They were in reality to strike the first blow in the ruin of the Arabs of Palestine. 366, 370; Shlomo Slonim, “The 1948 American Embargo on Arms to Palestine,” Political Science Quarterly, (Fall 1979), p. 500. Five Arab armies (Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, and Iraq) immediately invaded Israel. Israel’s longest war lasted 1 year 3 months and 10 days starting November 30, 1947. Israel’s War of Independence is the first war between the State of Israel and the neighboring Arab countries. The Jews suffered severe casualties and passage along most of their major roadways was disrupted. 11“Interview with Abd al-Rahman Azzam Pasha,” Akhbar al-Yom (Egypt), (October 11, 1947); translated by R. Green. 5Facts on File 1947, p. 231. Directors: Yoav Arazi , Amit Ruderman | Stars: Ayala Shiftan , Chen Givaty , Maya Simchi , Reshef Sefer 10. After the creation of the IDF, it had been agreed that independent paramilitary units (the Etzel and the Lehi) would be absorbed into the new national army. On the day Israel declared its independence, Legion fighters murdered 127 men and women, only three villagers escaped.6 The defenders of three other kibbutzim were accorded the status of POWS and taken away. The 1948 Israeli War of Independence began when the United Nations decided to partition Palestine into separated Jewish and Arab states. Israel War of Independence (1948 War), Second phase begins. Ammunition was extremely short and all Jews, concentrated in three houses, were exhausted.”. On the 18th, the Arab Legion joined the battle. Terrorism in Israel: Questions and Answers. “Many of its most productive fields lay gutted and mined. The UN blamed the Arabs for the violence. The war had its roots in waves of Zionist immigration to the Land of Israel, beginning in the 1880s and peaking in the 1930s and ’40s, with the flight of Jews from the Holocaust. 6Netanel Lorch, One Long War, (Jerusalem: Keter Books, 1976), p. 47; Ralph Patai, ed., Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel, (NY: McGraw Hill, 1971), pp. Two rabbis carrying a white flag of truce crossed into Arab territory to begin negotiations to surrender. The Declaration of Independence is "a contingent document, stitched together, written against a deadline." And, unfortunately, it continues to this day. In March 1949, Operation Uvda saw Israeli forces complete their conquest of the southern part of the country by capturing Eilat. READ: The 1948 Fall of Kfar Etzion and Its Re-establishment After the Six Day War. Moreover, partly as a result of the high number of World War II veterans in its ranks, the IDF benefited from better training and organization than its adversaries had. The next day, the new state was invaded by the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. In fact, Jordan’s Arab Legion was armed and trained by the British and led by a British officer. The entire bloc was then looted and destroyed. The Jewish forces repelled most Arab attacks but suffered heavy defeats, for example the loss of 35 soldiers en route to defend the Etzion bloc of settlements. Some came through Jordan and even through Amman . The United Nations (UN) sponsored plan to partition Palestine was bitterly opposed by Palestinian Arabs and the Arab states bordering the territory. The defenders drove them back, but the Legion returned a week later. 17, No. What ensued was, in effect, two separate conflicts: a civil war between Palestine’s Jews and Arabs (November 29 1947-May 14 1948) was followed by the establishment of the state of Israel and its invasion by five Arab armies; the ensuing war lasted until July 1949. On May 14, 1948, the eve of Britain’s departure, David Ben Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel at a ceremony in Tel Aviv. 11aMeir Zamir, “Intelligence Documents Reveal What Ben-Gurion Learned on the Eve of Declaring Israel’s Independence,” Haaretz, (May 18, 2020); Military Situation On Effective Date of Cease-Fire (June 11, 1948), Arab League Declaration on the Invasion of Palestine, CIA Daily Summaries Regarding Partition and the 1948 War, CIA Evaluation of the Mideast Situation Following the 1948 War, Report to the Zionist General Council by David Ben-Gurion, Map of Military Situation at Beginning of Second Truce, Updated CIA Report on Possible Developments from the Palestine Truce, Possible Effects of a UN Arms Embargo on Israel and the Arabs, CIA Report on Possible Developments from Second Truce in 1948 War, Letter to Security Council on Armistice negotiations, Weizmann Asks Truman to Ensure Negev Remains Part of Israel, Message from MI5 Director Regarding Begin Visit to Washington, Israeli PM Ben-Gurion’s Broadcast after Invasion, The Battle For Jerusalem in the War of Independence, Haganah Intelligence Report Regarding Jerusalem, British Police Report on the Arab Evacuation of Haifa, The Founding of the Israel Defense Forces, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion Remarks on Israeli Victory, U.S. All Rights Reserved. The Haganah captured several major towns including Tiberias and Haifa, and temporarily opened the road to Jerusalem. In human terms, the War of Independence was Israel's costliest war, with over 6,000 Israelis were killed and 15,000 wounded. The British had wanted the Arabs to seize the Negev, but when they failed to do so, they supported Bernadotte’s plan, which called for the Jewish State to relinquish the Negev and Jerusalem to Transjordan and to receive the western Galilee. Many in the State Department saw the embargo as another means of obstructing partition. An overview of the Jewish state and its many accomplishments and challenges. Ben Gurion referred to the Arab armies as Israel’s secret weapon: “They are such incompetents, it is difficult to imagine.”