At the end of November 1947, in connection with the approaching expiration of the British Mandate, issued three decades earlier by the League of Nations, the confrontation between Jewish and Arab paramilitary forces intensified in Palestine, trying with all their might to seize as much of the territory as possible and establish control over the internal communications. The military conflict that flared up as a result became the beginning of the first Arab-Israeli war, which lasted until July 1949.
Exacerbation of previous contradictions
Despite the fact that the impetus for the start of the armed conflict was a very specific event - the withdrawal of British troops from Palestine, the true reason for the first Arab-Israeli war lies in the centuries-old struggle of the Jews for the right to dispose of the territory of their historical homeland. Since the mid-1930s, that is, long before the end of the League of Nations mandate, there has been a confrontation between Arabs and Jews that was in the nature of a low-intensity war and did not take on a wider scale due to the control exercised by peacekeeping forces.
However, as the deadline for the withdrawal of British troops approached, the actions of the warring parties intensified, especially since at that time the British, preparing to return home, practically did not interfere with the events taking place. The current situation served as the impetus for the beginning of the first stage of the Arab-Israeli war, which began even before the Jewish state was officially proclaimed (this happened on May 14, 1948).
People without land
The ratio of the Jewish and Arab population in Palestine in different years
The Jewish kingdoms of Palestine collapsed under the blows of the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD: since then this territory has changed many owners. But for Jews scattered throughout European countries, their historical homeland always remained sacred, a lost paradise, to which, according to Scripture, they must return. One of the Jewish prayers for centuries ended with the refrain: “Next year - in Jerusalem!”
Theodor Herzl
However, the resettlement of European Jews to Palestine at the end of the 19th century did not begin because of religious texts. Theodor Herzl (1860 - 1904), a Jew from Austria-Hungary, a famous journalist and the first herald of the creation of a Jewish state, remembered how during the scandalous “Dreyfus Affair” (the trial of a Jewish French army officer falsely accused of treason), hundreds of French people chanted : "Death to the jews!". Jewish pogroms were organized in Russia and Eastern Europe, and anti-Semitic treatises were written in Germany and Austria. Judeophobia remained a constant threat in Europe.
Herzl decided: this cannot go on any longer, the Jews need their own state, where they will no longer be a persecuted minority. In 1896, he wrote a pamphlet, “The Jewish State,” in which he called on the world community to help the Jewish people find their own country, preferably in Palestine. A year later he creates the World Zionist Organization (WZO). Zionism is the ideology of returning Jews to their historical homeland and creating a state there.
Slowly but surely, the emigration of Jews to Palestine is growing: they are supported by the rich houses of European Jews (Rothschilds, Monteofiori), together with thousands of poor enthusiasts they collect money to purchase lands.
How did the conflict break out?
The beginning of the first Arab-Israeli war manifested itself in the confrontation between irregular armed formations, deployed on both sides. The Jewish troops were represented by units bearing the names “Irgun”, “Lehi” and “Hagana” (this name was later assigned to all the armed forces of the country), and the Arabs - the “Army of the Holy War” and the “Liberation Army”.
This first stage of the war, which, according to historians, lasted until mid-May 1948, is characterized by the fact that the Jews were mainly limited to retaliatory military actions, not trying to take the initiative into their own hands. However, after the declaration of independence, the first Arab-Israeli war entered a new phase, when the question arose of taking control of the entire territory of Palestine, allocated according to a UN decision.
English promises
Following the First World War, the Ottoman Empire collapsed. The League of Nations (the international organization that existed between the world wars, the “beta version” of the UN) determined that Great Britain would gain temporary control of Palestine: its administration would help resolve conflicts and prepare a country (or two) for independence.
Zones of influence of Britain (red) and France (blue)
The British policy failed completely - perhaps because they started with mutually exclusive promises.
1) Even during the First World War, they promised the Arab sheriff of Mecca, Hussein ibn Ali, that if he rebelled against the Ottoman Empire and the Entente won the war, he would be made king of all Arab lands, including Palestine (McMahon-Hussein agreement). Hussein fulfilled his part of the deal, but the British subsequently stated that the agreement did not have the status of an official treaty.
2) In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote a letter to Lord Rothschild, a representative of the country’s Jewish community, where he assured that “His Majesty’s Government will do everything ... to create in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people” (Balfour Declaration). In essence, this meant a promise of assistance in creating a state - however, the British were in no hurry to take real steps in this direction.
Sheriff of Mecca Hussein ibn Ali al-Hashimi and Egyptian High Commissioner Henry McMahon, who gave guarantees to Arab Palestine
Such hypocrisy caused anger and protests against British policies among both Jews and Arabs. This was, perhaps, the only thing that united the two peoples, who disliked each other more and more, as the emigration of Jews to Palestine grew and, accordingly, domestic conflicts (sometimes armed) between Jewish settlers and Arab peasants became more frequent .
The British governor wrote that he could not stand the endless mutual claims of Jews and Arabs: “Two hours of Arab complaints push me to the synagogue, and after an intensive course of Zionist propaganda I am ready to convert to Islam.”
Arab revolt in Palestine 1936
Due to the tense situation in Europe between the world wars, emigration grew quite quickly. The Yishuv (Jewish community in Palestine) grew to 400,000 people by the late 1930s; political parties and their own armed organizations that existed illegally appeared in it. There were about a million Arabs, and they also had paramilitary forces working for them.
Balance of enemy forces
There are no extremely accurate data regarding the size of the Jewish army during the first Arab-Israeli war, since at different stages it changed due to the addition of civilians and volunteers from other countries. However, it is generally accepted that in November 1947, that is, at the beginning of active hostilities, the Haganah reached 15-17 thousand people. In addition, about 20 thousand city residents took up arms, from which a people’s militia was formed. He was soon joined by members of several grassroots youth organizations and almost a thousand members of the auxiliary police, a force formerly under the control of the British authorities.
