1948 Arab-Israeli War

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War was an armed conflict between Israel and the Arab nations (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia). It began right after the Israeli declaration of independence on May 14, 1948, and it officially ended on March 10, 1949, with the signature of the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and the Arab countries. By these agreements, a series of boundary lines were drawn as they became de facto borders between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The result of this armed struggle was an Israeli victory as it took even more territory from the Palestinians. The Israelis were led by David Ben-Gurion, a Polish-born activist who had migrated to the Middle East at the beginning the 20th century and became the leader of the Jewish community in Palestine.

Cause of the War

This military confrontation was the result of the British and American imperialist schemes aimed at suppressing the national liberation movement and independence of the Arab peoples of the Near and Middle East, which had intensified after World War II. The Anglo-Americans also stoked up the Arab-Jewish antagonism in Palestine. England and the United States provoked the war with the intention of thwarting the implementation of the UN General Assembly Resolution 181 passed on November 29, 1947.

This UN resolution put an end to the British mandate of Palestine, which had been granted to Great Britain by the League of Nation after World War I and it ordered the partition of the Palestinian territory into two states, one Arab and one Jewish state. England counted on retaining its position in Palestine, and the USA hoped to increase its geopolitical influence in the region using Israel as a gate. With these goals in mind, they took advantage of the dependence of some Arab governments on them and the extremism of the Israeli bourgeois Zionist circles.

1948 Arab-Israeli War (Summary)

The war broke out on the night of May 14, 1948, several hours after the proclamation of the state of Israel on part of Palestinian territory. During this armed conflict, which was interrupted by several short-term armistices, the Israeli forces, with financial, military and other support from the United States of America, France, and Zionist organizations, seized an area of 6,700 square km, including part of the territory which had been assigned to the Arab state by the UN General Assembly Resolution 181 and also part of Jerusalem, thus enlarging Israel’s territory by almost 48 percent over the land designated as Palestine by the UN.

The Arab countries and the Palestinians defended the territories where they had been living for centuries, especially those territories granted to them by the UN Partition Plan. During the war, both sides used WW2 weapons. The Israeli employed both American and German weapons smuggled in from Europe. Perhaps the most renowned military engagement of the war was the Battle for Jerusalem. The Jewish attack on Jerusalem was led by the Canadian-born commander Dov Josef, who led a 10,000-men strong division. The battle ended in late July 1948, when the Israelis took half of Jerusalem, forcing the Jordan-backed Palestinians to fall back. Meanwhile, Operation Horev was an Israeli offensive against the Egyptians in the Negev (Egyptian territory) on the southern front. Operation Dekel was an Israeli offensive in the north of Palestine.

About 900,000 Palestinian inhabitants were expelled from the territory seized by Israel, creating the problem of the Palestinian refugees, who remained in neighboring Arab countries in extremely difficult circumstances. Israel refused to implement the UN General Assembly resolution of December 1, 1948, which called for the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland and for Israel to pay indemnity for relinquished property to those who did not wish to return. New questions had arisen as a consequence of the Arab-Israeli War of 1948–49 and were exploited by the USA and the reactionary forces in Israel. These issues still remained unsettled. All of this gave rise to ceaseless Arab-Israeli conflicts, such as the Anglo-French-Israeli aggression against Egypt in 1956 and the Six Day War of 1967.

M4 Sherman tanks of the Israeli Defense Force during an offensive to grab Palestinian land.