between Jews and the British government. Zionist political leaders made plans to estab-
lish the State of Israel upon Britain’s withdrawal.
At the United Nations in March 1948, a final flurry of diplomacy took place when
U.S. State Department officials, acting at variance to President Harry S. Truman’s
policies, made a last-minute attempt to head off the declaration of a Jewish state by
proposing that partition be deferred. Instead, under a U.S. State Department plan sub-
mitted to the United Nations on March 19, Palestine would be placed under a UN
trusteeship until a permanent settlement could be reached. This plan met with little
international enthusiasm and was quietly shelved.
At this point as well, Jewish forces seized Arab towns commanding major roads and
other strategic points. Arab guerrillas had cut off supplies to Jerusalem, but the Haganah,
the military arm of the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency, broke the blockade long
enough to move supplies into Jewish neighborhoods in the western part of the city. As
British forces withdrew in late April and early May, Jewish units moved into their forts
and police stations, gaining strategic control over much of the countryside.
Two of the main Arab-dominated cities, Haifa and Jaffa, fell to advancing Jewish
forces, and terrorized Arab residents fled their homes. Overall, during the early days of
the war, an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 Arabs fled or were forced from their homes
by advancing Jewish units. (Decades later, heated debate continues concerning the num-
ber of Arabs who left of their own volition during all phases of the fighting versus those
who fled in terror or were forced out by Jewish fighters). The Arab armies—factional-
ized and lacking anything approaching a unified political leadership—often folded in the
face of advancing Jewish units. By early May, Jewish forces controlled most of the terri-
tory allocated to the Jewish state by UN Resolution 181, plus at least half of the land
that had been allocated for the Arab state (UN General Assembly Resolution 181, p. 59).
The Arab village of Dayr Yassin, west of Jerusalem, came to symbolize the aggres-
siveness of the Jewish fighters. In the early hours of April 9, Jewish guerrillas attacked
the village and killed many of its 400-some inhabitants; subsequent investigations put
the number killed at between 100 and 250. News of the killings spread quickly and
contributed to the growing panic among Arabs, thus achieving one of the goals of the
attack. For years to come, Arabs would cite Dayr Yassin as an example of Jewish ter-
rorism, and Israelis would bicker over who was responsible.
On the morning of May 14, the British lowered the Union Jack over their head-
quarters in Jerusalem, signifying the end of the mandate. At 4:00 p.m., Jewish leaders
gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum, where they sat beneath a portrait of Theodore Herzl,
whose writings in the late nineteenth century had inspired the Zionist movement. David
Ben-Gurion read a statement declaring the establishment of the State of Israel. The dec-
laration affirmed the historic right of Jews to live in and govern Israel, and it also included
a plea to the Arabs for peace: “We appeal, in the very midst of the onslaught launched
against us now for months, to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve
peace and participate in the upbuilding of the state on the basis of full and equal citi-
zenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.”
By then, fighting between Arab and Jewish forces had engulfed much of Palestine
in the opening stages of an all-out war between Israel and its five Arab neighbors. After
the declaration of the Israeli state, countries were forced to decide on recognition. Over-
riding his senior advisors, President Truman decided that the United States would rec-
ognize Israel and issued a statement to that effect on May 14, making the United States
68 ARABS AND ISRAELIS