Myths
and Facts - War of 1948
MYTH
“The Jews started the first war with the Arabs.”
FACT
The chairman of the Arab Higher Committee said the Arabs would "fight
for every inch of their country."1 Two days later, the holy men of Al-Azhar
University in Cairo called on the Muslim world to proclaim a jihad (holy
war) against the Jews.2 Jamal Husseini, the Arab Higher Committee's
spokesman, had told the UN prior to the partition vote the Arabs would
drench "the soil of our beloved country with the last drop of our blood
. . . ."3
Husseini's prediction began to come true almost immediately after the UN
announced partition resolution on November 29, 1947. The Arabs declared
a protest strike and instigated riots that claimed the lives of 62 Jews
and 32 Arabs. Violence continued to escalate through the end of the
year.4
The first large-scale assaults began on January 9, 1948, when
approximately 1,000 Arabs attacked Jewish communities in northern
Palestine. By February, the British said so many Arabs had infiltrated
they lacked the forces to run them back.5 In fact, the British turned
over bases and arms to Arab irregulars and the Arab Legion.
In the first phase of the war, lasting from November 29, 1947 until
April 1, 1948, the Palestinian Arabs took the offensive, with help from
volunteers from neighboring countries. The Jews suffered severe
casualties and passage along most of their major roadways was disrupted.
On April 26, 1948, Transjordan's King Abdullah said:
[A]ll our efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Palestine problem
have failed. The only way left for us is war. I will have the pleasure
and honor to save Palestine.6
On May 4, 1948, the Arab Legion attacked Kfar Etzion. The defenders
drove them back, but the Legion returned a week later. After two days,
the ill-equipped and outnumbered settlers were overwhelmed. Many
defenders were massacred after they had surrendered.7 This was prior to
the invasion by the regular Arab armies that followed Israel's
declaration of independence.
The UN blamed the Arabs for the violence. The UN Palestine Commission
was never permitted by the Arabs or British to go to Palestine to
implement the resolution. On February 16, 1948, the Commission reported
to the Security Council:
Powerful Arab interests, both inside and outside Palestine, are defying
the resolution of the General Assembly and are engaged in a deliberate
effort to alter by force the settlement envisaged therein.8
The Arabs were blunt in taking responsibility for starting the war.
Jamal Husseini told the Security Council on April 16, 1948:
The representative of the Jewish Agency told us yesterday that they were
not the attackers, that the Arabs had begun the fighting. We did not
deny this. We told the whole world that we were going to fight.9
The British commander of Jordan's Arab Legion, John Bagot Glubb
admitted:
Early in January, the first detachments of the Arab Liberation Army
began to infiltrate into Palestine from Syria. Some came through Jordan
and even through Amman . . . They were in reality to strike the first
blow in the ruin of the Arabs of Palestine.10
Despite the disadvantages in numbers, organization and weapons, the Jews
began to take the initiative in the weeks from April 1 until the
declaration of independence on May 14. The Haganah captured several
major towns including Tiberias and Haifa, and temporarily opened the
road to Jerusalem.
The partition resolution was never suspended or rescinded. Thus, Israel,
the Jewish State in Palestine, was born on May 14, as the British
finally left the country. Five Arab armies (Egypt, Syria, Transjordan,
Lebanon and Iraq) immediately invaded Israel. Their intentions were
declared by Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League: "This
will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be
spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades."11
MYTH
“The Bernadotte Plan was a viable alternative to partition.”
FACT
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.
Bernadotte's plan called for the Jewish State to relinquish the Negev
and Jerusalem to Transjordan and to receive the western Galilee. This
was similar to the boundaries that had been proposed prior to the
partition vote, and had been rejected by all sides. Now, the proposal
was being offered after the Arabs had gone to war to prevent partition
and a Jewish state had been declared. The Jews and Arabs both rejected
the plan.
Ironically, Bernadotte found little enthusiasm among the Arabs for
independence. He wrote in his diary:
The Palestinian Arabs had at present no will of their own. Neither have
they ever developed any specifically Palestinian nationalism. The demand
for a separate Arab state in Palestine is consequently relatively weak.
It would seem as though in existing circumstances most of the
Palestinian Arabs would be quite content to be incorporated in
Transjordan.12
The failure of the Bernadotte scheme came as the Jews began to have
greater success in repelling the invading Arab forces and expanding
control over territory outside the partition boundaries.
MYTH
“The United States was the only nation that criticized the Arab attack
on Israel.”
