User:Ykantor/Sandbox/Palestine1948- Arabs attacked and started the war

Arabs attacked and started the war. The Yishuv defended and retaliated

"in the first stages of the war, the Palestinians had the initiative and their means and capabilities dictated the nature of their activities" Tal2004p51

Before the partition resolution

Arab threats

• U.N Ad Hoc comitee on palestine ,press release GS/PAL/83, 24 November 1947,debate on alternative plan for partition of Palestine, p. 3, "if the U.N decide to amputate a part of Palestine in order to establish a Jewish state, no force on earth could prevent blood from flowing there…Moreover…no force on earth can confine it to the borders of Palestine itself…Jewish blood will necessarily be shed elsewhere in the Arab world… to place in certain and serious danger a million jews…Mahmud Bey Fawzi (Egypt) …imposed partition was sure to result in bloodshed in Palestine and in the rest of the Arab world".
• here "If Arab blood is shed in Palestine, Jewish blood will necessarily be shed elsewhere in the Arab world despite all the sincere efforts of the Governments concerned to prevent such reprisals"
• Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Fadel Jamali, : Not only the uprising of the Arabs of Palestine is to be expected, but the masses in the Arab world cannot be restrained... There are more Jews in the Arab world outside Palestine than there are in Palestine. …any injustice imposed upon the Arabs of Palestine will disturb the harmony among Jews and non-Jews in Iraq: It will breed Interreliglous prejudice and hatred." ( source: url = http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/93DCDF1CBC3F2C6685256CF3005723F2%7C accessdate = 2013-10-15|title=U.N General Assembly ,A/PV.126,28 November 1947,discussion on the Palestinian question)

Morris 2008:

1. p. 70, '"On 24 November the head of the Egyptian delegation to the General # Assembly, Muhammad Hussein Heykal, said that “the lives of 1,000,000 Jews in Moslem countries would be jeopardized by the establishment of a Jewish state"
2. p. 61,"mid-August 1947, Fawzi al-Qawuqji—soon to be named the head of the Arab League’s volunteer army in Palestine, the Arab Liberation Army (ALA)—threatened that, should the vote go the wrong way, “we will have to initiate total war. We will murder, wreck and ruin everything standing in our way, be it English, American or Jewish.”
3. p. 50 Jamal Husseini promised, “The blood will flow like rivers in the Middle East”.
4. p. 412 Iraq’s prime minister Nuri al-Said told British diplomats that if the United Nations solution was not “satisfactory”, “severe measures should [would?] be taken against all Jews in Arab countries".

• Benny Morris (2008).
  • p. 50,"The Arab reaction was just as predictable: “The blood will flow like rivers in the Middle East,” promised Jamal Husseini.
  • p. 409 "Al Husseini…In March 1948 he told an interviewer in a Jaffa daily Al Sarih that the Arabs did not intend merely to prevent partition but "would continue fighting until the Zionist were Annihilated"
  • p. 412 "Already before the war, Iraq’s prime minister had warned British diplomats that if the United Nations decided on a solution to the Palestine problem that was not “satisfactory” to the Arabs, “severe measures should [would?] be taken against all Jews in Arab countries.”38 A few weeks later, the head of the Egyptian delegation to the United Nations, Muhammad Hussein Heykal, announced that “the lives of 1,000,000 Jews in Moslem countries would be jeopardized by the establishment of a Jewish State.” "

After the partition resolution - December 1947 first 10 days

Arab violence

• • Early in December 1947, agitators from the towns toured the villages, urging the fallahin to enlist in the war against the Jews ( Palestine, 1948: War, Escape and the Emergence of the ... - Page 25, books.google.com/books?isbn=1845190750, Yoav Gelber - 2006 )
  • "the Palestinians and the Arab League ... Immediately and intentionally they embarked on frustrating implementation of partition by violence. At first, they instigated disturbances and gradually escalated them to a full- scale war".(Gelber)

