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Snow at the Kotel. Izreel Valley and Israeli Jets After the British brutally turned away
Holocaust survivors from Israel, the UN voted to partition the land.
The British broke promise after promise to the Jews while they created new Arab countries out of the land of the former Ottoman Empire. In addition, because of Arab revolts and pressure, the British even barred entry to the land of Israel to Jews fleeing the Holocaust. (See Part 64.) Even when the full scope of the Holocaust was known, and thousands of Holocaust survivors were stranded in refugee camps (DP camps), the British refused to relent. One of the most egregious of the British actions involved the refugee ship, Exodus. One of the most egregious of the British actions involved the refugee ship, Exodus, which the Royal Navy intercepted in 1947 in the Mediterranean Sea with 4,500 Jews aboard. The ship was brought into Haifa port under British escort; there the Holocaust survivors were forcibly transferred to another ship and returned back to Germany via France. Abba Eban, who was then the Jewish liason to a special UN committee -- called Special Commmitte On Palestine or UNSCOP -- persuaded four UN representatives to go to Haifa to witness the brutality of the British against the Jews. Historian Martin Gilbert includes Eban's account of what happened there in Israel: A History (p. 145): "[In Haifa] the four
members watched a 'gruesome operation.' The Jewish refugees had decided 'not to
accept banishment with docility. If anyone had wanted to know what Churchill
meant by a "squalid war," he would have found out by watching British
soldier using rifle butts, hose pipes and tear gas against the survivors of the
death camps. Men, women and children were forcibly taken off to prison ships,
locked in cages below decks and set out of Palestine waters.' "When the four members of UNSCOP came back to Jerusalem, Eban recalled, 'they were pale with shock. I could see that they were pre-occupied with one point alone: if this was the only way that the British Mandate could continue, it would be better not to continue it at all.'" UN PARTITION OF PALESTINE The British also wanted out of the problem. They had 100,000 soldiers/police trying to maintain control with a total population of about 600,000 Jews and 1.2 million Arabs. (Interestingly, they had the same size force controlling India with a population of over 350 million!) And so it came to pass that the British turned the matter over to the UN which decided to end the British Mandate over what was left of "Palestine" (after the creation of the country of Jordan) and to divide the remaining land among the Arabs and Jews. The proposal called for the Jews to get:
The Arabs were to get:
Jerusalem was to be under international control. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted for this partition plan. Of those voting, 33 nations voted yes, including USA and USSR; 13 mostly-Arab nations voted no; 11 nations abstained. Hard-hearted to the end, the British did not vote yes; they abstained. As disappointed as the Jews were with the portion allotted for the Jewish state, they felt that something was better than nothing after all the waiting and the pain. However, the Arabs, always maximalist in their demands, rejected the UN resolution. The next day Arab rioting began, and two weeks later soldiers from surrounding Arab countries began arriving into Palestine. The British, happy to be out of the situation, were packing up to go and turned their backs on what was going on. Writes David Ben Gurion in his Israel: A Personal History (p. 65): "The British did not
lift a finger to stop this military invasion. They also refused to cooperate
with the UN committee charged with supervising implementation of the General
Assembly resolution. At the same time, the Arabs living in the district destined
to become part of the Jewish state began evacuating their homes and moving to
the Arab states neighboring Palestine at the orders of the Arab High