FACT
The United States, the Soviet Union and most other states recognized
Israel soon after it declared independence on May 14, 1948, and
immediately indicted the Arabs for their aggression. The United States
urged a resolution charging the Arabs with breach of the peace.
Soviet delegate Andrei Gromyko told the Security Council, May 29, 1948:
This is not the first time that the Arab states, which organized the
invasion of Palestine, have ignored a decision of the Security Council
or of the General Assembly. The USSR delegation deems it essential that
the council should state its opinion more clearly and more firmly with
regard to this attitude of the Arab states toward decisions of the
Security Council.13
On July 15, the Security Council threatened to cite the Arab governments
for aggression under the UN Charter. By this time, the Israel Defense
Forces (IDF) had succeeded in stopping the Arab offensive and the
initial phase of the fighting ended.
Military Situation On Effective
Date of Cease-Fire
(June 11, 1948)
Harry S. Truman Library & Museum
MYTH
“The West's support of Israel allowed the Jews to conquer Palestine.”
FACT
The Jews won their war of independence with minimal help from the West.
In fact, they won despite efforts to undermine their military strength.
Although the United States vigorously supported the partition
resolution, the State Department did not want to provide the Jews with
the means to defend themselves. "Otherwise," Undersecretary of State
Robert Lovett argued, "the Arabs might use arms of U.S. origin against
Jews, or Jews might use them against Arabs."14 Consequently, on December
5, 1947, the U.S. imposed an arms embargo on the region.
Many in the State Department saw the embargo as yet another means of
obstructing partition. President Truman nevertheless went along with it
hoping it would be a means of averting bloodshed. This was naive given
Britain's rejection of Lovett's request to suspend weapons shipments to
the Arabs and subsequent agreements to provide additional arms to Iraq
and Transjordan.15
The Arabs had no difficulty obtaining all the arms they needed. In fact,
Jordan's Arab Legion was armed and trained by the British, and led by a
British officer. At the end of 1948 and beginning of 1949, British RAF
planes flew with Egyptian squadrons over the Israel-Egypt border. On
January 7, 1949, Israeli planes shot down four of the British
aircraft.16
The Jews, on the other hand, were forced to smuggle weapons, principally
from Czechoslovakia. When Israel declared its independence in May 1948,
the army did not have a single cannon or tank. Its air force consisted
of nine obsolete planes. Although the Haganah had 60,000 trained
fighters, only 18,900 were fully mobilized, armed and prepared for
war.17 On the eve of the war, chief of operations Yigael Yadin told
David Ben-Gurion: "The best we can tell you is that we have a 50-50
chance."18
Armistice lines 1949
The Arab war to destroy Israel failed. Indeed, because of their
aggression, the Arabs wound up with less territory than they would have
had if they had accepted partition.
The cost to Israel, however, was enormous. "Many of its most productive
fields lay gutted and mined. Its citrus groves, for decades the basis of
the Yishuv's [Jewish community] economy, were largely destroyed."19
Military expenditures totaled approximately $500 million. Worse yet,
6,373 Israelis were killed, nearly one percent of the Jewish population
of 650,000.
Had the West enforced the partition resolution or given the Jews the
capacity to defend themselves, many lives might have been saved.
The Arab countries signed armistice agreements with Israel in 1949,
starting with Egypt (Feb. 24), followed by Lebanon (March 23), Jordan
(April 3) and Syria (July 20). 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. None of the Arab
states would negotiate a peace agreement.
MYTH
“The Arab economic boycott of Israel was imposed after the 1948 war.”
FACT
The Arab boycott was formally declared by the newly formed Arab League
Council on December 2, 1945: "Jewish products and manufactured goods
shall be considered undesirable to the Arab countries." All Arab
"institutions, organizations, merchants, commission agents and
individuals" were called upon "to refuse to deal in, distribute, or
consume Zionist products or manufactured goods."20 As is evident in this
declaration, the terms "Jewish" and "Zionist" were used synonymously.
Thus, even before the establishment of Israel, the Arab states had
declared an economic boycott against the Jews of Palestine.
The boycott, as it evolved after 1948, is divided into three components.
The primary boycott prohibits direct trade between Israel and the Arab
nations. The secondary boycott is directed at companies that do business
with Israel. The tertiary boycott involves the blacklisting of firms
that trade with other companies that do business with Israel.21
The objective of the boycott has been to isolate Israel from its
neighbors and the international community, and deny it trade that might
be used to augment its military and economic strength. While undoubtedly
isolating Israel and separating the Jewish State from its most natural
markets, the boycott failed to undermine Israel's economy to the degree
intended.