2/12/1947

"there was also a clear, organized Palestinian Arab response to the UN resolution. Guided by Husseini from Cairo, the AHC on 1 December declared a three-day general strike in Palestine to begin the following day. On 2 December a large Arab mob, armed with clubs and knives, burst out of Jerusalem’s Old City and descended on the New Commercial Center at Mamilla Street, attacking Jewish passersby and shops. A number of people were injured, one seriously, and the district was set alight. The mob then proceeded up Queen Mary Street and into Jaffa Street. Haganah intelligence identified two AHC officials, Muhammad Ali Salah and Mahmoud Umari, as leading the crowd.;(Morris 2008 p. 76- 77)

-3.12.1947 two Arabs were wounded when the police repulsed an at attempted raid on the Jewish settlement of Kefaronyu (Kefar Yona?). near Nathanya

3/12/1947

The Arabs are making an organised attack on the Jewish city of Tel Aviv…In Jerusalem, Arab attacks flared up again at dawn, in defiance of the British authorities' curfew…A group of Arab youths moved against the Jewish suburb of Montefiore

4/12/47 In Haifa, a bomb dispersed an Arab crowd attacking a Jewish cafe. 1947 The Arabs are making an organised attack on the Jewish city of Tel Aviv…In Jerusalem, Arab attacks flared up again at dawn, in defiance of the British authorities' curfew…A group of Arab youths moved against the Jewish suburb of Montefiore 4/12/1947

On 4 December a band of 120–150 gunmen from Salame attacked Efal, a small kibbutz northeast of Tel Aviv (Morris 2008 p. 101)

6.12.1947 Arab mobs attacked two areas of Tel Aviv yesterday 7/12/1947 [Haifa] But Husseini agents and irregulars sporadically launched attacks on Jews, beginning on 7 December with ambushes against traffic moving through Wadi Rushmiya. From then on, there were almost daily exchanges of fire along the seam neighbourhoods, almost always initiated by Arabs. ( Morris 2004 )

8/12/1947

"The first organized Arab urban attack was launched against the Jewish Hatikva Quarter, on the eastern edge of Tel Aviv" ,...The following day, 8 December 1947, hundreds of irregulars, led by Hassan Salame, assaulted the Hatikva Quarter. (Morris 2008 p. 101)

"Hasan Salama, who led a futile attack on a Tel Aviv suburb on 8 December 1947…nearly 100 of Hasan Salama's men were killed" Tal2004p52 9/12/1947

The inhabitants of the small village of Shu‘uth, near Kibbutz Gvulot, a satellite community of Khan Yunis, was temporarily abandoned by its inhabitants after they had murdered, on 9 December, six members of Gvulot (one of them a woman) who had mistakenly wandered into the village (Morris, 2004, p. 133) 11/12/1947

[The Jerusalem old city. the Jewish quarter] "Following an unsuccessful attack by Arab militiamen on 11 December 1947" (Morris 2008 p. 217)

The Haganah reactions

During the first ten days of disturbances, the Haganah desisted almost altogether from retaliation, and Ben-Gurion instructed that only property, not people, be hit. (Morris 2008 p. 99)

Non Zionist reports

"In early December 1947...Neuville (The French consul in Jerusalem) estimated on 9 December 1947 that Britain Deliberately refrained from preventing Arab hostilities in order to prove that the partition plan could not be implemented...the French impression of Jewish weakness". Tsilla Hershco ,KarshMiller2013p167

The Palestine government declared that it will keep the main roads open and stop Arab snipers who are doing there best to make them unsafe for Jewish traffic.

December 1947 later

• It seemed that the strategy of the Mufti in organizing and preparing Arab communities for the decisive battle, while making the ordinary daily life of the Jews extremely difficult, was about to succeed. During the first three weeks of the clashes, the Arabs made numerous attacks on Jewish communications inflicting heavy losses and causing substantial damage to the economy of the Yishuv." Furthermore, obstacles to the supply of essential commodities to the Jewish population seriously affected not only the Yishuvs economy but also its morale. The Arabs concentrated their resources on trying to break the morale and economic life of the Yishuv, hoping to squeeze them before the decisive battle. Levenberg1993p182

Arab violence- motivated by the Arab leadership

• • "in mid december 1947...the Arab league determination to embark an organized anti Jewish terrorism in Palestine instead of the sporadic disorders" Jewish Transjordanian Relations: 1921 - 48, Gelber, p.243