Committee." In the midst of confusion, the rioting continued with almost 1,000 Jews murdered by Arabs in the ensuing four months. One of the worst incidents occurred on April 13, 1948. A convoy of 70 doctors and nurses making their way to Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus was ambushed by Arabs. This happened 200 yards of a British police station. After a seven-hour shoot-out, during which the British did nothing, all the doctors and nurses were killed. Afterwards, the Arabs mutilated their bodies. JERUSALEM UNDER SIEGE In all of this, the British encouraged the King of Jordan, Abdullah, to invade and annex the Arab sections to his kingdom. To Abdullah this was not enough. He wanted Jerusalem too. As a result Jerusalem came under siege. The focus of the struggle during April and May 1948 was the road to Jerusalem which passes through the mountains. The vehicles on that road are completely exposed to gunmen up above. It was on this road that all supplies to the Jews of the city had to come. But they could not get through. The focus of the struggle during April and May 1948 was the road to Jerusalem. Hunger reigned. The residents of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City were completely cut off. And then an amazing incident happened. A young Yemenite Jew, who was not known for his shooting skills, almost accidentally killed three Arab men in the hills. One of these men was the Arab leader, Abdul Khader el Husseini. Demoralized, the Arab forces abandoned their positions to attend his funeral. As a result a huge convoy of 250 trucks of food was able to re-supply the city. Writes Berel Wein in Triumph of Survival (p. 397): "[On Shabbat, April 17,
1948] Jews left their synagogues and, with their prayer shawls still draping
their shoulders, helped unload the convoy. The siege of Jerusalem was broken for
the moment. The Arabs, however, mounted a strong counter-attack, and by the end
of April once again cut the Jerusalem road... for the next seven weeks Jewish
Jerusalem was isolated." A NEW STATE IS BORN The official date given by the United Nations in their partition vote for the creation of the two new entities was May 15th, 1948. Thus, May 14th was to be the last day of the British Mandate. At 4 p.m., the British lowered their flag and immediately the Jews raised their own. It was a flag designed in 1897 by the First Zionist Congress. It was white (the color of newness and purity), and it had two blue stripes (the color of heaven) like the stripes of a tallit, the prayer shawl, which symbolized the transmission of Jewish tradition. In its center was the Star of David. Thus on May 14, 1948 at 4:00 p.m., Hay Iyar, the 5th of Iyar, Israel declared itself a state. After 2,000 years, the land of Israel was once more in the hands of the Jews. David Ben Gurion read the Declaration of Independence over the radio: "The Land of Israel was
the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here the spiritual, religious and national
identity was formed. Here they achieved independence and created a culture of
national and universal significance. Here they wrote and gave the Bible to the
world... "Exiled from Palestine, the Jewish people remained faithful to it in all the countries of the dispersion, never ceasing to pray and hope for their return and restoration of their national freedom. "Accordingly we, the members of the National Council met together in solemn assembly today and by virtue of the natural and historic right of the Jewish people and with the support of the resolution of the General of the United Nations, hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine to be called Israel... "We offer peace and amity to all neighboring states and their peoples and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all... "With trust in the Rock of Israel, we set our hands to this declaration at this session of the Provisional State Council in the city of Tel Aviv on Sabbath Eve, 5th Iyar 5708, 14th day of May 1948." (Note that the Declaration of Independence of Israel -- unlike the American Declaration of Independence -- does not mention God. This is because the hard-line secularists that dominated the Jewish Agency opposed any such thing. "Rock of Israel" became a compromise.) Everyone was dancing in the streets. But not for long. Almost immediately five Arab countries declared war and Egypt bombed Tel Aviv. NEXT: WAR Since
its founding in 1948, Israel has been in a constant state of war and yet it has
achieved great economic success.