In 1977, Congress prohibited U.S. companies from cooperating with the
Arab boycott. When President Carter signed the law, he said the "issue
goes to the very heart of free trade among nations" and that it was
designed to "end the divisive effects on American life of foreign
boycotts aimed at Jewish members of our society."22
The Arab League threatened to take a decisive stand against the new law,
which was regarded as part of "a campaign of hysterical laws and bills .
. . which Israel and world Zionism are trying not only to enforce on the
U.S.; but also in some countries of Western Europe."
Contrary to claims that the bill would lead to a drastic reduction in
American trade with the Arab world, imports and exports increased
substantially. Broader diplomatic and cultural relations also improved.
Nevertheless, certain U.S. companies were blacklisted for their
relations with Israel.
On September 30, 1994, the six Gulf Cooperation Council states announced
they would no longer support the secondary boycott barring trade with
companies doing business with Israel. At a meeting in Taba, Egypt,
February 7-8, 1995, Egyptian, American, Jordanian and Palestinian trade
leaders signed a joint document — the Taba Declaration — supporting "all
efforts to end the boycott of Israel."
Since the signing of peace agreements between Israel and the PLO and
Jordan, the boycott has gradually crumbled. The Arab League was forced
to cancel several boycott meetings called by the Syrian hosts because of
opposition from countries like Kuwait, Morocco and Tunisia. The primary
boycott — prohibiting direct relations between Arab countries and Israel
— cracked when nations such as Qatar, Oman and Morocco negotiated deals
with Israel. Furthermore, few countries outside the Middle East comply
with the boycott. Still, the boycott remains technically in force, and
several countries, most notably Saudi Arabia (which, for example, bans
products bearing the Star of David), continue to enforce it.23
Notes
1New York Times, (December 1, 1947).
2Facts on File Yearbook, (NY: Facts on File, Inc., 1948), p. 48.
3.C. Hurewitz, The Struggle For Palestine, (NY: Shocken Books, 1976), p.
308.
4Facts on File 1948, p. 231.
5Facts on File 1947, p. 231.
6Howard Sachar, A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our
Time, (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 322.
7Netanel Lorch, One Long War, (Jerusalem: Keter Books, 1976), p. 47;
Ralph Patai, ed., Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel, (NY: McGraw Hill,
1971), pp. 307308.
8Security Council Official Records, Special Supplement, (1948), p. 20.
9Security Council Official Records, S/Agenda/58, (April 16, 1948), p.
19.
10John Bagot Glubb, A Soldier with the Arabs, (London: Staughton and
Hodder, 1957), p. 79.
11Isi Leibler, The Case For Israel, (Australia: The Globe Press, 1972),
p. 15.
12Folke Bernadotte, To Jerusalem, (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1951),
p. 113.
13Security Council Official Records, SA/Agenda/77, (May 29, 1948), p. 2.
14Foreign Relations of the United States 1947, (DC: GPO, 1948), p. 1249.
[Henceforth FRUS].
15Mitchell Bard, The Water's Edge And Beyond, (NJ: Transaction Books,
1991), pp. 171175; FRUS, pp. 53739; Robert Silverberg, If I Forget
Thee O Jerusalem: American Jews and the State of Israel, (NY: William
Morrow and Co., Inc., 1970), pp. 366, 370; Shlomo Slonim, "The 1948
American Embargo on Arms to Palestine," Political Science Quarterly,
(Fall 1979), p. 500.
16Sachar, p. 345.
17Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, O Jerusalem!, (NY: Simon and
Schuster, 1972), p. 352.
18Golda Meir, My Life, (NY: Dell, 1975), pp. 213, 222, 224.
19Sachar, p. 452.
20Terence Prittie and Walter Nelson, The Economic War Against The Jews,
(London: Corgi Books, 1977), p. 1; Dan Chill, The Arab Boycott of
Israel, (NY: Praeger, 1976), p. 1.
21Prittie and Nelson, pp. 47-48; Sol Stern, "On and Off the Arabs'
List," The New Republic, (March 27, 1976), p. 9; Kennan Teslik,
Congress, the Executive Branch and Special Interests, (CT: Greenwood
Press, 1982), p. 11.
22Bard, pp. 91-115.
23Jerusalem Post, (June 25, 2002).
From:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf4.html
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