• • "In late December, Husseini reportedly sent Jerusalem NC leader Hussein al-Khalidi a letter explicitly stating that the purpose of the present violence was “to harass (and only to harass) ” the Yishuv, not full-scale assault. (Morris 2008 p. 98)

• Morris 2004
  • (on December 1947) the Mufti or his close associates appear to have tried to shift the focus of hostilities to the countryside. But the villagers were not rushing to join up(Morris 2004 p. 88)

events

------- Jerusalem, The old city, 11/12/1947

------- Nevatim, in the Negev, at 17/12/1947

------- Kfar Yaabets, in the Sharon at 27/12/1947

-Tel Aviv’s outlying neighborhoods came under sniper fire and there were Arab attempts to attack isolated quarters (anita shapira 2007 p. 182)

-The Jewish Quarter of the Old City was under siege. (anita shapira 2007 p. 82)

The roads

the second week of December 1947

"By the second week of December 1947...Palestinian attacks against Jewish transportation throughout the country, which nearly brought to a halt.Karsh2013p12" Attacks on Jewish transport were one of the main features of the civil war. From early December 1947, Jewish traffic began to move in Haganah-protected convoys, sometimes accompanied by British armored cars. The Haganah cladded trucks and pickups with armor plating. But Arab ambushes grew in number and potency. On 11 December, a convoy from Jerusalem to the isolated Etzion Bloc of Jewish settlements south of Bethlehem was ambushed by a fazga of Arab villagers; ten Jews died. On 14 December, a second convoy, headed for Ben Shemen, near Lydda, was shot up near the Beit Nabala military camp: fourteen Jews were killed and ten injured—shot by Arab Legionnaires serving with the British army in Palestine. . (Morris 2008 p. 103,104)

The Haganah reactions

At mid December 1947, it had become obvious that the Haganah counter measures were not quelling Palestinian military resistance (Tal, 2004 p. 59)

The Haganah’s purely defensive, almost vegetarian, strategy was soon overtaken by events – and partially changed during the second week of December. As Arab attacks grew more numerous and spread to new areas, as Jewish casualties mounted, and as the feeling grew that the Husseinis were gaining control of the Arab masses despite – and perhaps because of – Haganah restraint, public pressure mounted for a switch to a more ‘activist’ strategy ( Morris 2004, p. 72)

Gelber, independence versus nakba, 2004, hebrew, p. 64 בשלושת השבועות הראשונים של המאורעות ביצעה ההגנה 13 פעולות גמול יזומות: במקצתן פוצצו בתים, ובאחרות הותקפו יעדי תחבורה. הפעולות תוכננו על פי התפיסה שעמדה ביסוד תכנית ב מקיץ 1945 וכוונו נגד יעדים שהיו קשורים למבצעי התקפות על יהודים. מלבדם בוצעו עוד 5 פעולות על ידי האצ"ל ולח"י. בארבע מהם נזרקו רימוני יד למקומות התכנסות של ערבים (בתי קפה ביפו, ביזור וביהודיה, ליד שער שכם בירושלים), ובאחת הותקפו ביריות עוברים ושבים ליד טירה. אבידות הערבים בפעולות אלה היו גבוהות בהרבה מאלה שנגרמו להם בפעולות ה"הגנה". During The first three weeks of the events, the Haganah carried out 13 reprisals actions: Some of them were blown up houses, and others were attacked transport targets. Actions were designed according to the concept that underpins the program in the summer of 1945 and were aimed at targets connected with the perpetrators of attacks on Jews. Otherwise, another 5 operations were carried out by the Irgun and Lehi. Four of them were thrown hand grenades Arab venues (cafes in Jaffa, Yazur and Yehudia, and near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem), and one attacked passers-by shooting near Arab Tirah. Arab casualties in these operations were far higher than those incurred in the Haganah operations ".

