World War II

On 6 August, 1940 Anthony Eden, the Secretary of War, informed Parliament that the Cabinet had decided to recruit Arab and Jewish units as batallions of the Royal East Kent Regiment (the "Buffs"). At a luncheon with Chaim Weizmann on 3 September, Winston Churchill approved the large-scale recruitment of Jewish forces in Palestine and the training of their officers. A further 10,000 men (no more that 3,000 from Palestine) were to be recruited to Jewish units in the British Army for training in the United Kingdom.

Faced with Field Marshall Rommel's advance in Egypt, the British government decided on 15 April, 1941 that the 10,000 Jews dispersed in the single defense companies of the Buffs should be prepared for war service at the battalion level and that another 10,000 should also be mobilized along with 6,000 Supernumerary Police and 40,000 to 50,000 home guard. The plans were approved by Field Marshall John Dill. The Special Operations Executive in Cairo approved a Haganah proposal for guerilla activities in northern Palestine led by the Palmach, as part of which Yitzhak Sadeh devised Plan North for an armed enclave in the Carmel range from which the Yishuv could defend the region and from which they could attack Nazi communications and supply lines, if necessary. British intelligence also trained a small radio network under Moshe Dayan to act as spy cells in the event of a German invasion.

After much hesitation, on July 3, 1944, the British government consented to the establishment of a Jewish Brigade with hand-picked Jewish and also non-Jewish senior officers. On September 20, 1944, an official communique by the War Office announced the formation of the Jewish Brigade Group of the British Army. The Zionist flag was officially approved as its standard. It included more than 5,000 Jewish volunteers from Palestine organized into three infantry battalions and several supporting units.

As soon as the war ended British policy reverted to that of the period immediately before the war and arms were confiscated and some Haganah members were arrested and tried, one notable case being that of Eliahu Sacharoff who received a sentence of seven years' imprisonment for possession of two more cartridges than his firearms licence allowed. Despite these severe difficulties the Haganah was aware that its military capabilities far surpassed those of the Arab population.

The End of Colonial Rule

Meanwhile, many of the surrounding Arab nations were also emerging from colonial rule. Transjordan, under the Hashemite ruler Abdullah, gained independence from Britain in 1946, but it remained under heavy British influence. The British placed Abdullah's half-brother Faisal on the throne in Iraq. The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 included provisions by which Britain would maintain a garrison of troops on the Suez Canal. From 1945 on, Egypt attempted to renegotiate the terms of this treaty, which was viewed as a humiliating vestige of colonialism. Lebanon became an independent state in 1943, but French troops would not withdraw until 1946, the same year that Syria won its independence from France.

In 1945, at British prompting, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan, and Yemen formed the Arab League to coordinate policy between the Arab states. Iraq and Transjordan coordinated policies closely, signing a mutual defense treaty, while Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia feared that Transjordan would annex part or all of Palestine, and use it as a basis to attack or undermine Syria, Lebanon, and the Hijaz.

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly approved a plan which partitioned the British Mandate of Palestine into two states: one Jewish and one Arab. Each state would be composed of three major sections, linked by extraterritorial crossroads, plus an Arab enclave at Jaffa. The Greater Jerusalem area would fall under international control. Both Jews and Arabs criticized aspects of the plan. However, the Jewish population and most of their leaders largely welcomed the plan, while the Arab leadership rejected it.

Amin al-Husayni

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husayni, the Chairman of the Arab Higher Committee collaborated with Nazi Germany during the Second World War even to the extent of interfering with plans to transfer Jewish children out of Bulgaria and Hungary to Palestine , although there is no evidence that it was his intervention that prevented their rescue . At the beginning of 1948 he was in exile in Egypt avoiding trial for alleged war crimes. The mufti was involved in some of the high level negotiations between Arab leaders, at a meeting held in Damascus in February 1948 to organize Palestinian Field Commands; however, the commanders of his Holy War Army, Hasan Salama and Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, were allocated only the Lydda district and Jerusalem. This decision

"paved the way for an undermining of the Mufti's position among the Arab States. On 9 February, only four days after the Damascus meeting, a severe blow was suffered by the Mufti at the Arab League session in Cairo the appointment of a Palestinian to the General Staff of the League, the formation of a Palestinian Provisional Government, the transfer of authority to local National Committees in areas evacuated by the British, a loan for administration in Palestine and appropriation of large sums to the Arab Higher Executive for Palestinians entitled to war damages ."

The Arab League blocked recruitment to the mufti's forces, which collapsed following the death of his most charismatic commander, his cousin, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, on 8 April.