These data refer to the initial stage of the first Arab-Israeli war. By May of the following year, the size of the Jewish army had increased significantly and, according to historians, amounted to 50 thousand people, which was almost five times the number of Arabs, on whose side the volunteers who arrived in Palestine from the countries of the Muslim world also fought.
Cold welcome in a hot country
Jewish bus, protected from stones and grenades. Palestine, 30th.
In the mid-19th century, approximately 400,000 people lived in Palestine, of which only 6,000 were Jews, the majority were Sunni Arabs. Palestine was a poor province of the Ottoman Empire, the land here belonged mainly to large Arab feudal lords, who rented it out to fellah peasants. It was from the feudal lords that the WZO (World Zionist Organization) funds bought the territory, after which the seller and buyer confronted the peasants with a fact: you no longer live here. In essence, the settlers deprived the fellahin of their homes and jobs, which caused outrage.
Jerusalem, late XIX - early XX centuries
The main cause of the conflict was already born then: everything that appeared later, including wars, violence and territorial disputes, was a consequence of this fundamental disagreement.
— For Jews who moved to Palestine - the Land of Israel (Eretz Israel), their emigration was a return home, the finding of a national home after hundreds of years of humiliation and oppression. At the same time, they tried to do everything legally, in compliance with the legal norms of that time;
“For the Arabs, who lived in this territory for centuries, the emigration of Jews was an invasion of uninvited guests with dubious rights. It’s as if strangers came to your house and declared that their ancestors lived here under Rurik, so now this is their home.
Members of Hashomer, the Jewish self-defense organization in Palestine
The reasoning of both is quite understandable and, by and large, remains unchanged even now. For the Israelis, their country is a sacred hearth, a stronghold and a besieged fortress. For the Arabs - a “Zionist entity” (the most radically minded even refuse to use the word “Israel”), a tumor on the body of the world and the apartheid regime, where the rights of the Arab population are systematically violated.
The challenges facing the warring armies
What specific goals were pursued by the warring parties in the initial period of the first Arab-Israeli war? Briefly they can be reduced to the following tasks. The Arabs tried with all their might to cut off Jerusalem from the coastal part of the country, where the bulk of the Jewish settlements were located. To do this, they blocked the road leading to the capital. The Jews offered them fierce resistance, but were unable to achieve complete success.
Nevertheless, communication between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem was carried out through armed convoys that fought their way through the enemy barrier. In addition, the Arabs everywhere tried to strike settlements in which the Jewish population lived. However, thanks to the prompt actions of the Haganah, most of their attacks were successfully repulsed.
The task facing the Israelis was simplified to some extent due to the fact that the commanders of the armed formations opposing them - the Army of the Holy War and the Arab Liberation Army, being in constant disagreement, did not want to coordinate their actions, which significantly reduced the combat potential of the forces under their control.
Degradation
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon tried to implement the joke of the deceased Rabin, “I wish Gaza would drown in the sea,” in a lighter form. As part of the “unilateral disengagement” plan in 2005, Sharon left the Gaza Strip to its own fate: he withdrew all troops from there and liquidated the settlements. As a result, Hamas Islamists quickly came to power in Gaza, pushing aside the more moderate representatives of the PNA, and began firing rockets at Israel; in response, Israel imposed an economic blockade of the sector.
Sharon's move was considered unsuccessful - now overpopulated, hungry, Islamist-controlled Gaza is more than ever a source of instability for Israel: Israel has already carried out military operations to clear the strip three times (in 2008, 2012 and 2014). In addition, the existing dual power in the ranks of the Palestinians: Gaza is ruled by Hamas, the West Bank is ruled by the PNA, which even fought with each other, does not contribute to simplifying peace negotiations.
Uncompromising Islamists from Hamas are becoming increasingly popular among Palestinians, while in Israel, since 2009, the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu has been in power, which is pursuing a tough policy towards the Palestinians and expanding settlement construction.
Benjamin Netanyahu
Given the unambiguously pro-Israel policy of the Donald Trump administration, Netanyahu has no deterrents: he has the support of a key Israeli ally. Moreover, the international community has no time for the Palestinians right now. More recent and acute conflicts are on the agenda: the war in Syria, the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the North Korean nuclear program. It is obvious that there will be explosions and bloodshed in Israel and the Palestinian territories for a long time to come. There is simply no one to solve the Palestinian problem now.
Invasion by the United Arab Armed Forces
The second stage of the war began in May 1948 after the declaration of Israeli independence. At the same time, military units of five Arab armies invaded the territory of Palestine. Their goal was the complete destruction of Israel, which had just gained independence, and the formation of a unified Palestinian state with an ethnically mixed population.
This action was planned in advance and began on the night of May 15, 1948. At that time, the numerical superiority was already on the side of the Arabs. Their armies then numbered a total of up to 50 thousand people, while the Haganah’s personnel did not exceed 40-42 thousand people, which included women and teenagers. In addition, the Israelis experienced an acute shortage of weapons and ammunition. It is known that at the time of the invasion of the united Arab forces, the Jews had at their disposal only 20 thousand rifles, 10 thousand machine guns (mostly homemade) and 15,000 machine guns. Thus, there were not enough weapons for all the defenders of Israel.
Intractable Problem #1: Palestinian Refugees
Under the UN resolution, Israel must allow Arab refugees to return home or compensate for the loss of property. Israel, however, refuses to do this and is unlikely to agree in the foreseeable future. According to UN rules, direct descendants of Arabs who left Palestine in 1947-1949 are also considered refugees. (and also in 1967), accordingly, their number is already about 5 million people.
