1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War (93 page)

48. Ben-Gurion, protocol of Cabinet meeting, 2 January 1949, ISA.

49. D. Ginsburg, Washington, DC, to Shertok, 3 January 1949, ISA, DFPI, 2:339.

5o. Ronald Campbell to FO, 11:01, 29 December 1948, "Most Immediate," PRO FO 371-69289.

Sr. Campbell to FO, 17:11, 29 December 1948, PRO FO 371-69289.

52. New York Times, z8 December 1948.

53. Campbell to FO, (no time) 29 December 1948 (no. 18o5), and 19:38, 29 December 1948 (no. 1897), both in PRO FO 371-69289.

$4. Beirut to FO, 31 December 1948, PRO FO 371-69289.

55• FO to Cairo, 19:00, 3o December 1948, PRO FO 371-69289.

56. FO to Washington, DC, 14:25, 29 December 1948, PRO FO 371-69289.

57. Tal, War in Palestine, 4$0, quoting FO to Washington, DC, 3o December 1948, PRO FO 371-68692. There was an irony here: British activation of the treaty was contingent on an Egyptian request. And Egypt had refrained from requesting such activation because its major foreign policy objective since the end of World War II was the complete withdrawal of Britain's troops and bases from Egyptian soil; this remained true through 1948. Publicly requesting British military intervention would have been humiliating.

58. Oliver Franks to FO, 20:32, 29 December 1948, PRO FO 371-69289.

59• Uriel Heyd, Washington, DC, to Shertok, 3o December 1948, ISA, DFPI, 2:319.

6o. McDonald to Shertok, "Statement Made by the Special Representative of the United States to the Foreign Minister of Israel, December 31st 1948," ISA, DFPI 2:331- 332.

61. McDonald, Mission in Israel, 117-118.

62. McDonald, Mission in Israel, 120-121; Ben-Gurion, War Diary, entry for 31 December 1948, 916-918.

63. Ben-Gurion, War Diary, entry for 31 December 1948, 918.

64. McDonald, Mission in Israel, 124.

65. See, e.g., FO to British Embassy, Cairo, 4 June 1948, PRO FO 371-68372.

66. Shertok to McDonald, 3 January, and Weizmann to Truman, 3 January 1949, ISA, DFPI, 3335-337, 337-338.

67. Gelber, Independence versus Nakba, 338.

68. Eighth Brigade HQ, "Report on Operation Horev ('Ayin')," 21 February 1949, IDFA 922/75 //561.

69. Shertok, protocol of Cabinet meeting, 9 January 1949, ISA.

70. Ben-Gurion, War Diary, entry for 6 January 1949, 931.

71. Elath to Shertok, 6 January 1949, ISA, DFPI, 2:347-

72. Dori to Yigal Allon, 1i January 1949, IDFA 1046/70//434.

73. Vered, Fighters for the Freedom of Israel, 3:416.

74. Allon to defense minister, 7 January 1948, IDFA 1046/70//434.

75. Cohen, History of Israeli Air Force, 3:551-569; and "Aircraft Loss, Middle East (Inquiry's Findings)," PRO FO 371-75247-

76. Ben-Gurion, War Diary, entry for 7 December 1948, 934.

77. Asia, Conflict, 78.

78. See Cabinet minutes, 17 January 1949, PRO CAB/6359. The force in 'Aqaba, designed to safeguard the town and Glubb's supply route from Brirtain's Canalside bases, was reinforced in March by a company of tanks and naval commandos (see Gelber, Independence versus Nakba, 341).

79- "A. Eban to the President of the Security Council (Lake Success)," 11 January 1949, ISA, DFPI, 2:355-358.

8o. McDonald, Mission in Israel, 126. See also Ben-Gurion, War Diary, entry for 16 January 1949, 952.

81. Ben-Gurion, War Diary, entry for 16 January 1949, 951-952.

82. IDF General Staff/Operations, "Basic Proposal for Operation Yefet," 16.1.49, and "B" Front Staff, "Operational Order `Yefet,"' 19 January 1949, both in IDFA 854/52//236; Cohen-Shari, From Battlefield to Negotiating Table, 83-108.

