Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "1948 Arab–Israeli War" in English language version.
At the time, Ben-Gurion and the HGS believed that they had initiated a one-shot affair, albeit with the implication of a change of tactics and strategy on the Jerusalem front. In fact, they had set in motion a strategic transformation of Haganah policy. Nahshon heralded a shift from the defensive to the offensive and marked the beginning of the implementation of tochnit dalet (Plan D) – without Ben-Gurion or the HGS ever taking an in principle decision to embark on its implementation.
.= Iraq had dispatched 3,000 troops to the front in May and in the months that followed a further 15,000 troops were sent, making them the largest single Arab force in Palestine (also – The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948, edited by Eugene L. Rogan, Avi Shlaim, chapter at pp. 125–49)
King Abdullah had always acknowledged Arab (as distinct from Jordanian) weakness, and his son, Prince Talal, openly predicted defeat. at the last moment, several leaders, including King Ibn Sagud and Azzam Pasha – to avert catastrophe – secretly appealed to the British to soldier on in Palestine for at least another year. Egypt's foreign minister, Khashaba, had already done so. He 'wished they would remain, and suggested that it was their duty to do so.'
On 26–27 May, the Legionnaires took the Hurvat Israel (or "Hurva") Synagogue, the quarter's largest and most sacred building, and then, without reason, blew it up. 'This affair will rankle for generations in the heart of world Jewry,' predicted one Foreign Office official. The destruction of the synagogue shook Jewish morale.
'the Little Triangle': Ijzim, Ein Ghazal, and Jaba. The villages repeatedly fired at Israeli traffic along the coast road and were supplied by the Iraqis from northern Samaria. … Sniping at traffic continued after the start of the Second Truce, …on 24 July Israel launched mivtza shoter (Operation Policeman). The aim was 'to gain control' of the coast road between Zikhron Yaakov and Haifa 'and to destroy all the enemy in the area.'… By 26 July it was over. Most of the inhabitants fled before and during the attack, reaching northern Samaria; hundreds of others were forcibly expelled during the following days. At least a hundred militiamen and civilians were killed.
If the front lines of 14 October were to turn into permanent borders, Israel would be truncated and extremely vulnerable. Moreover, the no-peace, no-war situation was untenable. As David Ben-Gurion put it to his ministers on 26 September, "A protracted truce will break us. The Egyptian expeditionary force had to be destroyed or, at the least, driven from Palestine
(Ben Gurion) He also did not flinch from provoking the United Nations by breaking the truce agreement. But the limit of his fearlessness was a clash with a Western power. Vainly, the right and Mapam accused him of defeatism. He did not flinch from confronting them but chose to maintain good relations with the United States, which he perceived as a potential ally of the new state, and also not to provoke the British lion, even though its fangs had been drawn. At the end of the war, when Yigal Allon, who represented the younger generation of commanders that had grown up in the war, demanded the conquest of the West Bank up to the Jordan River as the natural, defensible border of the state, Ben-Gurion refused. He recognized that the IDF was militarily strong enough to carry out the conquest, but he believed that the young state should not bite off more than it had already chewed. There was a limit to what the world was prepared to accept. Furthermore, the armistice borders – which later became known as the Green Line – were better than those he had dreamed of at the beginning of the war. In Ben-Gurion's opinion, in terms of territory Israel was satisfied. It was time to send the troops home and start work on building the new nation.
in March 1949, just before the signing of the Israel-Transjordan armistice agreement, when IDF general Yigal Allon proposed conquering the West Bank, Ben-Gurion turned him down flat. Like most Israelis, Ben-Gurion had given up the dream
The clearest expression of this 'activist' approach is found in a "personal, top secret" letter sent by Yigal Allon to BG shortly after ... We cannot imagine a border more stable than the Jordan River, which runs the entire length of the country
'Plan Dalet' or 'Plan D' was the name given by the Zionist High Command to the general plan for military operations within the framework of which the Zionists launched successive offensives in April and early May 1948 in various parts of Palestine. These offensives, which entailed the destruction of the Palestinian Arab community and the expulsion and pauperization of the bulk of the Palestine Arabs, were calculated to achieve the military fait accompli upon which the state of Israel was to be based.
In the first phase of the conflict, from the passage of the United Nations partition resolution on 29 November 1947 until the proclamation of statehood on 14 May 1948, the Yishuv had to defend itself against attacks from Palestinian irregulars and volunteers from the Arab world. Following the proclamation of the state of Israel, however, the neighboring Arab states and Iraq committed their regular armies to the battle against the Jewish state
a) the suspension of arms sales to Syria, notwithstanding signed contracts; b) prevention of a large sale of arms by a Swiss company to Ethiopia, which was actually destined for Egypt and Transjordan; c) diplomatic pressure on Belgium to suspend arms sales to the Arab states; d) denial of a British request at the end of April to permit the landing of a squadron of British aircraft on their way to Transjordan; e) authorization of Air France to transport cargo to Tel Aviv on 13 May; f) allowing aircraft [carrying arms from Czechoslovakia] to land on French territory in transit to Israel; g) discreet French diplomatic support for Israel in the UN; h) two arms shipments to 'Nicaragua', which were actually intended for Israel.
