By: Bruce McLean
Posted: January 31 2012
Part 8
It was also during June 1948, that the stranglehold the Arabs had on all the roads leading into Jerusalem was finally broken, giving life and hope back to the 100,000 Jewish residents. But this came at the cost with many losses of Haganah members and their home made armored vehicles.
The Arabs had ferociously controlled the roads leading into Jerusalem, so the Jews were left with only one option; to make a new road.
Under the leadership of former WWII American Colonel David Mickey Marcus, a new road was dug out through the hills leading to Jerusalem. It was dangerous work but a spectacular success. Marcus was promoted by David Ben Gurion to the rank of Aluf, the first Jewish “General” in over 2,000 years, not a Palestinian (Israeli), but an American Jew who had volunteered to help his brethren fight for survival. This fight also cost Marcus his life, who was shot early one morning by a sentry who mistook him in the darkness, for an invading Arab.
The Jews used this time during the Ceasefire to reorganize themselves and attain more arms. The Ceasefire was to end on July 9, but Egypt jumped a day earlier and attacked. Israel responded by an offensive on all three fronts the next day, and so once again the fighting intensified, but the UN intervened again with intense diplomatic effort to procure another Ceasefire to start on July 18 and to extend to early October. Pressure once again mounted on Count Bernadotte to come up with a new plan for peace.
Count Bernadotte was doing his rounds of diplomacy and on August 10 he entered Jerusalem for talks. He was jostled and jeered by a crowd of mainly Sternists and Moshe Dayan was sent in to protect the UN Diplomat and keep the Jews from attacking him. Dayan kept the crowd calm, many of who held various posters condemning Bernadotte such as Stockholm is yours; Jerusalem is ours. One of the signs sadly had a prophetic warning, Remember Lord Moyne, referring back to Lord Moyne’s assassination. Within a month, Bernadotte fell to this prophetic warning.
Count Bernadotte’s Second Plan:
His second plan was presented September 16, 1948. It was almost as equally unfavorable as his first, but this time allowed for an independent Jewish state, albeit a tiny one, and for internationalization of Jerusalem. However the plan did not allow for a Palestinian state. Instead Bernadotte’s plan was similar to the British Peel Commission’s plan of 1937 to abolish any Palestinian State in favor of greater Transjordan. This appears to have been consistent British policy as can be seen by a British memorandum of September 24, 1948 stated:
“The Chiefs of Staff will be aware that we are now seeking a settlement of the Palestine question which might result in the emergence of a greatly enlarged Transjordan. This Greater Transjordan might include the whole of the Negeb or only the northern part thereof, the southern part being give to Egypt."
Bernadotte was accused by some as being very biased towards the Arabs in his peace plans, with Israel having to concede much, but the Arabs being asked to concede very little. The plan also limited Israel’s ability as a nation to grow.
The New York Post headed a story “Outrageous Peace Plan” on Wednesday July 14, 1948 where the article claimed: ”Jerusalem Would Be Turned Over to Arab Rule if Count Bernadotte Proposals Win” . The article went on to state:
“It is quite obvious that Count Bernadotte has not acted like a neutral mediator; all his points reveal the authorship of the British. This is the plan Bevin long tried to impose on the Jewish population of Palestine.
For some in Israel, Jerusalem was the holy city and could not be negotiated. This was the very strong view of the Lehi (Lohamei Herut Israel—Fighters for the Freedom of Israel), otherwise known as The Stern Gang.
Israel had also rejected this second plan, but the Lehi did not know this. Neither did they know that Jerusalem was not to be given as an Arab city in this second plan. The leaders of the Stern Gang met hastily and planned for the assassination of Count Bernadotte. Included in the leadership, and possibly in the planning of the actual assassination was Yitzhak Shamir, who later became Israel’s Prime Minister. In fact the Stern Gang had been warning for some time of the killing of Bernadotte as seen in the report below:
New York Times columnist C.L. Sulzberger reported meeting with two Stern members on July 24, who stated: "We intend to kill Bernadotte and any other uniformed United Nations observers who come to Jerusalem." Asked why, "They replied that their organization was determined to seize all of Jerusalem for the state of Israel and would brook no interference by any national or international body."
ASSASSINATION:
The next day after Bernadotte released his plan, on September 17, Count Bernadotte and Colonel Andre P. Serot of the French Air Force were assassinated in Jerusalem by members of the Stern group, as their UN convoy made their way through the streets of Jerusalem. One of the UN team who witnessed and survived the attack noted in his official statement:
“In the Qatamon Quarter we were held up by a Jewish army-type jeep, placed in a road block and filled with men in Jewish Army uniforms. At the same moment I saw a man running from this jeep…he put a tommy gun through the open window on my side of the car and fired point blank at Count Bernadotte and Colonel Serot. I also heard shots fired from other points and there was considerable confusion…the man was still firing. Colonel Serot fell in the seat at the back of me and I saw at once that he was dead. Count Bernadotte bent forward…I asked him “are you wounded?” He nodded and fell back. I helped him lie down in the car. I now realized that he was severely wounded…The Jewish liaison officer was urging…us to get to the hospital as quickly as possible…When we arrived I carried the Count inside …We had sent for a medical officer, but while waiting…I saw that he was wounded around the heart…When the doctor arrived I asked if anything could be done, but he replied that it was too late.”
The assassination brought an official condemnation from the Israeli government and promises of quick arrests. However, no one was ever brought to trial and jailed for the murders.
Israel's obvious reluctance to prosecute the assassins brought the first U.N. Security Council criticism of the new country. On Oct. 19, 1948, the council unanimously passed a resolution expressing its "concern" that Israel had "to date submitted no report to the Security Council or the Acting Mediator regarding the progress of the investigation into the assassination."
An official inquiry by Sweden produced a report in 1950 that charged Israel's investigation had been so negligent that "doubt must exist as to whether the Israeli authorities really tried to bring the inquiry to a positive result."
They publicly attacked the inadequacy of the Israeli investigation and campaigned unsuccessfully to delay Israel's admission to the United Nations.
Israel is said to have later admitted the laxity of its investigation and in 1950 paid the United Nations $54,628 in indemnity for Bernadotte's murder.
In 1950, Sweden recognized Israel. Relations are said to have remained frosty despite Israeli attempts to console Sweden such as the planting of a Bernadotte Forest by the JNF in Israel. At a ceremony in Tel-Aviv in May 1995, attended by the Swedish deputy prime minister, Israeli Foreign Minister and Labor Party member Shimon Peres issued a "condemnation of terror, thanks for the rescue of the Jews and regret that Bernadotte was murdered in a terrorist way," adding that "We hope this ceremony will help in healing the wound."
Bernadotte was succeeded as U.N. mediator by his chief aide, American Ralph Bunche who abandoned the borders and succeeded in bringing about the signing of the 1949 Armistice Agreements, for which he would later receive the Nobel Peace Prize. It has been claimed by some the assassination set the UN against Israel.
