1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, War of the roads and blockade of Jerusalem, Geographic situation of the Jewish zones
The possibility of evacuating these difficult to defend zones was considered, but the policy of Haganah was set by David Ben-Gurion. He stated that "what the Jewish people have has to be conserved. No Jewish person should abandon his or her house, farm, kibbutz or job without authorization. Every outpost, every colony, whether it is isolated or not, must be occupied as though it were Tel Aviv itself." No Jewish settlement was evacuated until the invasion of May 1948. Only a dozen kibbutzim in Galilee, and those in Gush Etzion sent women and children into the safer interior zones.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, War of the roads and blockade of Jerusalem, Geographic situation of the Jewish zones
Ben-Gurion gave instructions that the settlements of Negev be reinforced in number of men and goods, in particular the kibbutzim of Kfar Darom and Yad Mordechai (both close to Gaza), Revivim (south of Beersheba), and Kfar Etzion. Conscious of the danger that weighed upon Negev, the supreme command of Haganah assigned a whole Palmach battalion there.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, War of the roads and blockade of Jerusalem, Siege of Jerusalem
Jerusalem and the great difficulty of accessing the city became even more critical to its Jewish population, who made up one sixth of the total Jewish population in Palestine. The long and difficult route from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, after leaving the Jewish zone at Hulda, went through the foothills of Latrun. The 28-kilometre route between Bab al-Wad and Jerusalem took no less than three hours, and the route passed near the Arab villages of Saris, Qaluniya, Al-Qastal, and Deir Yassin.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, War of the roads and blockade of Jerusalem, Siege of Jerusalem
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni arrived in Jerusalem with the intent to surround and besiege its Jewish community. He moved to Surif, a village to the southwest of Jerusalem, with his supporters—around a hundred fighters who were trained in Syria before the war and who served as officers in his army, Jihad al-Muqadas, or Army of the Holy War. He was joined by a hundred or so young villagers and Arab veterans of the British Army. His militia soon had several thousand men, and it moved its training quarters to Bir Zeit, a town near Ramallah.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, War of the roads and blockade of Jerusalem, Siege of Jerusalem
Abd al-Qadir's zone of influence extended down to the area of Lydda, Ramleh, and the Judean Hills where Hasan Salama commanded 1,000 men. Salama, like Abd al-Qadir, had been affiliated with Mufti Haj Amin al Husseini for years, and had also been a commander in the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, participated in the Rashid Ali coup of 1941 and the subsequent Anglo-Iraqi War. Salama had re-entered Palestine in 1944 in Operation Atlas, parachuting into the Jordan Valley as a member of a special German—Arab commando unit of the Waffen SS. He coordinated with al-Husayni to execute a plan of disruption and harassment of road traffic in an attempt to isolate and blockade Western (Jewish) Jerusalem.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, War of the roads and blockade of Jerusalem, Siege of Jerusalem
On 10 December, the first organized attack occurred when ten members of a convoy between Bethlehem and Kfar Etzion were killed.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, War of the roads and blockade of Jerusalem, Siege of Jerusalem
On 14 January, Abd al-Qadir himself commanded and took part in an attack against Kfar Etzion, in which 1,000 Palestinian Arab combatants were involved. The attack was a failure, and 200 of al-Husayni's men died. Nonetheless, the attack did not come without losses of Jewish lives: a detachment of 35 Palmach men who sought to reinforce the establishment were ambushed and killed.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, War of the roads and blockade of Jerusalem, Siege of Jerusalem
On 25 January, a Jewish convoy was attacked near the Arab village of al-Qastal. The attack went badly and several villages to the northeast of Jerusalem answered a call for assistance, although others did not, for fear of reprisals. The campaign for control over the roads became increasingly militaristic in nature, and became a focal point of the Arab war effort. After 22 March, supply convoys to Jerusalem stopped, due to a convoy of around thirty vehicles having been destroyed in the gorges of Bab-el-Wad.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, War of the roads and blockade of Jerusalem, Siege of Jerusalem