83. Ben-Gurion, WarDiary, entry for 19 January 1949, 959.

84. Ben-Gurion, protocol of Cabinet meeting, 29 December 1948, ISA.

85. Third Brigade, "Summary of Operation `Hisul,"' 26 February 1949, IDFA 922/ 75//949.

86. Third Brigade, "Summary of Operation `Hisul,"' z6 February 1949.

87. Gelber, Independence versus Nakba, 334.

88. Kirkbride to FO, 29 December 1948, PRO FO 371-68644.

CHAPTER IO. THE ARMISTICE AGREEMENTS, JANUARY-JULY 1949

i. Ben-Gurion, protocol of Cabinet meeting, 19 December 1948, ISA.

2. Walter Eytan to Moshe Shertok, 16 January 1949, ISA, DFPI, 3:27.

3. Eliahu Sasson to Shertok, it February 1949, ISA, DFPI, 3:235.

4. See, e.g., Yigal Allon to Yitzhak Rabin, 15 February 1949, IDFA 1046/70//434 ("I fear for the fate of the Auja sector"). See also Cohen-Shani, From Battlefield to Negotiating Table, 109-137•

5. Eytan to Shertok, 13 January 1949, Israel, ISA, DFPI, 3:19.

6. Ralph Bunche, "Provisional Truce Demarcation Lines in the Negev Communication and Memorandum of 13 November 1948," Israel, ISA, DFPI, 3:682-684.

7. Sasson to Shertok, 11 February 1949, Israel, ISA, DFPI, 3:235.

8. Abba Eban to Eytan, 3 March 1949, Israel, ISA, DFPI, 3:275 -278.

9. "Israeli-Egyptian General Armistice Agreement (24 February 1949)," Israel, ISA, DFPI, 3:688 -704.

Io. See Morris, Israel's Border Wars.

11. Rosenne to Sasson, 13 March 1949, Israel, ISA, DFPI, 3:311.

12. Makleff to Dori, 14 January 1949, Israel, ISA, DFPI, 3:281-283; Yadin, Cabinet meeting of 16 January 1949, ISA.

13. Ben-Gurion, protocol of Cabinet meetings of To, 20 March 1949, ISA.

14. "Israeli-Lebanese General Armistice Agreement (23 March 1949)," Israel, ISA, DFI'I, 3:705-711.

15. Ben-Gurion, protocol of Cabinet meeting, 20 March 1949.

16. Southern Front/ Operations to First, Third, Twelfth brigades, etc., "Operational Order "Uvda,"' I March 1949, IDFA 6308/49//146. The order included an instruction to "expel" all Negev bedouin who had not sworn loyalty to Israel.

17. Ben-Gurion to Louis Brandeis, "The Land Problem with Special Regard to Negev and Akaba," 4 June 1935, BGA, Memoranda.

18. Southern Front HQ/Operations, "Operational Order `Lot,"' 20 November 1948, IDFA 922/75//1076.

19. Ben-Gurion, protocol of Cabinet meeting, 19 January 1949, ISA.

20. Moshe Sharett, protocol of Cabinet meeting, 21 June 1949, ISA.

21. Sharett, protocol of Cabinet meeting, z March 1949, ISA; Ben-Gurion, protocol of Cabinet meeting, io March 1949.

zz. Some American diplomats agreed (see Burdett, Jerusalem, to secretary of state, 1o March 1949, USNA, 5o1.BB Palestine/3-1o49).

23. Ben-Gurion and Sharett, protocol of Cabinet meeting, io March 1949, ISA; Glubb, Soldier, 229-32; Shlaim, Collusion across the Jordan, 401-406.

24. "Meeting: I. J. Linton-M. Wright (London, 9 March 1949)," Israel, ISA, DFPI, 2:482-483.

25. "Israel-Jordan General Cease-fire Agreement," ii March 1949, Israel, ISA, DFPI, 3:382-383.

z6. Sharett, protocol of Cabinet meeting, io March 1949, ISA.

