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Arab Israeli War Of 1948

The Palestine War of 1948 took place in Mandatory Palestine from 30 November 1947 to mid 1949 , reinforced by the Arab Liberation Army clashed in the context of a civil war.

The second phase began after the May 15 and lasted until mid-1949. We witnessed a war between Israel and several Arab countries.

Actors or commentators refer to these events differently depending on their outcome happy or unhappy. The Palestinians speak of al-Nakba (catastrophe) but thinking mostly in the first period during which their forces were defeated by the Jewish forces and during which a good portion of them lived a drain. Israelis speak of them Revolutionary War or War of Liberation but thinking mostly in the second period began with the proclamation of independence of Israel and during which they faced several neighboring Arab states.

This war is the first Arab-Israeli conflict. She was the subject of numerous studies especially from the 1980s following the opening of Israeli archives.

/ / History

Background and protagonists

Main articles: Partition Plan for Palestine , the protagonists of the 1948 Palestine War and Issues of supplies during the Palestine war of 1948.

The Jewish community in Palestine , the Arab community palestinian , the Transjordan , the Iraq , the Egyptian , the Syrian , the army of volunteers from the Arab League and to a lesser extent the British were the military actors. At political and diplomatic rajoutrent the United Kingdom , the Soviet Union , the United States and the UN that the conflict influenced significantly. Overall, the issues of divergent protagonists had a fundamental influence on the course or the outcome of the war.

Events

Main articles: Civil War of 1947-1948 in Mandatory Palestine , Arab-Israeli War of 1948-1949 , the 1948 Palestinian exodus , and Armistice Agreements of 1949 Israeli-Arab.

Areas under the control of Jewish forces on the eve of the intervention of Arab armies and hence fled or were driven most of the Palestinian population

Immediately after the vote on partition plan to the UN , the explosions of joy in the Jewish community are counterbalanced by the expression of discontent within the Arab community. Soon, violence erupts and is growing: the attacks, reprisal and retaliation against, leaving dozens of victims succeed without anyone manages to control them.

Over the period of December 1947 and January 1948 , there are nearly 1,000 dead and 2,000 injured . Late March , a report indicates that over 2,000 dead and 4,000 wounded . These figures are an average of more than 100 deaths and 200 injuries every week. And this, from a total of 2 million inhabitants.

From January , under the indifferent eye of the British authorities, the operations take a turn for the military with the entry into Palestine of several regiments of the Arab Liberation Army who are divided into various coastal cities and strengthen the Galilee and Samaria . Abd al-Kader al-Husseini also arrives in Egypt at the head of several hundred men of the Jaysh al-Jihad al-Muqaddas and having recruited several thousand others organized the blockade of 100 000 Jews of Jerusalem . The authorities of the Yishuv trying to resupply convoys through the city for up to a hundred armored vehicles to force the dams but the operation is becoming increasingly impractical and costly in lives. In March , the tactic paid off. Almost all vehicles in the Haganah were destroyed, several hundred fighters were killed and the blockade is operating . The situation is even more critical that the Jewish settlements in northern Galilee and the Negev are isolated. While the Jewish population had received strict instructions requiring him to keep at all costs on all fronts , the Arab population is most affected in the security situation facing the country. During those months, nearly 100,000 Palestinians, mainly the upper classes, are leaving their homes to seek refuge in a safe place abroad or in Samaria

This pushes the U.S. to reconsider their support for the Partition Plan, but reassure the Arab League with the mistaken analysis of the ability of Palestinians , backed by the Arab Liberation Army , to prevent sharing. For their part, 7 February 1948 , the British finally opt for the option to support annexation of the Arab part of Palestine by Transjordan .

Even if some doubt settles in the Yishuv , the defeats are more apparent due to a wait of Haganah as a real weakness. David Ben Gurion reorganized the Haganah and made mandatory conscription. All men and women of the country receiving military training. Using funds collected by Golda Meyerson to U.S. and later to support the Zionist cause by Stalin , the Jewish representatives were able to sign contracts very important weapons in Eastern Europe. Other agents have recovered from stocks of the Second World War enough to equip the army with the Yishuv needed. Operation Balak enables the delivery of the first weapons and equipment at the end of March. David Ben Gurion also told Yigal Yadin, the task of studying a military plan to prepare the Yishuv to the intervention of Arab states announced. This is the plan Daleth is implemented early in the month of April.

In April, the war is entering a second phase with the passage of the Haganah on the offensive.