. The Palestinian Arabs had at present no will of their own. The War of Independence changed from a civil war to a broader regional war in May. During the summer of 1948, Count Folke Bernadotte was sent by the UN to Palestine to mediate a truce and try to negotiate a settlement. They were followed by the head of the municipal government of the Jewish quarter of the Old City and two Israeli military officers who were told that younger men would be interned “outside of Palestine” and older ones turned over to the Red Cross. But contemporary historiography paints a more complex picture. At the end of 1948 and beginning of 1949, British RAF planes flew with Egyptian squadrons over the Israel-Egypt border. Yet the Jews paid a high price for their victory. The immediate challenge faced by the newly formed Israel Defense Forces was to rebuff the Arab attack, defending Jewish settlements until the arrival of reinforcements. May 14, 2017 - Explore Stu Montbriand's board "Israel Independence War 1948", followed by 110 people on Pinterest. Hurewitz, The Struggle For Palestine, (NY: Shocken Books, 1976), p. 308. Based on newly declassified material, it describes how the Jewish Defense functioned in the 1948 War of Independence and reveals the internal functions among the … Some four thousand soldiers and two thousand civilians had been killed. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had been issued earlier that day, and a military coalition of Arab states entered the territory of British Palestine in the morning of 15 May. Between February and July 1949, as a result of separate armistice agreements between Israel and each of the Arab states, a temporary frontier was fixed between Israel and its neighbours. In human terms, the War of Independence was Israel's costliest war, with over 6,000 Israelis were killed and 15,000 wounded. An Indian independence activist, Gandhi’s acceptance of Muslims and non-violence lead to his assassination by a Hindu nationalist. Jewish sources estimated that the trapped Jews numbered between 1,500 and 1,600 persons, including 300 women and children who will be turned over to the Red Cross. See more ideas about independence war, israel, war. On November 29, on the heels of the UN General Assembly’s vote in favor of partition, Jewish settlements and neighborhoods were attacked by Palestinian guerrillas. The Zionists, desperate to enable Jewish immigration and with an eye to future territorial expansion, accepted the plan. An independent Palestine was never established, and no Arab state recognized Israel’s existence. The only way left for us is war. (KKL-JNF Photo Archive). We told the whole world that we were going to fight.9. Even before independence, the Haganah, Israel’s first army, realized that they needed professionally trained soldiers who … On April 26, 1948, Transjordan’s King Abdullah said: On May 4, 1948, the Arab Legion, commanded by a British officer, John Bagot Glubb, attacked Kfar Etzion, a bloc of four kibbutzim. 18Golda Meir, My Life, (NY: Dell, 1975), pp. 307308. Indeed, because of their aggression, the Arabs wound up with less territory than they would have had if they had accepted partition. 171175; FRUS, pp. The Jews and Arabs both rejected the plan. 15Mitchell Bard, The Water’s Edge and Beyond, (NJ: Transaction Books, 1991), pp. 12a“Old City of Jerusalem Falls to Arabs; Jews Gain in Battle for Tel Aviv Highway,” JTA, (May 30, 1948). The first month of the war was marked by heavy fighting against Jordan’s Arab Legion in Jerusalem; by the end of May the Jordanians had conquered the Old City and expelled its Jewish inhabitants. Download our mobile app for on-the-go access to the Jewish Virtual Library. Israel’s troops numbered twice as many as those under Arab command. In a nutshell, Israel declared independence on May 14. The initial phase of the fighting ended after the Security Council threatened July 15 to cite the Arab governments for aggression under the Charter. More than 6,000 Israelis — 1 percent of the population — were killed. Sep 9, 2013 - Explore Aviva Thaler's board "Israel's War of Independence", followed by 399 people on Pinterest. Between November and March, the Haganah’s main challenge was to repel Arab attacks on isolated settlements, Jewish areas of mixed cities, and on the roads. READ: The United Nations Partition Plan (General Assembly Resolution 181). Early in January, the first detachments of the Arab Liberation Army began to infiltrate into Palestine from Syria. Prevented by the Israeli authorities from returning home after the war and kept in squalid camps in every Arab country except Jordan, these refugees became an important catalyst for the escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict into the 1950s and beyond. On May 30, the Palestine Post reported “bold city defenders yield after epic resistance.” The