Following rumors that King Abdullah was re-opening the bi-lateral negotiations with Israel that he had previously conducted in secret with the Jewish Agency, the Arab League, led by Egypt, decided to set up the All-Palestine Government in Gaza on 8 September under the nominal leadership of the mufti. Avi Shalim writes:

The decision to form the Government of All-Palestine in Gaza, and the feeble atempt to create armed forces under its control, furnished the members of the Arab League with the means of divesting themselves of direct responsibility for the prosecution of the war and of withdrawing their armies from Palestine with some protection against popular outcry. Whatever the long-term future of the Arab government of Palestine, its immediate purpose, as conceived by its Egyptian sponsors, was to provide a focal point of opposition to Abdulalh and serve as an instrument for frustrating his ambition to federate the Arab regions with Transjordan.

Abdullah regarded the attempt to revive the mufti's Holy War Army as a challenge to his authority and on 3 October his minister of defence ordered all armed bodies operating in the areas controlled by the Arab Legion to be disbanded. Glubb Pasha carried out the order ruthlessly and efficiently.

In 1940, Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, requested the Axis powers to acknowledge the Arab right:

"to settle the question of Jewish elements in Palestine and other Arab countries in accordance with the national and racial interests of the Arabs and along the lines similar to those used to solve the Jewish question in Germany and Italy."

Military assessments

Benny Morris has argued that although, by the end of 1947, the Palestinians "had a healthy and demoralising respect for the Yishuv's military power" they believed in decades or centuries "that the Jews, like the medieval crusader kingdoms, would ultimately be overcome by the Arab world".

Summarising the military assessments of the British, Jewish Agency and the Arabs, Morris writes, "all observers - Jewish, British, Palestinian Arab, and external Arab - agreed on the eve of the war that the Palestinians were incapable of beating the Zionists or of withstanding Zionist assault. The Palestinians were simply too weak.

However, on 12 May Ben Gurion was told by his chief military advisers (who tended to overestimate the strength of Arab armies) that Israel's chances of winning a war against the Arab states was only about even ('hashansim shkulim me'od).

UN Partition Plan

On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181), a plan to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict by partitioning the territory into seperate Jewish and Arab states, with the Greater Jerusalem area (encompassing Bethlehem) coming under international control. The resolution was accepted by a vast majority of Jews, including the Jewish Agency, but was rejected by the Arab population in Palestine as well as surrounding Arab states.

Phases of the War

First phase: November 29 1947 - April 1 1948

On the day following the adoption of the UN resolution seven Jews were killed by Arabs in Palestine in three separate incidents: at 8 o'clock in the morning, in what came to be seen as the opening shots of the 1948 War , three Arabs attacked a bus from Netanya to Jerusalem, killing five Jewish passengers. Half an hour later a second bus attack left one passenger dead. Later in the day a twenty-five-year old man was shot dead in Jaffa, where wild rumors spread about alleged attacks on Arabs by Jews . Arab prisoners also attempted to assault Jews in Acre prison, but were beaten back by guards. In Jerusalem the Arab Higher Committee called a three-day general strike from Tuesday, 2 December to be followed by mass demonstrations after Friday prayers. The Committee's statement included eight resolutions, the last of which called on the British Government "to hand over Palestine forthwith to its Arab people". On 2 December a mob looted and burned shops in the Jewish commercial district in Jerusalem, unopposed by British forces. From the beginning of the strike onwards Arab and Jewish clashes escalated and by 11 December the Jerusalem correspondent of The Times estimated that at least 130 people had died, "about 70 of them being Jews, 50 Arabs, and among the rest three British soldiers and one British policeman".

As the end of British involvement in Palestine drew nearer and attacks on them by Irgun and Lehi increased, their intervention grew steadily more inconsistent and reluctant. Two British deserters, Eddie Brown, a police captain who claimed that the Irgun had killed his brother, and Peter Madison, an army corporal, are known to have taken part in car bomb attacks on the Palestine Post on 1 February and on a shopping crowd in Ben-Yehuda Street on 22 February. British deserters also fought with Jewish units; most notably with Yitzhak Sadeh's Eighth Armored Brigade along with Moshe Dayan.

At the same time, violence steadily increased as both Jews and Arabs engaged in sniping, raids, and bombings that cost many lives on both sides. Between November 30 1947 and February 1 1948 427 Arabs, 381 Jews and 46 British were killed and 1,035 Arabs, 725 Jews and 135 British were wounded. In March of 1948 alone, 271 Jews and 257 Arabs were killed.