The first large Haganah reprisal, against the village of Balad al Sheikh, just east of Haifa, took place on 12 December (six Arabs were killed); (Morris 2004 p. 100)

• • "From the end of November 1947 until the end of March 1948, ... and Haganah units occasionally retaliated . (Morris 2008 p. 77-78)

"The Haganah, busy reorganizing, and wary of the British, adopted a defensive posture while occasionally retaliating against Arab traffic, villages, and urban neighborhoods " (Morris 2008 p. 98)

The Haganah decided, on 9 December, to shift from pure defense to “active defense, [with] responses and punishment...Yadin instructed the brigades to initiate retaliatory strikes against Arab transportation. Two days later, on 11 December, Alexandroni Brigade troops ambushed Arab trucks on the Qalqilya–Ras al-Ayin road... The Haganah still refrained from aggressive operations in areas not yet caught up in the conflagration. The policy was to “hit the guilty” and to avoid harming nonbelligerent villages, “holy sites, hospitals and schools,” and women and children. The following instruction is indicative: “Severe disciplinary measures will be taken [against those] breaching [the rules of] reprisals. It must be emphasized that our aim is defense and not worsening the relations with that part of the Arab community that wants peace with us (Morris 2008 p. 99)

The Jews retaliated in kind. On 12 December, for example, a unit of the Palmah’s Third Battalion ambushed a bus, apparently filled with irregulars, at Nabi Yusha, near Safad, killing six and wounding thirty. (Morris 2008 p. 104)

Non Zionists reports

• Milstein

"On December 31 (1947), Macatee, the American consul general in Jerusalem, filed a report summing up the events of the month following the UN decision to partition Palestine. ... Terror ruled Palestine, Macatee wrote. That situation certainly would continue until Britain withdrew. The direct cause of terror was partition; other causes were the Arabs patriotic feelings and their hatred of Jews. As an example, Macatee described who the Arabs were shooting at: a Jewish woman, the mother of five children, hanging her laundry on the line; the ambulance that took her to the hospital; and mourners attending her funeral. The roads between the Jewish settlements were blocked, supplies of food were spotty and the Arabs even attacked police vehicles. The Jews were quieter: the Stern Gang (LEHI) struck only at the British and the Hagana at Arabs only in retaliation. ETZEL, which had started such actions, apparently had the Hagana in tow, and if attacks on Jews continued, the Hagana might switch from a policy of protecting lives to aggressive defense. The Jewish Agency, wrote Macatee, was correct to a certain extent in its claim that the British were supporting the Arabs. MilsteinSacks1997p190

During 1948

Arab threats

• "As to the [U.N] Committee visit, the Palestinians threatened to shoot its members if they ventured out of the Jewish area. (Tal 2004 p. 77)
• At May 1948 Azzam Pasha told Alec Kirkbride: "We will sweep them [the Jews] into the sea" . (Morris 2008 p. 187)
• Before the invasion Shukri al-Quwatli [ the Syrian president] told his people:"We shall eradicate Zionism". (Morris 2008 p. 187)
• Nimr el Hawari, the Commander of the Palestine Arab Youth Organization, in his book Sir Am Nakbah (The Secret Behind the Disaster, published in Nazareth in 1955), quoted the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Said (http://www.cfoic.com/learn-more/articles-of-interest/the-arab-refugees/)... Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Said, who declared: “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.” (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/refugees.html)

The roads

Transportation to Tel Aviv was dangerous: the village of Abu Kabir, at the entrance to the city, was known for its truculence. The village of Salameh was a center for hostile forces. Villagers from Yazur had hit Tel Aviv’s traffic on more than one occasion (Shapira).

"the Arabs had, or appeared to have, the edge, especially along the main roads, the lifelines to Jewish West Jerusalem and clusters of isolated settlements. Acting individually, armed bands attacked convoys and settlements, often recruiting local militiamen to join in." (Morris 2008 p. 98)