But in most part the assassination of Bernadotte barely effected either the Jews or the Arabs, who continued to the war in earnest. In skirmishes during ceasefires, and bitter battles in between, land was won and lost on both sides. But soon, though outnumbered, and against all expert predictions, the tide of the battles began to turn in favor of the Jews, who began making gains taking control of various Arab villages.
Some of this was done by the simple taking over of evacuating Arabs, who at their own choice, chose to leave their villages, many with the belief they would return after the slaughter of the Jews as promised by the Arab propaganda. In various villages the Jews asked the Arabs to stay in peace and live with them as full citizens, but many Arabs refused and decided to evacuate, some seeking the assistance of the British to enable that.
For example the New York Times produced a report on April 23, 1948 stating that when Jewish forces secured Tiberias on April 18, 1948, its 6,500 Jewish residents urged its 2000 Arab residents to stay. Instead, they asked to be evacuated by British troops. The Jewish Community Council issued a statement afterward: "We did not dispossess them; they themselves chose this course…Let no citizen touch their property."
The British Police reported the same kind of actions in April 26, 1948 noting that when the Jews took control of Haifa, they asked the local Arab population to please stay and do their business as usual, assuring them of their safety. But the Arabs informed the British Police: "that the Arab population wished to evacuate Haifa and that they would be grateful for military assistance."
Faris el-Khouri, Syria’s UN delegate claimed in the UN that Haifa was a Jewish massacre against the Arabs and that it was “further evidence that the 'Zionist program' is to annihilate Arabs within the Jewish state if partition is effected.”
Once again the Arab tendency to exaggerate was seen when the next day (April 23, 1948) the British delegate to the UN, Sir Alexander Cadogan explained that the fighting was actually provoked by the Arabs, and that claims of massacres and deportations of Arabs was erroneous. While the chairman of the Arab Higher Committee Jamal Husseini said to the UN Security Council they refused an offer of truce by Hanaga because the Arabs “preferred to abandon their homes, their belongings, and everything they possessed in the world and leave the town.”
Many of the Arabs were inundated with Arab propaganda, proclaiming great victories for the Arabs. But also as one news reporter at the time commented on the Arab tendency to exaggerate, horrific claims and distortions of Arabs been slaughtered by the Jews were made through Arab propaganda, striking great fear among the Arab population, as was later confirmed by one historian:
News of Deir Yassin rapidly circulated…was embellished and soon dramatically exaggerated. The fellahin found these accounts wholly credible, for they knew well how their own guerillas had stripped and mutilated Jewish civilians; photographs of the slaughter were peddled openly by Arab street vendors….entire Arab communities were fleeing in terror even before Jewish forces overran their homes.
The Arabs themselves had to admit their own exaggerated propaganda turned against them and caused many Arabs to flee their villages and head to Arab lands. Hazem Nusseibeh, editor of the Palestine Broadcasting Service's Arabic news in 1948 admitted in a BBC Report the fabricated atrocity stories about Deir Yassin "were our biggest mistake because Palestinians fled in terror and left the country in huge numbers after hearing the atrocity claims."
Jordan’s Arab Legion British Commander General John Baggot Glubb Pasha concurred as reported in the London Daily Mail of August 12, 1948: "The Arab civilians panicked and fled ignominiously…."
For those Arab inhabitants not deterred by the hysteria and propaganda, there was also another great pressure and fear they had to deal with, that to stay in the land under Israel, would mark them as enemies of the Arab people, and they too would be targeted for slaughter along with the Jews. This was highlighted in a report by The Economist in October 2, 1948:
"Of the 62,000 Arabs who formerly lived in Haifa not more than 5,000 or 6,000 remained. Various factors influenced their decision to seek safety in flight. There is but little doubt that the most potent of the factors were the announcements made over the air by the Higher Arab Executive, urging the Arabs to quit…It was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained…and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades."
Not all the Arabs wanted war and hostilities with the Jews, and not all the Jews wanted peaceful relations living with Arabs.
The Arabs of Israel found themselves in a difficult position. They were bombarded with propaganda by Arab forces to leave, so the Arabs could slaughter the Jews and they would be back home in a matter of weeks. As one Palestinian refugee (later in 1954) summed it up that: “The Arab governments told us: Get out so that we can get in. So we got out, but they did not get in." Many were beguiled by the Arab promises and became refugees. They found out only too late the war and resulting Arab exodus was not about their welfare, but to use them as a tool against Israel.
There were also those who left by panic out of false propaganda of Jews slaughtering Arabs.
Unfortunately as was seen in Deir Yassin, there was a despicable slaughter of Arabs in that village. And in some other cases, Arab villages were forced out by the advancing Israeli Defense Forces. But in most cases, this was based on a military, not a racial / religious consideration. Historian Efraim Karsh concludes:
"Israeli forces did on occasion expel Palestinians. But this accounted for only a small fraction of the total exodus, occurred not within the framework of a premeditated plan but in the heat of battle, and was dictated predominantly by ad hoc military considerations (notably the need to deny strategic sites to the enemy if there were no available Jewish forces to hold them)."
But as in any war, there were some minor incidents by some Jewish soldiers, where revenge or ethnic cleansing such as in Deir Yassin may have been the motivation for revenge attacks, but these were strongly forbidden and condemned by the IDF and Jewish government. But not every Jewish soldier upheld the letter of Jewish law.
Years later Yitzhak Rabin, Jewish soldier and later Prime Minister of Israel released his memoirs, in which in one version he confirms he was ordered by David Ben Gurion to expel 50,000 Arabs from the towns of Lod and Ramle. So in some cases, some Arabs were mercilessly pushed out of their homes, for no other reason than being Arab. But by most reports the vast majority of the Arab exodus was voluntary on the part of the Arabs, and when not, in most cases it was due to military circumstances.
The Arab attackers however were very clear the war was to be a war of pushing the Jews into the sea. It was not based on military needs, but of a passionate hate and religious fervor against the Jews, to which the Arab mind, there could not be any coexistence with the Jews. The attackers had no hesitancy to murder innocent Jews and to rape and mutilate survivors, or mutilate the dead. But not all Arabs fled Israel or thought like this, and thousands stayed and later enjoyed full rights as citizens of Israel.
But in the large, most Arabs fled Israel to Arab lands, to become known as the Palestinian refugees. Even Dr Walid al Qamhawi, Executive Member of the PLO, who had a passionate hate for Jewish Israel, had to later admit in 1962 of a historical survey of the war of 1948 that:
"It was collective fear, moral disintegration and chaos in every field that exiled the Arabs from Tiberius, Haifa and dozens of towns and villages."