The Arabs of the city of Ramle leave the city. 1948.
For Israeli politicians, even the most liberal ones, the very idea of resettling so many Arabs into their state is unacceptable. The Arabs are demanding the right to return to Israel, and not to the Palestinian territories. There are now approximately 6.5 million Jews and 1.5 million Arabs living in Israel: given the demographics, such a transfer would turn the country into at least half Arab. Since Israel has always positioned itself as the national home of the Jewish people, this is impossible.
For their part, the Palestinians insist on their right to repatriation: for decades, refugees and their descendants have faced so much violence (in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, other countries) that their leaders believe they deserve return home, or compensation. Israel has no intention of providing either, insisting that such demands are virtually impossible to meet.
Main directions of strikes
From the first days of the intervention, the Arabs carried out massive air bombing attacks on Israeli cities and individual agricultural communes called kibbutzim. However, the direction of their main attack was Jerusalem, the fight for which became the priority task of the entire military campaign. At the end of May 1948, the forces of the Arab Legion broke the resistance of the defenders of the Old City, after which this vast quarter was looted and burned. Nevertheless, West Jerusalem remained under Jewish control.
By the beginning of summer, the interventionists managed to block the road connecting the capital with Tel Aviv and capture a strategically important fort in the Ayalon Valley. Over the following months, the Arab coalition carried out continuous attacks on almost all vital installations, including the oil pipeline passing through the territory of the Northern Galilee. They were largely resisted by the support provided to the Hagan units by pilots from Europe, who, having experience of World War II, wished to fight on the side of the Israelis.
Terrorist attacks, protests, negotiations
Terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics, 1972. German police dressed as athletes make their way across the rooftops to the hostages
For many years, the PLO behaved like a terrorist organization that accepted any methods of struggle against Israel: killing civilians, hijacking planes, taking hostages. The most memorable PLO terrorist attack was the murder of Jewish athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. Terrorists from Europe and Japan “trained” in PLO training camps in Lebanon. In addition, in the 1970s, Yasser Arafat and his associates practically destroyed Lebanon: controlling the southern part of the country, they acted as one of the parties in a protracted and very complicated civil war, in which Israel, Syria and the international UN contingent also managed to participate. In total, 144,000 people died in the Lebanon War.
Arafat himself, however, always disowned the most odious acts of the PLO, declaring that the militants who committed them had left the Organization, and tried to behave like a respectable politician. In 1988, speaking at the UN, he said that the PLO would now recognize the existence of Israel and condemned “terrorism in all forms, including state terrorism.” In essence, it was a proposal for direct negotiations.
The first intifada. 1988
Israel by that time was exhausted by the intifada - a large-scale civil act of disobedience by Palestinians living in territories controlled by Israel. Dissatisfied with Israeli policies and the violation of their rights, residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip attacked police and soldiers and threw stones and sticks. In some places the intifada was more like a war - for 1987-1993. More than 100 Israelis and more than 2,000 Palestinian Arabs died.
Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995), Prime Minister of Israel, understood that without negotiations with the PLO as the most direct representative of the interests of the Palestinian people, peace would never come in Israel. “I wish Gaza would just drown in the sea, but that won’t happen,” he joked darkly in private conversations, “So we need to find a solution.”
End of hostilities
In the second half of July 1948, as a result of stubborn fighting, the Israeli army managed to secure a significant advantage in the main directions of combat operations. Despite the fact that neither of the warring parties was willing to make any concessions, over the following months, until the new year of 1949, the end of the first Arab-Israeli war was largely predetermined by two truces concluded in order to find ways out of conflict.
Finally, in January, after the Jews managed to completely take control of the Jerusalem road, as well as significant areas adjacent to the city from the south and north, negotiations took place between representatives of the warring parties. They were held under the auspices of the UN and ended with the signing of a ceasefire agreement.
PALESTINE WAR. 1948-1949On the night of May 14-15, 1948, a few hours before the declaration of part of the territory of Palestine as the state of Israel, the first Arab-Israeli war, called the Palestinian War, began [88].
Israel was opposed by: Egypt, Transjordan (since 1950 – Jordan), Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Already in the first days of its existence, the Jewish state found itself on the brink of disaster. In the north of the country, bloody battles broke out with the Syrians and Lebanese; The Arab Legion captured previously lost territory in Jerusalem and cut off the path to Mount Scopus; The Egyptian army captured a fortress in the northern Negev. Arab planes completely controlled the airspace. Forty-two people died as a result of a massive bombing of a train station in Tel Aviv.
In this situation, the side of the Palestinian Jews, as opposed to Western countries, was supported by the Soviet Union. The Soviet leadership expressed its official line with a publication in the Pravda newspaper on May 30, 1948. It said: “It must be made clear that in waging war against the young Israeli state, the Arabs are not fighting for their national interests, nor for their independence, but against the right of the Jews to create their own independent state. Despite all their sympathy for the movement of national liberation of the Arab people, the Soviet people condemn the aggressive policy being pursued against Israel” [89].
The position of the USSR, which supported the creation of an independent Jewish state and was defended by Soviet representatives at the UN, was known to the Israeli leadership even before the start of the war. Immediately after the proclamation of Israel (May 15, 1948), a special message was sent to Moscow signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the provisional government, M. Shertok. It expressed “feelings of deep gratitude and appreciation of the Jewish people of Palestine, shared by Jews all over the world, for the firm position of the USSR delegation to the UN, aimed in favor of the creation of a sovereign and independent Jewish state in Palestine” [90].
In an effort to turn Israel into its outpost in the Middle East and thereby resist the British and prevent the Americans from getting there, the Soviet leadership continued its policy of rapprochement with the government of the new state.