On 27 March, an important supply convoy from Kfar Etzion was taken in an ambush in south of Jerusalem. They were forced to surrender all of their arms, ammunition and vehicles to al-Husayni's forces. The Jews of Jerusalem requested the assistance of the United Kingdom after 24 hours of combat. According to a British report, the situation in Jerusalem, where a food rationing system was already in application, risked becoming desperate after 15 May.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, War of the roads and blockade of Jerusalem, Siege of Jerusalem
The situation in other areas of the country was as critical as the one of Jerusalem. The settlements of Negev were utterly isolated, due to the impossibility of using the Southern coastal road, which passed through zones densely populated by Arabs. On 27 March, a convoy of supplies (the Yehiam convoy) that was intended for the isolated kibbutzim north-west of Galilee was attacked in the vicinity of Nahariya. In the ensuing battle, 42–47 Haganah combatants and around a hundred fighters of the Arab Liberation Army were killed, and all vehicles involved were destroyed.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948)
The second phase of the war, which began in April, marked a huge change in direction, as Haganah moved to the offensive.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948)
In this stage, Arab forces were composed of around 10,000 men among which between 3,000 and 5,000 foreign volunteers serving in the Arab Liberation Army. Haganah and Palmach forces were steadily increasing. In March, they aligned around 15,000 men and in May around 30,000 who were better equipped, trained and organized.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948)
The armed Palestinian groups were roundly defeated, Yishuv took control of some of the principal routes that linked the Jewish settlements, and as a consequence, Jerusalem was able to receive supplies again. Palestinian society collapsed. Many mixed cities were taken by the Haganah as well as Jaffa. A massive exodus was triggered.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Plan Dalet
Plan Dalet was finalized on 10 March 1948, under the direction of Yigael Yadin. 75 pages long, it laid down the rules and the objects that were to be followed by Haganah during the second phase of the war. Its principal objective was to secure Yishuv's uninterrupted territorial connections, particularly in response to the war of the roads carried out by Al-Hussayni and in preparation for the Arab states' declared intervention. Plan Dalet caused quite a controversy among historians. Some see it as a plan that was primarily defensive and military in nature and a preparation against invasion, whereas others think that the plan was offensive in nature and aimed at conquering as much of Palestine as possible.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Operation Nachshon (2–20 April)
At the end of March 1948, Hussayni's troops prevented supply convoys from reaching Jerusalem. The city was besieged and the Jewish population was forced to adhere to a rationing system. Ben-Gurion decided to launch the operation Nachshon to open up the city and provide supplies to Jerusalem. Operation Nachshon marked the Haganah shift to the offensive, even before launching plan D.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Operation Nachshon (2–20 April)
The first orders were given on 2 April 1948 with diversion attacks including Qastel. Between 5–20 April 1500 men from the Givati and Harel brigades took control of the road to Jerusalem and allowed 3 or 4 convoys to reach the city.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Operation Nachshon (2–20 April)
The operation was a military success. All the Arab villages that blocked the route were either taken or destroyed, and the Jewish forces were victorious in all their engagements. Nonetheless, not all the objectives of the operation were achieved, since only 1800 tonnes of the 3,000 envisaged were transported to the city, and two months of severe rationing had to be assumed.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Operation Nachshon (2–20 April)
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni was killed during the night of 7–8 April, in the midst of the battles taking place in Al-Qastal. The loss of this charismatic Palestinian leader 'disrupted the Arab strategy and organization in the area of Jerusalem.' His successor, Emil Ghuri, changed tactics: instead of provoking a series of ambushes throughout the route, he had a huge road block erected at Bab al-Wad, and Jerusalem was once again isolated as a consequence.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Operation Nachshon (2–20 April)
Operation Nachshon exposed the poor military organization of the Palestinian paramilitary groups. Due to lack of logistics, particularly food and ammunition, they were incapable of maintaining engagements that were more than a few hours away from their permanent bases.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Operation Nachshon (2–20 April)