The Haganah reactions

Benny Morris, refugees revisited, p. 81, "Haganah operations were usually authorised and effectively controlled by the general staff. Moreover, notwithstanding the British view of Haganah operations, the HGS, through December 1947 – March 1948, attempted to keep its units’ operations as ‘clean’ as possible. While coming to accept the general premise that retaliatory strikes against traffic and villages would inevitably involve the death and injury of innocent people, orders were repeatedly sent out to all Haganah units to avoid killing women, children and old people. In its specific orders for each operation, the HGS almost always included instructions not to harm noncombatants, as, for example, in the attack on the village of Salama, outside Jaffa, in early January 1948, when Galili specifically forbade the use of mortars because they might cause casualties among non-combatants.73 On 8 January, Ben-Gurion said that so far, the Arab countryside, despite efforts to incite it, had remained largely quiescent. It was in the Yishuv’s interest that the countryside remain quiet, and this depended in large measure on the Yishuv’s own actions. ‘We [must avoid] mistakes which would make it easier for the Mufti’ to stir up the villages, he said.74 Regarding the countryside, the Haganah’s policy throughout February and March was ‘not to extend the fire to areas where we have not yet been attacked’ while at the same time vigorously attacking known bases of attacks on Jews and, in various areas, Arab traffic.75 This policy also applied to the Negev. The JNF’s Yosef Weitz, the chairman of the Negev Committee (the Yishuv’s regional supervisory body), put it this way: ‘As to the Arabs, a policy has been determined: We extend our hand to peace. Every beduin who wants peace, will be satisfied. But if anyone dares to act contrariwise – his end will be bitter.’76 A few weeks earlier, on 12 February, the commander of the Negev Brigade, Nahum Sarig, instructed his officers:

-Our job is to appear before the Arabs as a ruling force which functions forcefully but with justice and fairness.

-We must encourage the Arabs to carry on life as usual.

-We must avoid harm to women and children.

-We must avoid harm to friendly Arabs."

Arab violence- motivated by the Arab leadership

• Bogdanor

"Arab leaders frankly admitting that they were the aggressors". (Bogdanor)

During the winter, perturbed by appeals from the notables of Jaffa and Haifa, Husseini appears to have agreed to non belligerency in the towns and to have ordered a shift of the focus of hostilities from the main towns to the countryside. On 22 February, the Haifa NC ordered a “cessation of shooting, and a return of each man to his regular workplace.” It is unlikely that such an order was issued without prior AHC endorsement.(Morris 2008 p. 98)

• 17 March 1948...the commander of the Army of the Holy War, "Abd al-Qader al-Husayni...stated that he was not willing to consider a truce under any circumstances. "If they approach our political leader, I can have nothing to say about it, however," he added. UN

Non Zionists reports

• • The C.I.A, Pages from "POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTS IN PALESTINE (ORE 7-48)" , 28 February 1948 (as of 18 Feb 1948), http://www.foia.cia.gov/document/0000258375

Pages 6 to 9 of the original doc Arab Activity. Arab reaction to the UNGA partition plan was prompt and violent. Strikes and demonstrations led to scattered riots within Palestine, and Arab League action was instituted by the Arab states. The sporadic violence in Palestine had developed by the middle of January into more highly organized hostilities. By the beginning of February disciplined Arab bands were operating in different parts of the country, and the Arab Higher Committee claimed to be directing their activities. The nature of Arab activities indicated that until the British withdrawal Arab objectives Were limited to: ... (2) purchasing and capturing essential supplies such as food, weapons, ammunition, and clothing; (3) disrupting Jewish commerce, transportation, and communications without launching full-scale attacks; (4) recruiting volunteer forces, within and without Palestine, and training them in guerrilla tactics; ... ... Arab League ... evolved a program of action.... immediately implemented and provided that: (1) the partisan movement in Palestine be supported with funds, arms, and men; ... Volunteers ... at Qatana in Syria for training; and by the middle of February over 8000 were known to have slipped, uniformed and armed, into Palestine. ... Determined efforts were made to obtain arms and ammunition. Syria signed a contract with Skoda, and a first delivery is known to have been made

• The C.I.A, Pages from "POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTS IN PALESTINE (ORE 7-48)" , 28 February 1948 (as of 18 Feb 1948), http://www.foia.cia.gov/document/0000258375

Pages 6 to 9 of the original doc

Jewish Activity. Having won the initial victory in the acceptance by the UNGA of the partition plan, the Jews concentrated (with some exceptions) on preparing for the new state. In the face of violent Arab opposition, the Jewish Agency immediately undertook: (1) to strengthen the internal defense forces of the prospective Jewish state; (2) to organize and train an administrative corps; and (3) to cooperate with the UN in implementing the UNGA decision. Recruiting and training for Hagana were increased; and, in spite of the fact that the mandatory refused to recognize its legality, it attempted to protect the Jewish community from Arab attacks and also acted as a local police force. In time, Hagana adopted a policy of active” defense and carried out terrorist raids against the Arabs similar in tactics to those of the Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang against the UK forces. These two extremist groups continued their war against the British; and although they agreed to fight the Arabs together with Hagana, ...