27. Ben-Gurion, War Diary, entry for 11 March 1949, 974.

28. See Morris, Birth of Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, 519 -52o.

29. Ben-Gurion, protocol of Cabinet meeting of zo March 1949.

30. Stabler, Amman, to secretary of state, 23 March 1949, USNA, 5oi.BB Palestine/ 3-2349.

31. Shlaim, Collusion across the Jordan, 386-433.

32. Front "A" to brigades, etc., "Operational Order Shin-Taf-Shin," 16 March 1949, IDFA 922/75 //I076.

33• Cohen-Shani, From Battlefield to Negotiating Table, 147-161.

34. Morris, Israel's Border Wars, 10-13.

35• Allon to Ben-Gurion, 27 March 1949, IDFA 1046/70//434.

36. Ben-Gurion, protocol of Cabinet meeting, 27 March 1949, ISA. Ben-Gurion said: "There is not one inch of land from which we are withdrawing. On the contrary, everywhere we are moving into their territory."

37. Text in ISA, DFPJ, 3:712-722.

38. Selo in "Meeting of the Delegations of Israel and Syria (1o May 1949)," ISA, DFPI, 3:557-

39• Rosenne to Eytan, 15 May 1949, ISA, DFPJ, 3:566-568.

40. Reuven Shiloah to Bunche, 12 May 1949, ISA, DFPI, 3:562.

41. Rosenne to Robinson, New York, and Sasson, Paris, 6 April 1949, ISA, DFPI, 3:520.

42. Front "A" to OC Seventh Brigade, "Operational Order `Oren,"' 16 June 1949, IDFA 2289/50//286; Cohen-Shani, From Battlefield to Negotiating Table, 163-188.

43. Ben-Gurion, protocol of Cabinet meeting, 18 May 1949, ISA.

44. Rosenne to Ben-Gurion and Sharett, 18 May 1949, ISA, DFPI, 3:581-583.

4$. Shiloah to Bunche, 12 May 1949, ISA, DFPJ, 3:563.

46. Paul Molui to Sharett, 8 June 1949, ISA, DFPI, 3:599-6oo.

47. "Israeli-Syrian General Armistice Agreement (zo July 1949)," ISA, DFPI, 3:723734.

CHAPTER ii. SOME CONCLUSIONS

i. Richard Beaumont to Bernard Burrows, 18 July 1948, PRO FO 371-68375-

2. Protocol of meeting of JAE, 7 July 1938, BGA.

3. Goldmann, Jewish Paradox, 99•

4. See Morris, Righteous Victims, 8 -13.

El-Awaisi, Muslim Brothers, 8.

6. Thomas Wikeley, Jedda, to FO, 29 August 1943, PRO CO 733/443/18.

7. Ibn Saud to Franldin D. Roosevelt, 3o April 1943, PRO CO 733/443/18.

8. "Poster of `the Shabab Saidna Muhammad' (Cairo)," z November 1947, CZA Sz5-9o34.

9. "Off-the-Record Talks in Transjordan of Two British Correspondents," unsigned, Amman, zi October 1947, CZA S25-9o38. The idea that the Jews were responsible for the two world wars was, and remains, pervasive in the Arab world (see, e.g., the fundamentalist Hamas Movement's "Charter," from August 1988).

10. Alec Kirkbride to Ernest Bevin, 13 February 1948, PRO FO 816/116; Kirkbride to Bevin (no. 244), 23 April 1948, PRO FO 816/117.

it. El-Awaisi, Muslim Brothers, 9-To.

12. El-Awaisi, Muslim Brothers, 14.

13. Al-Difa`a, 8 April 1948, 2.

14. El-Awaisi, Muslim Brothers, 15. AI-Banna extolled such martyrdom in the service of jihad as "the art of death" and vilified the Muslims' "love of life" (see Mitchell, Society, 207)-

i5. El-Awaisi, Muslim Brothers, 15.