Jewish Telegraphic Agency published this account: Major Abdullah el-Tell recalled in his memoirs how devastating the defeat was for the Jews. Iraq was the only country that did not sign an agreement with Israel, choosing instead to withdraw its troops and hand over its sector to Jordan’s Arab Legion. In the civil war, the Haganah — the Jews’ underground defense organization — together with two smaller paramilitary units, the Etzel (National Military Organization) and the Lehi (Israel Freedom Fighters), fought against loosely organized Palestinian fighters and volunteers from Arab countries. They believed the Arabs would use their advantage in manpower and weapons to launch a lightning strike to seize the area designated for the Arab state and the Negev, which was given to the Jewish state. Following World War II, hundreds of thousands of Jewish displaced persons set their sights on aliyah, but the British government — in control of Palestine since 1917 and keen to maintain friendly relations with the Arab world — refused to admit them. During the Independence War, Ira Rappaport’s Israeli platoon fought the Jordanian military for Mount Zion and found themselves surrounded by hundreds with only twenty five bullets left. 14Foreign Relations of the United States 1947, (DC: GPO, 1948), p. 1249. Financially, they had taken a heavy blow—$500 million. Traditional Zionist accounts of the war claimed that the refugees fled at the order of the Arab leadership, to clear the way for the invading armies. READ: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate. Israeli War of Independence 1948-1949. The Old City, ancient walled town in the center of Jerusalem in which Jews have dwelt for tens of generations, fell this afternoon to King Abdullah’s Arab Legion after a siege of eleven days during which the outnumbered and outgunned Jewish defenders turned every stone and house into a sniper’s post and a fortress. 19Sachar, p. 452. Israel’s longest war lasted 1 year 3 months and 10 days starting November 30, 1947. Syria’s advance into the Galilee was repulsed by the inhabitants of Kibbutz Degania, and the Egyptian invasion was blocked just north of Gaza at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. If the Arabs survived the second stage, the British believed the fighting would become a “war of attrition,” which would allow them to wear down the Jewish forces. A abandonment story of kibbutz Saar-Hagolan in the Israeli Independence war. The partition resolution was never suspended or rescinded. Jewish forces paid a high price for the survival of their homeland. His name was Vidal Sassoon, the famous British-American hairstylist and entrepreneur. Threatens Israel Over Actions Following 1948 War, Weizmann Asks Truman to Intervene with British Over Armistice with Egypt, Israel's Position on its Frontiers, Statement to the Knesset by Foreign Minister Sharett, Weizmann Explains Israeli Position at Lausanne Negotiations, © 1998 - 2021 American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. (Wikimedia Commons). By this time, the Haganah had been renamed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and succeeded in stopping the Arab offensive. Israel Independence Day 9 rare photos from Israel’s War of Independence A photograph from June 30, 1948 shows Great Britain handing the port of Haifa to the Israel Defense Forces, with a formation of naval officers raising the flags of Israel and the Israeli navy for the first time in … Israel’s War of Independence 1947 was a tense year for Israel and the region. Women, noncombatants, and the wounded were to be sent to the Jewish lines on Mount Zion. Israelis and their supporters have traditionally referred to the conflict as the War of Independence, seeing it as a defensive war to prevent the destruction of the fledgling Jewish state in the face of overwhelming Arab aggression. Thus, Israel, the Jewish State in Palestine, was born on May 14, as the British finally left the country. The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) proposed the end of British rule and the partition of the country into Jewish and Arab states and an internationally controlled area around Jerusalem. The history of the 1948-9 Arab-Israeli war is deeply controversial. The Independence war was fought along the entire border of the country, from the borders of Lebanon to the Sinai Peninsula and Eilat the Red sea resort city on the southernmost tip of Israel. The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1947–49 Palestine war. Jewish casualties followed: Seventy-seven medical personnel of Hadassah hospital on Mount Scopus were killed by Arab forces on April 13, and on May 13, following the fall of Kfar Etzion, 129 of the settlement’s defenders were killed by Arab villagers from the Hebron area. Dr. Kramer tells the story of how Israel's founders drafted an enduring document in the middle of war. Ultimately, the war’s biggest losers were the Palestinians, who were prevented from establishing a state, forced to live under Israeli, Egyptian, or Jordanian rule and, in the case of more than 700,000 refugees, unable to return to their homes.
Edmonton Toro Dealers, Robert The Doll True Story, Unt Honors College Application Deadline, Zonkey For Sale Near Me, Alisha Marie Skims, Have A Time Meaning,
Comments are closed.