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Part
One: 1948 The Birth of a Nation
and the First Arab Israeli War in 1948
In
1948,
almost 26 years after the passage of the League of Nations Mandate
of 1922, the state of Israel came into existence. The 1922 ruling
gave Britain a mandate to create a "National Home" for the Jews of
Palestine. At the same moment that Israel was created
Palestine ceased to exist. This birth of a new nation
was controversial and difficult from the moment of creation. Arabs
were not pleased with the idea of a non Arab people in the former
state of Palestine nor the partitioning of it.. The former
state was to be partitioned into a Jewish section and an Arab
section. The British concluded
that they could no longer manage Palestine and on November 29,
1947, after much debate and discussion, the UN recommended the
partition of Palestine into two states one Jewish and one Arab.
The Jews accepted the UN resolution while the Arabs rejected it.
On May 15, 1948 Britain ended it's mandate over Palestine and
ushered in the birth of Israel. The creation of Israel was faced
with many obstacles. Arab states immediately sought to
destroy the fledgling nation. The new Jewish state was
occupied with fighting a war and facing the dilemmas
created in organizing a society. Jewish immigrants from
Europe were arriving in large numbers and were in need of
immediate health and social services to allow them to adjust into
a new way of life in a hostile neighborhood. The European
Jews that arrived were in despair. They no longer had money
or belongings. They were a defeated and weary people that
suffered some of the most devastating abuses in the history of
man. Now they were in a new land, a new nation, and a
renewed hope
of having a home. |
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The
British Mandate of Palestine |
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Israel |
| At the end of WWI and the fall of the
Ottoman Empire, Britain was given control over Palestine.
Britain announced with the release of the Balfour
Declaration that their intention was to create a national
homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. In
1920, under the Treaty of Sevres, the British was
officially given mandate over Palestine and Mesopotamia.
France was given mandate over Syria and Lebanon in the
region. The League of Nations Mandate of 1922
provided Britain the mandate to create a "National Home"
for the Jews of Palestine. Jewish people from around
the world began to immigrate to the new homeland.
Almost 400,000 in the period from 1920 - 1945. In
the late 1930's as resentment of the Jewish people in
Europe grew many fled to the new Jewish home in
Palestine. Resentment was growing among the Arab
population and they grew restless under British influence
and the growing Jewish population in their homelands.
They began attacking and killing Jewish settlers at an
alarming rate. |
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The Irgun |
The Jewish agricultural settlements were
suffering from Arab maunders who would cause mayhem while
hindering the attempts of the Jewish settlers in setting up their
settlements. The British, who at first encouraged the
immigration of Jews to Israel, now openly banned Jewish
immigration. The British felt at the moment they had
become ineffective in providing security for the new
settlers. For this reason, the Haganah, a Jewish
underground armed organization was established. As Arab
outrages increased, the members of the Haganah split over
the question how to react to Arab terrorism. A group of
men, headed by Avraham Tehomi, split from the main group
and set up their own organization to be more proactive in
pursuing the Arab terrorists The Irgun. The
Irgun members broke away from the Haganah and began to
use strong violence against the Arabs as reprisals for
attacks on the Jewish settlers. They also shared the
belief that all Jews had the right to enter the new Jewish
homeland in Palestine. As Britain tightened its
grip on the new Jewish homeland and created more hardships
for the settlers the Irgun began turning their attention
of their attacks towards the British occupying troops. In
one of their boldest attacks, members of the Irgun,
dressed up as Arabs and acted as the Hotel's
Sudanese waiters, planted a bomb in the basement of the
King David Hotel in Jerusalem and let it explode.
Part of the hotel was being used as the base for the
Mandate Secretariat, the British Military headquarters and
a branch of the police Criminal Investigation Division.
The explosion destroyed a section of the hotel and killed
91 people. It was a deadly terrorist attack that
would set a precedent for the way issues are solved in the
region even today. Oppressed people will use
terrorism to achieve their goals. In this case
the goal of an official Jewish nation was at stake. A defensive approach eventually
gave way to an offensive approach and continued throughout
the early settlement days until the British Mandate
ended. Once the Irgun went on the offensive they
attacked both the Arabs and the British troops from then
on forward without regard. During the period before
Israeli independence was declared, two armies of Arab
irregular volunteers, let by Haj Amin El Husseini in the
Jerusalem area, and by Fawzi El Kaukji in the Galilee,
placed their fighters in Arab towns and conducted various
aggressive operations against the Jewish towns and village
under the eyes of the British. Kaukji and his irregulars
were allowed into Palestine from Syria by the British,
with the agreement that he would not engage in military
actions, but he soon broke the agreement and attacked
across the Galilee. The Arab irregulars were met by the
Zionist underground army, the Haganah, and by the
underground groups of the "dissident" factions, Irgun and
Lehi.