The first-named Operation Nahshon, is to lift the blockade of Jerusalem. Givati brigade of 1,500 men of the Haganah and Harel of the Palmach were able to free the road from April 5 to 20. Commodities shipped offer two months of relief to the Jewish population of Jerusalem . The success was double the death of Palestinian leader Abdel Kader al-Husseini in the fighting. During these events, April 9 , troops of the Irgun and Lehi perpetrate a massacre at Deir Yassin , which has a significant impact on the Palestinian population.

At the same time, the first major operation of the Arab Liberation Army ended in a debacle at Mishmar Ha'emek and by the defection of the Druze

As part of achieving territorial continuity provided by Plan Dalet , the forces of the Haganah , the Palmach and the Irgun set off in conquest of mixed communities. Palestinian society is collapsing. Tiberias, Haifa, Safed, Beisan, Jaffa and Acre fell, throwing on the roads of the exodus of more than 250,000 Palestinians .

The British have now essentially completed their withdrawal. The situation pushed the leaders of neighboring Arab countries to intervene but their preparation is not developed and they could not rally the forces that could tip the balance. Most Palestinian hopes lie in the Arab Legion of Transjordan's King Abdullah but it aims to annex territory to a maximum of Mandatory Palestine and plays both ways, being in contact also with the Jewish authorities.

In preparation for the offensive, Haganah successfully launched Operations Yiftach and Ben-'Ami for securing settlements in Galilee and Operation Kilshon ^, to ensure a continuous front in the Jerusalem area. The meeting on May 10 between Golda Meir and Abdullah followed by the capture and massacre of Kfar Etzion on May 13 by the Arab Legion provide that leave the battle for Jerusalem will no thank you.

On 14 May 1948 at midnight, the British Mandate over Palestine ended officially. The State of Israel was proclaimed in the day on part of the territory. Given the situation, the neighboring Arab states, who oppose the creation of Israel, decided to intervene, and several Arab armies entering the old Palestine Mandate. Palestinian Arab forces are for their dissolved or integrated into the Arab armies. The "first Arab-Israeli war, also called" war of Israeli independence, "officially begins.

May 15 to June 11 , Arab forces are on the offensive, but get no decisive success against the Israeli defenses. Both sides suffered heavy losses, especially around Jerusalem , and after accepting the truce force one month requested by the mediator of the UN. Arab forces are then positioned around the areas controlled by the Jews but were unable to enter or complete the blockade of Jerusalem.

The truce is exploited by both sides to strengthen their system. The Israelis, who six months earlier had only one submarine force equipped with 5000 men succeed more effectively, widely mobilizing the civilian population, and bringing weapons in large numbers in the country. Following the truce, July 10, they find themselves superior in both number of fighters and equipment to confront opponents politically and geographically divided, and whose military training was insufficient.

While the UN proposes other ways of sharing , the Israelis launched in July 1948 to March 1949 a series of military operations interspersed with cease-fire , taking control of the entire Galilee , south-west Samaria , the bulk of the coastal area, west of Judea to the sector Jerusalem , and finally the Negev.

During the period from 15 May 1948 to mid-April 1949, more than 350,000 Palestinians (about 750,000 of all the Palestinian exodus ) take the road from exodus, fleeing the fighting or expelled from areas controlled or conquered by Israel .

Consequences

This first war of a series of Israeli-Arab conflict has established the independence of the State of Israel and divided the remaining land of the term British on Palestine between Egypt and the West Bank. She is also the basis of the Palestinian exodus and the problem of Palestinian refugees.

Historiography

The historiography of the war of 1948 has seen a rapid evolution.

Initially opposed, first, the "conventional narrative Zionist", describing a war where the Israelis have faced intransigent Arab world and ended up winning almost by miracle and by dint of courage and Secondly the "conventional narrative Palestinian" where Palestinians, peaceful, have been expelled from their country by Israel Almighty, without the Arab countries come to their rescue, or betray them.

Both versions, but especially the former, have been reformulated since the 1980s and the opening of Israeli archives and British events concerning the war. The new historians , or revisionist historians have argued that:

the British had prevented the emergence of a Palestinian state and that have fostered a Jewish state;
Israelis have always outnumbered the forces of their opponents, even in arms after the first truce;
the Palestinian exodus was not the fact of an Arab policy but mainly by military expulsion due to Israeli soldiers;
After the war, Israelis as well as Arabs have been intransigent and prevented an agreement to settle ^,.