And immediately it was plunged into war as five of the neighboring Arab states attacked. These Arab states had previously voted against the UN partition of Palestine and now simply refused to recognize that historic and democratic vote. (See Part 65 for more on this subject.) Little Israel, which had virtually no heavy artillery, no tanks, no airplanes, had to defend itself against Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq! That's 600,000 Jews against 45 million Arabs, while the United Nations did nothing. And yet the Jews won. It was nothing short of a miracle. But the victory was bittersweet. The Old City of Jerusalem -- including the Jewish Quarter and access to the Kotel, the Western (Wailing) Wall -- fell to the Jordanians. The Jews were driven out of the Old City, and their homes and synagogues looted and destroyed. Jordanians barred Jewish access to any holy sites within the Old City, and the world again did not lift a finger to protest that the religious rights of a people were being violated. (For fascinating details about the War of Independence, see The Pledge by Leonard Slater.) NEW BORDERS The War of Independence had lasted 13 months. Some 6,000 Israelis died or a full 1% of the Jewish population at that time. (If that had happened in America, proportionally, 2.5 million people would have died. As upset as America was about the Vietnam War, it lost 52,000 soldiers in that war.) The War of Independence was Israel's costliest war. Mt. Herzl, the national cemetery, is full of graves without names. These are graves of Holocaust survivors who made it to Israel only to be handed a gun in order to fight for the survival of the Jewish nation. No one had time to get to know their names. They went down in history only as Yossi or Hershel or Moshe. It is a tragic thing to see all these graves marked "Plony" (which is the Israeli version of "John Doe.") The War of Independence was Israel's costliest war. The end of the war defined the borders of the new State of Israel in a radically new way. The borders were not the ones that the UN defined in their partition vote. In sum total, Israel got more land, though it lost the Old City of Jerusalem.
POPULATION Already, at the time of the UN partition vote, Arab residents of Palestine began fleeing in anticipation of war. The first to go were the 30,000 of the wealthiest. By January 1948 the Palestine Arab Higher Committee asked other Arab countries to bar entry of refugees because the Arab exodus from Palestine was so alarming. At the time of the declaration of the State of Israel, 472,000 Arabs fled as war broke out. At the same time, 820,000 Jews were forced to flee Arab lands such as Syria, Iraq, Iran etc. Most of the property of these Jews, many of whom were wealthy people, was confiscated, never to be returned. (Of these Jews, 526,000 settled in Israel.) Once the war was over, the population began to rise by leaps and bounds with Jewish immigrants coming not only from Arab countries, but also from other states and more recently from Ethiopia and Russia.
The population of Israel, since the founding of the state, has increased many-fold. This increase had presented a special challenge, because of the huge economic burden of absorbing such a huge number of newcomers. However, while it was a burden, the population growth has also been a big blessing. Immigration has done tremendous things for the country. The standard of living in Israel -- which in 1948 was forced to ration food -- has gone up tremendously in the last two decades. Was this a miracle? Clearly. But it was also a fulfillment of prophecy. And the Lord, your God,
shall return you from your captivity, and have compassion upon you. He shall
return and gather you from amongst all the nations. And the Lord, your God will
bring you back into the land your fathers inherited. He will make you even more
prosperous and numerous than your fathers. (Deut. 30:3-5) For thus says God, "Shout with joy for Jacob, exult at the head of the nations; proclaim your praise and say: 'O God, deliver your people, the remnant of Israel!' Behold, I will bring them back from northern lands, and gather them from the ends of the world ..." (Jeremiah 31:6-7) But Israel has not only been able to absorb huge masses of people, it has not only survived living in a constant state of war, it has grown economically. And this despite various trade boycotts instigated by Arab nations. (For example, Pepsi Cola didn't sell in Israel for years because of the boycott. For many years, Subaru was the only Japanese car manufacturer to sell here.) Keeping this in mind, it is absolutely miraculous what Israel has been able to do. Not only did the "desert bloom," but in a relatively short time the once barren land was producing a surplus! This surplus was then exported to other, far more "lush" countries, like the U.S. Another fulfillment of prophecy: "As for you, O
mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and bear your fruit for
My people Israel, for their return is close at hand. For behold, I am with you
and I shall turn to you; then you shall be tilled and sown. And I will multiply
men upon you, the entire family of Israel."
