Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
When fi ghting began, the Jewish forces were still not entirely unifi ed. Upon declaring inde-
pendence on May 13 (the day before the mandate ended), the new government of the new Jew-
ish state ordered all militias to be merged into the new national army, the Israel Defense Forces
(IDF). The Irgun had agreed to participate. But in June 1948 the Irgun tried to ship in a load
of weapons and volunteers on the
Altalena
. The government ordered that the arms be turned
over to the new Israeli army. Negotiations failed, and the government ordered its forces, com-
manded by a young offi cer named Yitzhak Rabin, to fi re at the ship, whose passengers included
the Irgun commander Menahem Begin. The
Altalena
caught fi re and sank. During the shoot-
ing, sixteen Irgun fi ghters and three soldiers in the IDF were killed.
The battle could have led to civil war, but the matter was quickly resolved, and the Irgun
merged into the IDF. This incident established the superiority of the national government and
confi rmed a willingness to compromise that ensured Israel's unity and survival.
ISRAEL IS BORN, INDEPENDENCE IS WON
The State of Israel was offi cially declared at a meeting held in City Hall (later, Independence
Hall) in Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948. The Declaration of Independence included a call to Arab
neighbors for peace and coexistence. The United States and the Soviet Union, as well as other
countries, recognized the new state. David Ben-Gurion became the fi rst prime minister, and a
broad, multiparty government was formed.
A new stage in the Arab-Israeli confl ict began immediately. The moment the British man-
date ended, the armies of Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon crossed into the territory of
the former mandate and attacked the Jewish-held sectors. Most observers believed that Israel
would be destroyed by the long-established, better-armed professional Arab forces. Israel was
surrounded by hostile countries, and an international arms embargo also favored the Arab
side. Arab leaders predicted an easy victory, with the Jews being driven into the sea.
But the Arab campaign in the north, conducted mainly by the Syrians, made no gains.
In the south, Egyptian forces advanced but were fi nally halted on May 29, just sixteen miles
(10 kilometers) from Tel Aviv. The greatest Arab success came to the British-offi cered Jorda-
nian army, which captured Jerusalem's Old City on May 28 and expelled the entire Jewish pop-
ulation. The Jewish army, now the Israel Defense Forces, continued to hold Jewish-populated
west Jerusalem, but the city was under siege.
On June 11 the United Nations imposed a ceasefi re. Just two days earlier, the IDF had fi n-
ished constructing a steep, circuitous route called the Burma Road, which bypassed Jordanian-
held territory, to transport supplies into west Jerusalem. During the ceasefi re, Israel received
its fi rst weapons from Czechoslovakia. Tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants also arrived,
many of whom were immediately sent to the front line with little or no training.
During the ten-day interval between the breakdown of the fi rst ceasefi re on July 8 and the
imposition of a second one on July 18, the IDF launched an offensive in which it captured the
Lower Galilee and two towns —Lod and Ramle — crucial for keeping communications with
Jerusalem open. A UN diplomatic effort failed when both sides rejected a proposal to maintain
international control that would establish no Arab state and only a tiny Jewish state. Jewish
extremists assassinated Count Folke Bernadotte, the UN mediator who had proposed major
Jewish concessions, on September 19.