Notes

References

The last was the armistice signed between Israel and Syria on 20 April 1949 but none were signed between Israel and Iraq or between Israel and the Arab Higher Committee
Both Muslims and Christians. The Palestinian Arab population consisted indeed a large Orthodox Christian community established primarily to Haifa , Nazareth and in the northern Galilee
See, for illustration, the site pro-Palestinian alnakba.org and the site pro-Israeli palestinefacts.org
United Nations Special Commission (April 16, 1948) , II.5
Gelber, Yoav , Palestine 1948, Sussex Academic Press, Brighton, 2006, p.85.
Gelber, Yoav , Palestine 1948, Sussex Academic Press, Brighton, 2006, pp.51-56.
Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins (1971) , chapter 7, p.131-153
Benny Morris (2003) , p. & - ".
Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins (1971) , p.163
Benny Morris (2003) , p.67.
Henry Laurens (2005) , p.83.
Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins (1971) , p.369-381
Benny Morris (2003) , p.242-243
Benny Morris (2003) , p.242
Henry Laurens (2005) , p.85-86
Benny Morris (2003) , p.248-252
Benny Morris (2003) , p.252-254
Yoav Gelber (2006) , p.140
Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins (1971) , p.575-583
Part of the West Bank north of Jerusalem today.
The trend increases as evictions and to measure the progress of the period.
See Benny Morris, The Birth Of The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, 2003 , pages 233-240, 248-252, 423-438, 492, 538, Yoav Gelber , (in) " Why Did The Palestinians Run Away in 1948? " Article published June 17, 2002 in History News Network ; See article Palestinian exodus.
Avi Shlaim , The War of the Israeli Historians , Journal, 59:1, January-February 2004, 161-167.
Shlomo Ben-Ami , A War to Start All Wars. Will Israel Ever Seal the Victory of 1948? , Foreign Affairs, September-October 2008.

Documentation

Specific works on the War in Palestine

Gelber, Yoav , Palestine 1948, Sussex Academic Press, Brighton, 2006, ISBN 1845190750
Gresh, Alain and Vidal, Dominique , Palestine 47, sharing an abortion, Editions Complexe, 1994, ISBN 2870275218 .
Karsh, Efraim , The Arab-Israeli Conflict - The Palestine War 1948, Osprey Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1841763721
Kimchi, Jon and David, A Clash of Destinies, The Arab-Jewish War and The Founding Of The State of Israel, Praeger, New York, 1960.
Lapierre, Dominique and Collins, Larry , O Jerusalem, Robert Laffont, 1971, ISBN 2266106988
Morris, Benny , The Birth Of The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2003, ISBN 0521009677
Pappe, Ilan , The 1948 war in Palestine, The Making editions, 2000, ISBN 226404036X
Rogan, Eugene and Avi Shlaim , 1948: The Palestine War. Behind the myth ..., Cambridge University Press, 2001 (English version), Ed. Otherwise, 2002 (French version), ISBN 2746702401 .
Slutsky, Yehuda, the general introduction to the Plan Dalet , led by Walid Khalidi , Sefer Toldot Hahaganah (History of the Haganah), Volume 3, Appendix 48, Tel Aviv, Zionist Library, 1972, p.1956-1960, and resumed on mideastweb.org

Books on the Arab-Israeli conflict

Barnavi, Elie , A History of Modern Israel, Champs / Flammarion, 1988, ISBN 2080812467
Bregman, Ahron , Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947, Routledge, London, 2002, ISBN 0415287162
Laurens, Henry , Peace and War in the Middle East, Armand Colin, Paris, 2005, ISBN 2200269773
Morris, Benny , Righteous Victims, A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881, 2001, Vintage, 2001, ISBN 0679744754
Morris, Benny , Victims, History revisited the Arab-Zionist complex Publishing, 2003 ISBN 2870279388
Razoux, Pierre , IDF, new history of the Israeli army, Perrin, 2006, ISBN 226202328X

Articles

Nadine Picaudou, The Historiography Of The War 1948 , Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence, November 1, 2008.

Biographies

Rabin, Yitzhak , Memoirs, Buchet / Chastel, 1980.

Other books on the subject

Uri Milstein , History of Israel's War of Independence: A Nation Gird for War, vol.1, University Press of America, 1996, ISBN 0761803726
Uri Milstein , History of Israel's War of Independence: The First Month, vol.2, University Press of America, 1997, ISBN 0761807217
Uri Milstein , History of Israel's War of Independence: The First Invasion, vol.3, University Press of America, 1999, ISBN 0761807691
Uri Milstein , History of Israel's War of Independence: Out of Crisis Came Decision, vol.4, University Press of America, 1999, ISBN 0761814892
Salim Tamari , Jerusalem 1948: The Arab neighborhoods and their fate during the war, The Institute for Palestine Studies, 2002, ISBN 9953900191

Documents Online

United Nations Special Commission, First Special Report to the Security Council: The Problem of Security in Palestine, April 16, 1948, available at the United Nations..
The UN Resolution 194 on the website of Le Monde diplomatique.

Online Articles