Israel at War: 1948 | 5 Minute Videos

Two thousand years after being expelled from their ancient homeland, and a mere three years after the Holocaust, the modern state of Israel was established by the United Nations. But having a legal claim to the land was one thing—being able to keep it was another. Michael Oren tells the tale of Israel’s War of Independence.

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On November 29, 1947, after a hotly contested debate, the United Nations decided to partition British-ruled Palestine into two separate states, one for the Jews and one for the Arabs.

After 2,000 years of exile, and a mere three years after the Holocaust, the Jews would once again be a free nation in their ancient homeland. But having a claim to land was one thing – being able to keep it was another. The Jews were euphoric, but the Arabs were enraged. They swore to destroy the Jewish state before it could even be born.

Arab armies, supplied with tanks, guns, and planes by Britain and France, were poised to attack the Jewish forces, who were only lightly armed.

“It will be a war of annihilation,” declared Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League.

And the threat was not idle.

The war can be broken down into four phases.

The first phase began immediately after the UN partition resolution in November 1947.

Palestinian Arabs and irregulars from Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza attacked Jewish settlements.

Arab forces also laid siege to Jerusalem, depriving 100,000 Jews of food and water. Repeated Jewish attempts to break the siege were repulsed.

The situation was desperate. While frantically trying to procure weapons from abroad, Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion, fearful that the world would retreat from the partition resolution, refrained from ordering a counter-offensive. But the Arab attacks proved too devastating, forcing the Jews to strike back.

In brutal battles, the Jews scored victories in Haifa, Safed, Jaffa, and Tiberias. Assuming these defeats were only temporary, tens of thousands of Arabs fled to neighboring states.

The violence reached a pitch in April 1948 when Zionist forces attacked the Arab town of Deir Yassin, resulting in what the Arabs claim was a massacre. Arab gunmen then ambushed a medical convoy to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, killing 78 doctors and nurses.

A month later, Arab forces overwhelmed the Jewish defenders of the Etzion Block of settlements south of Jerusalem. 127 men and women were slaughtered.

By mid- May when the state was set to come into being, its survival was far from certain. Laboring under an American arms embargo, the Jewish forces only had enough bullets to fight for one week. Jerusalem was cut off, and settlements throughout the country were isolated. Fearing a second Holocaust, Zionist leaders were divided about whether or not to even declare the state.

Nevertheless, on Friday, May 14, Ben-Gurion entered the Tel Aviv Art Museum, chosen because its thick walls could withstand an anticipated Arab air attack and proclaimed the independence of the reborn Jewish state—to be known as the State of Israel.

Eleven minutes later, President Harry Truman made the United States the first nation to recognize the Jewish state.