At the same time that the reborn Jewish State achieved its sovereignty in May 1948, the new country faced its first war. The conflict spread to the north, against Syria and Lebanon. To the west, against what was then Transjordan and Iraq. To the south, against Egypt. The final victories, after almost a year of fighting, were summarized by Ben-Gurion as follows: “In Israel, only those who believe in miracles are realists.”
Since Israel achieved sovereignty, the Jewish state has rarely gone a year without war or the constant threat of terrorism. From the beginning, Arab countries have refused to accept a resolution passed in 1947 by the United Nations: the creation of a Jewish state in their ancestral land.
DARK HORIZON
On May 12th, the day before independence, the ishuv (Jewish community in British Palestine) was in turmoil from north to south of the territory designated to be the future state. Palestinian militias attacked kibbutzim and moshavim (collective agricultural colonies), in addition to preventing access to the main cities in the region with a Jewish majority. In Tel Aviv, the 13 members of the National Council, representing the yishuv, attended a meeting called by David Ben-Gurion, who was initially astonished by the disagreements and radical positions of some of the participants. The order was only observed when Yigael Yadin, a respected expert on military affairs, spoke. His report was terrifying. The Arab Legion had already begun to invade the territory demarcated by the Partition with tanks and infantry and had consolidated the blockade of the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road.
Yadin emphasized that the perspective of the ishuv being invaded by three or more Arab armies was an imminent reality. However, he considered that the forces of the ishuv be successful in confronting the enemy troops. Ben-Gurion explained that the situation should be faced as it was, without defeatism or false expectations, because resistance and final victory would be difficult, but not impossible. Despite Ben-Gurion's encouragement, the Council was practically in a state of shock due to Yadin's analysis and because of the disturbing situation in the city of Jerusalem, which had already been practically isolated for some months. The 100 Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem were besieged by the Arabs. They had no contact with the surrounding villages and kibbutzim, and were without supplies, medicine, food and fuel, in addition to a dramatic shortage of water, consumed under strict rationing.
The war anticipated by Yadin began with attacks by irregular Arab bands from the territory allocated to them by the UN, together with volunteers from neighboring Arab countries. These groups launched attacks on towns and agricultural settlements. The forces of ishuv were composed of the Haganah, the Jewish clandestine troop formed since the beginnings of the British Mandate, and two small irregular groups, Irgun and Lehi, both engaged in acts of sabotage against English military installations.
As soon as Israel declared its independence on May 14, the fighting intensified, with other Arab forces allied with the Palestinians attacking the territory granted to the Zionist movement. The invasion was launched by armies from Syria, Iraq and Egypt, as well as Lebanon to a lesser extent. Saudi Arabia sent a formation that fought under Egyptian command. The well-prepared Arab Legion of Transjordan, trained by British officers, also intervened in the conflict.
The horizon was bleak for the Jews. The uncertainty was distressing. The destructive maelstrom was gathering momentum. The Jewish state seemed destined to die before it had even been born.
The fight for Jerusalem
According to the UN resolution, Jerusalem was to be subject to a special international regime. When fighting broke out in the early months of 1948, doubts arose about the UN’s ability to enforce the internationalization of Jerusalem and the urgent need for Jews to strengthen the city’s defenses. To avoid provocation, the defenders of the Jewish Quarter were given strict orders not to open fire except in life-threatening situations. On December 3, 1947, a bus en route to the Jewish Quarter in the Old City was attacked at the Jaffa Gate. One Jew was killed and eight were wounded. The fighting force in the Jewish Quarter was small and needed reinforcements. On the 10th, an Irgun unit moved into the Old City, and at the same time the Haganah dispatched a force of two platoons to the Jewish Quarter. The day after the reinforcements arrived in the Old City, the fighters experienced their baptism of fire. In the early hours of the morning, the Arabs attempted to invade the Quarter. The defenders took their positions and repelled the attack which only ended when the Arab commander was killed.
After the skirmish, the British authorities sent a military force into the Old City. The Mandatory Army warned that it would use force against whichever side opened fire. But British neutrality was only apparent. Searches were carried out in the Jewish Quarter and weapons were confiscated, while Arabs were allowed to carry weapons. In reality, the British were determined to reduce the Jewish force in the Old City. The calm was short-lived. In January 1948, the Arabs blew up a Jewish military post. Then, a Jewish convoy from the Dead Sea was attacked on its way to Jerusalem. The defenders of the Jewish Quarter, who were stationed at a post known as Matzot, opened fire on the attackers. The British responded by confiscating all the weapons they found there.