Entrenched in squalor, many who trusted the Arab authorities to expel the Jews now looked to them for help, but were once again abandoned by their own Arab brothers and were basically imprisoned in refugee camps.
In a British fact-finding Commission set up after the war in 1949, Sir John Troutback reported that they found that the Palestinian refugees were bitter at the Arab states "who persuaded them unnecessarily to leave their homes…I even heard it said that many of the refugees would give a welcome to the Israelis if they do come in and take the district over."
Now the UN found they had another problem on their hands. As they sought to cease hostilities in Israel, they had to also deal with a deluge of Palestinian refugees who were being detained in various refugee camps under Arab control. There were legitimate long time residents and also many Arabs who were new to the land and came in under Britain’s open door policy for Arabs during the Mandate. It is estimated that a total of 500,000 to 600,000 fled Israel for Arab lands, based upon records of the time of Arab inhabitants, though later Arab claims were over a million refugees, but these claims cannot be confirmed by records of the day.
Many of the refugees who left fully expected to be back in their homes in a matter of weeks after the Jews were slaughtered as Arab propaganda claimed over the radios. In a history of the 1948 war Palestinian nationalist Aref el-Aref notes, “the Arabs thought they would win in less than the twinkling of an eye and that it would take no more than a day or two from the time the Arab armies crossed the border until all the colonies were conquered and the enemy would throw down his arms and cast himself on their mercy”.
The exodus started as a trickle in 1947 by the more wealthier Arabs, now turned into a raging river very quickly. As early as January of 1948 Palestine’s Arab Higher Committee asked neighboring Arab states to close their borders to their fellow Arabs and refuse them visas.
The Jews had fought tenaciously to hold onto the land allotted to them by the Partition Plan, but they had lost part of Jerusalem. The hills of Samaria that had been allotted to local Palestinian Arabs, was now taken over by the Jordanians, whilst Gaza teetered between the hands of the Palestinian’s mandated to rule there and the Egyptians.
But the Israelis also gained ground in many of their victories and added another 5,000 square miles of land than was originally allotted to them in the Partition Plan.
The Arab refusal to allow a Jewish state, to allow peace and to allow friendship and co-operation between Jew and Arab, cost the Arabs untold lives in the War of Israel’s Independence, it cost them ground that the Arabs had legally been given under UN guidelines, and it cost the upheaval of up to some 600,000 fellow Arabs, now living in tents and squalor in Arab refugee camps.
Over 6,300 Israelis lost their lives, in their war for survival and independence which was almost one percent of the entire Jewish population. An equivalent to that would be the loss of 3 million lives for the US. It was a staggering percentage for the Jews.
Except for the agitators, most people wanted peace and huge efforts were made on the diplomatic fronts to bring a cessation to the hostilities and allow time for the people on all sides to mourn and heal.
Part 9
The longed for peace and cessation of hostilities was finally bought about after intensive diplomatic pressures, secret meetings and agreements. A permanent ceasefire was achieved and was later replaced with what became known and the Armistice Agreements.
After the initial invasion by the Arab armies upon Israel on May 15, 1948, the newly formed IDF (Israeli Defence Forces made up of Hagana and Palmach and other volunteers) fought long hard battles to survive the onslaught. Their sheer tenacity and desire to survive was their bravest weapon. Though outmanned and outgunned they quickly built up their weapons arsenal, some from overseas purchases, and many as weapons taken from the invading Arab armies.
Then re-gathering the Israelis then began offensive moves shoring up vulnerable roads and villages until they established a safe zone of sorts. The Arabs who all the experts expected to win within weeks were beaten back and were retreating and giving up ground in most cases, except where the Legionnaires from Jordan were entrenched in the Mandated area for the Palestinian Arabs in Samaria and the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem.
Battles of courage were fought around the country, in offensives and counter offensives, with incredible bravery shown by soldiers on all sides. Attacks and counter attacks painted the desert sands thick red with blood, and the dying moans of men giving their all for each of their nations. Arabs and Jews and (mainly western) volunteers gave their all on the battlefields for Israel’s survival. Even some British troops stationed in Palestine had deserted, and were now serving to fight for the new nation of Israel, some even stole vehicles from the exiting British armor corps to help with the fight.
One of the future Israeli Prime Ministers, Yitzhak Rabin commanded the Har El Brigade which encountered the most casualties of any Brigade. The many stories of heroism would fill a library.
Whilst some Arab armies were well armed and well trained, others weren’t. There was a lack of communication, confusion and disunity and distrust among the Arabs with various Arab leaders trying to exert their own agendas. This helped to weaken the resolve of many of the Arabs, which the Israelis capitalized on, and made further war gains. Soon it was becoming clear; Israel was winning much of the battle.
In one Arab village, when they saw armored vehicles approaching they ran into the streets cheering to welcome the troops. They thought they were Jordan’s Legion troops that had been promised to the Arabs. But then to their horror they found they were Jews and quickly ran back inside.
In the Arab city of Lydda the Greek Orthodox Archimandrite was awaiting the Israeli troops as they rolled in to take over the town. He arranged a surrender with the Israeli commander and was assured the Arabs would be left in peace, if they would surrender in peace and they were free to stay and go about life as normal. Many of the Arabs gathered in the Dahmash Mosque fearful of the Israelis that Arab propaganda had warned them about. The town was peaceful and five Israeli soldiers were stationed outside the Mosque as their troops rolled through to the next town.
From within the mosque a boy threw a hand grenade at the soldiers and then they were rushed by a crowd of Arabs from the mosque and surrounding houses. The Israeli soldiers were butchered and mutilated by the crowd. The Israelis responded with force and within an hour over 200 Arabs had been killed in the battle. The mosque where the Arabs fought from was a scarred mess from the battle and the prayer mats were covered with blood and human body parts.
Once more the Greek cleric intervened and the Israelis this time demanded all who were able to be evacuated to Arab held city of Ramallah. The time for peaceful surrender had passed. The Israelis assured them of safe passage to another city and the Arabs fled.
Various meetings were held between Israeli and Egyptian military leaders trying to work out and keep a truce. After one such meeting the Egyptian commander Colonel Aziz was been driving in his jeep when he was shot by accident killing him. The Egyptian sentry mistook him for an enemy, and the Colonel lay dead, eerily in the same manner the Israeli leader Colonel Marcus died.
Despite a truce being in place, skirmishes and battles continued to break out all over the land.
All over Palestine, various battles raged, with various goals and outcomes. The Egyptians sent in six companies supported by air and artillery to capture Negba and cut off their supply lines. Gammal Abdul Nasser who had joined the Young Egyptian Nazi Party was now a Major and on July 12 took a jeep to see how this battle was going. His driver warned him of snipers and then within minutes the young Major was shot in the chest. He was rushed to Magdal Hospital to find his wound was not too serious. He was alone in the hospital ward but by the afternoon it was filled with many wounded Egyptian soldiers from the battle of Negba.