In January 1948, High Commissioner Cunningham assessed that “official [Palestinian] Arab policy is to stand on the defensive until aggression is ordered by the national leadership. That widespread assaults on Jews continue and are indeed increasing illustrates the comparatively feeble authority of most of [the National] Committees and of the AHC. . . . The latter is anxious to curb Arab outbreaks but probably not to stop them entirely.”(Morris 2008 p. 98)

General

-"From the end of November 1947 until the end of March 1948, the Arabs held the initiative and the Haganah was on the strategic defensive. .... Arab armed bands attacked Jewish settlements, and Haganah units occasionally retaliated" (Morris 2008 p. 77-78)

-"Acting individually, armed bands attacked convoys and settlements, often recruiting local militiamen to join in. Gunmen sporadically fired into Jewish neighborhoods and planted bombs." (Morris 2008 p. 98)

Many of the Arab attacks in November 1947–January 1948 were “spontaneous” and even contrary to the mufti’s wishes. Others were “incited” or led by Husseini agents, but in unconcerted fashion. Gradually, however, and partly because of Haganah, IZL, and LHI retaliatory attacks, the whole country—or at least the areas with Jewish concentrations of population—was set alight." ...(Morris 2008 p. 98)

"armed bands attacked convoys and settlements, often recruiting local militiamen to join in. Gunmen sporadically fired into Jewish neighborhoods and planted bombs. The Haganah, busy reorganizing, and wary of the British, adopted a defensive posture while occasionally retaliating against Arab traffic, villages, and urban neighborhoods. The Haganah mobilized slowly, at first hobbled by the belief—shared by much of the Yishuv—that it merely faced a new round of “disturbances.” Only in early January did the Yishuv’s leadership wake up to the fact that the war that they had long predicted had, in fact, begun" (Morris 2008 p. 98)

• • "ARAB RESISTANCE: The Arab Higher Committee has continued to oppose the resolution of the Assembly and has refused to co-operate with the Commission. Opposition to the resolution of 29 November 1947 has taken the form of armed resistance.Morris2008p99
  • "Most of the violence was initiated by the Arabs. Arab snipers continuously fired at Jewish houses, pedestrians, and traffic and planted bombs and mines along urban and rural paths and roads. Movement in certain areas and streets became unsafe. From the second week of December, Jewish traffic was organized in convoys, " (Morris 2008 p. 101)

• • "Side by side with ambushes along the roads, the Husseini - affiliated irregulars turned to large-scale urban terrorism" (Morris 2008 p. 107)

• Morris 2008
  • "From the end of November 1947 until the end of March 1948, the Arabs held the initiative and the Haganah was on the strategic defensive. .... Arab armed bands attacked Jewish settlements, and " (Morris 2008 p. 77-78)
  • "Arab armed bands attacked Jewish settlements, and Haganah units occasionally retaliated" , "during the war’s first four months the Arabs were generally on the offensive and the Jews were usually on the defensive." (Morris 2008 p. 79)

• "For four months, under continuous Arab provocation and attack, the Yishuv had largely held itself in check, initially in the hope that the disturbances would blow over and, later, in deference to international— particularly British—sensibilities. In addition, the Haganah had lacked armed manpower beyond what was needed for defense" (Morris 2008 p. 117)