Faced with these events, the Arab Higher Committee asked Alan Cunningham to allow the return of the Mufti, the only person capable of redressing the situation. Despite obtaining permission, the Mufti did not get to Jerusalem. His declining prestige cleared the way for the expansion of the influence of the Arab Liberation Army and of Fawzi Al-Qawuqji in the Jerusalem area.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Battle of Mishmar HaEmek (4–15 April)
Mishmar HaEmek is a kibbutz that was founded by Mapam in 1930, in the Jezreel Valley, close to the road between Haifa and Jenin that passes the Megiddo kibbutz. It is situated in a place that Haganah officers considered to be on one of the most likely axes of penetration for a 'major Arab attack' against the Yishuv.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Battle of Mishmar HaEmek (4–15 April)
On 4 April, the Arab Liberation Army launched an attack on the kibbutz with the support of artillery. The attack was fought off by the members of the kibbutz, who were supported by Haganah soldiers. The artillery fire that had almost totally destroyed the kibbutz was stopped by a British column, who arrived on the scene by order of General MacMillan, and, on 7 April, Fawzi Al-Qawuqji accepted a 24-hour ceasefire, but required that the kibbutz be surrendered. The inhabitants of the kibbutz evacuated their children, and, after having consulted Tel Aviv, refused to surrender.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Battle of Mishmar HaEmek (4–15 April)
On 8 or 9 April, Haganah prepared a counter-offensive. Yitzhak Sadeh was put in charge of operations, with the order to 'clean out' the region. The battle lasted until 15 April. Sadeh's men besieged all the villages around the kibbutz, and the Arab Liberation Army had to retreat to its bases in Jabba. The majority of the inhabitants of the region fled, but those who did not were either imprisoned or expelled to Jenin. The villages were plundered by some Kibbutznikim and razed to the ground with explosives with accordance to Plan Dalet · .


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Battle of Mishmar HaEmek (4–15 April)
According to Morris, the Arab Liberation Army soldiers were demoralized by reports of the Deir Yassin massacre and the death of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni. Throughout battle, they had generally been forced to withdraw and to abandon the people of the villages.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Battle of Mishmar HaEmek (4–15 April)
Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins report that Joshua Palmon, head of a unit of 6 men, failed to seize invaluable pieces of artillery, and they depict the events as a débâcle for which Fawzi Al-Qawuqji offered extravagant excuses, declaring in particular that the Jewish forces has 120 tanks, six squadrons of fighter and bomber aircraft and that they were supported by a regiment of gentile Russian volunteers. According to Morris, "according to Ben-Gurion, some 640 Haganah soldiers had faced about twenty-five hundred ALA troops, with superior firepower—and bested them". When the battle finished, Palmach forces continued 'cleaning' operations until 19 April, destroying several villages and forcing those who inhabited them to flee. Some villages were also evacuated under the instruction of Arab authorities.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Battle of Mishmar HaEmek (4–15 April)
In May, Irgun engaged in several operations in the region, razing a number of villages and killing some of their inhabitants, as did some detachments from the Golani and Alexandroni brigades.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Deir Yassin massacre
Deir Yassin is a village located 5 kilometres west of Jerusalem. On 9 April 1948, independently of operation Nachshon, around 120 Irgun and Lehi men attacked the village and ran into resistance,  capturing it after a fierce battle with Palmach help. The Irgun and Lehi lost 4 dead and 35 wounded. Between 100 and 120 inhabitants of the village were killed in the attack, mostly civilians. The Haganah had approved the attack and assisted in it.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Deir Yassin massacre
The operation led to indignation from the international community, the more so since the press of the time reported that the death toll was 254. Ben-Gurion roundly condemned it, as did the principal Jewish authorities: the Haganah, the Great Rabbinate and the Jewish Agency for Israel, who sent a letter of condemnation, apology and condolence to King Abdullah I of Jordan.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Deir Yassin massacre
According to Morris, "the most important immediate effect of the atrocity and the media campaign that followed it was how one started to report the fear felt in Palestinian towns and villages, and, later, the panicked fleeing from them." Another important repercussion was within the Arab population of neighbouring Arab states, which, once again, increased its pressure on the representatives of these states to intervene and come to the aid of the Palestinian Arabs.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Hadassah medical convoy massacre