Nasser was shocked at the sight of so many wounded and bleeding comrades. Nasser is said to have vowed to himself: “If I ever should occupy an official position, I shall think a thousand times before dragging my men into war. I would only do so when the honor of the Fatherland was threatened and its future at stake; when nothing but the fire of battle could save the situation” .
It was a vow that was quickly forgotten by Nasser years later when he became President of Egypt and arch enemy of Israel.
In one battle at Latrun, the Israelis were trying to take the fortified fort. They advanced with tanks with the lead tank driven by Tex, one of the British soldiers who deserted the British to fight for Israel. When a shell was stuck in his main gun, his tank was useless and he had to go all the way back to Lydda Airport to get if fixed.
He quickly jumped out of his tank and ran to the one behind him telling the driver he had to go but would be back soon to join them for the fight. The second tank driver smiled and nodded at him. Then running back under fire to his tank he quickly headed out to Lydda Airport for the shell extraction tool. It took him just on half an hour and he was rushing thinking the small column of tanks he left behind would probably have finished the job by the time he got back to the battlefront.
To Tex’s horror, as he jumped out of his tank he found the tank column right behind him. In a not so British gentlemanly manner he asked the second tank driver why on earth they had followed him, but the driver just nodded and smiled. As Tex began ranting at the driver, some soldiers ran up and Tex yelled at them, “What’s the matter with that Bastard? It was soon explained the driver didn’t understand English and thought Tex had told him to follow him, instead of continue the fight. Latrun would have to wait for another day.
It was at Latrun where Joshua asked the Lord to make the sun stand still. Some of the fiercest fighting took place at the Latrun fort.
Another platoon to attack Latrun was led by Ariel Sharon who would later become the 11th Prime Minister of Israel. On May 24, 1948 Sharon led his troops into Operation Bin Nun, to try and take the heavily armed and entrenched Jordanian Legion, but the Legion were well armed and used heavy and accurate fire against the Israelis. Sharon’s platoon was quickly pinned down under heavy fire and quickly taking casualties. By 7 a.m., Sharon’s platoon had 8 dead and many others wounded. The Jordanian soldiers were fierce warriors. Sharon’s radio was knocked out by enemy fire so they had no further orders and couldn’t call for help.
Soon his platoon was surrounded by the Arabs, the fields had caught fire, and they were blistering from the heat of the hot day and the fire. They were quickly running low on ammunition and on water. IDF soldiers lay moaning in the heat, wounded and bleeding and then Sharon himself caught a bullet in his stomach which exited through his thigh, just missing the main arteries. Now he too laid in the heat, bleeding and hoping for an end to the day.
By noon the heavy firing stopped and to his horror Sharon saw Arabs making their way down to where the Israeli wounded were. He knew the Arabs wouldn’t have mercy and would mutilate and kill any wounded and steal their property. The soldiers tried to crawl their way out of the burning fields, but some wounded collapsed and asked to be left behind. To his own disgust and dismay, Sharon ordered the wounded to be left behind, and for those who can make it out, to get out quick. Only four soldiers were left who were able to walk. As the soldiers who could crawl raced for their own lives, Sharon collapsed from exhaustion, pain heat and loss of blood. Sharon expected to die, but was found by one of his soldiers, Yaakov Bugin who tried to help him crawl away.
Sharon ordered him to leave him and run for his life but Bugin refused the order and helped the wounded Sharon crawl away as hundreds of enemy Arabs tried to close in on them. In a momentous struggle to get away from the enemy closing in, they finally found some Israelis in an armored vehicle, who drove them to a hospital. Years later Sharon would bitterly remember the men lost in an ill planned battle, and how his wounded had to be left for the enemy. The operation and battle was a total failure. The Israelis never did take Latrun until the 1967 war.
Not all the battles in the War of Independence were so confronting and brutal. Other battles were fought without even the enemy knowing they had been attacked. One example of this was one of the early Israeli intelligence services, the precursor to the legendary Mossad, who carried out Operation Thief to stop weapons purchased by the enemy getting into the hands of their enemies, and instead stealing them from the enemy.
It started in February 1948 when Ehud Avriel was travelling under a false name for the top secret arms purchasing organization of the Hagana, the Rekhesh. Flying to Prague Avriel’s mission was to purchase arms for the Hagana and the upcoming war for independence they knew was coming. Avriel noticed another man seeking out the same arms manufacturers and salesmen. After reporting this to his superiors it was discovered the man was Captain Abdul-Aziz Kerine of the Syrian Army, there to purchase Czech weapons.
Avriel reported back to Israel that the Syrians had only purchased 6,000 rifles and 8,000,000 rounds of ammunition as well as grenades and other explosives. Though not substantial, for the Jews who were desperate for weapons, this provided a very tempting possibility to somehow get the weapons for the future Jewish state. The arms could tip the balance between winning and losing the war. So Operation Thief had begun.
The weapons were loaded on board an old steamer and sailed off. The Jews flew some planes over the Adriatic Sea hoping to find the ship and then arrange to forcefully board her, but they couldn’t find it. A few days later the ship returned back to port then sailed again to a small port in Italy. If the Israelis couldn’t steal the weapons for themselves, they wanted to at least stop the Syrians from getting them to use against Israel later.
So the Israelis spread disinformation that the arms were for the communists and the ship was held up in harbor which gave the Israelis time to arrange for frogmen to plant mines on the ships hull. On April 10th at 4 a.m. in the morning the mines went off sinking the ship in the harbor.
Everyone suspected the bombing was an anti communist attack. But as soon as the Italians found out the weapons were owned by the Syrians they made arrangements with the Syrians to pay salvage costs to retrieve the weapons from the sunken ship. The Syrians needed to find a new ship, and the Menara Shipping Company was suggested to the Syrian Captain by his hotel manager, who had been secretly paid by the Israelis to suggest the ship.
Fouad Mardam was sent from Damascus to oversee the salvage of the ship and make sure the weapons were sent off to Damascus at once.
The weapons were finally fully retrieved from the sunken vessel and put on board the new ship the SS Agiro, under the supervision of the Syrians. On August 19th the ship sailed out to sea and Damascus was cabled the good news the weapons were on their way. The Syrian overseers then made their own way back to Syria. But out to sea the Agiro had engine problems and two engine mechanics had to be shipped out to them and be on board to fix the vessel and it sailed off again. But this was part of a new Israeli plot, Operation Pirate.
Two of the newest crew members and the two “mechanics” overpowered the rest of the crew without any casualties and radioed through to Israel to meet up with the ship. Near the coast of Palestine the cargo was unloaded and sent to Israeli port of Haifa, and the captain and real crew of the boat were generously reimbursed to keep quiet.