On September 3, 1948, the first Israeli Ambassador Golda Meir solemnly arrived in the Soviet Union [91]. To greet her, a crowd of about fifty thousand people gathered at the synagogue where she came on the Jewish New Year. Later, in her memoirs, Golda Meir will write: “Such an ocean of love fell upon me that it became difficult for me to breathe, I was on the verge of fainting” [92]. It is possible that this demonstration of “love” was sanctioned from above.
With the outbreak of the war, various Jewish organizations turned personally to I.V. Stalin with a request to provide direct military support to the young state. Particular emphasis was placed on the “importance” of sending “Jewish volunteer bomber pilots to Palestine.” Israel promised to pay for the planes and, playing on Soviet-British relations, hinted that there were more than 40 British officers “above the rank of captain” in the Egyptian army. According to official data, Soviet Jewish volunteers were not sent to Palestine. Nevertheless, there is evidence that in the spring of 1948, many former Jewish officers demobilized from the Red Army were secretly allowed to travel to Palestine with their families if they so desired [93].
One way or another, in October 1948, a meeting took place between the Israeli military attache in Moscow, Colonel Yohanan Ratner [94], and the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Army General A.A. Antonov. At the meeting, practical issues of supply and methods of sending German captured weapons to Israel and the acceptance of a group of Israeli officers to study in the USSR were discussed [95].
After this, captured German weapons and military equipment, which the young state urgently needed, began to arrive in Israel. Its supplies began to be carried out mainly through Czechoslovakia and Hungary. In Prague, military specialists for the future Israel Defense Forces (Gotttwald brigade) were also trained [96].
By this time, the Israeli army included several brigades, virtually equal in number to the regiments of other armies. Thus, the largest, the 1st Golani brigade, numbered just over 4,000 people, and the smallest, the 2nd Carmeli brigade, had less than 2,500 people. One of the brigades, the 8th Armored, commanded by World War II veteran Colonel (Aluf Mishneh) Yitzhak Sadeh, consisted of immigrants born in Palestine and a number of deserters from the British army. The brigade consisted of two battalions, while one of them, the 82nd Tank, was divided along linguistic lines and consisted of “English” and “Russian” companies (or squadrons). The 89th Motorized Infantry Battalion, a jeep-mounted commando unit, was led by thirty-three-year-old Lieutenant Colonel (Sgan-Aluf) Moshe Dayan, later Chief of the Army General Staff. The 7th Brigade, created in the second half of May 1948, was commanded by Russian-born Shlomo Shamir. Its members included people from Eastern Europe: Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Russia. The new army had only two field 65-mm artillery guns from the beginning of the century with limited ammunition and no sighting devices. The first armored units were two 28-ton Cromwell cruiser tanks with 3-inch frontal armor and a 75-mm gun, stolen from the warehouse of the British Army Hussar Regiment. The next three tanks were the 32-ton American M4 Sherman, to which during the fighting were added ten 12-ton French Hotchkiss N-35s with 37-mm cannons, produced back in the thirties, and several half-track and wheeled armored vehicles [97] .
The first disassembled Messerschmitts arrived in Israel from Czechoslovakia on May 24, 1948. In an atmosphere of strict secrecy, they were assembled by a group of five Czech aircraft technicians and carried out the first bombing of the Latrun fortress on the Jerusalem front and in the south of the country [98].
Later, the President of the World Zionist Organization, Nachum Goldman, would write: “Without the Soviet Union, the State of Israel would not have existed at all. And not so much because the Russians voted for its creation, but due to the fact that during the Arab invasion in 1948-1949, Israel received all its weapons from communist countries” [99]. The founder of Israel, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion, will confirm the same. In an interview with Israeli television journalists, he will say: “If I am now hosting you in the Jewish state, then we owe this much more to the Soviet Union than to the United States, because during our war of independence, when we were surrounded by Arab armies, we did not receive USA, not a single gun" [100].
On June 14, 1948, a temporary truce came to Palestine. Swedish Count Faulk Bernadotte, a mediator appointed by the Security Council, will begin negotiations for a long-term truce. However, his proposals will not suit the opposing sides [101]. On September 16, Bernadotte will propose a new plan, but it will also be rejected by both sides. There will be no further proposals: on September 17, Bernadotte and his deputy, Colonel Serro, were shot, as the investigation showed, by Lehi militants. Three perpetrators of the action safely fled the crime scene. According to some reports (which require additional confirmation), they boarded a plane and were transferred to Czechoslovakia [102].
At this time, weapons purchased in Europe were delivered to the ports of Haifa and Jaffa. On June 15, the first steamer unloaded 10 75 mm guns, 12 Hodgkiss light tanks, 19 65 mm anti-tank guns, 4 air defense guns and 45,000 shells. The next one delivered 500 machine guns, several thousand rifles, 17 thousand shells and 7 million cartridges. Another ship delivered 30 Sherman tanks from Italy [103].
The murder of Bernadotte shook up the world community and gave the Israeli authorities the opportunity to deal with the opposition in the Zionist movement. Three days after the terrorist attack, all dissident organizations in the country were liquidated, and on July 8, the Egyptians, violating the truce, began hostilities. Ten days later there was a new respite, and soon the truce was violated again, this time by the Israeli side, which launched an operation code-named “Ten Plagues (Egyptian).” The pretext for the deployment of hostilities was the shelling of a food convoy by Egyptian units, provoked by Israel. This idea was proposed by Prime Minister Ben-Gurion and approved by the Council of Ministers.
On October 15, the column left towards the Negev. The Egyptians, as planned by the Israeli headquarters, opened fire on the vehicles in front of UN observers. Israeli aircraft immediately began bombing the El-Arish airfield, and infantry units, up to a division in size, launched an offensive.