On 13 April, partly in revenge for the Deir Yassin massacre, a convoy that was driving towards Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus was attacked by hundreds of Arabs. In the seven-hour battle 79 Jews were killed including doctors and patients. Thirteen British soldiers were present, but they stood by, only putting in a perfunctory attempt at intervention in the last moments of the massacre.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Hadassah medical convoy massacre
Lieutenant-Colonel Jack Churchill was present at the scene, and later testified that he had attempted to assist the Hadassah convoy by radioing for support, only for the request to be turned down.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Battle of Ramat Yohanan and the defection of the Druze
Following the 'fiasco' of Mishmar HaEmek, Fawzi Al-Qawuqji ordered the Druze regiment of the Arab Liberation Army into action, to carry out diversion operations. Druze soldiers took position in several Arab villages 12 kilometres to the east of Haifa, whence they occasionally attacked traffic and Jewish settlements, including Ramat Yohanan.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Battle of Ramat Yohanan and the defection of the Druze
The Kibbutznikim and the Haganah soldiers that supported them forced back their attacks and razed the villages from which they launched their attacks. Having run out of ammunition, the Druze withdrew to their base in Shefa-'Amr, with one hundred casualties. After an initial failure, a battalion-sized Carmeli force on the night of 15–16 April overran the two villages. The Druze Battalion, on 16 April assaulted the Carmeli positions nine times but the Carmeli troops fought back. By afternoon, the exhausted Druze troops retreated. An Haganah report praised "the well trained and very brave enemy forces."


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Battle of Ramat Yohanan and the defection of the Druze
The Druze had already made contact on several occasions with Yishuv agents and following their defeat at Ramat Yohanan, the Druze officers offered to defect and to join the ranks of Haganah. This proposition was discussed with Yigael Yadin, who refused the proposal but suggested that they could help to carry out sabotage operations behind the backs of the Arabs and to influence their comrades into deserting the army. By the start of May, 212 Wahab soldiers deserted.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Battle of Ramat Yohanan and the defection of the Druze
Taking into account the attitude of his men, Wahab met with Jewish liaison officers on 9 May and agreed to cooperate with Haganah. The two parties avoided clashes, and Wahab created a neutral enclave in the centre of Galilee. Wahab's army did not respond to calls for it to help fight Haganah's occupation of Acre, and avoided being present while Haganah occupied the police fortress of Shefa-'Amr during its evacuation by the British.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Battle of Ramat Yohanan and the defection of the Druze
The position that the Druze took influenced their fate after the war. Given the good relationship between the Druze and Yishuv from 1930 onwards despite their collaboration with the Arab Higher Council and the Arab League, Ben-Gurion insisted that the Druze, as well as the Circassians and the Maronites benefit from a different position to that of the other Arabs.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Siege of mixed localities
In the context of Plan Dalet, mixed urban centres, or those on the borders of the Jewish state, were attacked and besieged by Jewish forces. Tiberias was attacked on 10 April and fell six days later; Haifa fell on 23 April, after only one day of combat (Operation Bi'ur Hametz), and Jaffa was attacked on 27 April but fell only after the British abandoned it (Operation Hametz). Safed and Beisan (Operation Gideon) fell on 11 May and 13 May respectively, within the framework of Operation Yitfah, and Acre fell on 17 May, within the framework of Operation Ben-Ami.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Siege of mixed localities
The Arab inhabitants of these towns fled or were expelled en masse. In these 6 cities, only 13,000 of the total of 177,000 Arab inhabitants remained by the end of May. This phenomenon ricocheted also in the suburbs and the majority of the zone's Arab villages.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Operation Yiftah (20 April – 24 May)