16. Nadia Lourie, "Interview with Mrs. Mogannam [Mughannam]," io January 1948, CZA Sz5-9oo5.

IT Kirkbride to Bevin (no. 270), i May 1948, PRO FO 816/118.

18. Ronald Campbell to FO, 13 December 1948, PRO FO 371-68644.

19. The phrase-"to drive the Jews in Palestine into the sea"-was reportedly used, for example, by `Izzedin Shawa, a representative of the AHC in London, in a conversation with an American diplomat (see Gallman, London, to secretary of state, z1 January 1948, USNA, box 5, Jerusalem Consulate General, Classified Records 1948, 8oo-Palestine). In his memoirs, Kirkbride quoted Arab League secretarygeneral Azzam saying to him, just before the invasion: "We will sweep them into the sea" (Kirkbride, From the Wings, 24).

zo. Sam Sound, UP, quoting al-Qa-,vugji speaking to his troops, undated but from February or March 1948, CZA Sz5-8996.

21. Jordanian prime minister Abul Huda said as much to Kirkbride (see IGrkbride to Bevin, i5 May 1948, PRO FO 816/izo).

zz. A shallow, inadequate explanation of the Arab states' defeat, based solely on (often poor) secondary sources, is found in Pollack, War, 15-27, 149-155, 269284, 448-457-

23. Sivan, 1948, 20.

24. Sivan,1948, z1.

25. Sivan,1948, 36, 39.

z6. Elpeleg, In the Eyes of the Mufti, 29.

27. Jerusalem Post, 15 June 1950, 3.

28. The word refugeesis inaccurate as regards two-thirds of this number because they were displaced from their homes in areas that became the State of Israel and came to rest in other parts of Palestine (the West Bank and Gaza Strip)-and refugees are usually defined as people displaced from their countries. (About a third came to rest in Lebanon, Syria, and Transjordan.) Still less accurate is the definition of the descendants of the bulk of those displaced-their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren-as refugees, because they themselves were never displaced and, in any case, live in areas of Palestine. Nonetheless, the United Nations applied the term to all those displaced from their homes in the course of the war-and to their descendants, wherever they now reside. The United Nations now has about four million Palestinian "refugees" on its rolls (the Palestinians claim that the true number is five million).

29. Wasserstein, Palestine, 41.

30. Peel Commission Report, 14.1. The reference was to the massacre of more than three hundred Assyrian (Nestorian) Christians by Iraqi troops at Sumayyil in northern Iraq on i1 August 1933. The massacre occurred despite government assurances of protection.

31. Reported in unsigned, untitled Zionist memorandum, io March 1948, CZA Sz57733• The memorandum also quoted an interview, in Al-Ahram, 9 March 1948, in which al-Qawuqji stated that his objectives in Palestine were "the defeat of partition and the annihilation of the Zionists."

32. Quoted in Shemesh, "Crisis," Pt. 2:342.

33• Ben-Gurion, My Meetings with Arab Leaders, 197. The two met on 23 February 1938.

34. Tuck to secretary of state, 3 December 1947, FR US, 1947, 5:1295 -1296.

35• Ibn Saud to Truman, 26 October 1947, FRUS,1947, 5:1212-1213.

36. Moshe Shertok, meeting of Cabinet, 9 February 1949, ISA.

37. Shertok, meeting of Cabinet, 6 February 1949, ISA.

38. Douglas Busk to FO, 12 September 1947, PRO FO 371-61529.

39. JA, "Memorandum on the Situation of the Jews in Iraq," undated but accompanied by a letter from Victor Bernstein to Hector McNeil, z8 October 1949, PRO FO 371-75183.

40. "Memorandum Submitted to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, by the World Jewish Congress," 19 January 1948, PRO FO 371-68366.

41. Campbell to Bevin, 14 June 1948, PRO FO 371-69259.

42. "Memorandum Submitted to the U.N. Economic and Social Council by the World Jewish Congress," 19 January 1948; Elie Eliachar to Herbert Samuel, 31 January 1948, PRO FO 371-68366.

43. Campbell to FO, z6 June 1948, PRO FO 371-69259.