6.7.2 Partition and the First Phase of War - Part 2

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Do curso por Tel Aviv University

The Emergence of the Modern Middle East - Part II

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Tel Aviv University

The Emergence of the Modern Middle East - Part II

237 ratings

This course will discuss the developments in the Middle East from the early 20th century to the present. It will discuss the rise and retreat of Arab nationalism, the problems of internal cohesion of the Arab states, issues of religion and state, and the evolution of Islamist politics. It will also focus on the evolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and its impact on the region and will conclude with an in depth analysis of the “Arab Spring” by placing these contemporary revolutionary events in their historical context. Please note that this course builds upon a previous course - The Emergence of the Modern Middle East - Part I Learn about the history of the Middle East for a deeper understanding of current regional developments!

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WEEK 2

The beginnings of the Arab-Israeli conflict

6.1 Introduction: Contexts and Discourse6:47

6.2 Early Zionism9:31

6.3.1 Initial Arab Resistance - Part 16:38

6.3.2 Initial Arab Resistance - Part 27:49

6.4.1 The Arab Rebellion and the Jewish Response - Part 110:36

6.4.2 The Arab Rebellion and the Jewish Response - Part 26:31

6.4.3 The Arab Rebellion and the Jewish Response - Part 36:04

6.5 The Impact of World War II10:00

6.6 The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry5:34

6.7.1 Partition and the First Phase of War - Part 14:53

6.7.2 Partition and the First Phase of War - Part 28:28

6.8 The Second Phase of the 1948 War7:36

6.9.1 The Narratives of the 1948 War - Part 18:45

6.9.2 The Narratives of the 1948 War - Part 24:14

6.9.3 The Narratives of the 1948 War - Part 38:32

Conheça os instrutores

Professor Asher Susser
Senior Research Fellow
Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies

The aftermath of the partition resolution of November 1947,

was the first phase of war in Palestine,

the first phase which was a civil war between the Jews and

the Arabs in Palestine which lasted from December 1947 until May 1948.

The second phase that which begins in May 1948 is no longer a civil war

between the Jews and the Arabs in Palestine, but

a struggle between the Israeli army established in independent Israel, and

the invading armies of the neighboring Arab states.

The Arabs rejected partition.

For them, it was a case of injustice that was totally unacceptable.

And therefore, the Arabs went to war against this UN resolution

with the objective of scuttling its implementation.

In this first phase of the war, external Arab

forces also participated, though not the regular armies of the Arab states.

But the invasion of Palestine by an Arab army known as the Arab Liberation Army,

which had a few thousand fighters, which joined the Palestinians

in their fight against the Jewish population in Palestine.

The first phase of the war was a fight for the roads of Palestine.

The fight for the control of the territory,

in which the Jews were in a very vulnerable situation.

It was extremely difficult for the Jews to control the roads

of Palestine when there were significant Arab populations

interspersed between the Jewish residential parts of Palestine.

And by March 1948 with the great difficulty of maintaining control of

the roads, it looked as though the Jews were on the verge of defeat.

And indeed in March 1948,

the United States suggested that the idea of partition be abandoned.

And that a U.N. trustee should be imposed on Palestine.

Partition, they thought, was not working.

These were very undesirable developments, from the Jewish point of view.

If there was to be no partition, they would be no state for the Jewish people.

The British in the meantime were preceding with the withdrawal of their forces from

Palestine.

But on the Jewish side, there was a dire situation of panic,

where Jerusalem with the Jewish population of a hundred thousand, was under siege,

completely cut off from the rest of the Jewish community in Palestine.

The policy of sending convoys along the roads of Palestine to link up

the different Jewish sections of Palestine was ineffective, and

it was very easy for Arab irregulars at any given point on the way to cut

off Jewish traffic from one point to another.

The Jewish side had to change tactics.

And this called for the implementation of new plans.

The most important of these was the implementation of

a plan of offense which was called, Plan D.

And Plan D was implemented by the Jewish forces in April of 1948 in

an effort by organized offensives of regular forces

to control all of the territory of the Jewish State.

That meant the conquest of Arab towns and

villages that were inside the Jewish state, something the Jewish forces

had never done in the struggle for Palestine until that point.

This gave rise to very important questions such as,

what is to be done with the Arab population, in these villages and

towns that are conquered by the Jewish forces?

According to Plan D, this population was to remain in place,

unless they resisted the Jewish occupation.

And if they did resist, it was possible to remove them.

Plan D was implemented in April, and

allowed for the opening of the road to Jerusalem.

And allowed for the conquest of territory that enabled the Jews to

prepare effectively for the expected invasion of the Arab regular armies.

[SOUND] This was the turning point of the war.

This was the transition from the defensive to the offensive by the Jewish forces.

And this was the very effective use of the Jewish force capabilities.

The ability to wage concentrated offensive that were much harder for

the Arabs to resist.

Essentially, the Jews in this struggle in April,

won the fight for the approaches to Jerusalem.

And Jerusalem's Jewish population was linked up to the rest

of the Jewish community in Palestine, and the siege was ended.

[SOUND] But in the struggle, there were some

unprecedented clashes of extreme violence

between the Jews and the Arabs in Palestine.

One of these was the infamous battle in the village of

Deir Yassin just outside Jerusalem.

Where Jewish forces again of the right wing underground

of the Irgun carried out a massacre of the Arabs in the village of Deir Yassin.

For this massacre, revenge was taken on the Jews at least twice.

Once, in the massacre of a convoy of doctors and

nurses, going from one side of Jerusalem to the Hadassah Hospital on the other side

of Jerusalem, where nearly 100 doctors and nurses were murdered by the Arabs.

A month later, the Jewish settlement area

of the Etzion Bloc was overrun by Arab forces.

And many of the Jewish defenders who were taken prisoner were massacred as well.

There was an initial exaggeration of the losses of Deir Yassin.

And it, it was said that more than 200 Arabs had been killed in that, massacre.

In fact, the numbers were far less.

Somewhere around 100, but the report on Deir Yassin,

that was made in the Arab media at the time, exaggerated the losses actually

in an effort to convince the Arab population to remain, to stand and fight.

By exaggerating the losses, the attempt was to convince the Arabs that this would

be your fate if you did not stand up and fight to the Jews.

But that was not the effect of this effort.

The effect of this propaganda effort was actually to encourage more Arab flight and

was one of the turning points in the war in the creation of the acceleration

of the refugee problem.

[SOUND] But it was the fight for the breakthrough to Jerusalem and

incidents like Deir Yassin and

the creation of the Arab refugee program as a consequence,

that popular Arab pressure on Arab governments to go to war increased a pace.

[SOUND]

Under the pressure of war,

Arab society was on the verge of collapse.

The leadership was still outside the country.

And as Arab society continued to falter, so the Jews continued to

organize the government machinery of the state, they were about to declare.

The Jews had unquestionably won this part of the war.

And Israel declared its independence on May the 14th,

1948 as the British mandate came to an end.

And as the last of British soldiers left Palestine forever.

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