Galilee Panhandle, a zone in northeastern Galilee, between the Lake Tiberias and Metula, was the Jewish-controlled area that was the most distant and isolated from the area most densely populated by Jews, the coastal plain. The presence of the Lebanese border to the north, the Syrian border to east and the Arab presence in the rest of Galilee made it a probable target for intervention of the Arab armies. Within the framework of the Dalet plan, Yigael Yadin entrusted Yigal Allon, commander of the Palmach, with the responsibility of managing Operation Yiftah, whose objectives were to control all the aforementioned area and consolidate it ahead of the Arab attack that was planned for 15 May.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Operation Yiftah (20 April – 24 May)
Allon was in charge the 1st and 3rd Palmach battalions, which had to face the populace of Safed and several dozen Arab villages. The situation was made more problematic by the presence of the British, although they began their evacuation of the area. According to his analysis, it was essential that they empty the zone of any Arab presence to completely protect themselves; the exodus would also encumber the roads that the Arab forces would have to penetrate.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Operation Yiftah (20 April – 24 May)
On 20 April, Allon launched a campaign that mixed propaganda, attacks, seizing control of strongholds that the British had abandoned, and destroying conquered Arab villages. On 1 May, a counter-offensive was launched by Arab militiamen against Jewish settlements but was ultimately unsuccessful. On 11 May, Safed fell, and the operation finished on 24 May after the villages of the valley of Hula were burnt down. Syrian forces' planned offensive in the area failed and, by the end of June, Galilee panhandle from Tiberias to Metula, incorporating Safed, was emptied of all its Arab population.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Meeting of Golda Meir and King Abdullah I of Jordan (10 May)
On 10 May, Golda Meir and Ezra Danin secretly went to Amman, to the palace of King Abdullah to discuss the situation with him. The situation that Abdullah found himself in was difficult. On one hand, his personal ambitions, the promises made by the Yishuv in November 1947 and the British approval of these promises pushed him to consider annexing the Arab part of Palestine without intervening against the future state of Israel.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Meeting of Golda Meir and King Abdullah I of Jordan (10 May)
On the other hand, the pressure exerted by his people in reaction to the massacre of Deir Yassin, combined with their feelings with regard to the Palestinian exodus and his agreements with other members of the Arab League pushed him to be more strongly involved in the war against Israel. He also found himself in a position of power, having the benefit of military support from not only the Arab League, but the British. In his diary, Ben-Gurion wrote about Golda Meir's reaction to the meeting:


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Meeting of Golda Meir and King Abdullah I of Jordan (10 May)
We met [on 10 May] amicably. He was very worried and looks terrible. He did not deny that there had been talk and understanding between us about a desirable arrangement, namely that he would take the Arab part [of Palestine]. (...) But Abdullah had said that he could now, on 10 May, only offer the Jews "autonomy" within an enlarged Hashemite kingdom. He added that while he was not interested in invading the areas allocated for Jewish statehood, the situation was volatile. But he voiced the hope that Jordan and the Yishuv would conclude a peace agreement once the dust had settled.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Meeting of Golda Meir and King Abdullah I of Jordan (10 May)
Historical analyses of the motivations and conclusions of this meeting differ. According to Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins – as well as Israeli historiographers – the intention behind the Yishuv's negotiation was to obtain a peace treaty and avoid an attack by Arab forces. At that time, the balance of power was not favourable for them, but Meir did not manage to convince the King.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Meeting of Golda Meir and King Abdullah I of Jordan (10 May)
According to Morris, Abdullah 'reconsidered the promises that he made in November to not be opposed to the partition plan,' but left Meir with the impression that he would make peace with the Jewish state once the civil war had finished.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Meeting of Golda Meir and King Abdullah I of Jordan (10 May)
Avi Shlaim spoke of a 'tacit' agreement to prevent the division of Palestine with the Palestinians, arguing the idea that there was a collusion between the Hashemite Kingdom and Yishuv. The historian Yoav Gelber, however, rejected this idea and devoted an entire work to dismounting it.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Meeting of Golda Meir and King Abdullah I of Jordan (10 May)