But eventually the Syrians finally found out it was all an elaborate Israeli intelligence operation and they blamed their man Fouad Mardam and sentenced him to death. The Israeli government in Tel Aviv then saved their enemy’s life when they sent the Syrian government the full details of Operation Thief which exonerated Mardam, and whose life was then spared by the Syrian government.
On October 15, 1948 the IDF start Operation Yoav (Ten Plagues) in the south to break through the Egyptian lines to the Sinai. It is another harsh battle. The Egyptians were repulsed back four times in their ferocious counter attacks, by the IDF B Company who mainly used abandoned Egyptian guns to repulse the enemy, and had to get captured Sudanese soldiers to show them how to use the weapons.
Part of the Egyptian problem was their commanders, or rather the lack thereof. The CO of the 9th Battalion was on holiday in Cairo, so the officer that replaced him was killed by a mortar. The officer that then replaced him panicked and drove off southward at full speed until he was safe in Egyptian territory again. Therefore, the officer that replaced him wouldn’t come to the front lines to direct his troops, but opted for the safety in Brigade headquarters.
Israelis too also acted irresponsibly. In one village near Beersheva when the IDF had victory over, the Israeli soldiers went on a lust fest of looting everything they could get their hands on. Their officer Dov Segall was disgusted that any IDF soldier would act that way. As some of the men had their arms full of stolen booty Segall ordered a long march into the blistering heat of the desert. Soon the fatigue and heat wore on the men and they began dropping their booty all over the desert as they marched through the sweltering heat at a fast pace.
The men quickly discarded their burdens on the 4-mile hike. Then exhausted they were finally let into the back of trucks, looking behind them, the desert floor strewn with the booty they had thought was so precious to steal, but now they didn’t want. They asked where they were going, and their officer told them back to Beersheva, where they had started from. The lesson was learned.
Whilst some Egyptian officers were failures, and various troops would be seen running back to their own lines throwing off their army clothing, other Egyptians fought like ferocious lions. Sergeant Meligi Aziz Rashid a weaver by profession would not retreat from advancing IDF soldiers. Even when billowing clouds of smoke engulfed him, he kept his machine gun shooting in front of him not even knowing where his enemy was. But the smoke turned to a strange brilliant orange and yellow and Rashid only realized it was from an IDF flame thrower when he was engulfed in flames. Rashid screamed and rolled around in pain and his colleagues put the flames out. He was screaming he was blind as he held his charred face. His officer tried to give him comfort letting him know the Israelis had stopped their advance.
He was rushed to hospital but within a few days he asked to go back to the front lines. The doctors tried to explain to him he was badly injured and now permanently blind, but Rashid would not let that stop him. The same officer who sent him to hospital only days earlier, was now shocked to see Rashid once again in a trench firing at the Israeli attackers. It didn’t matter he couldn’t see where the enemy was. He could just fire in their direction, as that’s what he had to do when he could see. Rashid had to be moved from his post by force. He may not have hit many enemies, but he boosted the morale of his colleagues.
Each day the battles were long and bloody, but an agreed truce was arranged for an hour each day. Under a white flag, the Israelis were allowed to come and carry out their dead, whilst the Egyptians were allowed to go to a nearby well for water. The Egyptian officer noticed one of the Israeli officers was familiar to him. In fact it was one of his Jewish neighbors and friends from Cairo from some years before. They spoke briefly hoping they would meet again under better circumstances.
Operation Yoav was also the operation that American volunteer Rudy Augarten was to fly his first sortie for the fledgling Israel Air Force. Augarten piloted a converted ME-109, that the Israeli’s called Nazi Revenge because of its bad flight characteristics and problems. One problem a few of the converted planes had was the synch between the machine gun fire and the propeller. Several of the planes synch fell out, and the pilots literally shot themselves down, blasting off their propellers.
Augarten spotted two Spitfires in formation and he knew it was the Egyptians. Because of mechanical problems and fuel shortages and that the Israeli Air Force only had limited planes, only a few were flown at any one time, so it was a sure bet that any other planes the Israeli pilots saw would generally be the enemy. Augarten shot down one plane and the other fled. It was his first victory and a couple of days later he was taken by the Army in a jeep to inspect the plane shot down in the desert. He was to become Israel’s first Fighter Ace.
By late October 1948, most of the Lebanese, Syrian and their accompanying volunteers had largely been repelled. Jordan was also held back, but they maintained their control of Latrun, part of Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria (later to be called the West Bank). The only real remaining threat was that of the Egyptian Army.
The UN had arranged another truce for October 22nd, 1948. On the day when the truce was to start it was discovered the Egyptians had two warships anchored off Tel Aviv, with the clear intention of blocking any replenishing and unloading of arms for Israel by sea. One of the Ships was the flagship of the Egyptian Navy, the Emir Farouk.
Like the fledgling Air Force, the Israeli Navy had limited second hand vessels, converted to makeshift warships. Commander Paul Sherman, another American volunteer and ex US Navy Commander was given the task to move the Egyptian warships.
Shulman cruised out to the warships in his three converted Navy ships. Pulling alongside, Shulman announced to the Egyptians over a loudspeaker: "Truce period or no truce period, if you don't get the hell out of here, I'm going to shoot!" The Egyptians then turned and headed away to Gaza, followed by the Israeli ships.
Part of the secret arsenal of Israel’s Navy were several armed motorboats used in WWII by Italian Commandos. The boats would be loaded with explosives and then aimed at an enemy ship. At the last moment the pilot would jump out and his boat would crash into the enemy. Unknown to the Egyptians, Shulman had four of these boats on the deck of his ship. When Egyptian shore batteries at Gaza opened fire on the Israeli ships, Shulam asked for permission to engage the Egyptian ships. Permission was denied. Again, under fire he asked for permission, but asked his request be sent direct to the Israeli leader, Ben Gurion himself. The reply came back: "Paul, if you can sink them, shoot; if you can't, don't."
Under the cover of night, Shulman sent out two of his secret weapons, loaded with explosives. The pilots jumped out just before both crashed and exploded into the side of the Emir Farouk, sinking her within minutes. The Israeli boat pilots were retrieved. The Egyptian Navy lost her flagship with some 500 naval personnel dead, many of whom were from the upper echelon of Egypt. Israel kept the event quiet so as not to be found out for breaking the truce. Egypt also tried to keep the disaster quiet, for their propaganda war.
The Emir Farouk was named after Egypt’s King Farouk who was around this time visiting the many wounded Egyptian soldiers in the Augoza Hospital in Cairo. The chubby king glistened with his medals as he walked from bed to bed with his entourage following, giving words of comfort and encouragement to his soldiers.
But not all of his soldiers were happy with the King who had dragged them into the war, taken them away from their families and punished them if they wouldn’t fight. And the king was notorious for forcing women to have sex with him while their husbands were at the war front. Who could argue with the king? Everyone was too scared to say anything. He forced them to a war, with inadequate training for some, and for some, their weapons wouldn’t even work properly.
