THE 1948 WAR
Like all things dealing with the state of Israel, the 1948 war has been thoroughly distorted. Most Americans think that hordes of savage Arabs invaded Palestine only to be attacked and outwitted by a tiny Zionist David. The reality is much different. The United Nations partition plan had assigned the coastal plains to the Jews with a large section west of the Jordan River assigned to the Arabs. When the war began on or prior to the British withdrawal of May 15, the Jews showered mortar fire into the Arabs in the coastal city of Jaffa, killing many and driving large numbers into the ocean to drown. Many Arab villages, fearing the upcoming violence, had made non-aggression pacts with the Jews which the Jews promptly violated when the war began. Another myth of the war is that the Jews were outnumbered and outgunned. In fact, the Arabs were operating with obsolete World War one weapons. The Zionists, by contrast, were heavily armed with up-to-date weapons. During World War Two, the Zionists had raided British military installations and accumulated large quantities of arms. After the first month of fighting a truce ensued on June 11. The Zionists then acquired airplanes and fighters from Zatec in Communist Czechoslovakia, including Messerschmitt fighters. These armaments, plus modern tanks and artillery, were to prove decisive in the subsequent fighting.
The story that the Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi armies "invaded" Israel is propagandist nonsense. The Egyptian army never got further than Gaza. The Syrian army in the north only briefly entered Israeli territory. The Iraqi army only fought with the Jordanians in the west bank territory allotted by the partition plan to the Zionists. At no point in the fighting did the Arab armies, with the exception of the Egyptians, ever enter into Israeli territory per the partition plan. The Arab armies were beaten badly with the exception of the Jordanian legion. Abdullah, the king of Jordan, had secretly agreed with the Zionists to recognize the Jewish state provided that the Jordanians exercise control over the west bank. Jordan had, at this time, a military treaty with Britain. His Majesty's Government did not want Jordan to take any offensive action against the Zionists and was severely limiting the amount of ammunition available to the Jordanian legion. The legion intervened in the fighting only after the Zionists attacked Jerusalem and started invading the West bank.
In an otherwise miserable military performance by the Arabs the Jordanians fought the Jews to a standstill in the battle for Jerusalem. When the Zionists attacked Latrun, a key city, a small force of Jordanians armed with an artillery piece withstood the attack while killing two to three hundred Zionists. Jordan's successful defense saved the West bank for the Arabs until the catastrophe of the 1967 war. The commander of the Jordanian legion, John Bagot Glubb, was severely criticized by the Arabs for their defeat. He was accused of being a British "agent" and engineering the defeat. In fact, Glubb was the Arabs saving grace in 1948. His logistical problems were the consequence of Whitehall's ammunition embargo. Glubb continued with the Jordanians until 1956 when ousted by a palace coup. In the interim Haj-Amin-al-Husseini assassinated Glubb's patron and protector, King Abdullah, in the al-Asqua, Dome of the Rock mosque, virtually guaranteeing Glubb's removal shortly thereafter.
In Egypt, the disaster of the war led to the deposing of the last Pharaoh, King Farouk, and his replacement by Colonel Gamel Abdel Nasser. And that brings up the last point about the 1948 war. Contrary to popular perception, the Arab governments of 1948 did not want to go to war. They privately knew, despite their public proclamations, that the Zionists were militarily superior to the Arab states. There was no realistic chance of defeating them. The Arab states went to war to save face through the force of public opinion. It did them little good but to have done nothing would have brought them all down. And that is the reality of the 1948 war.
Avi Shlaim's classic debunks many widely accepted myths regarding Israel's formation. It is sure to ofend both the Arabs and Jews but is factually well supported.