In the early months of 1948, there was friction between the Irgun and the Haganah. The two armed groups negotiated a collaboration. The discussions were lengthy, and it was not until April that the executive of the Jewish Agency ratified the agreement. Earlier, in January, the Arabs had blown up the house of Yitzhak Orenstein, the rabbi of the Western Wall. The Haganah fighters wanted to retaliate, but they had no explosives. The Lehi, on the other hand, which had joined the Irgun, had a powerful arsenal of ammunition. On February 16, Haganah and Irgun fighters set out together to blow up an Arab post. The attack ultimately failed, but it signaled the first effective cooperation in Jerusalem between the two military units.
April 1948 was a relatively quiet month in Jerusalem, awaiting the British withdrawal. Despite the blockade, a few convoys managed to enter the Old City, carrying supplies and small quantities of small arms and explosives. By the end of the month, a new transmitter had been obtained, allowing the Jewish Quarter to maintain contact with the New City, which was under the well-structured Haganah command. Residents of the Quarter purchased submachine guns and ammunition from the Arabs themselves, through Christian Armenians who were not involved in the conflict. At the same time, 44 Irgun and Lehi fighters joined 70 Haganah fighters to make up the small force defending the Jewish Quarter in the Old City. This small contingent was significantly increased by the involvement of young and old residents of the Quarter, who contributed greatly to its defense. On April 28, Moshe Sharett, a prominent member of the Jewish Agency, sent a telegram from Washington to Ben-Gurion informing him that the United Nations had concluded a cease-fire agreement for the Old City. Four days later, the Haganah stipulated that the cease-fire would expire when the last British soldier withdrew from Jerusalem. By May, the population of the Jewish Quarter numbered about 1.700 Jews, including elderly people, women, and children. According to the defenders, there were an average of 300 bullets for each rifle and 500 bullets for each machine gun, along with 374 hand grenades, 126 assault grenades, and 200 kilograms of explosives. This meant that little more than half of the Jews could be considered an armed force. Even more serious was the shortage of heavy weapons, such as machine guns and mortars, and the total absence of anti-tank weapons. In this desperate situation, following an instruction from Ben-Gurion, no matter how terrible the situation, it was important to establish a presence of Jews in the Old City, with a view to negotiations that could take place after the independence of the new country, which was about to be proclaimed. Because of this instruction, the Haganah often had to act to prevent migration to the New City, despite the risk of high casualties that would certainly fall upon the civilian population during the upcoming and inevitable fighting.
On May 13, British forces withdrew from the Old City. Jewish forces immediately seized the Zion Gate and the Greek Orthodox Church in the Armenian Quarter. Whoever controlled the tall tower of the Greek Church controlled the Jewish Quarter. When the Arabs noticed the Jewish activity, they opened limited fire because the ceasefire was still in effect. The Armenian patriarch immediately demanded the evacuation of the force occupying the Greek Church. He claimed that it was a holy place, guaranteed by its neutral status. The Haganah commander, Moshe Rosnak, objected, since the post was vital to signal the Jewish presence in that part of the Old City. The patriarch then telephoned David Shaltiel, the chief commander of all Jewish units in Jerusalem, who ordered the immediate evacuation. Two days later, Rosnak's fears were confirmed when the Greek Orthodox Church was taken by Arab forces. That withdrawal sealed the adverse fate of the Jewish Quarter.
The fiercest fighting took place on May 17. At dawn, the Arabs warned the residents of the Jewish Quarter that if they did not surrender by ten o'clock in the morning, the Quarter would be destroyed. At that precise time, heavy shelling began, followed by automatic gunfire. The Arabs recaptured the main street and continued to advance, but were stopped. They renewed their attacks in the afternoon and evening. All positions in the western sector of the city fell into their hands. On the 19th, forces of the Arab Legion entered the Old City and captured it. David Shaltiel did everything in his power to prevent the occupation of the Old City. All his efforts were directed to achieving a ceasefire by diplomatic means, but his efforts were doomed to failure. The residents of the Jewish Quarter, along with the seriously wounded fighters, were taken to the New City. This marked the end of the heroic struggle of the defenders of the Jewish Quarter.
The New City did not come under heavy attack, but Arab forces had taken control of the hills surrounding the city, which meant complete control over all roads leading to Jerusalem. Vehicles attempting to travel along the road stretching from the Mediterranean coast were met with heavy fire. Convoys carrying food, weapons, and medical supplies sent by the ishuv suffered heavy losses and were left behind.
On 15 May 1948, British forces withdrew from the monastery of Latrun, where a fort overlooked the strategic road. Latrun was immediately occupied by a brigade of the Palmach, a branch of the Haganah trained for more forceful actions. However, on the night of 18 May, the Arab Legion of Transjordan, which housed British officers, took possession of Latrun. Attempts by the Palmach to retake the fort were met with repeated failure.