Over the months following the partition, larger organized forces became increasingly engaged in the violence. The Arab Legion attacked a Jewish civilian bus convoy at Beit Nabala on December 14, and on December 18 Haganah forces, possibly belonging to its kibbutz-based force, the Palmach, attacked the village of Al-Khisas. Three weeks later the first Arab irregulars arrived and the Arab leadership began to organize Palestinians in order to wage guerrilla war against the Jewish forces. The largest group was a volunteer army, the Arab Liberation Army, created by the Arab League and led by Arab nationalist Fawzi Al-Qawuqji. In January and February, Arab irregular forces attacked Jewish communities in northern Palestine but achieved no substantial successes.

The Arabs concentrated their efforts on cutting off roads to Jewish towns and Jewish neighborhoods in areas with mixed populations. They also massacred several Jewish convoys. At the end of March, the Arabs completely cut off the vital road going from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, where one sixth of Palestine's Jews lived.

The Haganah armed itself with arms bought from Czechoslovakia. The Yishuv began working on a plan called Plan Dalet (or Plan D).

Second phase: April 1 1948 - May 15 1948

Jewish forces proved to be militarily stronger than the Arabs expected, and by May their forces were counterattacking Arab towns and villages, especially those controlling roads to isolated Jewish populations.

The road to Jerusalem was interdicted by Arab fighters located in the villages surrounding the road. The city of Jerusalem was under siege by the Arabs. Numerous convoys of trucks bringing food and other supplies to the besieged city were attacked. In Operation Nachshon, the Haganah continued its attacks on Arab fighters co-located with civilians, and temporarily opened the road to Jerusalem (April 20).

Some of these villages along Jerusalem road were attacked and demolished. The April 9 Deir Yassin massacre, by Irgun and Lehi forces, of at least 107 Arabs was denounced by Ben Gurion. Some claim the denouncement was part of an attempt to distance himself and the Haganah from the attackers, possibly to gain political advantage in the struggle to lead the as yet unformed Israeli state. In any case, the events at Deir Yassin panicked Arab villagers, causing many to flee. While this may have benefited the Jewish forces, who then encountered less resistance from depopulated villages, it also inflamed public opinion in Arab countries, providing those countries further reason for sending regular troops into the conflict. Four days later, on April 13, the Arabs launched a strike on a medical convoy traveling to Hadassah Hospital. Around 77 doctors, nurses, and other Jewish civilians were massacred.

To lift the siege, the Jewish forces (guided by the American Army Colonel David (Mickey) Marcus) constructed the "Burma Road" (named for the road built by the Allies from Burma to China during World War II), a make-shift winding road through the difficult mountains to Jerusalem. The Burma Road allowed the Jewish forces to relieve the Arab siege on June 9, just days before the United Nations negotiated a cease-fire.

Meanwhile, frantic diplomatic activity took place between all parties. On May 10, Golda Meir represented the Yishuv in the last of a long series of clandestine meetings between the Zionists and Transjordan's King Abdullah. Whereas for months there had been a tacit agreement between the Zionists and Transjordan to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, with Transjordan taking over the Arab areas, at the May 10 meeting Abdullah offered the Yishuv leadership only autonomy within an enlarged Hashemite kingdom. This was unacceptable to the Jewish leadership. Nevertheless, with one exception, the Transjordanian army refrained from attacking the designated Jewish areas of Palestine in the ensuing war.

On May 13, the Arab League met and agreed to send regular troops into Palestine when the Mandate expired. Abdullah of Transjordan was named as the commander-in-chief of the Arab armies, but the various Arab armies remained largely uncoordinated throughout the war.

Third phase: May 15 1948 - June 11 1948

On May 14, the British Mandate expired. The State of Israel declared itself as an independent nation, and was quickly recognized by the Soviet Union, the United States, and many other countries.

Over the next few days, approximately 1,000 Lebanese, 5,000 Syrian, 5,000 Iraqi, 10,000 Egyptian, 4,000 Transjordanian troops and unknown number of Saudi and Yemenite troops invaded Israel. Together with the few thousand irregular Arab soldiers, they faced Israeli forces numbering 30,000.

In an official cablegram from the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States to the UN Secretary-General on May 15 1948, the Arab states publically proclaimed their aim of creating a "United State of Palestine" in place of the Jewish and Arab, two-state, UN Plan. They claimed the latter was invalid, as it was opposed by Palestine's Arab majority, and maintained that the absence of legal authority made it necessary to intervene to protect Arab lives and property. On the same day, however, the Arab League Secretary-General, Abdul Razek Azzam Pasha, said, "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades".

