The Arab-Israeli War of 1948: Causes and Consequences

Background and Origins of the Conflict

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War is also known as the Arab War of Independence. The war began around December 1, 1947, and is divided into two broad periods: the pre-independence period and the post-independence period. The pre-independence period began shortly after the passage of UN General Assembly Resolution 181, which was intended to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, along with an international zone encompassing Jerusalem and a large surrounding area. The Jews were to receive approximately 55% of the territory. The plan was fragile, but it might have worked had both sides been willing to accept it (Israel War of Independence, 2008).

The Arabs rejected the partition and called for a war to rid Palestine of the Jews. The British undermined UN efforts to internationalize Jerusalem and encouraged the Arabs to go to war, providing large quantities of arms to the Arab Legion. The Jews greeted the news of partition with joy, but it was clear that a tragic armed clash was imminent. Riots and terror attacks soon followed the announcement of the partition plan and gradually escalated. Irgun bombs began exploding in Arab sections of the old city of Jerusalem and in Jaffa. In Jerusalem, the Arabs blew up the Jewish Agency and subsequently killed approximately 60 people in the Ben Yehuda Street bombing in February (Israel War of Independence, 2008).

In November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 181, also known as the Partition Resolution. This resolution would divide Great Britain's former Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states by May 1948. Under the resolution, the area of religious significance surrounding Jerusalem would remain under international control administered by the United Nations. The Palestinian Arabs refused to recognize the resolution, which they regarded as favorable to the Jews and unfair to the Arab population that would remain within Jewish territory under the partition. The United States sought a middle path by supporting the UN resolution while also encouraging negotiations between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East (The Arab-Israeli War of 1948, n.d.).

The Pre-Independence Phase and Escalating Violence

The UN resolution ignited a conflict between Jewish and Arab groups within Palestine. Fighting began with attacks by irregular bands of Palestinian Arabs attached to local units of the Arab Liberation Army, composed of volunteers from Palestine and neighboring Arab countries. These groups launched attacks against Jewish cities, settlements, and armed forces. The Jewish forces consisted of the Haganah — the underground militia of the Jewish community in Palestine — and two smaller irregular groups, the Irgun and LEHI. The Arab objective was initially to block the Partition Resolution and prevent the establishment of a Jewish state. The Jews, on the other hand, sought to gain control over the territory allotted to them under the Partition Plan (The Arab-Israeli War of 1948, n.d.).

This war broke out in full when five Arab nations invaded territory in the former Palestinian mandate immediately following the announcement of Israeli independence on May 14, 1948. At that time, the United States offered de facto recognition of the Israeli Provisional Government, but maintained an arms embargo against all belligerents throughout the war (The Arab-Israeli War of 1948, n.d.).

During the post-independence period, there were three periods of fighting and at least two truces. The first phase of fighting lasted from May 15 to June 10, 1948. The second stage — known as the "ten days" — lasted approximately from July 9 to July 18. The final period of fighting ran from October 15, 1948, until around January 7, 1949. During the truce periods, constant small-scale fighting continued, with at least one person killed every day. The regular armies more or less observed the truces, at least outside Jerusalem, but Arab irregulars — including Palestinian Arabs and the Arab Liberation Army of Fawzi al-Qawuqji — generally disregarded them. The key determining factor for the Jewish side was the ability to remain a viable fighting force during the pre-independence period and then to transform from a guerrilla force into a regular army capable of withstanding the onslaught of conventional Arab armies. The CIA had estimated that the Jewish side would lose the war, even without taking into account the full participation of Arab states (Israel War of Independence, 2008).

During the war, Transjordan's Arab Legion attempted to capture the entire city of Jerusalem, cutting off its Jewish residents from the coastal plain by shelling the city. Some western portions of Jerusalem came under Israeli control after Israeli forces broke the Arab siege. During the first four weeks of Arab attacks, 200 Jewish civilians were killed and over 1,000 were wounded. In the process of defending themselves, Israeli forces managed to capture several suburbs and villages from the Arabs (1948 Arab-Israeli War, 2007).

International Involvement and the Post-Independence Phase

The Israeli defenders were less successful in protecting the Jewish community of eastern Jerusalem. On May 28, 1948, the Arab Legion captured the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. Following ten months of fighting, an armistice agreement was signed on April 3, 1949. This divided Jerusalem along the November 1948 ceasefire lines between Israeli and Transjordanian forces, with several areas of no-man's land in between. The armistice line established a temporary border between what had formerly been two mixed communities. Western Jerusalem became the capital of Israel, while eastern Jerusalem — including the holy sites — was occupied by Transjordan, which in 1949 became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The city was effectively divided between two armed camps separated by barbed wire, concrete walls, minefields, and bunkers (1948 Arab-Israeli War, 2007).

Following Israel's declaration of independence on May 14, 1948, the fighting intensified as Arab forces joined the Palestinian Arabs in attacking territory in the former Palestinian mandate. In May, the Arabs launched an air attack on Tel Aviv, which the Israelis resisted. This was followed by the invasion of the former Palestinian mandate by Arab armies from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. Saudi Arabia contributed a formation that fought under Egyptian command. British-trained forces from Transjordan eventually intervened, but only in areas designated as part of the Arab state under the UN Partition Plan. After intense early fighting, Israeli forces — now under unified command — were able to seize the offensive (The Arab-Israeli War of 1948, n.d.).

The United Nations helped bring about two ceasefires during the conflict. Israel and the Arab states did not reach a formal armistice agreement until February 1949. Under separate agreements between Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Lebanon, Transjordan, and Syria, these nations agreed to formal armistice lines. Israel expanded its territory beyond what had originally been granted to it under the UN resolution of 1947. Egypt and Jordan retained control over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank respectively. The United States did not participate directly in the armistice negotiations, but hoped that instability in the Middle East would not upset the international balance of power between the Soviet Union and the United States. The Arab-Israeli War of 1948 ultimately resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs (The Arab-Israeli War of 1948, n.d.).

When Israel achieved independence in 1948, the Haganah became the de facto Israeli army just as the country was being invaded by the regular forces of Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria. Israel's provisional government issued an order establishing the legal framework for the country's armed forces, giving the military its official name — Zvah Haganah Le Yisrael — and outlawing the existence of any other armed force within Israel. The dissident Irgun and Stern Gang were reluctant to disband. Fighting broke out between Irgun members and regular military forces when the supply ship Altalena arrived at Tel Aviv carrying 900 men along with arms and ammunition intended for the Irgun. The army managed to sink the ship, destroying the arms, and many Irgun members were subsequently arrested. A further complication was how to disband the Palmach, which had become an elite military unit within the Haganah with strong political ties to the socialist-oriented kibbutzim (Israeli War of Independence 1948–1949, 2000).