On October 19, at the height of the battle, the Security Council issued a call for an immediate ceasefire. The Israeli side deliberately delayed its response and during this time carried out a sixty-hour operation on the Northern Front. As a result of the offensive, the Israeli army captured the entire territory of Central Galilee, entered Lebanon and stopped at the Litali River. On December 22, despite UN protests, it carried out Operation Horev with the participation of 5 brigades under the command of Alon. The troops crossed the Egyptian border, entered the Sinai Peninsula and approached the El-Arish military base located on the Mediterranean coast. The capture of the latter was supposed to complete the encirclement of the Gaza Strip.
However, on December 31 the situation changed dramatically. Great Britain, on the basis of the Anglo-Egyptian defense treaty, declared its readiness to carry out military intervention if Israel does not immediately leave Egyptian territory. As a result of the threat, the Israeli army was forced to stop hostilities and begin withdrawing its troops from the Sinai Peninsula. To ensure that its demand was fulfilled, Great Britain sent a group of Spitfires to the Sinai for reconnaissance purposes. As a result, five British aircraft were destroyed by Israeli air defense. However, the incident did not develop further due to the intervention of the American side.
The war is over. On February 24, an armistice agreement was signed with Egypt, on March 23 with Lebanon, on April 3 with Transjordan and on July 20 with Syria. The remaining Arab countries that took part in the war did not conclude agreements and continued, albeit formally, to be at war with Israel.
During the war, interrupted by short-term truces, Israeli troops captured part of the territory of Palestine, which was intended by resolution of the UN General Assembly for the creation of an Arab state, as well as part of the city of Jerusalem. Thus, the territory of Israel was increased by almost 48% compared to the territory determined for it by the UN decision.
Israel lost 6,000 people in killed alone - approximately 1% of its then population. In Jerusalem alone, 2,000 military and civilians were killed and wounded. As Yitzhak Rabin later stated: “It was our longest, most difficult war with the greatest number of casualties.” Arab losses were higher.
The last act of the war, this time political, took place in May 1949. Israel was admitted to the UN. When his delegation, led by Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett, entered the Assembly hall, it was greeted with applause by most members of the world assembly. At the same time, every single Arab delegation left the meeting room in protest.
Despite the official end of the war, the Arab-Israeli armed confrontation continued. The instability of the situation, as well as the unsettled nature of many issues, have again intensified terrorist activity.
In July 1951, supporters of peace with Israel, Lebanese Prime Minister Riada el-Solla and King Abdullah of Jordan were killed in an assassination attempt. The latter was killed by a fanatical supporter of the mufti on July 20 while leaving the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City.
On October 12, 1953, a group of Arab militants who penetrated from Jordan into an Israeli village threw grenades at a residential building. As a result, a woman and child died.
The Israeli military leadership responded with a retaliation operation - the largest of all carried out previously. To implement it, about 100 people were recruited under the command of Major Ariel Sharon [104] from the 101st parachute detachment, carrying 600 kilograms of explosives. According to the plan, the detachment’s fighters were supposed to capture the Jordanian village of Qibiya, blow up several houses and kill approximately 10-12 Jordanians. The operation was “successful”: 12 people were killed, mostly soldiers, and 45 houses were blown up. However, the true picture of the tragedy became known the next day - 70 people, including dozens of women and children, were buried under the rubble of their homes [105].
To reassure the world community, Israel stated in an official communique that the attack on Qibiya occurred spontaneously and was carried out by residents of border villages. Subsequently, Israeli Prime Minister Ben-Gurion, recalling this action, will say that in certain circumstances a lie is justified by the interests of the state.
At the end of 1954, the situation in Israel worsened. Strong international pressure, clashes at the borders, and internal political struggle, which led to a loss of confidence in the government, brought the country to the brink of disaster. Added to this was the rise to power in Egypt of Gamal Abdel Nasser and Britain's announcement of the withdrawal of its troops from Egypt. The latter circumstance caused particular concern among the Israeli leadership. In his opinion, this could provoke an increase in the offensive potential of Egypt, which will inherit airfields, military facilities, weapons and ammunition depots located along the banks of the Suez Canal.
In the current situation, the army leadership and the Israeli secret services decided to conduct a secret operation that would cancel or delay the withdrawal of British troops. The operation plan included a series of terrorist attacks against Western embassies and related services, such as libraries, cultural centers or consulates. According to the developers, the British government will place some of the responsibility for what happened either on the Egyptian authorities themselves or on the nationalist movement of the Muslim Brotherhood [106].
On July 23, 1954, Israeli intelligence agent in Egypt Avri Elad (acting under the guise of German businessman Paul Frank) gave the order to blow up two cinemas and a station locker in Cairo and two cinemas in Alexandria. However, due to a mistake by one of the militants, Philip Nathanson, the operation failed and became known to the Egyptian police.
On July 25, the Arab media published information about the subversive activities of the underground Zionist organization, and on December 11, they held the first court hearing in the case of “Zionist agents” [107]. Official Tel Aviv refused to participate in the action.
It should be noted that at this time, according to a secret agreement, Tel Aviv received a significant amount of French weapons. And this is despite the fact that in 1950 England, the USA and France signed an agreement according to which they were not supposed to sell weapons to both Arab countries and Israel [108].
The beginning of 1955 is marked by a new surge in terrorist activity.
On the night of February 23, an Egyptian reconnaissance group crossed the border in the Gaza Strip, entered the State Scientific Institute and seized valuable documents. During the operation, a Jewish cyclist who accidentally stumbled into an ambush was killed, and a member of the reconnaissance team was killed in a shootout with an Israeli patrol.
