The Accurate [Brief] History of the Arab Invasion of Israel in 1948 War

JStone

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Eminent Historian Sir Martin Gilbert, Author of 10 Books on Middle East History, Knighted for His Significant Contribution to History.

The Arab Invasion of the State of Israel 15 May 1948
On 15 May, 1948 six Arab armies, those of Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, invaded Israel. They advanced rapidly, threatening to destroy the one-day old State and drive its citizens into the sea. The Israelis resisted and after ten days were able to counter-attack

Between May 1948 and January 1949, the State of Israel fought to retain its independence against the combined forces of six Arab armies. Following the initial Arab invasion, the Israelis reopened the road to Jerusalem, won control of the Coastal Plain, secured the upper Galilee, and drove the Egyptians from the Negev.

But, the Israelis were themselves driven from the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, whose synagogues were desecrated and whose Jewish houses were destroyed.

During Israel's struggle for independence between November 1947 and January 1949, more than 4,000 Jewish soldiers and 2,000 civilians were killed out of a total Jewish population of only 650,000. The figures for Arab dead were not disclosed by the Arab states.

The UN estimated that over 725,000 Arabs fled between April and December 1948. Many Arabs were encouraged to leave by their own political leaders who promised them that they would soon be able to return to their homes once Israel had been destroyed. But, over 150,000 Arabs either remained in Israel or returned to their homes in Israel during 1949.

In April 1949, at the UN Palestine Conciliation Commission at Lausanne, Israel offered to repatriate 100,000 Arab refugees within the framework of a general settlement. The Arab delegation rejected the offer. In 1950 the United Nations Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA] proposed resettling Arab refugees in Sinai, Jordan and Syria, but the Arab governments also rejected this proposal. In 1952, the UN Refugee Rehabilitation Fund offered the Arab states $200 million to find homes and jobs for the refugees. The Arab states used some of the money for relief work, but did not even apply for the greater part of the fund.

In 1949, some 150,000 Arabs remained in Israel. By 1956, their numbers had increased to 312,000 or 11% of the total populaiton. Less than 5,000 Arabs left Israel during this period. From 1959, Arabs could join the Israeli Trade Union Organization and on 1 December 1966 Israeli Military Government was abolished in all Arab areas. Since 1949, Arabs voted in all Israeli elections and sent their own members to the Israeli Parliament. Since May 1948, both Hebrew and Arabic have been the official languages of the State of Israel and three Arabic language daily newspapers have been in regular production. But throughout this period, the Arabs maintained separate communities and cultural life as did the 30,000 Bedouin who lived in the Negev and around Beersheba.

The majority of the Arabs who remained in Israel after May 19488 lived in the northernmost part ofj the State. Whereas the Arabs who fled from Israel in 1948 were for the most part confined to refugee camps by their fellow Arab hosts and deliberately cut off from the economic development of the States in which they lived, the Arabs of Israel continued to live unmolested in their original homes, gained materially from Israel's own material successes and received direct Israeli aid for irrigation, reclamation, mechanization and social welfare [including education, health and housing]

Palestinian terrorist groups, or fedayeen, began systematic raids into Israel from 1950. Toward the end of 1954, the Egyptian Government supervised the formal establishment of Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza strip and northeastern Sinai. Throughout 1955 an increasing number of raids were launched into Israel. From 1951 to 1958, Israeli vehicles were ambushed, farms attacked, fields boobytrapped and roads mined. Fedayeen from Gaza also infiltrated into Jordan and operated from there. Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon each gave the Fedayeen support. Local Jordanian-Palestinian Fedayeen were also active operating from the West Bank.
Amazon.com: Martin Gilbert'sThe Routledge Atlas of Jewish History (Routledge Historical Atlases) [Hardcover](2010): M., (Author) Gilbert: Books

Yale University Press...
Sir Martin Gilbert is the author of more than eighty books, including the six-volume authorized biography of Winston Churchill, the twin histories First World War and Second World War, Israel: A History, The Holocaust, A History of the Twentieth Century in three volumes, and nine pioneering historical atlases, including Atlas of Jewish History and Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. In 1995, he was knighted for services to British history and international relations, and in 2009 he was appointed to the British Government’s Iraq War Inquiry. He lives in London.
In Ishmael's House - Gilbert, Martin - Yale University Press
 
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Where was Israel attacked?

You got a map?

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