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Meanwhile, from exile in Egypt where he was avoiding trial for war crimes due to his collaboration with the Nazis, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was involved in much of the high level negotiations between the Arab leaders in the 1948 War. A segment of the Palestinian forces were loyal to him and were commanded by his cousin. The Mufti, one of the few identified leaders of the Palestinian Arabs,, , had spent the second half of WWII in Germany making radio broadcasts exhorting Muslims to ally with the Nazis in war against their common enemies. In one of these broadcasts, he allegedly said, "Arabs, arise as one man and fight for your sacred rights. Kill Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor. God is with you." In the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust, such statements by Arab leaders (along with the Mufti's violently antisemitic history) led to a widespread belief that the Israelis were facing a new "“warrant for genocide.” ,,http://www.think-israel.org/eder.naqbah.html]

Israel, the US and the Soviets called the Arab states' entry into Palestine illegal aggression, UN secretary general Trygve Lie characterized it as "the first armed aggression which the world had seen since the end of the War." China broadly backed the Arab claims. Both sides increased their manpower over the following months, but the Israeli advantage grew steadily as a result of the progressive mobilization of Israeli society and the influx of an average of 10,300 immigrants each month.

(Source: Bregman, 2002, p. 24 citing Ben Gurion's diary of the war)

On May 26, 1948, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) was officially established and the Haganah, Palmach and Etzel were dissolved into the army of the young Jewish state.

However, on paper, the Arabs had clear superiority in heavy arms and firepower. The ordnance on May 15 were as follows:

(Source: Jehuda Wallach (Ed.), "Not on a silver platter")

This imbalance in ordnance, along with the entry into the fray of the regular, relatively well-equipped and trained forces of the armies from the neighboring Arab states, led to a nearly universal, world military opinion about the outcome of the conflict. A typical example was the statement by Field Marshall Montgomery, commander of the victorious Allied armies in North Africa and Northern Europe, that the new State of Israel would be defeated within two weeks.

However in retrospect, the Arab forces appear to have been numerically inferior to the IDF. By mid-May 1948, the IDF was fielding 65,000 troops; by early spring 1949, 115,000. The Arab armies had an estimated 40,000 troops in July 1948, rising to 55,000 in October 1948, and slightly more by the spring of 1949. Of the Arab aircraft, only less than a dozen fighters and three to four bombers saw action, the rest were unserviceable.

All Jewish aviation assets were placed under the control of the Sherut Avir (Air Service, known as the SA) in November 1947 and flying operations began in the following month from a small civil airport on the outskirts of Tel Aviv called Sde Dov, with the first ground support operation (in an R.W.D. 13) taking place on 17 December. The Galilee Squadron was formed at Yavniel in March 1948 and the Negev Squadron was formed at Nir-Am in April. By 10 May, when the SA suffered its first combat loss, there were three flying units, an air staff, maintenance facilities and logistics support. At the outbreak of the war on 15 May the SA became the Israeli Air Force, but, during the first few weeks of the war, with its fleet of light planes it was no match for Arab forces flying T-6s, Spitfires, C-47s and Arab Ansons and indeed the main Arab losses were the result of RAF action in response to Egyptian raids on the British air base at Ramat David near Haifa on 22 May during which 5 Egyptian Spitfires were shot down. It was also during this time that the balance of air power began to swing in favor of the Israeli Air Force following the purchase of 25 Avia S-199s from Czechoslovakia, the first of which arrived in Israel on 20 May. This created the ironic situation of the young Jewish state using Nazi-designed Bf-109 derivatives to help counter the Egyptian Spitfires. The first raid on an Arab capital followed on the night of 31 May/1 June when three Israeli planes bombed Amman. The IDF achieved air superiority by the fall of 1948. And the IDF had superiority in firepower and knowledgeable personnel, many of whom had seen action in World War II.

The first mission of the IDF was to hold on against the Arab armies and stop them from destroying major Jewish settlements, until reinforcements and weapons arrived.

The heaviest fighting would occur in Jerusalem and on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road, between Transjordan's Arab Legion and the Israeli forces. Abdullah ordered Glubb Pasha, the commander of the Transjordanian Arab Legion, to enter Jerusalem on May 17, and heavy house-to-house fighting occurred between May 19 and May 28, with the Arab Legion succeeding in expelling Israeli forces from the Arab quarters of Jerusalem as well as the Jewish quarter of the old city. Iraqi troops failed in attacks on Jewish settlements (the most notable battle was on Mishmar Haemek), and instead took defensive positions around Jenin, Nablus, and Tulkarm.