Four days later, the Israelis carried out an “act of revenge” - an attack on an Egyptian military base near Gaza. Operation Black Arrow was carried out by 149 paratroopers under the command of Ariel Sharon. The number of planned victims is no more than 12 people. However, Black Arrow took on an unexpected dimension due to the unexpected arrival of additional Egyptian units. The result was 38 killed and 30 wounded. This attack caused a sharp escalation of tensions between Israel and Egypt. As Mohsen Abdel Khalek, a close ally of Nasser, recalls: “Gamal decided that this was done specifically to humiliate Egypt...” Subsequently, Nasser himself would say that the “night of nightmares” in Gaza forced him to make two important decisions: to create sabotage squads of suicide bombers (fidayeen [109]) and purchase large quantities of modern weapons [110].
Shortly after Operation Black Arrow, one of the journalists will ask Ben-Gurion why he approved the policy of repression. “To intimidate the enemy,” the Israeli Prime Minister will answer.
However, the calculations of the country's leader did not come true.
On March 24, a group of Arab militants shot at a wedding in a settlement in the northern Negev. Result: one person killed and twenty-two wounded.
A short time later, Egyptian soldiers fired at an Israeli patrol on the border and lost three people. Egyptian suicide bombers then made their way forty kilometers into Israeli territory and killed six civilians, attacked military vehicles and attempted to destroy radio transmitters [111].
In turn, Israeli paratroopers blew up the headquarters of the Palestinian brigade, located in the Gaza Strip, and killed 37 Egyptian soldiers. Having received reinforcements, the latter launched lengthy military operations. Egyptian planes entered Israeli airspace. The opposing side responded with air defense fire and shot down two Vampires [112].
It is interesting to note that to determine the locations of sabotage and terrorist groups, various, even at first glance, exotic reconnaissance techniques were used. For example, the Israelis used pigeons for this purpose. Mini-beacons were attached to their legs and the hungry birds were released in search of food. Those areas of the desert where pigeons landed to profit from food waste left by militants were taken under special control.
Political tensions reached a breaking point when Israel learned that Cairo had entered into an arms contract with Czechoslovakia. This, in turn, gave the Israeli leadership the opportunity to announce a change in political and military orientation and choose a course towards unleashing preventive hostilities.
Here is how Aron Bregman and Jihan El-Tahri comment on these events in “The Fifty Years' War”: “In September 1955, Egypt announced a large contract for the supply of weapons from Czechoslovakia, a satellite state of this bloc. But it was impossible to hide the Soviet involvement. This deal was a crushing blow for Israel. Abba Eban, who was then a representative to the UN, recalls: “The very fact that Egypt acquired jet fighters ... immediately rendered the Israeli Air Force, which at that time relied primarily on propeller-driven aircraft, obsolete.”[113] In addition, in the spring of 1956, Israeli military intelligence Aman learned that training of Egyptian military pilots had begun in Poland, near Gdansk.
By the end of the year, a significant amount of weapons and military equipment arrived in Egypt: 230 tanks, 200 armored personnel carriers, 100 self-propelled guns, about 500 artillery pieces, 200 fighters, bombers and transport aircraft, as well as destroyers, torpedo boats and submarines. The total amount of supplies amounted to 250 million dollars [114].
The implementation of Israel's new military-political course was possible only with the presence of a strong Western ally. Attempts to enlist American support did not lead to the desired result.
The US leadership, concerned about the threat of Russian penetration into the Middle East, still believed that the USSR's ambitions could be destroyed by a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. But this situation did not suit either Israel or the growing power of Egypt.
In this situation, France came to the aid of Tel Aviv. The latter was interested in destroying the power of Nasser, who supported the uprising of the Algerian National Liberation Front and was its main supplier of weapons.
On April 1, 1956, the first twelve French Myster aircraft arrived in Israel. On April 23, an agreement was signed for the supply of twelve more fighters, and on June 23-24, a secret contract worth $80 million was signed [115]. The list of military equipment included: 200 AMX tanks, 72 Mystere IV fighters, 40,000 units of 75-mm shells, 10,000 anti-tank missiles [116]. The first batch of French military equipment arrived on July 24, 1956.
Two days later (July 26, 1956), the Egyptian president announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal [117].
In her memoirs “My Life,” Golda Meir writes: “Nasser made his gesture - he nationalized the Suez Canal. Never before had any Arab leader performed such a spectacular act, and the Arab world was amazed. There was only one thing left for Nasser to do in order for the Egypt he ruled to be recognized as the main Muslim power: destroy us” [118].
At the same time, Nasser's spectacular gesture was a forced step. On July 21, 1956, the United States reneged on President Eisenhower's promise to provide American financial assistance to Egypt for the construction of the Aswan Dam. This put the country in a hopeless situation: the collapse of the grandiose project threatened huge problems for the country's economy. And the president decided to nationalize the Suez Canal. At a rally in Alexandria on July 26, he publicly announced his decision and assured the people that the proceeds from the nationalization of the canal would be used to build the dam.
The Soviet Union welcomed the gesture, and the United States tried to create an international organization to manage the canal and insist on a peaceful resolution of the problem. France and Great Britain, in turn, were inclined to ally with Israel, even to the point of participating in joint military operations [119]. They needed the latter as an “internal factor” to give aggression a “civilized” appearance. Chief of the General Staff Moshe Dayan spoke about Israel's role in the upcoming hostilities [120]. In a conversation with Ben-Gurion on the eve of his departure to France on October 21, 1956, he noted: “Neither France nor Great Britain needs us to carry out military operations ... Our only trump card - the only one they do not have - is our ability to give they need a pretext to start a war. And only this can give us the right to get involved in the battle for Suez” [121].
