I’ve seen two different versions, each claiming the opposite. Who were the instigators (i.e. first attackers, etc) in the 1948 war? Please provide cites for all answers. Thanks.
(Im currently in an Arab-Israeli dispute class, this is just my knowledge I am citing)
The very basic lowdown:
The 1948 war is the Arab reaction to the creation of the state of Israel. Arab nations saw it as a Zionist invasion to a part of their rightful traditional homeland, and as granted to them via the Husayn-McMahon correspondance (as per Arab interpretation). So all of Israel’s neighbors invaded the day after Israel came into existance. Unfortunately the Israelis were very experienced in fighting and terrorizing (read: terrorism) the British troops during and after World War II, Israelis were very dedicated to maintaining a Jewish state after the hollocaust from those who would seem to be wanting to oprress the Jewish people. Add to that the fact that Arab nations all fought for their own self interest, with little unified command and were inexperienced. So though the Arabs outnumbered the Israelis, the Israelis came out victorious. (Feel free to correct me here->) However once the Arabs began losing and the Israelis realized their strength, they proceded to conquer the lands in thi Palestinian mandate allocated by the UN partition for a Palestinian state. (West Bank went to Transjordan as per secret deal)
So bottom line, in 1948 Arabs invaded Israel, Israel ends up conquering land…
(Im currently in an Arab-Israeli dispute class, this is just my knowledge I am citing)
The very basic lowdown:
The 1948 war is the Arab reaction to the creation of the state of Israel. Arab nations saw it as a Zionist invasion to a part of their rightful traditional homeland, and as granted to them via the Husayn-McMahon correspondance (as per Arab interpretation). So all of Israel’s neighbors invaded the day after Israel came into existance. Unfortunately the Israelis were very experienced in fighting and terrorizing (read: terrorism) the British troops during and after World War II, Israelis were very dedicated to maintaining a Jewish state after the hollocaust from those who would seem to be wanting to oprress the Jewish people. Add to that the fact that Arab nations all fought for their own self interest, with little unified command and were inexperienced. So though the Arabs outnumbered the Israelis, the Israelis came out victorious. (Feel free to correct me here->) However once the Arabs began losing and the Israelis realized their strength, they proceded to conquer the lands in thi Palestinian mandate allocated by the UN partition for a Palestinian state. (West Bank went to Transjordan as per secret deal)
So bottom line, in 1948 Arabs invaded Israel, Israel ends up conquering land…
What the! It kept saying “server down” when originally submitting. I come back to a reply screen at 9:30 when I come back to my comp and hit “Submit Reply”
After WWI and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the British were given a “Mandate” over the Middle East. Upon the approach of WWII, to prevent Arab countries from fighting for the Axis, Britain bent over backwards to appease the Palestines.
In 1939, Chamberlain’s Britain enacted “The White Paper” which provided that the Palestines shall have a state but not the Jews. It also prohibited Jewish immigration into the land in five years. The main response of the Yishuv leadership, under Ben-Gurion, in the months between the publication of the White Paper and the outbreak of war, was increased illegal immigration, for Jews to get out of Europe. At the outset of the War, Weizman said that although the Jews have grievances, above their regret and bitterness were higher interests. The British war was the Jewish war too. So the Jews fought the War as if the White Paper did not exist. Fighting the war remained for the Yishuv a matter of far greater urgency and importance than fighting the White Paper. Twice as many Jews fought for Britain than Arabs although the Arabs were double the population. The Jews pressed for the formation of large Jewish units, but the British were suspicious of the Hagana (comrades not in uniform) and also, to a lesser extent, the armed Jews, even in British uniform.
During 1939-1940 the whole Yishuv was wholeheartedly in support of the British. The Irgun not only dropped its prewar terrorist tendency, but worked closely with the British.
Churchill was a friend of the Jews and to Zionism. The Yishov hoped that the White Paper would be discarded once he replaced Chamberlain, but it was not.
Of course, events like the Struma, a cattle boat carrying 769 Jewish refugees from the Black Sea towards Palestine, which was turned back by the Turks, and which sank with only two survivors, turned many Jews against Churchill’s Britain.
In April 1948 the Arab chiefs of staff worked out a coordinated offensive. Syrian and Lebanese armies were to invade northern Palestine and occupy Tiberias, Safed, and Nazareth. The principal effort would be opened by the Iraqi army and the Arab Legion south of Lake Tiberias, moving west toward the port of Haifa,the main objective of the opening phase. The role of the Egyptians was to pin down Jewish forces south of Tel Aviv.
This might have worked, but Abdullah, the commander in chief of the Arab armies, wasn’t interested in Haifa. Abdullah kept his forces in the West Bank territory, designated by the UN for the Arab state, and in Jerusalem (theoretically internationalized).
So the Arab armies attacked piecemeal. The Syrians attacked in the Jordan Valley, a zone of heavy Jewish settlement, in brigade strength, with an armored car battalion, an artillery regiment and a company of tanks. The defenders managed to beat off the Syrians. This news spread rapidly.
The Lebanese Army made a limited invasion into Northern Galilee, but then stopped, after an Israeli counterattack into Lebanon. However, other Arab forces, Fawzi al-Kaukji’s Arab Liberation Army of volunteers, were able to penetrate into central Galilee, where they were welcomed by the local Arabs. The Syrians now returned to the attack, capturing Mishmar Hayarden.
To the south of the Syrian, Lebanese, and “Liberation” armies, the Iraqi Army was repulsed at Gesher and Geulim. The Israelis counterattacked into Arab territories, capturing the Arab villages and laying siege to Jenin. The operation was over for the Iraqis.
In the extreme south, the Negev desert, Israel was attacked by the largest and most formidable of the Arab forces, the Egyptians. They were halted at Yad Mordechai, where many of the settlers were veterans of the partisan fighting against the Germans. The defenders of Yad Mordechai numbered about one infantry company. The Egyptians had two infantry battalions, one armored battalion, and one artillery regiment. Yad Mordechai held out for five days, which was critical for the survival of Israel.
Every day gained was a day in which Israel, a state recognized by the superpowers, could import new and greatly superior weapons. Hagana agents had bought weapons even before the Mandate (the treaty at the end of WWI wherein Britain gained its Mandate over Palestine at the partition of the Ottoman Empire).
Egypt held air command, and was bombing Tel Aviv and other Jewish centers; an Egyptian brigade, with 500 vehicles, was moving north. But on May 29, the first Israeli fighter palnes attacked the Egyptian column. The Egyptian advance was halted near Ashdod.
It was in the center, in the Jerusalem sector, that the Israelis experienced their greatest rebuffs and losses, at the hands of the Arab Legion, now the Jordan army, Abdullah’s forces. Israeli barely managed to keep a lifeline open to Jewish Jerusalem by the Burma Road, a rough cross-country trail.
The Security Council called for a truce on May 29. The truce, agreed to by all combatants, came into force on June 11, for one month.
After the first Arab attack, 300,000 Arabs left Israel. After the second attack, in July 1948, another 500,000 left. Israel urged them to stay, especially in Haifa, but the feared more Arab attacks. PA refused to admit them and they became refugees, who required and received both UN and Israel aid.
from * The Siege * by Conor Cruise O’Brien (1986)