1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War (80 page)

The Iraqi monarchy was the last to tumble-though its demise, too, in front of television cameras, in July 1958, was, in part at least, an aftershock of 1948. There, the young colonels, who in effect ruled Baghdad until Saddam Hussein's ouster in 2003, murdered the last of the major Palestine war politicians, Nuri Said.

Perhaps it is not accidental that the only 1948 regime to enjoy longevity, that of the Hashemites of Jordan, was also the only one that emerged from the war relatively victorious. It went on to weather the intake of hundreds of thousands of hostile, destitute Palestinians, King Abdullah's assassination, years of border clashes with Israel, the war of 1967 and the loss of the West Bank, a brief, bloody civil war with the PLO ("Black September") in 1970, and a peace treaty with Israel. Today, the Hashemite regime flourishes, under Abdullah's great-grandson, King Abdullah II.

But 1948 has haunted, and still haunts, the Arab world on the deepest levels of collective identity, ego, and pride. The war was a humiliation from which that world has yet to recover-the antithesis of the glory days of Arab Islamic dominance of the Middle East and the eastern and southern Mediterranean basins. The sense of humiliation only deepened over the succeeding sixty years as Israel visibly grew and prospered while repeatedly beating the Arabs in new wars, as the Palestinian refugee camps burst at the seams while sinking in the mire of international charity and terrorism, and as the Arab world shuttled between culturally self-effacing Westernization and religious fuundamentalism.

For almost a millennium, the Arab peoples were reared on tales of power and conquest. Ottoman subjugation ate away at the Arabs' self-image; even more destructive were the gradual encroachment and dominance of (infidel) Western powers, led by Britain and France. The 1948 War was the culnninating affront, when a community of some 65o,ooo Jews-Jews, no lesscrushed Palestinian Arab society and then defeated the armies of the surrounding states. The failure was almost complete. The Arab states had failed to "save" the Palestinians and failed to prevent Israel's emergence and acceptance into the comity of nations. And what little Palestine territory the Arabs had managed to retain fell under Israeli sway two decades later.

Viewed from the Israeli perspective, however, 1948 wasn't the irreversible triumph it at first appeared. True, the state had been established, Zionism's traditional chief goal, and its territory had increased; true, the Arab armies had been crushed to such an extent that they would not represent a mortal threat to the Jewish state for two decades.

But the dimensions of the success had given birth to reflexive Arab nonacceptance and powerful revanchist urges. The Jewish state had arisen at the heart of the Muslim Arab world-and that world could not abide it. Peace treaties may eventually have been signed by Egypt and Jordan; but the Arab world-the man in the street, the intellectual in his perch, the soldier in his dugout-refused to recognize or accept what had come to pass. It was a cosmic injustice. And there would be plenty of Arabs, by habit accustomed to think in the long term and egged on by the ever-aggrieved Palestinians, who would never acquiesce in the new Middle Eastern order. Whether 1948 was a passing fancy or has permanently etched the region remains to be seen.

CHAPTER I. STAKING CLAIMS

i. Vladimir (Ze'eve) Dubnow, Palestine, to Simon Dubnow, St. Petersburg, zo October 1882, quoted in Shapira, Land and Power, 55.

2. Goldstein, From Fighters to Soldiers, 13.

3. Finlayson, Shaftesbury, 441; Garfinlde, "Origin, Meaning, Use and Abuse of a Phrase." Shaftesbury wrote that a "country without a nation" must be mated with a "nation without a country."

4. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and Yehiel Michal Pines, Palestine, to Rashi Pin, Vilna, 18 October 1882, quoted in Be'eri, Beginning ofArab-Israeli Conflict, 38-39.

5. Ahad Ha am, "Emet Me'eretz Yisrael," Hamelitz, 19 - 30 June 1891.

6. Gorny, Zionism and the Arabs, 27-

7. Mandel, Arabs and Zionism, 41; Be'eri, Beginning ofArab-Israeli Conflict, 82.

8. Yusuf Dia al-Khalidi to Zadok Kahn, i March 1899, quoted in Be'eri, Beginning ofArab-Israeli Conflict, 89-9o; Mandel, Arabs and Zionism, 47-48.

q. Khalidi, ed., From Haven to Conquest, 91-93.

io. 'Azoury, Le reveil de la nation arabe, 6 -7, V.