During conversations on October 22-24, 1956, all three parties approved a single draft operation against Egypt, codenamed “Musketeer.” It was as follows: on October 29, the Israeli army would launch an attack near the Suez Canal. The next day, the French and British governments will make a categorical “call” to the governments of Egypt and Israel. Egypt will be asked to immediately cease fire, withdraw troops fifteen kilometers from the canal and agree to the temporary occupation of strategic positions along the canal by French and British troops. At the same time, the “triple coalition” was completely confident that Egypt would categorically reject this “brazen ultimatum.” Israel will also be required to complete a ceasefire and “withdraw” troops fifteen kilometers from the canal. Both governments will insist that their demands be met within twelve hours. If at least one of the parties does not submit to this, on the morning of October 31, French and British troops will go on the offensive.
Notes:
[1]
The Algerian National Liberation Front was created on October 10, 1954 at a meeting of the commanders of the five zones (wilaya) and a representative of the group located in Egypt. At the same meeting, a decision was made to form the military wing of the Front - the National Liberation Army (ALN). The backbone of the Front and the ANO were the leaders of the paramilitary Security Organization (or Special Organization), which emerged in 1947 - Ait Ahmed, Ben Bella, Kerim Belkacem, Ben Buland and others. The Security Organization, in turn, was created in 1946 (headed by Masali Hajj) on the basis of the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Freedoms
[8]
Local wars: history and modernity / Ed. I.E. Shavrova. M., 1981.-S. 179.
[9]
Military-historical magazine. 1974, No. 11. – P. 75.
[10]
Roy Jules. Born on October 22, 1907 in the colonist village of Rovigo (Algeria) in the family of a gendarme. Participated in World War II and the Korean War. Air Force Colonel. Author of the book “La Cuerre D'Algerie” (Paris, 1960).
[11]
Rua J. Algerian War. Per. from French. M., 1961. P. 13.
[12]
Orekhov D. Algerian tragedy // Hourly... – P. 2.
[88]
In fact, the first Arab-Israeli war began even before the expiration of the British mandate. The fighting began with units of the Arab Legion with the support of armored forces on May 12, 1948.
[89]
Quote by: Hourly.
1970. No. 530. P. 2.
[90]
Experience of participation of Soviet and Russian troops in local wars and armed conflicts of the second half of the 20th century. M, 1997. P. 63.
[91]
Meir Golda
(Meyerson Golda Moishevna) – born in 1898 in Kiev. In 1907 she emigrated to the USA to join her father. In 1921, she and her sister went to Palestine. In 1925 she was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Federation of Jewish Workers in Palestine, in 1946 - a member of the Executive Committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and headed its political department. In 1948 she was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
[92]
Quote by: Radzinsky E.
Stalin. M., 1997. pp. 574-575.
[93]
Smirnov A.
Arab-Israeli wars. M., 2003. P. 199.
[94]
Yohanan Ratner
— born in 1891 in Odessa, professor of architecture. He served as a soldier in the Third Samara Grenadier Regiment of the Moscow Division in the Tsarist Army. In Palestine since age 29. Served in the Hagan. At the end of the 1940s, he served as head of the planning department of the General Staff of the Israeli Army.
[95]
Russia (USSR) in local wars and military conflicts of the second half of the 20th century. / Ed. V.A. Zolotarev). M., 2000. P. 170.
[96]
Russia (USSR) in local wars and military conflicts of the second half of the 20th century. / Ed. V.A. Zolotarev). M., 2000. P. 170.
[97]
Dayan M., Tevet S. Arab-Israeli wars. 1956, 1967. M., 2003. P. 10-11.
[98]
During this period, the commander of the Jerusalem Front was former American Army General Mickey Marcus.
[99]
Quote by: Shafarevich I.
R. Three thousand year old mystery. History of Jewry from the perspective of modern Russia. St. Petersburg, 2002. P. 264.
[100]
Quote by: Shafarevich I.
R. Three thousand year old mystery. History of Jewry from the perspective of modern Russia. St. Petersburg, 2002. P. 264.
[101]
The main provisions of the document drawn up by Bernadotte included the following points: cancellation of the project to create a Palestinian Arab state; economic, military and political union of Israel and the Kingdom of Jordan; return of refugees; the separation of the Negev, compensated by the annexation of the Western Galilee to the Jewish state; Arab sovereignty in Jerusalem, while the city's Jewish population would retain autonomy in terms of municipal government.
[102]
Reed Douglas.
Dispute about Zion. M., 1993. P. 486.
[103]
Smirnov A.
Arab-Israeli wars. M., 2003. P. 178.
[104]
Sharon Ariel
— born in 1928 in Palestine into a family of “Russian Jews” who left Russia in 1922. He grew up in the moshav (agricultural commune) of Kfar Malul. He took part in the first Arab-Israeli war and was seriously wounded. Founder and commander of the 101st Parachute Brigade, specializing in sabotage operations. He led Operation Peace for Galilee (1982), carried out in Lebanon to destroy the bases of the Palestine Liberation Organization. For this operation he received the nickname “Lebanese butcher”. Major General. Minister of Defense. In 2001 he was elected prime minister.
[105]
Bar-Zohar Mikael,
Ben-Gurion. Rostov-on-Don, 1998 P. 304.
[106]
Bar-Zohar Mikael.
Ben-Gurion. Rostov-on-Don, 1998. P. 312.
[107]
The action was led by Israeli intelligence agents in Egypt John Darling (sneaky Abram Dar) and Paul Frank (sneaker Avri Elad). The militants only managed to place explosives in the mailbox of the house where the American businessman lived and on a shelf in the library of the American Information Service in Cairo. In both cases, the fire that started was quickly extinguished. On July 14, 1954, Cairo police arrested 11 protesters, who appeared in court on December 7. One of them, intelligence officer Max Bennett, committed suicide in his cell before sentencing. Two members of the group will be acquitted. Dr. Moshe Marzouk and Shmuel Azar were sentenced to death, Marcella (Quiz Niño) to 15 years in prison, Levy and Nathanson to life imprisonment, Ellia Cohen and other participants will receive varying prison sentences.