Pierre Razoux indicated that 'the majority of experts consider it probable' that Ben-Gurion and King Abdullah had an understanding over dividing Palestine, and that only the pressure from the Arab states on Abdullah constrained him from following up on his promise. According to Razoux, this idea explains the attitude of the British, who, following this plan, would thereby fulfill the promises made by Arthur Balfour to the Yishuv and the Hashemite empire at the same time. He states that the presence of Arab Legion troops, before 15 May, near strategic positions held by the British is in this way easy to understand.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Meeting of Golda Meir and King Abdullah I of Jordan (10 May)
Ilan Pappé stressed that neither Abdullah's ministers, nor the Arab world itself, seemed to be privy to the discussions held between him and the Yishuv, even if his ambitions on Palestine were widely known. He also stated that Sir Alec Kirkbride and Glubb Pasha thought at the time that, at the very least, Azzam Pasha, the Secretary of the Arab League, must have known about Abdullah's double game.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Meeting of Golda Meir and King Abdullah I of Jordan (10 May)
It is certain, on the other hand, that Golda Meir and King Abdullah did not come to an agreement on the status of Jerusalem. On 13 May, the Arab Legion took Kfar Etzion, strategically located halfway along the road between Hebron and Jerusalem. On 17 May, Abdullah ordered Glubb Pasha, commander of the Arab Legion, to launch an attack against the Holy City.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Kfar Etzion massacre
Kfar Etzion is a group of four settlements established on the strategic route between Hebron and Jerusalem, right in the middle of Arab inhabited territory. It had 400 inhabitants at the end of 1947. After the adoption of Resolution 181(II), it was the object of Arab attacks. Ben-Gurion reinforced it on 7 December, protecting it with a Palmach division, but on 8 January, he authorized the evacuation of the women and children of the settlements.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Kfar Etzion massacre
After 26 March, the last date on which a supply convoy successfully reached it, despite heavy losses of life, the defenders were completely isolated.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Kfar Etzion massacre
On 12 May, Arab Legion units started to attack the settlements. The motivations advanced include their desire to protect one of their last supply convoys before the embargo took effect, which had to travel down the road by Kfar Etzion. Another theory is that the block of settlements obstructed the deployment of the Legion in the area around Hebron, whose attack was one of Abdullah's principal objectives. External defences fell quickly, and, on 13 May, the first kibbutz was captured, and those who were taken prisoner were massacred; only four survived.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Kfar Etzion massacre
Of the 131 defenders, 127, including 21 women, were killed, or massacred after they surrendered. The other three establishments surrendered, and the kibbutzim were first plundered, then razed to the ground. In March 1949 320 prisoners from the Etzion settlements were released from the "Jordan POW camp at Mafrak", including 85 women.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Kfar Etzion massacre
The events that took place at Kfar Etzion made apparent the limitations of the policy prohibiting evacuation. Although it was effective during civil war, when facing militias, isolated Jewish settlements could not resist the firepower of a regular army, and an evacuation could have made it possible to avoid the captivity or death of those who defended the settlements.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Kfar Etzion massacre
According to Yoav Gelber, the fall and massacre of Kfar Etzion influenced Ben-Gurion's decision to engage the Arab Legion on its way to Jerusalem, although the Haganah General Staff were divided about whether the Legion should be challenged inside Jerusalem itself as such a move could harm the Jews in the city. Ben-Gurion left the final decision to Shaltiel. The battle for Jerusalem was thus set in motion.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Jerusalem: Operations Yevusi and Kilshon ("Pitchfork") (13–18 May)
Operation Yevusi lasted two weeks, from 22 April 1948 to 3 May 1948. Not all objectives were achieved before the British enforced a cease-fire. A Palmach force occupied the strategically located San Simon monastery in Katamon. Arab irregulars attacked the monastery and a heavy battle evolved. Both sides had a lot of wounded and killed fighters. The Palmach considered a retreat while the wounded fighters would blow themselves up, but then it was realized that the Arab force was exhausted and could not continue the fighting. As a result, the Arab residents left the suburb and the southern besieged Jewish suburbs were released.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Jerusalem: Operations Yevusi and Kilshon ("Pitchfork") (13–18 May)
