The The 1948 Israeli War of Independence *
By February 1947 British government was sick of the cost of maintaining "peace" in Palestine and offloaded the problem onto the U.N. On November 30, partition of the area into 2 countries was decided upon despite unanimous rejection by all Muslim countries. A general strike was declared by the Arab High Committee on December 2nd and fighting broke out. Before the British Army evacuated, Palestinian Arabs supported by the "Arab Liberation Army" began attacks on the Jewish population.
The major difference between the Jewish and Arab forces was that nearly every able-bodied Israeli male became part of the army while very few Palestinian men fought in the conflict.
In 1947/8 it was generally considered that the Jews would be defeated, if not by the Palestinians, then by the armies of the Arab League which had publicly announced their determination
that the Arab army invasions would be "a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades."
For the Arabs of Jerusalem, as indeed elsewhere in Palestine, the slow but steady drift of the middle classes out of the country was a source of growing concern. On March 8, Haj Amin Husseini noted in a letter to the governments of Syria, Egypt and Lebanon the tendency "of a great number of Palestine's sons to leave their cities and settle in neighboring Arab countries." The Arab Higher Committee, he declared, had decided that no one would be allowed to leave Palestine without its approval. "The numerous Palestinians who have left their country since the start of fighting," he wrote, were to be compelled "in the national interest" to return. He requested the three governments to refuse to extend their residence permits and to refuse to issue new ones without his committee's consent. - O Jerusalem, Larry Collins
April 9, 1948: The overwhelming majority of the Jews of Palestine reacted to Deir Yassin with shock and abhorrence. The Jewish Agency immediately disassociated itself from the terrorists' act and roundly condemned it. David Ben-Gurion personally cabled his shock at the incident to King Abdullah. The Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem took the extraordinary step of excommunicating the participants in the attack. It was the Arabs, however, who had the obligation to announce the tragedy to the world. For hours, Hazem Nusseibi and Hussein Khalidi, secretary of Jerusalem's Arab Higher Committee, agonized over how to present the news. "We were afraid the Arab armies for all their talk weren't really going to come," Nusseibi later recalled. "We wanted to shock the population of the Arab countries into bringing pressure on their governments." And so they decided to broadcast the news of Deir Yassin in all its horror. It was, as Nusseibi would one day admit, "a fatal error." The gruesomely detailed news did not change any minds in the council of the Arab governments. But it stirred a growing sense of panic among the Arabs of Palestine. By their unhappy error of judgment, the Arab propagandists too had unwittingly helped set the stage for a problem soon to haunt the Middle East, the drama of thousands of Arab refugees.
On 4th May 1948 the Brisbane Courier-Mail reported: "that Arab invasion plans are complete, the Daily Telegraph's special correspondent at Amman writes: 'Arab ministers and other leaders have now attained unity,' and the ascendancy of King Abdullah of Transjordan seems assured. 'An offer to the Jews of citizenship in a unified Palestine with local autonomy in Jewish majority areas is the Arabs' final word. 'If it is rejected full-scale war involving the regular forces of all the Arab States is inevitable. But there will be no penetration until the British mandate expires on May 15." Palestine became an enormous black market in British arms and equipment which helped when Israel was invaded by armies commanded (the Arab Legion) or equipped by Britain.
With the benefit of hindsight, it is now common to say that the victory for the Jews was assured even if 1% of the Jewish population had to die in the process but by the the 28th May the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem had to surrender. Major Jewish Defeats (May 15 - May 28, 1948)
- Fall of Gush Etzion (May 12-14): Just prior to independence, the strategically vital bloc of four kibbutzim south of Jerusalem was overwhelmed by the Arab Legion and local Arab forces. The defenders surrendered, followed by a massacre of many by local irregulars.
- Surrender of the Old City Jewish Quarter (May 28): After two weeks of intense battle, the outgunned defenders in Jerusalem's Old City surrendered to the Jordanian Arab Legion. The Jewish residents were forced to evacuate, losing control of the area for the first time in modern history.
- Destruction of Convoys at Bab el-Wad: The Arab Legion successfully blocked the main highway to Jerusalem, destroying numerous supply convoys and forcing the Haganah to abandon efforts to supply the city through that route, leaving New Jerusalem under severe siege.
- It will also be said that the Arabs of Palestine have proved themselves weak and impotent; that no sooner had
the first bombs fallen than they fled in utter rout, evacuated their cities and their strongholds, and surrendered
them to the enemy on a silver platter, that a large number of them had fled even before the battle and had
taken refuge in the other Arab countries and in remote regions of Palestine.
The explanation of the victory which the Zionist have achieved-and only a person who deceives and blinds himself can deny the victory-lies not in the superiority of one people over another, but rather in the superiority of one system over another. The reason for this victory is that the roots of Zionism are grounded in modern Western life while we for the most part are still distant from this life and hostile to it. They live in the present and for the future while we continue to dream the dreams of the past and to stupefy ourselves with its fading glory. - Mena al-Nakbah The Meaning of the Disaster by Constantine K. Zurayk, August 1948 - If ultimately the Palestinians evacuated their country, it was not out of cowardice, but because they had lost all confidence in the existing system of defense. They had perceived its weakness, and realized the disequilibrium between their resources and organization, and those of the Jews. They were told that the Arab armies were coming, that the matter would be settled and everything return to normal, and they placed their confidence and hopes in that. Moreover, they had before them the specter of Deir Yassin - The Message of Palestine, Musa Alami, The Middle East Journal, Volume 3, No. 4, October 1949, pp. 373-405
- These same weaknesses were the source of weakness in our defense in the second phase, that of the Arab armies: disunity, lack of a unified command, improvisation, diversity of plans, and on top of all a slackness and lack of seriousness in winning the war - The Message of Palestine, Musa Alami, The Middle East Journal, Volume 3, No. 4, October 1949, pp. 373-405
- Lt Col C.R.W. Norman said Arab soldiers were "following the cowardly example of their inept leaders" by fleeing in their thousands as Jewish forces advanced. In his final fortnightly intelligence report before the British mandate for Palestine was due to end, he reported that the Arabs "deserted positions and jettisoned arms and equipment" in the Battle of Haifa." In his explanation of their actions, Lt Col Norman stated: "The desertion of their leaders and the sight of so much cowardice in high places completely unnerved the inhabitants." But the British military chief went on to explain that the Arabs blamed Britain for losing the battle. "Their leaders immediately set about endeavouring to save their face rather than their only deep water sea port, and the blame for the whole action was placed on the head of the British," he wrote on May 6 1948. The records on Palestine, released at the National Archives in Kew - Press Association, 26 April 2013
- Britain and the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 - Avi Shlaim 1987 sensible
- Collusion Across the Jordan - Avi Shlaim 1988 paranoid
- Israel and the Arab Coalition in 1948 - Avi Shlaim
- Palestinians and 1948 - Rashid Khalidi
- The Story of the Arab Legion (The Life of Glubb Pasha) - John Glubb
- A Soldier with the Arabs (The Life of Glubb Pasha Book 3) - John Glubb
- The Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Palestine War 1948 - Efraim Karsh