Mohammed Abdel Aref lay silently in pain in his bed. He was a peasant now a soldier, wounded and in pain. Perhaps the horror of the war, or the shock of being wounded, or the medications he was on, or the heavy pain, or the rush of excitement of the VIPs in the room that gave him the courage to say what many wanted to say. As King Farouk came to him the king said: “You’ve done a fine job. How do you feel?”
Mohammed answered in a most undiplomatic language the king was not used to hearing. He replied to the king: “I’d feel a lot better, if you’d stop fucking every girl in Cairo while your soldiers are getting killed with their own guns”!
The king turned pale and said to his entourage, “Arrest that man” . Mohammed Abdel Aref was stuck in jail until 1952 when he was freed after the revolution led by Gamal Abdul Nasser.
Part 10
Eventually the tide of the overall battle was turning in the favor of the Israelis. The Arab stronghold of Faluja was surrounded by the IDF, but the Egyptians held on strongly.
On November 10 at 10:00 a.m. the Israelis approached the Egyptian lines under a white flag and asked for a discussion with the Egyptian officers. At first distrustful the Egyptians agreed and over several meetings and discussions the Israeli and Egyptian officers negotiated some kind of truce. The Israelis asked for a surrender, the Egyptians had to await orders from Cairo, but surrender was refused.
As the officers from opposing Armies talked, though mortal enemies in combat they grew in admiration and respect for another. A strong bond of friendship developed between two on the main go betweens in the meetings, Captain Cohen of the IDF, and Major Gammal Abdul Nasser, the Nazi Party Member and the future President of Egypt.
The truce would not come for some time, but the friendship between Nasser and some of the Jewish officers remained for a little while, but was quickly forgotten by Nasser when he became Egypt’s President. Nasser and his troops only left Faluja in peace as part of the later Armistice Agreements in 1949.
As the Israelis made victories throughout the country, especially in the Negev against the Egyptians, the British began pushing the UN for sanctions against Israel for breaking the truce, though they didn’t mention the same thing for the Arab attacks. The Americans agreed Israel should be forced to a ceasefire, but rejected to vote to place sanctions against Israel. On November 4 the UN passed a resolution for a ceasefire and a return to boundaries before Israel’s Negev offensive started. Yet no such demand was made upon Jordan to return land they had won in the war. Israel it seemed would only be held to a double standard. This was a sign of thing things to come, and just the beginning of an orchestrated anti Semitic UN, who while holding Israel to a strict standard, they had another standard if any at all for the Arabs, for many years to come.
On December 1, 1948 some Arab leaders met in Jericho and voted to have the land of Samaria and Judea that was controlled by Transjordan turned into a unified state under Transjordan. Egypt and Syria immediately denounced the move, but King Abdullah of Jordan was well pleased.
Also in December the Israelis continued to push through the Egyptian lines in the south. Launching Operation Ayin the IDF had a dilemma, every road they would used to pierce the Egyptian defenses were heavily defended by the Egyptians, meaning many casualties for the IDF. The officers scoured the maps trying to find a suitable route, but every road was covered by the Egyptians. Then a report came in that part of an ancient Roman road was discovered under the desert sands south of Beersheva. But they couldn’t find it on any map to see where the road went.
IDF Commander Yadin rushed home to his study, for in his files were ancient maps collected by his father Dr. Yusef Sukenik who was Israel’s most famous archeologist. In there was the ancient road that would bypass the Egyptians. With some hard work from engineers to get through the sands of the desert the IDF succeeded in piercing the Egyptian lines without suffering the heavy casualties that were expected. The ancient land of Israel, offered great help to the new. One of the Egyptian officers wounded in the Operation was Brigadier Mohammed Neguib who was shot while trying to rescue a fellow injured Egyptian soldier. He was rushed to the Egyptian field hospital but when the doctor felt for a pulse, he said the officer was dead and lay a blanket over his head. One of the medical officers lifted the blanket to pay his last respects when the ‘corpse’ said: “how can I breathe with than thing over my head”?
Some of the sheer acts of bravery by the Israelis struck fear in to the Egyptians making some of them flee from the Jewish lions of the desert. Isak Dora’s rifle jammed from the sand so he jumped up to throw a grenade at the Egyptians when he was hit by an enemy flame thrower. Screaming he rolled around on the earth to smother the flames. He then discovered he was only slightly burned, and he saw the half track with the flame thrower was engulfed in flames. Somehow the enemy’s weapon had turned on himself. He jumped into the enemy vehicle, killing its occupants, grabbing their weapons, ran back to his defensive position and began shooting, using the enemy’s own weapons.
Battalion Commander Emmanuel Barache took over when his officer was killed. Advancing against heavy Egyptian defense, he discovered more enemy tanks than expected, which he radioed in. HQ suggested he retreat but he still kept going till he too was shot dead. In one of his last radio messages to headquarters he said: “It would be suicide to retreat in daylight. I prefer to fight until we die”.
With Israel’s offensive into the Sinai, Britain came to the aid of Egypt invoking the 1936 Anglo Egyptian treaty. Bevin made it clear to Israel that Britain was bound to come to the aid, militarily, if Egypt were attacked. The message was clear, Britain was threatening military intervention against Israel. Reluctantly, on January 2, 1949 Israel was forced to start pulling her troops out of the Sinai. Applying more pressure to Israel and siding with Egypt, British RAF Spitfires accompanied Egyptian air patrols over the Egyptian Israeli frontiers for several weeks.
On January 7, 1949, Israel shot down five of the British Spitfires. Britain then declared Israel had made “unprovoked aggressions” against Egypt and put a squadron of Naval destroyers in the Mediterranean on high alert. Then ratcheting up the pressure even further the British sent two battalions to the Suez Canal and warned British subjects living in Israel to leave the country immediately.
Great Britain it appeared was ready to go to open war with Israel, fighting on the side of Egypt, who had no love, and as history would show, no loyalty at all for the British.
What nearly was the Anglo Israeli war was quickly defused by President Truman who had lost patience with the British attitudes and told Bevin bluntly British planes had no right to be there in the first place. Seeing the Americans wouldn’t support the British, Britain ratcheted down the open military hostilities towards Israel.
With the British applying intense pressure for Israel to give up her war won gains, the UN mediator Ralph Bunche suggested a neutralized zone in the Negev between the Israelis and the Egyptians. Israel reluctantly withdrew some of her forces back but retained some settlements for security reasons. The UN agreed it satisfied UN Resolution, which absolutely infuriated the British at the UN. Britain failed to force Israel to give back all the land she won in the war. An uneasy truce remained.