11. Teveth, Ben-Gurion and Palestinian Arabs, 15 -16.

12. Teveth, Ben-Gurion and Palestinian Arabs, 13.

13. Morris, Righteous Victims, 57-58.

14. Mandel, Arabs and Zionism, 174,175 -

15. Morris, Righteous Victims, 75.

16. Antonius, Arab Awakening, 267-

17. Talmi, "The Christians in Jaffa," z May 1947, HA 105/193 bet.

18. Unsigned, "Arabs with a Tendency to Cooperation with the Jews," undated, HA 105/54.

i9. Stein, Land Question in Palestine, 228-239, gives a partial list of specific sales, with both Husseinis and Nashashibis among the sellers.

20. Cohen, Army of Shadows.

21. Teveth, Ben-Gurion and Palestinian Arabs, 167-i68.

22. Unsigned, "Legal Arab Immigrants to Eretz Yisrael," 17 July 1947, HA 105/215 bet.

23. Teveth, Ben-Gurion and Palestinian Arabs, 132.

24. Eliahu Elath, "Minutes of a Meeting between Representatives of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the Secretariat of the Syrian National Bloc held at Damascus on the 9th of August, 1936," CZA Sz5-3z67.

25. Metzer, Divided Economy of Mandatory Palestine, 239-242.

z6. Eppel, Palestine Conflict in Modern Iraq, 31.

27. "Short Minutes of Meeting Held on Thursday, January 3oth, 1941, at 77 Great Russell Street, London WC.1," unsigned, Chaim Weizmann Archive, 2271; Ivan Maiskii, "Meeting: I. M. Maiskii-Ch. Weizmann (London, 3 February 1941)," in Documents on Israeli-Soviet Relations, 1941 1953, 13 -5.

z8. Basil Newton to FO, 6 July 1939, PRO FO 371-23211, quoting Nuri Sa'id's speech the previous day before the Iraqi parliament ("Our aim is first of all that Zionism should be destroyed in Palestine"). One Foreign Office official minuted: "`The destruction of Zionism' is an unfortunate phrase." But Iraqi politicians often said different things to different audiences. A few years later, Said was to speak in favor of partition and even the transfer of Arabs out of the area of the Jewish state-to-be (see illegible signature, "Note on Conversation with General Nuri Said, the Iraqi Prime Minister and the Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad on 5th and 6th December 1944," 18 December 1944, PRO FO 921149). As Kamil al-Jadirji, head of Iraq's National Democratic Party, put it in 1945: "In Iraq, everyone has two faces" (see Eppel, Palestine Conflict in Modern Iraq, 141).

2q. Alec Kirkbride to Thomas Wikeley, Eastern Department, FO, 29 July 1946, PRO FO 816/85.

30. Kirkbride to FO, 23 August 1946 (nos. 1387,1364-), both in PRO FO 816/85.

31. Al-Sakakini, "SuchAm I, Oh World,"diary entry for 27 July 1942, 212-213.

32. Cohen, Army of Shadows, 175 n.

33. Elpeleg, In the Eyes of the Mufti, ,o6.

34. Elpeleg, In the Eyes of the Mufti, 148 -149.

35. Zweig, Britain and Palestine, 112.

36. Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, 116.

37. Cohen, lalestine, Retreatfrom the Mandate, 130.

38. Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, 158.

39. Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, 213.

40. Schoenbaum, United States and State ofIsrael, 32.

41. Schoenbaum, United States and State of Israel, 32.

42. Cohen, Palestine and Great Powers, 293.

43. Cohen, Palestine and Great Powers, 293, quoting a letter from Harry Truman to Eleanor Roosevelt, August 1947.

44. Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, 229.

4$. Ronald Campbell to FO, 25 April 1946, PRO CO 537-1853.

46. Cohen, Palestine to Israel, 181.

47. Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, 189.

48. Khalaf, Politics in Palestine, 93 -95; Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, 183 -184.

49. Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, 186; Mhalaf, Politics in Palestine, 87-89.

5o. Porath, In Search ofArab Unity, 257-311.

Si. Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, 192.

52. Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, 194.

53. Khalaf, Politics in Palestine, 96-98.

54. Khalaf, Politics in Palestine, 115 -130.

55 • Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, 232.

56. Zweig, Britain and Palestine, 173, n. io6.

57. Zweig, Britain and Palestine, 165, n. 68.

58. Levenberg, Military Preparations of Arab Community in Palestine, 145. Levenberg speaks of twenty-two thousand men and four thousand women; about ten thousand of these served in combat units. He puts the number of Palestinian Arabs who served with the British during World War II at twelve thousand.

59• Heller, LEHI, 1:125-130.

6o. Niv, Battles of the IZL, 4:20-32, 32-36, 46-48, 50-57, 60-63; STH, 3, Pt. 2:523-527.

61. Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, Zoo.

6z. Niv, Battles of theIZL, 4:88 -117; STH, 3, pt. 2:531-543.

63. Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, 225.

64. Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, 228.

65. Cohen, Palestine to Israel, 177-

66. Gilead, ed., Book of the Palmah, i:629-64-o.

67. Zertal, From Catastrophe to Power.

68. British Military Administration, Tripolitania, "Report on the Anti-Jewish Riots, 4th to 8th November, 1945," undated, PRO FO 371-69374; unsigned, "AntiJewish Riots in Tripolitania," undated, CZA Sz5-5219•

69. "Editorial Note," Political Documents of the Jewish Agency, 1:201-202.

70. Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, 237-239.

71. Nachmani, Great Power Discord in Palestine, 111-113.

72. Nachmani, Great Power Discord in Palestine, 161.

73. Nachmani, Great Power Discord in Palestine, 167.

74. Crossman, Palestine Mission, 148.

75. Nachmani, Great Power Discord in Palestine, 178.

76. Nachmani, GreatPower Discord in Palestine, 187.

77• "Notes on an Interview with Jamal Hussein by His Excellency the High Commissioner on 3rd May, 1946," undated, PRO CO 537-1756.

78. Stonehewer Bird, Baghdad, to FO, 9 May 1946, PRO CO 537-1756.

79. Freundlich, From Destruction to Resurrection, 42-49; Cohen, Palestine and Great Powers, '+1-14-7.

8o. Hurewitz, Struggleforl'alestine, 256.

81. Abba Hillel Silver to David Ben-Gurion, 9 October 1946, Political Documents of the Jewish Agency, 2:675-68o.

82. Cohen, Palestine and GreatPo)vers, 166.

CHAPTER 2. THE UNITED NATIONS STEPS IN

i. Ernest Bevin to Douglas Busk, "Conversation with the Iraqi Foreign Minister," 23 December 1947, PRO FO 371-61893.

2. Bandman, When Will Britain Withdraw from Jerusalem? 12.

3. Cohen, Palestine and Great Powers, 223.

4. Freundlich, From Destruction to Resurrection, 62.

5. Hurewitz, Struggle for Palestine, 281-282.

6. Niv, Battles of the IZL, 5:161-163, 274-280.

7. Cohen, Palestine and Great Powers, 245.

8. Louis, British Empire in the Middle East, 475.

9. Cohen, Palestine and Great Powers, z45.

10. Sela, "Question of Palestine," 317-322; Ben-Dror, "UNSCOP," 20-21.

11. Unsigned, "Jewish Displaced Persons and Refugees May 1947," undated, CZA S25-5353-

12. Text of Andrei Gromyko's speech, Documents on Israeli-Soviet Relations, 19411953, 1:189-196.

13. Ben-Dror, "UNSCOP," 39-55.

14. Urquhart, Bunche, 140 (quoting Bunche to his wife, Ruth, 29 June 1947).

15. Ben-Dror, "UNSCOP," 41.

16. Emanuel Neumann, protocol of meeting of US Section, JAE, 26 September 1947, CZA Z5-59.

17. Ben-Dror, "UNSCOP," 73.

18. Freundlich, From Destruction to Resurrection, 104-108; Ben-Dror, "UNSCOP," 76.

19. Ben-Dror, "UNSCOP," 109.

20. Horowitz, State in the Making, 169; Ben-Dror, "UNSCOP," 109.

21. Freundlich, From Destruction to Resurrection, 109.

zz. Garcia Granados, Birth ofIsrael, 85-87; Horowitz, State in the Making, 171.

23. Ben-Dror, "UNSCOP," 115.

24. Ben-Dror, "UNSCOP," 137.

25. Ben-Dror, "UNSCOP," 139.

z6. Ben-Dror, "UNSCOP," 142.

27. Ben-Dror, "UNSCOP," 14$.

28. Ben-Dror, "UNSCOP," 173-175,170-172.

29. Ben-Dror, "UNSCOP," 125-12q; Cohen, Palestine and Great Powers, 242-250.

30. Levenberg, Military Preparations ofArab Community in Palestine, 90.

31. Hal amish, Exodus, 58 - 60; Zertal, From Catastrophe to Power, 118 -12 2; Freundlich, From Destruction to Resurrection, iio.

3z. Halamish, Exodus, 75-77-

33 Halamish, Exodus, 84-96.

34-. Halamish, Exodus, 134.

35. New York Herald Tribune, 19 July 1948. The spectacle was explicitly referred to in the UNSCOP Report.