Quotes of non Zionist persons/ Organizations

• the Arab League general Safwat:"Despite the fact that skirmishes and battles have begun, the Jews at this stage are still trying to contain the fighting to as narrow a sphere as possible in the hope that partition will be implemented and a Jewish government formed; they hope that if the fighting remains limited, the Arabs will acquiesce in the fait accompli. This can be seen from the fact that the Jews have not so far attacked Arab villages unless the inhabitants of those villages attacked them or provoked them first." (source: General Ismail Safwat report, 23 March 1948, cited from Journal of Palestine studies, 1998, no. 3, p. 70 )
• The “Haifa Turning Point” The British Administration and the Determination of the Civil War in Palestine ,Moti Golani, middle eastern studies, Apr 2001, 37,2 , p.93? , , December 1947-May 1948. a 2nd source Golani p 105 :"Cunningham was aware that the Arabs had triggered the violence, but he was dumbfounded by what he thought was the Jews’ eagerness to retaliate

• p. 107 (35) Jamal Husseini, of the higher Arab committee of Palestine, informed the united nations:"The representative of the Jewish Agency told us yesterday that they were not the attackers, that the Arabs had begun the fighting. We did not deny this. We told the whole world that we were going to fight". Security Council Official Records, April 16, 1948."}}</ref>

  The same Jamal Husseini quote, appears in http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/1948_War.html citing: Security Council Official Records, S/Agenda/58, (April 16, 1948), p. 19.

• In early December 1947 ,According to foreign press, Dr KHalidi, The AHC representative, has told foreign Press reporters that the Arabs are not bluffing in their determination to prevent partition of Palestine.

• ""At meeting in mid January 1948 with kirkbride" kirkbride told Abdullah that: "nor could Britain agree to legionnaires not under its command operating in Palestine- especially in view of the fact that in the majority of recent cases [of violence in Palestine] the Arabs were the aggressors" Morris2003p107

• a report to the Security Council: "Powerful Arab interests, both inside and outside Palestine, are defying the resolution of the General Assembly and are engaged in a deliberate effort to alter by force the settlement envisaged therein." (A/AC.21/9, S/676, 16 February 1948, http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/FDF734EB76C39D6385256C4C004CDBA7).

Arab violence purpose

the Palestinian Arabs, in November–December 1947, and the Arab states in May 1948, launched hostilities to scupper the resolution’s implementation ( Morris 2008 p. 396)

• • "the spiraling hostilities and the Arab successes had bitten deeply into international support for partition and Jewish statehood—as the Arab initiators of the violence had hoped." ( Morris,1948, p.113).

• Shlaim

The Jews accepted the partition plan; all the Arab states and the Palestinians rejected it vehemently. The Palestinians launched a campaign of violence to frustrate partition and Palestine was engulfed by a civil war in which the Jews eventually gained the upper hand… The Palestinian attack on the Jews provoked the civil war while the Arab invasion in May 1948 provoked the official war. Woods-Shlaim1996p219

• Gelber
  • "the Palestinians and the Arab League ... Immediately and intentionally they embarked on frustrating implementation of partition by violence. At first, they instigated disturbances and gradually escalated them to a full- scale war".(gelber2006p3)

• Mordechai Bar-On

"There is hardly any question that, in December 1947, the fire that later spread throughout the country was ignited at that time by the Palestinians". Rotberg2006p154

Jewish violence

Beginning on 11 December, IZL operatives began to throw bombs at Arab crowds and buses. The first large Haganah reprisal, against the village of Balad al Sheikh, just east of Haifa, took place on 12 December (six Arabs were killed); (Morris 2004 p. 100)

Reactions to the partition resolution- Jewish violence

The Yishuv reaction purpose

"The Jewish attitude toward Palestinian violence had been dictated by its determination to see the Partition implemented. For that reason, The Jewish leadership's initial response tp Palestinian violence was to call for restraint on the part of the Haganah (Tal 2004 p. 56)

the Yishuv’s initial goal was clear and simple: to survive the onslaught and establish a Jewish state (Morris 2008 p. 196)