(Ezekiel 36:8-11) In 1997 the International Monetary Fund took Israel off the list of developing countries, because it is now fully developed. It has the 19th highest standard of living in the world, just behind that of England. SIX DAY WAR The Arab countries did not easily accept their defeat in 1948. All the while they were plotting a comeback. On May 22, 1967, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) declared the Strait of Tiran -- that is Israel's sea access to Eilat -- was closed to all Israeli ships and any other ships bound for Israel. This attempt at economic strangulation would have been an act of war to any other country, but initially Israel did not react, attempting to find a political solution. Meanwhile, Nasser became more and more aggressive in his verbal attacks on Israel. On May 27, 1967, he declared: "Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. On June 1, 1967, Iraq's president Abel Rahman Aref declared: "Our goal is clear -- to wipe Israel off the map." It was clear that war was imminent. Egypt and Syria already had a pact combining their armies and now Egypt made a similar agreement with Jordan. It was clear that war was imminent. On June 5th, 1967, Israel, realizing that the entire Arab world is about to attack, launched a preemptive strike. It was one of the most brilliant preemptive strikes in history. In one fell swoop, Israeli planes bombed the entire Egyptian Air Force still sitting on the ground, and a day later did the same thing to the entire Jordanian Air Force. Why didn't the Jordanians react after the Egyptians were bombed? Because the Egyptians were broadcasting that they had achieved a tremendous victory (when they were completely crushed). Not knowing what was truly happening, the Jordanians believed the propaganda and thus were unprepared. In just six days, Israel captured huge chunks of territory and won what is generally considered to be one of the greatest military victories in history:
REUNITED JERUSALEM For 19 years, Jews had not been able to enter the Old City or pray at their most holy of sites, the Temple Mount or the Kotel (the Western Wall) of the Temple Mount. Many of the soldiers fighting the war had not been born yet when this site was lost to the Jewish people. They had only seen it in photographs. Entering the Old City, they did not know where to go, and when they found it, they openly wept. On the radio, the paratrooper, who was leading the Old City forces, announced: "Har HaBayit b'yadenu -- The Temple Mount is in our hands." People were jubilant. They couldn't believe the miracle that had happened. It must be stressed that the Jewish behavior in victory was in stark contrast to the Arab behavior after their victory over the Old City in 1948, when five dozen synagogues were looted and destroyed. Jewish soldiers did not dynamite the Dome of the Rock or any other mosque in the Old City and access to these sites for Arab has continued uninterrupted. PLO The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded in January 1964 by Ahmed Shukeiry as a representative organization of the Arab refugees of the 1948 war. It was never a peaceful organization, however. In fact, Shukeiry once predicted an Arab victory over Israel, saying: "Those [Jews] who survive will remain in Palestine. I estimate that none of them will survive." The first and consistent aim of the PLO was the elimination of the State of Israel and its replacement by the State of Palestine. (It is important to note that a State of Palestine had never existed in history. The Arab people living in this land during the days of the Ottoman Empire were simply Arabs with no national identity. After the Ottoman Empire collapsed, in the days of the British Mandate, both Jews and Arabs were considered "Palestinians" by the British.) Egyptian-born Yassir Arafat (1929-) was the head of Fatah, the PLO's terrorist group, and after the Six Day War, he took over the entire organization. Egyptian-born Yassir Arafat was the head of Fatah, the PLO's terrorist group. One of the most infamous acts carried out under Arafat's direction in the early days was the kidnapping and murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. It is important to remember that the world again stood silent. The Olympic Games went on, while the terrorists were holding the Jewish athletes. The Israelis wanted to intervene but the Germans refused their help. In the end, the Germans totally botched the rescue attempt which led to the deaths of all the athlete hostages. Israel later hunted down and killed many of the terrorists responsible for Munich. The PLO has since carried out literally countless numbers of terrorist attacks against Israelis. To list them all would take a book in itself. Indeed, it is beyond the scope of this Crash Course in Jewish History to attempt to outline the turbulent history of the State of Israel in the last 30 years which includes at least two major wars -- 1973, the Yom Kippur War, and 1982, the Lebanon War -- as well as the attacks by Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. As for this writing, the Palestinian Authority, headed by Yassir Arafat, is conducting a terrorist war which began in September 2000. It is clear that Arafat and many other Arab states have still not abandoned their dream of destroying Israel. NEXT: CONCLUSION
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