In the north, the Syrian army was blocked in the kibbutz Degania, where the settlers managed to stop the Syrian armored forces only with light weapons. One tank that was disabled by a Molotov cocktail is still presented at the Kibbutz. Later, an artillery bombardment, made by cannons jury-rigged from 19th century museum pieces, led to the withdrawal of the Syrians from the Kibbutz.

During the following months, the Syrian army was repelled, and so were the Palestinian irregulars and the ALA.

In the south, an Egyptian attack was able to penetrate the defenses of several Israeli kibbutzim, but with heavy cost. This attack was stopped near Ashdod.

The Israeli military managed not only to maintain their military control of the Jewish territories, but to expand their holdings.

First truce: June 11 1948 - July 8 1948

The UN declared a truce on May 29, which came into effect on June 11 and would last 28 days. The cease-fire was overseen by the UN mediator Folke Bernadotte. An arms embargo was declared with the intention that neither side would make any gains from the truce. But the Israeli side managed to obtain illicit weapons from Czechoslovakia, while Arab forces did not gain significantly more weapons. At the end of the truce, Folke Bernadotte presented a new partition plan that would give the Galilee to the Jews and the Negev to the Arabs. Both sides rejected the plan. On July 8, Egyptian forces resumed warfare, thus re-starting the fighting.

Fourth phase: July 8 1948 - July 18 1948

The ten days at the height of the summer between the two truces were dominated by large scale Israeli offensives and a defensive posture from the Arab side. The three Israeli offensives that were carried out had been carefully crafted during the first truce in anticipation of its end. Operation Dani was the most important one, aimed at securing and enlarging the corridor between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv by capturing the roadside cities Lydda (later renamed Lod) and Ramle. Following their capture, the residents of Lydda and Ramale, some 50,000 Palestinians, were expelled by the IDF, in the largest single expulsion of the war.

In a second planned stage of the operation the fortified positions of Latrun, overlooking Jerusalem, and the city Ramallah were also to be captured.

The second plan was Operation Dekel whose aim was to capture the lower Galilee including the Arab city Nazareth. The third plan, to which fewer resources were allocated, Operation Kedem was to secure the Old City of Jerusalem.

Operation Dani

Lydda (Lod) was mainly defended by the Transjordanian Army, but also local Palestinian militias and the Arab Liberation Army were present. The city was attacked from the north via Majdal al-Sadiq and al-Muzayri'a and from the east via Khulda, al-Qubab, Jimzu and Danyal. Bombers were also used for the first time in the conflict to bombard the city. On July 11 1948 the IDF captured the city.

The next day, July 12 1948 Ramle also fell to the hands of Israel.

July 15-16 an attack on Latrun took place but did not manage to occupy the city. A desperate second attempt occurred July 18 by units from the Yiftach Brigade equipped with armored vehicles, including two Cromwell tanks, but that attack also failed. Despite the second truce, which began on July 18, the Israeli efforts to conquer Latrun continued until July 20.

After Ramle and Lydda had been captured, the Israeli leadership was surprised to see that the inhabitants didn't flee spontaneously. That was a large problem to them, as they couldn't leave such a large and hostile population in that area. Therefore, Israel forcibly expelled 60,000 inhabitants from their homes, starting on July 14.

Operation Dekel

While Operation Dani proceeded in the centre, Operation Dekel was carried out in the north. Nazareth was captured July 16 and when the second truce took effect at 19.00 July 18, the whole lower Galilee from Haifa bay to Lake Kinneret was captured by Israel.

Operation Kedem

Originally the operation was to be done on July 8, immediately after the first truce, by Irgun and Lehi but it was delayed by David Shaltiel possibly because he did not trust their ability after their failure to capture Deir Yassin without Haganah's assistance.

The Irgun forces that were commanded by Yehuda Lapidot (Nimrod) were to break through at The New Gate, Lehi was to break through the wall stretching from the New Gate to the Jaffa Gate and the Beit Hiron Batallion was to strike from Mount Zion.

The battle was planned to begin on the Sabbath, at 20.00 Friday July 16 a day before the Second Cease-fire of the Arab-Israeli war. The plan went wrong from the beginning and was first postponed first to 23.00 then to midnight. It wasn't until 02.30 that the battle actually began. The Irgunists managed to break through at the New Gate but the other forces failed in their missions. At 05.45 in the morning Shaltiel ordered a retreat and to cease the hostilities.

Second truce: July 18 1948 - October 15 1948

19.00 July 18, the second truce of the conflict went into effect after intense diplomatic efforts by the UN.

On September 16, Folke Bernadotte proposed a new partition for Palestine in which Transjordan would annex Arab areas including the Negev, al-Ramla, Lydda. There would be a Jewish state in the whole of Galilee, internationalization of Jerusalem, and return or compensation for refugees. The plan was once again rejected by both sides. On the next day, September 17, Bernadotte was assassinated by the Lehi and his deputy the American Ralph Bunche replaced him.

