1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War Read Online Free PDF

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    Both communities increased in power and size during the beneficent years of the Mandate. But the Jews fared far better than the Arabs. They received enormous contributions and investments from Western Jewry and large British government loans; the Arabs benefited from little foreign investment or loans. Jewish numbers had grown under the Ottomans from some twenty-five thousand to sixty to eighty-five thousand between 188 i and 1914. By the end of 1947, they had reached 630,000. The Arab increase had been less dramatic-from 450,000 (1881) to 650,000 (1918) to 1.3 million (1948).
    Economically, Palestinian Arab fortunes had steadily improved-but the Jews' had soared. The net domestic product of the Palestine Arab community in 1922 had been 6.6 million pounds sterling; in 1947 it was 32.3 million. During the same period, the Yishuv's had rocketed from 1.7 million pounds sterling to 38.5 million. The net product of the Jewish community in the manufacturing sector had jumped from 491,ooo pounds sterling in 1922 to 31 million in 1947 (the Palestinian Arab equivalent was 539,000 pounds sterling to 6.7 million in 1945).25
    In most other fields, the Yishuv had also advanced by leaps and bounds. Perhaps most significantly, the Jews managed to forge internal, democratic governing institutions, which in 1947-1948 converted more or less smoothly into the agencies of the new State of Israel. The Jewish Agency for Palestine served as the Yishuv's government, its Executive (the JAE), from 1929 until 1948, functioning as a cabinet. A number of bodies, such as the Jewish National Fund, the Histadrut Agricultural Center, and the agency's Settlement Department, promoted land reclamation and settlement activity. The Yishuv established a "national" health care system, the Histadrut's Sick Fund, and educational systems catering to its constituent communities (secular, socialist, Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox). In 1925-with a population of about i5o,ooo-the Jews established their first university, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. By comparison, Palestine's Arabs established universities (in the West Bank and Gaza Strip) only in the 1970S (ironically, while under Israeli military occupation).
    From 1920, the Yishuv had a "national" militia, the Haganah, which in mid-1948 became the army of the new state, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). To run its institutions, the Yishuv efficiently taxed itself. By contrast, the Arabs relied for their institutions, such as the Supreme Muslim Council, and their services on British government funding.
    Starting in April 1936, armed Arab bands, based in the villages and the urban casbahs, began to attack Jewish traffic and passersby. At the same time, the Palestinians reorganized politically, setting up National Committees (NCs) in each town and the Arab Higher Committee to oversee their struggle nationally. Both the AHC and the NCs initially represented the various political factions. The AHC declared an open-ended general strike and demanded British withdrawal and Palestinian independence under Arab rule. At the least, the rebels hoped to bludgeon the British into curbing the growth of the Zionist enterprise and Jewish immigration.
    The revolt enjoyed popular support throughout the Arab Middle East. Even before its outbreak, the Arab world had been smoldering with the idea of a jihad (holy war) against the Yishuv. The speaker of the Iraqi parliament, Said al-Haj Thabit, on a visit to Palestine in March 1936, repeatedly called for such a jihad.26
    But the revolt was somewhat lackadaisical: initially, few Palestinians actually participated in hostilities, and they were disorganized and poorly led and equipped. By October they had managed to kill only twenty-eight Britons and eighty Jews (at a cost of some two hundred Arab dead). The British and the Yishuv reacted with restraint, though London began to curtail Jewish immigration. After five months of struggle, the Palestinians were exhausted and the