The needs of the Jewish population of Jerusalem were growing and multiplying. Small quantities of supplies, mainly ammunition, were airlifted, but the shortage of basic survival items was appalling. In Tel Aviv, the leadership of the ishuv he began to fear that the city would surrender to the Arab Legion. Finding a way to break the blockade of Jerusalem was the center of all his concerns, especially since new attempts to reoccupy Latrun had been futile. The only successful initiative had been the elimination of Jordanian snipers operating on the cliffs around the fort.
During these raids, the fighters observed that it would be possible to occupy a terrain at the foot of a hill, adjacent to Latrun, which would not be visible to the Arab artillery. A troop set out on foot from Kibbutz Hulda to a Palmach barracks in Abu Ghosh, on the outskirts of Latrun. There, the troop commanders determined that it would be possible to open a path to the north of the fort without being seen. The biggest problem was a very steep section at the beginning of the climb up the hill. After two weeks of work, some supplies carried by mules reached Jerusalem.
This encouraged the fighters to widen the trail to the exact size to allow vehicles to pass. At dawn on June 2, a supply convoy set off for Jerusalem. However, the makeshift road was virtually impassable. Some vehicles had to be pushed by hand, while bulldozers and workers tried to smooth the most critical sections of the road, always taking care to stay out of the line of sight of Jordanian artillery. However, the Arab Legion spotted the road and shelled it, but did not hit its target, while Arab snipers killed eight Israelis on June 9.
Three weeks later, the steepest section was opened to vehicles, which required the help of tractors to climb. The road was named Burma Road, after a road the British had painstakingly built in Burma to fight off the Japanese invasion. The road was finally completed on June 14, with water and fuel pipes laid along the route. The strategy for building Burma Road was pioneered by a hero of Israel's War of Independence, U.S. Army Colonel David "Mickey" Marcus, a decorated World War II veteran. As a volunteer, he arrived in British Palestine shortly before the end of the British Mandate and became one of Ben-Gurion's top military advisers. Mickey, as he was often called, was given the rank of Aluf (general) and intervened, often personally, in the unfolding of battles from north to south of the country.
Days after access to the Holy City was cleared, Marcus was fatally shot by a new immigrant on guard duty who had difficulty recognizing the password that allowed entry to the command post. The tragedy occurred just hours before an imminent ceasefire was due to go into effect on June 11 at XNUMX:XNUMX a.m. Fearing an Arab attack that night, Marcus had issued instructions to increase the alert and open fire if a password was not recognized. Ironically, he was the victim of his own order.
At the end of the War of Independence, David Shaltiel's performance became the target of criticism and controversy that never reached a consensus. He was incorporated into the regular army with the rank of general and, in 1951, was appointed to be Israel's first ambassador to Brazil.
The Battle of Negba
On May 12, 1948, even before the Egyptian army invaded the territory that would belong to the Jewish state, well-armed units under the command of the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist organization based in Cairo, took control of the Suwaydan police fort, which was controlled by Iraq. After the British withdrew, the fledgling Israeli army made two attempts to capture the fort, but both failed. On May 21, an Egyptian motorized unit carried out an attack on Kibbutz Negba, located in the southern part of the country, in the Negev desert strip. This attack was followed by bombing raids by Egyptian aircraft, which killed the Israeli regional commander, Yoav Dubno, who was firing at the planes with a powerful machine gun.
The kibbutz fighters devised a strategic action they named Operation Yoav, in honor of their fallen comrade, which resulted in the capture of the Iraqi police fort. The Egyptians continued to besiege Negba in the following days, prompting the Israeli Givati Brigade to send two platoons of mortar-equipped artillery as reinforcements. The brigade's forces also occupied the town of Julis on May 27–28. This enabled them to control an important position and provide additional reinforcements to Negba.
When an Egyptian attack was launched on June 2, the defenders of Negba numbered about 70 soldiers from the Givati Brigade and 70 kibbutz residents, including 10 women. They had a total of 80 rifles, 200 hand grenades, 500 cocktails molotov cocktail, 20 submachine guns, 8 machine guns and 53 mortars. The Egyptian force consisted of the 1st Infantry Battalion, supplemented by a tank company, an armored car company and three artillery batteries. They planned to surround the kibbutz and advance from different directions.
The attack began with an artillery barrage at dawn on 2 June. His column moved east of the main road in the area and attacked Negba from the south with three armoured units. With Egyptian machine gun positions providing cover, seven tanks and 12 armoured cars reached within 100 metres of the kibbutz's south-western perimeter by XNUMXam. One of the tanks reached a Jewish defensive position, which was completely destroyed, but had to retreat under heavy fire from the defenders. Two other tanks were blown up by land mines. Egyptian infantry attacked from the north-east but were repulsed.