Fifth phase: October 15 1948 - July 20 1949

Israeli operations

Between October 15 and July 20 Israel launched a series of military operations in order to drive out the Arab armies and secure the borders of Israel.

On October 24, the IDF launched Operation Hiram and captured the entire Upper Galilee, driving the ALA and Lebanese army back to Lebanon. It was a complete success and at the end of the month, Israel had not only managed to capture the whole Galilee but had also advanced 5 miles into Lebanon to the Litani River.

On October 15, the IDF launched Operation Yoav in the northern Negev. Its goal was to drive a wedge between the Egyptian forces along the coast and the Beersheba-Hebron-Jerusalem road and ultimately to conquer the whole Negev. Operation Yoav was headed by the Southern Front commander Yigal Allon. The Operation was a huge success as it shattered the Egyptian army ranks and forced the Egyptian forces to retreat from the northern Negev, Beersheba and Ashdod. On October 22 the Israeli Navy commandoes sunk the Egyptian flagship Amir Faruk.

] On December 22, the IDF drove the remaining Egyptian forces out of Israel, by launching Operation Horev (also called Operation Ayin). The goal of the operation was to liberate the entire Negev from Egyptian presence, destroying the Egyptian threat on Israel's southern communities and forcing the Egyptians into a cease-fire after all the Negev was liberated.

The operation was a decisive Israeli victory, and Israeli deep raids into the Nitzana and the Sinai peninsula forced the Egyptian army, which was encircled in the Gaza Strip, to withdraw and accept cease-fire. On January 7, a truce was achieved. Israeli forces withdrew from Sinai and Gaza under international pressure.

On March 5, Operation Uvda was launched. On March 10, the Israelis reached Umm Rashrash (where Eilat was built later) and conquered it without a battle. The Negev Brigade and Golani Brigade took part in the operation. They raised an ink-made flag ("The Ink Flag") and claimed Umm Rashrash for Israel.

UN

In December 1948, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194 which declared (amongst other things) that "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so" and that "compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return." However, the resolution was never implemented, resulting in Palestinian refugees.

British airplanes

Just before noon on January 7 1949, four RAF Spitfire FR. 18s from 208 Squadron on routine reconnaissance in the Dir El-Ballah area inadvertently flew over an Israeli convoy that had just been attacked by the Royal Egyptian Air Force. IDF soldiers in the convoy shot down one of the British planes. The remaining three planes were then shot down by patrolling Israeli Air Force Spitfires flown by Slick Goodlin and John McElroy, volunteers from the United States and Canada respectively. Later that day four RAF Spitfires from the same squadron escorted by 7 No. 213 Squadron Tempests and another 8 Tempests from No. 6 Squadron, searching for the lost planes from No. 208 Squadron were attacked by four Israeli Air Force Spitfires and one of the Tempests was shot down by Bill Schroeder killing its pilot David Tattersfield. Another Tempest was damaged by an IAF plane flown by Ezer Weizman. There was only one other clash between the IAF and the RAF during the war when a No. 13 Squadron Mosquito PR. 34 on a photo-reconnaissance mission over Israel was shot down on 20 November 1948 by an Israeli P-51 flown by Waine Peake.

Aftermath

1949 Armistice Agreements

In 1949, Israel signed separate armistices with Egypt on February 24, Lebanon on March 23, Transjordan on April 3, and Syria on July 20. Israel was generally able to create its own borders, comprising 78 percent of Mandatory Palestine, 50 percent more than the UN partition proposal allotted it. These cease-fire lines were known afterwards as the "Green Line". The Gaza Strip and the West Bank were occupied by Egypt and Transjordan respectively.

Casualties

Israel lost about 1% of its population in the war: 6,373 of its people. About 4,000 were soldiers and the rest (about 2,400) were civilians.

The exact number of Arab losses is unknown but are estimated at between 5,000 and 15,000 people.

Demographic outcome

Between 700,000 and 750,000 Arab Palestinian refugees were created during this conflict. More than 600,000 of the Jews living in Arab countries and territories fled or immigrated to Israel, with another 300,000 seeking refuge in various Western countries, primarily France.

