chance of salvation in declining to wait for the
coordinated Arab attack. In April and May the
Haganah seized the initiative and undertook a
number of offensive operations. They succeeded
in checking the Arabs.
The first Arab–Israeli War created a particular
problem that was to fester and provoke unrest in
the Middle East to the present day: the Palestin-
ian refugees. In the territory assigned to Israel by
the UN in 1947 lived some 510,000 Arabs and
499,000 Jews. The majority of these Arabs fled
in fear of their lives, leaving their land and pos-
sessions to be taken over by the Israelis; half of
them had already left before the British Mandate
had ended. They had genuine cause for terror;
many panicked, caught in a war between Jews and
the Arab invaders. Arab villages presented a
special threat to the Israelis; when they supported
Arab military units they were attacked. The ordi-
nary Arab, however, who had lived on the land
for generations was caught in the crossfire of war,
just like the Jews. Jew and Arab were exposed to
the danger of falling victim to atrocity. Irgun’s
2,000 fanatical fighters joined in the struggle,
cooperating with but not subordinating them-
selves to the Haganah. The most horrific of
Israeli attacks, which were intended to intimidate
and drive out the Arabs, undertaken during the
night 9 and 10 April 1948 was by the Irgun on
Deir Yassin a village close to Jerusalem, where
245 men, women and children were murdered.
Though the Israeli government and the Haganah
repudiated the Irgun’s savagery, the memory
of Deir Yassin stained the foundation of Israel.
After Deir Yassin tens of thousands of Palestinian
Arabs fled from the territory under Israeli control
into Arab-controlled Palestine on the West
Bank, into Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria and the
Egyptian Gaza Strip. Unable to return to Israel
these unfortunate people became pawns in
Middle Eastern politics and the seedbed for the
recruitment of militant Palestinian political, mili-
tary and terrorist organisations. The Arabs also
retaliated with terror to Deir Yassin, killing
seventy-seven Jewish doctors and nurses in a
convoy on their way to Mount Scopus.
The Jewish Agency, during the early weeks of
conflict, was desperate for arms. Once more Soviet
support was critical. The Czechs were encouraged
to transport weapons and an airlift was begun
which delivered them just in time. In a tricky oper-
ation in April 1948 the Haganah organised a con-
voy of supplies to the 30,000 beleaguered Jews in
Jerusalem. Once the Haganah took the offensive,
the disunited Arab war effort began to crumble.
After David Ben Gurion had declared Israeli inde-
pendence on 14 May 1948 renewed fighting
between the various Arab forces and the Haganah
and Irgun broke out all over the country.
The Jews astonished the world by winning the
first round, despite their apparently hopeless posi-
tion confronted by the Arab world. The Arab
armies proved less formidable than their rhetoric.
It was, nevertheless, a desperate struggle at all
points of the compass against greater numbers.
The Israelis did not possess a single warplane or
any heavy military equipment. But the Arab
armies of five states, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon,
Transjordan and Egypt, were totally uncoordi-
nated. Abdullah, king of Transjordan, was far
more concerned to seize the West Bank of the
River Jordan and to add this, as well as Jerusalem,
to his kingdom than he was to destroy Israel. He
had no intention of creating an independent Arab
Palestine state. The Egyptians and Syrians too
were intent on serving their own national inter-
ests. Responding vigorously and daringly the
Israelis halted the Lebanese and Syrian attack in
the north, and the attack was not pressed. Much
more serious was the advance of the Egyptian
army along the coast to Tel Aviv, which stopped
short just a few miles from the city. The Egyptians
had also advanced to the suburbs of Jerusalem,
which was also invested by Transjordan’s British-
led and -trained Arab Legion, a first-rate fighting
force. The struggle for Jerusalem was the most
bitterly fought of the war. The Arab Legion cap-
tured the Old City; despite bombarding the New
City and causing heavy civilian casualties (1,400),
they failed to take that from the Israelis. Arab
forces also sat astride the main Jewish supply
route, the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In
one of the most celebrated episodes of the war,
the Israelis managed to construct a new road to
the beleaguered city. At least part of Jerusalem
was saved for the new state.
1
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