The Israelis didn’t want the war, they tried to stop the war, but they were forced to fight for their survival, in doing so, they defeated the overwhelming odds against them, gaining extra land through their war gains. Britain tried to punish Israel through the UN for defending herself and winning, but the British failed. Somewhat reluctantly, on January 29, 1949, Britain informed the Israeli representative in London that Britain had decided to give Israel de facto recognition.
Peace was finally achieved in a series of agreements starting in January of 1949, known as the Armistice agreements whereby the new borders of Israel were accepted. The agreements set the parameters for prisoner exchanges, demilitarized zones, no-man's land, and monitoring arrangements.
The talks in Rhodes were off to a shaky start when the Egyptians refused to be in the same room with the Israelis. But UN mediator Ralph Bunche explained that in order to have talks: “one side must talk to the other”. They soon turned into a series of lengthy and heated discussions and debates. In one heated discussion Bunche called the delegates to his room and showed them a handsome set of ceramic plates he had specially made for each of the delegates with the inscription; Rhodes Armistice Talks 1949.
Bunche then stated: “Have a look at these lovely plates. If you reach agreement, each of you will get one to take home. If you don’t, I’ll break them over your heads!”
Egypt was the first to sign the Armistice agreement on February 24th. Then Lebanon signed her agreement on 23 March, 1949 followed by Transjordan who signed on 3 April 1949. Lastly Syria signed on July 20, 1949. Iraq wouldn’t sign an agreement and turned their war interests over to Transjordan. The war was finally over!
The agreement with Transjordan demanded Israel recognize de facto recognition of their incorporation of Samaria and Judea, but this was a military recognition, not a political one. Then on April 25, 1949 King Abdullah officially changed the name of his country of Transjordan to the new name of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He received favor recognition and support from Britain. Later on April 24, 1950 the Jordan House of Deputies and House of Notables, in a joint session adopted a resolution declaring: “complete unity between the two sides of the Jordan and their union in one state… at whose head reigns King Abdullah Ibn al Hussain”. Thus the Biblical lands of Samaria and the Judean hills was renamed the West Bank (of Jordan).
The nascent Jewish state now had an extra 5,000 square miles added to its territory from its wartime victories. But for Israel, the cost was too high with over 6,300 killed in hostilities and up to 30,000 wounded people. For Israel, the peace was desperately needed, but paid in full by a heavy price.
After the initial ceasefire agreement in March of 1949, the British released over 2,000 Jewish detainees still held in the Cyprus DP camp. Then in May 11, 1949, the new state of Israel was admitted as a member of the United Nations.
The cessation of full hostilities had finally come to the Middle East region that desperately needed peace, or rather that was the message the media and the West would like to have believed or portrayed.
But the reality was peace meant a cessation of open declared war, for the ongoing undeclared war against Israel by acts of terror and various borders skirmishes, not only with Egypt, but also within a couple of years of the Armistice Agreements Syria also launched terror squads into Israel as well as shelling the peaceful farms in the Galilee for the hill top Syrian bunkers and artillery emplacements on the Golan Heights.
Why would the creation of a Jewish state cause so much havoc, destruction and bloodshed in the region? There was plenty of land in the region. This was not the case when other nations were created by the help of the British and others. There was no Middle East explosion of war and hate when Saudi Arabia was created also in the early 1900s, or Lebanon, or Iraq, or Kuwait. Transjordan (Jordan) was only created in 1922. Yet when Israel spread her wings to become a nation in 1948, it sent the Middle East into a tail spin.
The reason cannot be just because a new nation was created, that was happening often in the Middle East. Rather the issue clearly was, it was a Jewish nation that existed. A people that dared to govern themselves in a democracy in a land which Muslims believed they should have. There was no room for a Jewish state in the Muslim paradigm. There was no room on any Arab map for a land to be called Israel.
Whilst many thousands of Arabs chose to stay in Israel and became fellow citizens, the UN had to now deal with the Arab refugees from the war, some 600,000 to 700,000 Arabs placed in refugee camps in neighboring Arab countries.
But Israel also now had a refugee problem. Significant persecution of Jews broke out in Arab lands, and many Jews were expelled from Arab lands, forced to leave behind all their wealth and possessions. Many came to Israel in poverty. In the first years of the new Jewish state, Israel was forced to absorb some 880,000 Jewish refugees, in their small economy already at breaking point from the war debts. Israel had to also pay for many of the refugees to get to Israel, and in some cases dangerous clandestine operations were carried out to save the Jews from persecution in Arab countries, to rescue them and bring them to Israel, and then house and feed them.
But the Arab countries were no so welcoming of their Arab refugee brothers, and forced them into unsanitary makeshift refugee camps and refused to absorb them into the communities. Instead, with inhumane lack of care the Palestinian Arabs were used as a political pawn against Israel and as a media showcase to show the world how horrible the Jews were.
When the war started Israel had only a handful of full time soldiers, she had limited and outdated weapons. By the close of the war she supported 100,000 full time men and women in uniform as well as new weapons and armor corps thanks to what they scrounged from the enemy.
Israel built one of the worlds most successful armed defense forces. As history has shown, she would need them.
With the Armistice Agreements signed, the UN’s acceptance of Israel as a nation, and the bloody wars finished, Israel had much to hope for in peace and to rebuild her nation. Due to the support of loans and grants from the US, Israel started to try and rebuild their economy and somehow absorb the over 800,000 plus Jews who had either fled or been expelled from various hostile Arab / Muslim countries.
But her hopes for peace were just a far off dream. The Arabs continued a hostile and aggressive attitude towards Israel. Despite Transjordan (Jordan) agreeing to peace and allowing right of religious freedom and access to Jews, they rescinded on their agreement, and territories under Transjordan became a no mans land for Jews, who were expelled, and Jewish houses of worship were destroyed.
The Arabs also ratcheted up plans to destroy Israel’s economy. On December 2, 1945 the Arab League, then consisting of Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen agreed to a formal declaration boycotting all Jewish goods, stating: "Jewish products and manufactured goods shall be considered undesirable to the Arab countries." All Arab "institutions, organizations, merchants, commission agents and individuals" were called upon "to refuse to deal in, distribute, or consume Zionist products or manufactured goods."
So even before Israel was a nation, the Arabs were demanding a boycott of all Jewish products. Now after the war had finished the Arabs engineered and increase of their boycotts against Israel. The Leagues goal was to bring about the eventual collapse of the State of Israel to show it was not economically viable in a hostile Arab world. This was to be done through a threefold process.
- No Arab country should import Israeli goods or export goods to the Israeli market, either directly or indirectly.
- No Arab country should conduct business with any company already doing business with Israel.
- No foreign company should do business with another foreign
By 1951, a policy of blacklisting non-conforming companies was implemented by the Arab League and a Central Boycott Office (CBO) was established in Damascus, Syria to manage the activities of its boycott branch offices in member countries.
If the Arabs couldn’t destroy Israel militarily, they intended to destroy her economically.