General

1. Benny Morris, refugees revisited, p. 81, "Haganah operations were usually authorized and effectively controlled by the general staff. Moreover, notwithstanding the British view of Haganah operations, the HGS, through December 1947 – March 1948, attempted to keep its units’ operations as ‘clean’ as possible. While coming to accept the general premise that retaliatory strikes against traffic and villages would inevitably involve the death and injury of innocent people, orders were repeatedly sent out to all Haganah units to avoid killing women, children and old people. In its specific orders for each operation, the HGS almost always included instructions not to harm noncombatants, as, for example, in the attack on the village of Salama, outside Jaffa, in early January 1948, when Galili specifically forbade the use of mortars because they might cause casualties among non-combatants.73 On 8 January, Ben-Gurion said that so far, the Arab countryside, despite efforts to incite it, had remained largely quiescent. It was in the Yishuv’s interest that the countryside remain quiet, and this depended in large measure on the Yishuv’s own actions. ‘We [must avoid] mistakes which would make it easier for the Mufti’ to stir up the villages, he said.74 Regarding the countryside, the Haganah’s policy throughout February and March was ‘not to extend the fire to areas where we have not yet been attacked’ while at the same time vigorously attacking known bases of attacks on Jews and, in various areas, Arab traffic.75 This policy also applied to the Negev. The JNF’s YosefWeitz, the chairman of the Negev Committee (the Yishuv’s regional supervisory body), put it this way: ‘As to the Arabs, a policy has been determined: We extend our hand to peace. Every beduin who wants peace, will be satisfied. But if anyone dares to act contrariwise – his end will be bitter.’76 A few weeks earlier, on 12 February, the commander of the Negev Brigade, Nahum Sarig, instructed his officers:
   1. Our job is to appear before the Arabs as a ruling force which functions forcefully but with justice and fairness.
   2. We must encourage the Arabs to carry on life as usual.
   3. We must avoid harm to women and children.
   4. We must avoid harm to friendly Arabs."

the IZL and LHI reactions

But this description of Zionist policy requires several caveats. From the first, the IZL and LHI did not play along. Almost immediately, they responded to Arab depredations with indiscriminate terrorism (to the ire of the Haganah chiefs). “Enough [with restraint]. From now on—we [shall attack] the nests of murderers,” announced Kol Zion Halohemet (the Voice of Fighting Zion), the IZL radio station, on 7 December 1947. During the following days a series of attacks by IZL and LHI bombers and gunmen claimed several dozen lives. The most notable were two IZL bomb attacks outside the Jerusalem Old City Damascus Gate (on 12 and 29 December) (Morris 2008 p. 100)

• • [Haifa] But Husseini agents and irregulars sporadically launched attacks on Jews, beginning on 7 December with ambushes against traffic moving through Wadi Rushmiya. From then on, there were almost daily exchanges of fire along the seam neighbourhoods, almost always initiated by Arabs. Beginning on 11 December, IZL operatives began to throw bombs at Arab crowds and buses. (Morris 2004 p. 100)

Early predictions

"Without substantial outside aid in terms of manpower and material, they (the Jews) will be able to hold out no longer than two years." THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE PARTITION OF PALESTINE (ORE 55), C.I.A prediction, 28.12.1947

Reactions to the partition resolution- The U.S

-"the Truman administration, due to Defense Department opposition, would not send American soldiers to Palestine...Marshal expressed ‘anxiety and disappointment’ over the Hagana’s inefficiency, as initially he was sure that the mere presence of the Jewish military force would suffice to prevent an Arab attack. Now it seemed that the Hagana was unable to deal with Arab attacks, but in any case he promised that the administration would neither change its policy regarding Palestine, nor would it send troops to Palestine to enforce partition" (tal 2004 p. 78)

-The CIA claimed that the partition can not be implemented (tal 2004 p. 80)during february??

Reactions to the partition resolution-the U.k

The British government refused to cooperate with the [U.N] commission and would not allow it to enter Palestine.(tal 2004 p. 76)

The British government also opposed the idea of an international force. Foreign Office officials explained that the Arab States would respond to the sending of international forces to Palestine by sending in their armies too (tal 2004 p. 78)

• • "From the end of November 1947 until the end of March 1948, ...British military interventions down to mid-March 1948 … British columns repeatedly intervened on the side of attacked Jewish settlements and convoys. And the British regularly supplied escorts to Jewish convoys in troubled areas, such as the road to Jerusalem. " (Morris 2008 p. 77-78)