The humiliation of the Arab armies at having been routed by the Jewish forces, together with the rising nationalist frenzy in Arab nations, contributed to rising hatred for the Jews living in Arab lands. The status of Jews in Arab states varied greatly from state to state. Some observers maintain that the Jewish populations were more "prevented from leaving" than "expelled." Their civil liberties, too, were in many cases vastly inferior to those of their Muslim fellow citizens. For example, in Yemen, Jews were and are prohibited from carrying weapons of any type, even to the point of prohibiting traditional ceremonial Yemeni knives, carried by a large portion of the Yemeni population. The net result was that after over two thousand years of living in Arab controlled countries, the atmosphere was sufficiently anti-Jewish that entire communities of Jews in the hundreds of thousands felt they had no option but to take leave of old homes and move to the uncertainties of the new Jewish state of Israel, in effect becoming "refugees" in everything but name. These war-intensified fears came upon the heels of the Holocaust, which ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany three years before the founding of the state of Israel.

Arab Palestinians have staged annual demonstrations and protests on May 15 of each year, one day after the anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence. The popularity and number of participants in these annual al Nakba demonstrations has varied over time, though the increasing anti-Israeli sentiment in the Middle East has tended to increase the attendance in recent years. During the al-Aqsa Intifada after the failure of the Camp David 2000 Summit, the attendance at the demonstrations against Israel increased exponentially.

See also

• 1922 Text: League of Nations Palestine Mandate
• 1947 UN Partition Plan
• 1949 Armistice Agreements
• Arab-Israeli conflict
• Balfour Declaration 1917
• British Mandate of Palestine
• ]
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• List of villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
• List of Israeli military operation in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
• List of massacres committed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
• Plan Dalet
• Map comparing 1947 partition plan borders with 1949 armistice lines

People involved in the war

• Yigal Allon
• David Ben-Gurion
• Folke Bernadotte
• Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni
• Glubb Pasha
• Fawzi al-Qawuqji
• David Shaltiel

Footnotes

1. Gilbert, 1998, p. 80.
2. Gilbert, 1998, p. 85. The Jewish Settlement Police were set up and equipped with trucks and armored cars by the British working with the Jewish Agency.
3. van Creveld, 2004, p. 45.
4. Black, 1992, p. 14.
5. Shapira, 1992, pp. 247, 249, 350.
6. Khalidi, 1987, p. 845 (cited in Khalidi, 2001).
7. Khalidi, 2001, p. 29.
8. Bowyer Bell, 1996 , p. 33.
9. Katz, 1988, pp. 3-4.
10. Kaniuk, 2001, p. 19.
11. Brown and Louis, 1999, p. 193.
12. Katz, 1988, pp. 3-4.
13. Oring, 1981, p. 14.
14. Katz, 1988, pp. 3-4.
15. Richelson, 1997, p. 238.
16. Israel Foreign Ministry et al, 2000, p. 51. Approximately 26,000 Palestinian Jews served in the British Army. The three companies of Jewish volunteers in the Buffs became the Palestine Regiment. In September 1944 the Jewish Brigade was formed. Its 5000 volunteers saw service in in Egypt, Northern Italy and North-West Europe. According to Moshe Shertok by 1943 of the 500,000 Jews in Palestine 30,000 had joined the British Army; a further 20,000 worked for the army as civilians and another 20,000 worked on army contracts in factories.
17. Israeli and Penkower, 2002, pp. 112-113.
18. Beckman, 1999, pp. 42-43.
19. 'The Palestine Problem II - New Factors In The Racial Balance Of Power, Growth Of Jewish Underground Groups,' From a Special Correspondent Lately in Palestine. The Times, Wednesday, 26 September, 1945; pg. 5; Issue 50257; col F
20. Zertal, 2005, p. 102.
21. Levenberg, 1993, p. 198.
22. Sayigh, 2000, p. 14.
23. Shlaim, 2001, p. 97.
24. Shlaim, 2001, p. 99.
25. Morris, 2003, p. 32.
26. Morris, 2003, p. 33.
27. Morris, 2003, p. 35.
28. Benevisti, 2002, p. 101.
29. Gilbert, 1998, p. 155.
30. '7 Jews Murdered', The Palestine Post, 1 December, 1947, p. 1.
31. 'Palestine's Arabs Kill Seven Jews, Call 3-Day Strike', New York Times, 1 December, 1947, p. 1.
32. 'Fighting in Jerusalem', The Times, 12 December, 1947, p. 4; Issue 50942; col E.
33. Bowyer Bell, 1996, p. 268.
34. 'The Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1988. Part II, 1947-1977.
35. Sachar, 1979, p. 333. The source of this quotation has not been verified.
36. The Mufti of Jerusalem by Maurice Pearlman (1947).
37. The Mufti and the Fuehrer by Joseph Schechtman (1965).
38. During the 1948 War, the Mufti is also alleged to have said "I declare a holy war, my Moslem brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all!" (Leonard J. Davis and M. Decter, Eds., Myths and facts: A Concise Record of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Washington DC: Near East Report, 1982, p. 199). While this statement is widely reported in pro-Israeli writings, the only cited source for it appears to be traceable back to this one book, which has led some to doubt the historical accuracy of the quotation
39. Aloni, 2001, pp. 7-11.
40. Morris, 2001, pp. 217-18.
41. Map of the Attacks.
42. Aloni, 2001, p. 22.
43. Aloni, 2001, p. 18.
44. Mid-Range Wars and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century.
45. Gilbert, 1976, p. 39.