[108]
NATO states and military conflicts. M., 1987. P. 167.
[109]
“Fidayeen” is a literal translation from Arabic: sacrificing oneself for a common goal. These Egyptian suicide units were created in April 1955. At the time of creation they numbered 700 people.
[110]
Bar-Zohar Mikael.
Ben-Gurion. Rostov-on-Don, 1998. P. 324.
[111]
In total, according to official data presented by Israel to the UN, from December 1955 to March 1956, the Egyptians carried out 180 actions, including mining, shelling and murder (see: Dayan M., Tevet Sh.
Arab-Israeli wars. 1956, 1967. M., 2003. P. 33).
[112]
The “exchange” of terrorist actions between Israel and Egypt continued until the beginning of the Sinai campaign. Thus, from September 12 to October 10, 1956, Israeli army units conducted four raids, during which they destroyed the police forts of Rahawa, Garandal, Husan and Qalqilya. The losses suffered by the Israelis during these operations amounted to more than 100 people killed and wounded, and the Arabs - about 200 people. On October 9, Egyptian militants killed two workers working in an orange grove near Tel Aviv in broad daylight. To confirm the completion of the task, the victims’ ears were cut off (See: Dayan M., Tevet Sh.
Arab-Israeli wars. 1956, 1967. M., 2003. P. 25, 59).
[113]
Bregman AI
Ei-Fahre.
The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs. London, Penguin Books, 1998; Smirnov A.
Arab-Israeli wars. M., 2003. P. 198.
[114]
Duke X.
Arab-Israeli wars. London, T.1. 1986. P. 171.
[115]
The main steps taken by Israel to obtain French weapons were taken at the beginning of 1955. The Israeli side took part in the negotiations on June 23-24, 1956: Chief of the General Staff Moshe Dayan, Director General of the Ministry of Defense Shimon Peres and Chief of Special Services Yehoshua Harkovi. From French: the head of the office of the Ministry of National Defense, Colonel Louis Manzhan, representatives of the army - generals Maurice Schall, Laveau and others, as well as officers of intelligence and counterintelligence services. It is interesting that General Moshe Dayan, one of the participants in the negotiations, in his “Sinai Diary” provides another list that he presented to the French generals on October 1, 1956. It included: 100 tanks (Super Sherman), 300 half-track armored vehicles, 50 tank transporters, 300 all-wheel drive three-axle trucks, 1000 bazooka grenade launchers and a squadron of transport aircraft (See: Dayan M., Tevet Sh. Arab-Israeli wars. 1956 , 1967. M., 2003. P. 46)..
[116]
Bar-Zohar Mikael. Ben-Gurion. Rostov-on-Don, 1998. P. 340.
[117]
Even before Gamal Abdel Nasser came to power, Egypt stopped allowing Israeli ships through the Suez Canal for the purpose of economic blockade of Tel Aviv. This was a direct violation of the Suez Canal Convention, signed in Constantinople in 1888. On September 1, 1951, the Security Council adopted a resolution calling on Egypt to lift the blockade. Cairo ignored this decision. And at the end of 1953, the Egyptian leadership stopped allowing ships from third countries to pass through Suez if they were carrying cargo to or from Israel, which strengthened the economic blockade. On March 29, 1954, this issue was again scheduled for consideration in the Security Council, but the Soviet Union, using its veto power, achieved its exclusion from the agenda. On July 26, 1956, the Egyptian president proclaimed the nationalization of the Suez Canal. In 1958, the shareholders of the former Suez Company had to accept the transfer of the canal to Egypt and be content with compensation of 28 million pounds.
[118]
Meir G.
My life.
Chimkent, 1997; Smirnov A.
Arab-Israeli wars. M., 2003. P. 200.
[119]
The draft secret treaty with France, directed against Egypt, was developed in the Israeli Ministry of Defense and approved by Ben-Gurion back in May 1956. Negotiations on this issue with representatives of French military circles were held several times in September and early October 1956.
[120]
Dayan Moshe
- born May 20, 1915 in Palestine. Since 1937, he was in the ranks of the “special night squads” (underground Jewish armed formations). In 1939-1941. He was imprisoned for belonging to the Haganah. After his release, he commanded a special unit of Palmach reconnaissance officers. During World War II he fought on the side of the British against the Vichy Syrians. He was wounded by a French sniper and lost an eye. He graduated from the British Military School in Camberley. During the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948-1949. was the commandant of Jerusalem. Since 1953 - Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, since 1959 - Minister of Agriculture. Author of the plan for the invasion of Sinai - Operation Kadesh, also known as the Hundred Hour War (1956). On June 1, 1965, he was appointed Minister of Defense and led the fighting in the Six-Day War. In 1974 he resigned, and in 1977 he returned to the government as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Participated in organizing the negotiations that led to the Camp David Accords with Egypt (1978). Died in 1981
[121]
Quote by: Bar-Zohar Mikael.
Ben-Gurion. Rostov-on-Don, 1998. P. 348.
Table of contents
Results of the first Arab-Israeli war
As a result of the active resistance provided by the Israeli armed forces to the armies of the Arab states, about half of the territory of Palestine came under Jewish control. The rest of it, including the areas of East Jerusalem, was divided between Transjordan and Egypt until 1967.
In the eyes of the international community, Israel has established itself as a state capable of defending its rights with arms in hand. Many countries then expressed their support for him, including the Soviet Union. During the first Arab-Israeli war, Jews received, through the mediation of Czechoslovakia and with the approval of Stalin, a significant amount of weapons produced in the USSR, which played a certain role in the outcome of the hostilities.