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Israel: Birth of a Nation |
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| In 1947 on
eves of the birth of Israel, many issues stood in front of
the partitioning of Palestine and the creation of a Jewish
homeland. The Arabs rejected the partition of Palestine
and refused to set up the projected Arab state, the
British administration, then still governing Palestine
under the Mandate, refused to carry out the
recommendations of the United Nations to implement the
partition plan. The British government made it plain that
it would do all in its power to prevent the birth of the
Jewish state. Britain announced that she would not carry
out the orderly transfer of any functions to the Jewish
authorities in the interim before the end of the Mandate
on May 15, 1948. |
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1948
Arab-Israeli War |
| The first of many Arab and Israeli
conflicts began immediately after the nation of Israel was
created. Five Arab countries – Egypt, Syria, Jordan,
Lebanon and Iraq – attacked Israel.
In the months leading up to the independence of Israel,
paramilitary organizations like the Haganah and their
associated groups began a massive acquisitions of rifles,
machine guns, mortars, bullets, grenades and other
supplies critical for the defense of their new nation.
Israel was aware that once they achieved independence that
they would have to deal with unrest from the Arabs of
Palestine and also were anticipating other Arab states to
unite against them.
The Arab league had put its trust in King Abdullah of
Jordan. Many Arabs were concerned with this
selection to lead an Arab military to root out the Jewish
settlers the same they had done centuries ago in the
Crusades. They felt that Abdullah had negotiated
with Jewish leadership, but they persuaded him to lead the
Arab forces. The war waged from May of 1948 until
the Israeli forces expelled Arab troops in an increasing
rout over the timeline of the war. Though Israel was
a new nation and military they were able to organize their
resources and cohesively add a growing number of Jewish
immigrants into their society as active parts of their
military and society. by the end of the war Israel
had actually gained more land than was originally awarded
in the partition of Palestine under the UN guidelines for
the partition. Throughout the Spring of 1949 Israel
was able to sign peace agreements with each of the Arab
nations that attacked her in the war. In the end many
Palestinians fled their land and became refugees, an
estimated 700,000 plus were displaced as the result of the
war. |
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Israel Links
and Information |
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Is War Between
Israel And Iran Inevitable?
Will Israel gamble on it's very existence by not stopping
Iran from going nuclear or will they follow through on
promises and attack Iran to end the Threat? Does Iran
plan on using a nuclear weapon or is their program
peaceful? The World watches as the clock ticks. |
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Hamas
HAMAS
was formed in late 1987 as an outgrowth of the Palestinian
branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Various HAMAS elements
have used both violent and political means, including
terrorism, to pursue the goal of establishing an Islamic
Palestinian state in Israel. |
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Hizballah
Formed in
1982 in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, this
Lebanon-based radical Shia group takes its ideological
inspiration from the Iranian revolution and the teachings
of the late Ayatollah Khomeini. |
Brief History of
Israel and the Jewish People
Overview of selected major points in the history of the
Jewish people from the time Abraham to modern day Israel.
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Facts about Israel:
History A
complete guide to the History and events that has shaped
Israel. Facts and other reference materials.
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ISRAEL TIME
LINE:
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The British
Balfour Declaration of 1917 provided for the creation of a
national home for the Jewish peoples. |
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Britain was given
mandate over Palestine after the carving up of the Ottoman
Empire that followed WW1 |
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In 1922 The League
of Nations Mandate of 1922 gave Britain the proper mandate
to establish a Jewish homeland. |
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The Holocaust had a
major effect inside Palestine. Britain refused to
allow Jews escaping Europe to enter Palestine.
Jewish groups began sneaking the displaced Jews into into
the future country of Israel.. |
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On May 14, 1948
Palestine was partitioned into an Arab and Jewish state.
This is the day Israel was created by the United Nations. |
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British White Paper of 1939 on Palestine An agreement
that the British proposed that abandoned the idea of
partitioning of Palestine the Jews and the Arabs should
form a single government to share control of Palestine but
was never implemented for many reasons. |
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May 14, 1948
Israel was created as the British Mandate ended.
Since this day Israel has earned it's place in the world
with constant threats of annihilation by it's
neighbors even to this day. |
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1948 Arab-Israeli
War. In the days that followed the creation
of Israel Arab states began filtering in fighters to root
out the Jewish settlers. In the end Israel was
better organized and became more efficient as the war
waged on and the Arabs were defeated. The defeat of
the Arabs led to a larger portion of the previous
Palestine partition for Israel. |
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The people are
in great need of a "myth" to fill their
consciousness and imagination....
-- Musa Alami, 1948 |
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Since 1948 Arab
leaders have approached the Palestine problem
in an irresponsible manner.... they have used the
Palestine
people for selfish political purposes. This is ridiculous
and,
I could say, even criminal.
-- King
Hussein of Jordan, 1960 |
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The United States began
to take more of a military interest in Israel as the Soviets sold
weaponry and advised the Arabs in the region most importantly Egypt.
The U.S. began to sell weapons and supplies to the Israeli War Machine.
The Cold War began to fuel the Arab-Israeli conflict. |
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As of 2008, the
biggest threat to Israel is Iran. A fear of a nuclear
armed Iran is a serious threat to the small nation of
Israel. Iran and Syria have used Hizballah to
agitate Israel. Israel has publicly stated that they
will not allow a nuclear armed Iran. |
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