References

• Aloni, Shlomo (2001). Arab-Israeli Air Wars 1947-82. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1841762946
• Beckman, Morris (1999). The Jewish Brigade: An Army With Two Masters, 1944-45. Sarpedon Publishers. ISBN 1885119569

	+	* Benevisti, Meron (2002). Sacred Landscape. University of California Press. ISBN 0520234227

• Black, Ian (1992). Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services. Grove Press. ISBN 0802132863
• Bowyer Bell, John (1996). Terror Out of Zion: The Fight For Israeli Independence. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1560008709
• Bregman, Ahron (2002). Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415287162
• Brown, Judith and Louis, Roger (1999). The Oxford History of the British Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198205643
• Gilbert, Martin (1998). Israel: A History. Black Swan. ISBN 0552995452
• Israel Foreign Ministry, Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation, Israel State Archives, Russian Federal Archives, Cummings Center for Russian Studies Tel Aviv University, Oriental Institute (2000). Documents on Israeli Soviet Relations, 1941-53. London: Routledge. ISBN 0714648434
• Israeli, Raphael and Penkower, Monty Noam (2002). Decision on Palestine Deferred: America, Britain and Wartime Diplomacy, 1939-1945. London: Routledge. ISBN 0714652687
• Kaniuk, Yoram (2001). Commander of the Exodus. Grove Press. ISBN 080213808X
• Katz, Sam (1988). Israeli Units Since 1948. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 0850458374
• Khalidi, Rashid (2001). The Palestinians and 1948: the underlying causes of failure. In Eugene Rogan and Avi Shlaim (eds.). The War for Palestine (pp. 12-36). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521794765
• Khalidi, Walid (1987). From Haven to Conquest: Readings in Zionism and the Palestine Problem Until 1948. Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 0887281559
• Levenberg, Haim (1993). Military Preparations of the Arab Community in Palestine: 1945-1948. London: Routledge. ISBN 0714634395
• Morris, Benny (2001). Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001. Vintage. ISBN 0679744754
• Oring, Elliott (1981). Israeli Humor-The Content: The Content and Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmah. SUNY Press. ISBN 0873955129
• Pollack, Kenneth (2004). Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803287836
• Richelson, Jeffery T. (1997). A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019511390X
• Sadeh, Eligar (1997). Militarization and State Power in the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Case Study of Israel, 1948-1982. Universal Publishers. ISBN 0965856461
• Sachar, Howard M. (1979). A History of Israel, New York: Knopf. ISBN 0679765638
• Sayigh, Yezid (2000). Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198296436
• Shapira, Anita (1992). Land and Power: Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195061047
• Shlaim, Avi (2001). Israel and the Arab Coalition. In Eugene Rogan and Avi Shlaim (eds.). The War for Palestine (pp. 79-103). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521794765
• Sheleg, Yair (2001). A Short History of Terror Haaretz.
• van Creveld, Martin (2004). Moshe Dayan. Weidenfeld & Nicholson. ISBN 0297846698
• Zertal, Idith (2005). Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521850967
• Gilbert, Martin (1976). The Arab-Israeli Conflict Weidenfeld & Nicholson. ISBN 0297772414

External links

• About the War of Independence
• United Nations: System on the Question of Palestine
• Palestinian viewpoint
• Israeli viewpoint
• PLO position
• The BBC on the UN Partition Plan
• The BBC on the Formation of Israel

// URLs have been changed to up-to-date ones. The previous ones brought up 404s due to the BBC restructuring their website in 2004.

• Interview with Israeli historian Benny Morris

Maps

• Area controlled by Israel when independence was declared
• Arab invasion May 15 1948
• Israeli military operations May 15 - 11 June 1948
• Israeli military operations July 8 - 18, 1948
• Israeli military operations July 18 1948 - November 1948
• Operation AYIN December 22 1948 - January 7 1949

Template:Wars of Israel Template:Link FA

• 1948 Arab-Israeli War