Since 1945 the Arabs have consistently stuck to a course of boycotting Israeli goods, though some Arab states have wavered at times, not for the sake of peace, but rather for the for the sake of economic realities. Many years later in 1977 the US Congress signed in law prohibiting US companies in cooperating with the Arab boycott of Israelis products. The then US President Jimmy Carter, long before he turned against Israel, held contempt for the boycott and stated the: "issue goes to the very heart of free trade among nations" and that it was designed to "end the divisive effects on American life of foreign boycotts aimed at Jewish members of our society” .
Another way Egypt harassed Israel was by closing the Gulf of Suez to Israeli shipping and confiscating any goods bound to Israel The Egyptians had started this policy during the 1948 War of Independence. It was hoped by the Israelis this practice would cease with the Armistice Agreements of 1949. However the Egyptians then moved onto the island of Tiran in the Gulf of Aqaba and closed the Straits of Tiran to Israel’s vital shipping to Asia and Australia, threatening her with the large Egyptian gun emplacements on the island. King Farouk also kept blocking shipping to Israel from entering through the Suez Canal and in February 1951 proclaimed a decree to persist in such tactics and the confiscation of goods bound for Israel, in defiance of UN agreements.
On September 1, 1951 the UN ordered Egypt to desist the blockade but Egypt simply refused to comply with the UN order.
Also in late 1951 and onwards groups of armed Arab terrorists, supported and trained in Egypt began crossing the borders (the majority coming from Jordan to draw attention away from Egypt), with the intent of murdering Jewish civilians. These terrorists were called Fedayeen, meaning self sacrificers, such as the suicide bombers, who gave up their lives to destroy Israel and those who support her. The Arabs however seen them as heroes and martyrs, even though they targeted innocent men, women and children. The IDF had to be on constant guard as continual raids were made by the Fedayeen. Some were stopped, others sadly succeeded in their missions of murder.
Whilst the western powers put their heads in the sand about the Arabs ongoing tactics against Israel, Israel who were the ones actually suffering from the hands of Arab abuses, were under no delusion as to the intent and thinking of most of the Arab powers. They knew that more violence was inevitable. Whilst their armed forces personnel had swelled in numbers from its meager beginnings, the IDF still had a major problem with so many different weapons they were using. Due to problems with parts and various caliber bullets they needed a standard weapon for the IDF. Although the Sten Machine Gun was okay, they were hopeful of something better.
Uziel Gal also understood diversity, he had a Czech mother, and Israeli father, a Danish Aunt and an English Uncle. Copying the fundamentals of 2 Czech submachine guns, he came up with the design of a submachine gun in 1951 that served Israel since that time, a gun that was easy to use, low of recoil making it more accurate and used in nearly all the major conflicts after that. A gun named after its inventor, the Uzi submachine gun.
Not only were there constant terrorist incursions Israel had to deal, plus the Arab propaganda about the suffering Arab refugees, plus the economic boycotts, the Suez blockades, there were also small skirmishes breaking out in the various borders. Israel had to keep a constant 24/7 vigil to protect her citizens from the Arab world.
From 1951 to 1956 hundreds of Fedayeen attacks were perpetrated on Israel, with over 400 Israelis killed, with hundreds more wounded which the conventional IDF forces couldn’t seem to stop. IDF Commander (and future Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon was asked to train a special covert squad of commandos called Unit 101. Their job was to infiltrate military targets and stop the terrorists before they reached their targets in Israel. At first they used foreign weapons but found great success using the new Israeli made Uzi submachine gun.
Whilst the all out wars had ceased, the Arabs used other methods of hostility against the Jews. Besides the boycott measures, they used effective public relations campaigns against Israel, especially in the use of the Arab refugees squandering in refugee tent cities in Arab lands. Whilst Israel was forced to absorb over 800,000 of Jews forced to leave Arab lands, the oil rich Arab lands refused to absorb or help their fellow Arabs. Instead they used them as a valuable propaganda against Israel.
Years later the Arabs through an eager global media would use Josef Goebbels method of propaganda; keep telling lies often enough and people will soon believe it. The Arabs continually claimed the Arab refugees were kicked out of their homes by the Israelis in the War of Independence. But as has been shown already, this was only true in a small minority of cases, as later various Arab statements confirm:
"The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the actions of the Arab states, in opposing partition and the Jewish State. The Arab States agreed to this policy unanimously, and they must share in the solution of the problem."
(Ghoury, an Arab commander and Palestine High Committee Emile secretary, the Beirut Daily Telegraph 1948.)
“The Arab states, which had encouraged the Palestinian Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies have failed to keep their promise to help these refugees.”
(The Jordanian daily paper Falastin, Feb 19, 1949)
"The Arabs of Palestine left their homes, were scattered, and lost everything. But there remained one solid hope: The Arab armies were on the eve of their entry into Palestine to save the country and return things to their normal course, punish the aggressor, and throw oppressive Zionism with its dreams and dangers into the sea. On May 14, 1948, crowds of Arabs stood by the roads leading to the frontiers of Palestine, enthusiastically welcoming the advancing armies. Days and weeks passed, sufficient to accomplish the sacred mission, but the Arab armies did not save the country. They did nothing but let slip from their hands Acre, Sarafand, Lydda, Ramleh, Nazareth, most of the south and the rest of the north. Then hope fled."
(Musa Alami, Middle East Journal, October 1949)
"We will smash the country with our guns and obliterate every place the Jews seek shelter in. The Arabs should conduct their wives and children to safe areas until the fighting has died down."
(Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri, [Myron Kaufman, The Coming Destruction of Israel, (NY: The American Library inc., 1970), pp. 26-27])
“Who brought the Palestinians to Lebanon as refugees, suffering now from the malign attitude of newspapers and communal leaders, who have neither honour or conscience? Who brought them over in dire straits and penniless, after they lost their honour? The Arab states, and Lebanon among them, did it.”
(The Beirut Muslim weekly Kul-shay Aug 19, 1951)
"The refugees were confident their absence would not last long, and that they would return in a week or two," Monsignor George Hakim, a Greek Orthodox Catholic Bishop of Galilee told a Beirut newspaper. "Their leaders had promised them that the Arab Armies would crush the Zionist gangs very quickly and that there was no need for panic or fear for a long exile."
(Sada al-Janub (August 16, 1948) quoted in Samuel Katz, Battleground, pp.14-15)
"The Arab States encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies."
(Jordanian Newspaper Filastin, (February 19, 1949), quoted in Katz, p.16-17.)
Even Jordan's King Abdullah, writing in his memoirs, blamed Palestinian leaders for the refugee problem: “The tragedy of the Palestinians was that most of their leaders had paralyzed them with false and unsubstantiated promises that they were not alone; that 80 million Arabs and 400 million Muslims would instantly and miraculously come to their rescue”.
