State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of
the entire Middle East.
WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the
Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them
in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream—the redemption of Israel.
Placing our trust in the “Rock of Israel”, we affix our signatures to this proclama-
tion at this session of the Provisional Council of State, on the soil of the homeland, in
the city of Tel-Aviv, on this sabbath eve, the 5th day of Iyar, 5708 (14th May, 1948).
[Signed by David Ben-Gurion and other members of the Provisional Council of
State]
SOURCE:Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+
Process/Declaration+of+Establishment+of+State+of+Israel.htm.War and Refugees
DOCUMENT IN CONTEXT
The first of a half-dozen wars between Israel and its Arab neighbors began in earnest
one day after Zionist leaders proclaimed Israel a state on May 14, 1948. On the morn-
ing of May 15, 1948, army units from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Transjordan
(later Jordan) moved into Israel and the remainder of Palestine with the goal of defeat-
ing the new Israeli army and forcing abandonment of the Israeli state. The Arab League
endorsed the attack, but each state had its own agenda and operated almost entirely
on its own, depriving the Arab armies of tactical coordination. Transjordan’s King
Abdallah, in fact, had no intention of unseating the new Israeli government; he sim-
ply wanted to assert his authority over the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem and much
of the Jordan River valley (Declaration of the Founding of Israel, p. 69).
Subsequent Israeli mythology claimed that the Israeli army—formed around the
Haganah militia—was vastly outnumbered and succeeded against the Arabs only
through the miraculous, almost superhuman, efforts of its commanders and soldiers.
Recent research reveals, however, that the Israelis matched or even exceeded the Arabs
in numbers of fighters and outclassed the Arabs in terms of the quality of soldiers,
organizational and command ability, and, in the later stages of the fighting, in
weaponry. Rather than eliminating Israel, the war produced the opposite—confirming
Israel’s existence and its ability to ensure its own survival.
The fighting unfolded in three stages. In the first stage, between May 15 and June
11, the Arab armies attacked from four directions, but the Israelis beat them back, except
in the Jerusalem area, where Transjordan’s Arab Legion (led by British officers) succeeded
in holding on to the eastern part of the city. A month-long truce, imposed by the United
Nations, allowed both sides to regroup in preparation for another round of fighting. The
ARABS AND ISRAELIS 71