Heretofore, I have not looked closely at this first war between the two sides. I have come to realize that it is the single most significant factor in determining “what’s what”.
The result of the war was a humiliating and staggering defeat for the Arabs and a total victory for the Jews. No doubt, the Jews greatly exceeded the most optimistic goals they had set for themselves over the three decades that they had been preparing to fight this war. And what did they achieve?
When the armistices with the five Arab nations were signed over the spring and summer of 1949, I
- Signed armistices with all five of the Arab nations that attacked Israel (Egypt, Iraq, Jordon, Lebanon and Syria). The armistices held for nearly two decades.
- Land conquered. Israel held 78% of the land that had been included in the post 1922 Mandate of Palestine.
- Reversed the demographics. At the end of WWI, there were about 60,000 Jews in Palestine representing 10% of the total population. Following the War, the population of Israel was about 1,350,000 of which Jews represented over 80% of the population and Arabs Muslims only 10%.
- Recognition as nation by key other nations. By the end of 1949, Israel had been recognized as a nation by at least a dozen nations including the two most important: the USA and the USSR.
So how was this possible? (Note – no nation sent military support to Israel, though Czechoslovakia did make a handsome profit selling arms to them.)
In Segment 4-II, I discussed how the Zionists played the long game and identified the first three conditions that had to be met for Palestine to become a homeland (read independent nation) for the Jews. This included: (1) the separation of Palestine from the Ottoman Empire; (2) the Great Powers favoring Palestine becoming a Jewish homeland; and (3) a Great Power – ideally Great Britain – being in control of Palestine. All three of those conditions were met with the UK becoming the Mandatory Power over the Mandate of Palestine in 1920.
That done, the Zionists had three new crucially important steps to accomplish: #1. Increase the number of Jews so they would have say so in the government of the new state (ideally, Jews would be a majority). #2. Delay the establishment of the new state until enough Jews were living in it. #3 Prepare to win a war with the Arabs, which would inevitably come if the Jews were to control the new nation.
#1. Increase # of Jews. The Zionists had to do three things in this regard: (a) Convince Jews to move to Palestine from other countries; (b) provide financial backing so that the Jews who moved there could buy land and have an acceptable standard of living; and (c) overcome immigration restrictions that the Arabs and the UK would surely require. Some Jews chose to go to Palestine out of a sense of duty or purpose. However, many came out of desperation from various purges and persecutions. Finding willing immigrants, then, was not a major challenge. Supporting the immigrants who arrived was. Huge funds were necessary to purchase land from the Arabs and then build homes and infrastructure, and also to sustain the Jewish immigrants until they could support themselves. Between the end of WWI and 1939, over $400,000,000 (unadjusted for inflation)was collected from Jews around the world and sent to support the Jews settling in Palestine. What an incredible commitment! And these were funds given voluntarily by many thousands of people from across the world for a goal that was unlikely to materially benefit them. (Many Jews rightly feared that the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine would exacerbate antisemitism elsewhere.)
Overcoming immigration restrictions was a constant battle. Nothing was more prejudicial to the interests of the non-Jewish population than a mass immigration of Jews into Palestine. Therefore, the British, per the League’s mandate, were constantly trying to limit the number of Jewish immigrants. Even so, the Zionists time and again were able to nullify or skirt the restrictions. Between 1919 & 1939, the Jewish population increased 8-fold to about 450K. Impressive, yet Jews were still less than 30% of the total population. By 1947 the Jewish population was up to 630K. Even so, they still represented less than one third of the population of Palestine. If they were to have a state that was mostly Jewish, they would need to significantly increase the number of Jews, or decrease the number of Arabs. They did both.
#2. Delaying the plebiscite/establishment of the new nation. This was addressed in 4-II. Ultimately, to buy time, the Jews had to resort to violence and terror.
#3. Prepare for War and then Win it when it came. The Zionists understood that when war came, it would not only be against the Arabs in Palestine, but they would also have to fight five or more Arab nations. The Jews were not a nation, themselves, they were a small minority in a land heavily populated by their enemies and ruled by a Great Power that was determined to prevent a civil war between the two factions. A big challenge was how to recruit, train, and equip a military force capable of combating such a huge foe. Keep in mind, the total area of Palestine then was less than 10K square miles. By contrast, Louisiana is over 43K sqm. There were few remote or secret places to conduct operations.
On May 15, 1948, the day after David Ben-Gurion declared the Free State of Israel, the five Arab nations, as expected, launched attacks on Israel from three different fronts: Egypt from the south, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordon from the east, and Syria from the north. The Arab leaders thought it would be a cake walk. All totaled, the Arab invasion force was about 24,000 combatants. Egypt with 10,000 soldiers, also had 50 tanks, 60 howitzers and 90 military aircraft. The other Arab forces, combined, had a like number of tanks and artillery though few aircraft. When the Arabs attacked, the Israelis had 27,000 combatants – though they lacked enough weapons to supply all of them, three tanks, a small amount of artillery and four military aircraft.
How would the Israelis even have military training? The Jews formed militia groups going back to the early 1920’s. The main one was named Hagenah. It averaged about 21K members. It, and two other smaller militia groups, fought both Arabs and the British in Palestine gaining valuable OJT military experience. Jewish leaders strongly encouraged Jews to join and fight with the British in WWII and about 30,000 did, including 5,500 that served in the British “Jewish Brigade”. Jewish leaders realized how valuable highly trained military personnel would be for their post WW II mission.
When Ben-Gurion set about create an effective military force to fight the Arabs, he combined British trained Jewish veterans from WW II with members of Hagenah to create the Israeli Defense Force (the IDF). The IDF was totally unified and under the command of excellent military leaders. (The Arabs were very disorganized.) Perhaps the Jews greatest asset, though, was their esprit de corps and sense of mission. The Holocaust demonstrated what was stake for them.
I am not going to do a highlight of the Arab Israeli War of 1948. There are some good videos that give an overview of the key battles and of the war. Most are slanted to one side or the other. This one seems balanced. Wikipedia has an excellent article on the war worth reading as well.
What I have not addressed in this segment was how the Jews were able to so substantially reduce the number of Arabs that resided in Israel following the ’48 War. There were about 850K Arabs within that border when the war began, and only about 150K when the armistices were signed. Estimates are that about 10,000 Palestinian Arab civilians died in the war. That the Israelis were able to get so many Arabs to abandon their homeland with such relatively little loss of life is noteworthy. You may wish to explore this on your own.
Rather than specifying “what’s what” from my perspective on all this, I plan to use the next segment to ask probing questions. Hopefully, there will be thoughtful responses from the readers.
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