The Givati Brigade was joined by the Negev Brigade, which was assigned to assist Negba. A jeep unit from this battalion was sent west of the kibbutz with the mission of blocking any further enemy advance. At around 11:8 a.m., the Egyptian forces decided to withdraw under a smokescreen. Negba suffered 11 dead and 100 wounded, while Egyptian losses were estimated at XNUMX dead and the same number wounded.
The second attack on Negba was the culmination of their effort to eliminate the kibbutz. The Egyptians deployed a reinforced brigade and made a similar attempt to the previous one: an infantry battalion, supported by a tank company and an armored vehicle company, all supplemented by artillery and air support. To avoid a failure like the previous battle, the Egyptians planned their advance with a clever plan to encircle the kibbutz, designed to prevent reinforcements from arriving. At 300:XNUMX a.m., the encirclement was complete. Armored forces and infantry attacked from three directions. However, the simultaneous attacks were poorly coordinated, and the infantry and armor clashed to the point where they became easily destroyed targets. The defenders of Negba held out, while the Egyptians regrouped and attempted a final attack from the north. Unsuccessful, they retreated at XNUMX:XNUMX p.m. Egyptian losses were estimated at XNUMX dead.
The commander of Egyptian forces in British mandated Palestine dismissed Muhammad Naguib, commander of the 4th Brigade, because of the defeat. (Years later, Naguib would lead the military coup against the royal government in Cairo.)
The Battle of Negba is considered the turning point on the southern front during the period between the first and second truces of the First Israeli War. The poet Abba Kovner, who served in the Givati Brigade, compared the defense of Kibbutz Negba to the Battle of Stalingrad, crowning it as Negbagrad.
The armistices
In 1949, Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria signed armistice agreements, formally ending the hostilities that had begun the previous year and also demarcating the provisional lines that separated the territories controlled by the Arabs. These territories included the West Bank, annexed by Jordan, and the Gaza Strip, occupied by Egypt.
Hostilities between the newly created State of Israel and its neighboring countries reached such devastating proportions that the United Nations Security Council appointed the skilled African-American diplomat Ralph Bunche (1904–1971) to mediate the conflict. Bunche had served on the United States delegation to the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in 1945, which drafted the UN Charter. He then served on the American delegation to the first session of the United Nations General Assembly in 1946. He then headed the Trusteeship Department, beginning a long public career that extended into the civil liberties movement led by Martin Luther King Jr.
During his mission in the Middle East, after numerous and intense persuasive interventions, Bunche managed to bring the Israelis and Egyptians to the negotiating table. The talks began in January. Acting with discretion, patience and humor, Ralph Bunche gained the trust of the parties with impartial and viable proposals. Initially, he got the negotiators to agree to observe total secrecy with regard to the press, with the Security Council only receiving official reports free of opinions or comments. Although the negotiations were very difficult, they led to the signing of a truce that was to remain in effect until the end of February, later assumed to be the “armistice”. In one of the most sensitive moments of the negotiations, Israel agreed to lift the siege it had imposed on a large Egyptian force in Fallujah, allowing the contingent to move without surrendering weapons. Among the retreating soldiers was a young officer named Gamal Abdel Nasser. Since Egypt was the most powerful and leading Arab nation, it was up to it to pave the way for agreements with the other Arab countries that had invaded Israel. To monitor the agreed borders, the UN established supervisory agencies, whose implementation was signed by the United States, France and England.
The agreement with Lebanon was signed on March 23, 1949. Its main point was to follow the border drawn when demarcating the territory that had been under British mandate since 1922. Israel withdrew its forces from 13 Lebanese villages occupied during the war.
Negotiations with Transjordan were much more complicated because, in the course of their course, Israel occupied large areas of territory in both the central and southern Negev Desert. Jordanian forces remained in most of the positions they had occupied, particularly in Jerusalem, which led to the division of the city, with the Old City falling to them.
Armistice negotiations with Syria began at Gesher B'not Yaacov on the Jordan River in April 1949, after other armistice agreements had already been concluded; and were not consummated until July 20. Syria withdrew its forces from most of the territory it controlled west of the international border.
Iraq, whose army actively participated in the war despite having no border with Israel, withdrew its forces from the region in March. This withdrawal did not amount to an armistice and, formally, Iraq remains in a state of war with Israel.
The Rhodes Accords received significant international recognition. In 1950, Ralph Bunche was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
REFERENCES
Lorch, Nethaniel. The Edge of the Sword, Masada Press, Israel, 1968.
Zevi Ghivelder is a writer and journalist.