Intelligence provided by the French consulate in Jerusalem on 12 May 1948 on the Arab armies' revised plan to invade the new state was crucial in Israel's success in withstanding the Arab invasion
In the first phase of the conflict, from the passage of the United Nations partition resolution on 29 November 1947 until the proclamation of statehood on 14 May 1948, the Yishuv had to defend itself against attacks from Palestinian irregulars and volunteers from the Arab world. Following the proclamation of the state of Israel, however, the neighboring Arab states and Iraq committed their regular armies to the battle against the Jewish state
'Plan Dalet' or 'Plan D' was the name given by the Zionist High Command to the general plan for military operations within the framework of which the Zionists launched successive offensives in April and early May 1948 in various parts of Palestine. These offensives, which entailed the destruction of the Palestinian Arab community and the expulsion and pauperization of the bulk of the Palestine Arabs, were calculated to achieve the military fait accompli upon which the state of Israel was to be based.
Mr. Shamir, nearly 80, still speaks elliptically about the Bernadotte assassination. Years later, when Ben-Gurion moved to a kibbutz in the Negev desert, Sdeh Bokker, one of his closest friends there was Yehoshua Cohen, who had been one of the assassins.Review of Kati Marton's biography.
In recent years, several members of the group known by the British as the Stern Gang have acknowledged responsibility for the killing. Mr. Shamir, who was a member of the Stern Gang, has declined to discuss the killing, and one of his spokesman has said he had no role in it.
a) the suspension of arms sales to Syria, notwithstanding signed contracts; b) prevention of a large sale of arms by a Swiss company to Ethiopia, which was actually destined for Egypt and Transjordan; c) diplomatic pressure on Belgium to suspend arms sales to the Arab states; d) denial of a British request at the end of April to permit the landing of a squadron of British aircraft on their way to Transjordan; e) authorization of Air France to transport cargo to Tel Aviv on 13 May; f) allowing aircraft [carrying arms from Czechoslovakia] to land on French territory in transit to Israel; g) discreet French diplomatic support for Israel in the UN; h) two arms shipments to 'Nicaragua', which were actually intended for Israel.
Intelligence provided by the French consulate in Jerusalem on 12 May 1948 on the Arab armies' revised plan to invade the new state was crucial in Israel's success in withstanding the Arab invasion
'Plan Dalet' or 'Plan D' was the name given by the Zionist High Command to the general plan for military operations within the framework of which the Zionists launched successive offensives in April and early May 1948 in various parts of Palestine. These offensives, which entailed the destruction of the Palestinian Arab community and the expulsion and pauperization of the bulk of the Palestine Arabs, were calculated to achieve the military fait accompli upon which the state of Israel was to be based.
In the first phase of the conflict, from the passage of the United Nations partition resolution on 29 November 1947 until the proclamation of statehood on 14 May 1948, the Yishuv had to defend itself against attacks from Palestinian irregulars and volunteers from the Arab world. Following the proclamation of the state of Israel, however, the neighboring Arab states and Iraq committed their regular armies to the battle against the Jewish state
The invasion of Palestine by the Arab Armies started on 15 May, when the Iraqi, Syrian, Jordanian and Egyptian forces crossed the international border.
At the time, Ben-Gurion and the HGS believed that they had initiated a one-shot affair, albeit with the implication of a change of tactics and strategy on the Jerusalem front. In fact, they had set in motion a strategic transformation of Haganah policy. Nahshon heralded a shift from the defensive to the offensive and marked the beginning of the implementation of tochnit dalet (Plan D) – without Ben-Gurion or the HGS ever taking an in principle decision to embark on its implementation.
Mr. Shamir, nearly 80, still speaks elliptically about the Bernadotte assassination. Years later, when Ben-Gurion moved to a kibbutz in the Negev desert, Sdeh Bokker, one of his closest friends there was Yehoshua Cohen, who had been one of the assassins.Review of Kati Marton's biography.
In recent years, several members of the group known by the British as the Stern Gang have acknowledged responsibility for the killing. Mr. Shamir, who was a member of the Stern Gang, has declined to discuss the killing, and one of his spokesman has said he had no role in it.
'the Little Triangle': Ijzim, Ein Ghazal, and Jaba. The villages repeatedly fired at Israeli traffic along the coast road and were supplied by the Iraqis from northern Samaria. … Sniping at traffic continued after the start of the Second Truce, …on 24 July Israel launched mivtza shoter (Operation Policeman). The aim was 'to gain control' of the coast road between Zikhron Yaakov and Haifa 'and to destroy all the enemy in the area.'… By 26 July it was over. Most of the inhabitants fled before and during the attack, reaching northern Samaria; hundreds of others were forcibly expelled during the following days. At least a hundred militiamen and civilians were killed.
If the front lines of 14 October were to turn into permanent borders, Israel would be truncated and extremely vulnerable. Moreover, the no-peace, no-war situation was untenable. As David Ben-Gurion put it to his ministers on 26 September, "A protracted truce will break us. The Egyptian expeditionary force had to be destroyed or, at the least, driven from Palestine
'Plan Dalet' or 'Plan D' was the name given by the Zionist High Command to the general plan for military operations within the framework of which the Zionists launched successive offensives in April and early May 1948 in various parts of Palestine. These offensives, which entailed the destruction of the Palestinian Arab community and the expulsion and pauperization of the bulk of the Palestine Arabs, were calculated to achieve the military fait accompli upon which the state of Israel was to be based.
The invasion of Palestine by the Arab Armies started on 15 May, when the Iraqi, Syrian, Jordanian and Egyptian forces crossed the international border.