The Haganah intended to capture the Old City during the final days of the Mandate. Its attacks on the seam between East and West Jerusalem from 13–18 May (known as Operation Kilshon) were planned as the initial phase of this conquest.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Jerusalem: Operations Yevusi and Kilshon ("Pitchfork") (13–18 May)
In Jerusalem, the British held several strategically located security zones named "Bevingrads", at its centre. The city's radio station, telephone exchange and government hospital were located there, along with a number of barracks and the Notre Dame hostel, which dominated the city. One of the main objectives of Operation Kilshon was to take control of these zones of strategic importance while the British withdrew.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Jerusalem: Operations Yevusi and Kilshon ("Pitchfork") (13–18 May)
On 13 May the Haganah extended its control of the Old City's Jewish Quarter and on 14th (having obtained the precise schedule of the evacuation with British complicity) took control of the Bevingrads, including the central post office and the Russian Church compound at 04:00. They surprised the Arab troops, who offered no resistance.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Jerusalem: Operations Yevusi and Kilshon ("Pitchfork") (13–18 May)
A secondary objective of Operation Kilshon was to simultaneously create a continuous frontline between the various isolated Jewish localities. For this aim, Brigadier General David Shaltiel, Haganah's former envoy to Europe, was deployed along with a troop of 400 Haganah soldiers and 600 militia soldiers. Emil Ghuri, the new leader of the Army of the Holy War, also envisaged taking these districts and mobilized 600 soldiers for the mission, but prepared no specific operation.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Jerusalem: Operations Yevusi and Kilshon ("Pitchfork") (13–18 May)
The secondary aim was also successful. In the North of the city, Jewish forces seized Arab-populated Sheikh Jarrah, made a connection with Mount Scopus, and took the villages surrounding the American colony. In the South, they ensured the connection of the German and Greek colonies with Talpiot and Ramat Rahel, after having taken the Allenby barracks. A Palmach unit even re-established contact with the Jewish district in the Old City via the Zion Gate.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Jerusalem: Operations Yevusi and Kilshon ("Pitchfork") (13–18 May)
The irregular Arabic forces were rendered impotent and yielded to panic, calling the situation hopeless and announcing the imminent fall of the city.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Operation Ben-Ami (13–22 May)
Within the framework of Plan Dalet, Yigael Yadin intended to make a breakthrough in the west of Galilee, wherein a number of isolated Jewish settlements were situated. This zone, which covers the land from Acre all the way to the Lebanese border, was allocated to the Arabs by the Partition plan, but was on the road through which Lebanese forces intended to enter into Palestine.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Operation Ben-Ami (13–22 May)
The command of this operation was entrusted to Moshe Carmel, head of the Carmeli brigade. It consisted of two phases: the first began on the evening of 13 May, when a column of Haganah's armoured vehicles and lorries advanced along the coast with no resistance. The forces of the Arab Liberation Army fled without entering battle, and the first phase of the operation finished when Acre was taken on 18 May. In the second phase, from 19 to 21 May, troops went as far as the Yehi'am kibbutz by the Lebanese border, connecting it and conquering and destroying a number of Arab villages on the way.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Main wave of the Palestinian Arab exodus
Haganah's move to offensive operations during the second phase of the war was accompanied by a huge exodus that involved 350,000 Arab refugees, adding to the 100,000 displaced during the First wave. The term 'Palestinian exodus' is often used to refer to both these and two subsequent waves. These two waves gained a considerable amount of press interest and were widely relayed in the press of the time, more so than most other Palestine-related events.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Main wave of the Palestinian Arab exodus
The causes of and responsibility for this exodus are highly controversial topics among commentators on the conflict and even historians who specialize in this era. Among the various possible causes, Efraim Karsh attributes the exodus mainly to Arab authorities' instructions to escape, whereas others argue that a policy of expulsion had been organized by the Yishuv authorities and implemented by Haganah. Others yet reject these two assumptions and see the exodus as the cumulative effect of all the civil war's consequences.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Preparations made by the Arab League
During the last meeting of the Arab League in February 1948, the Arab leaders expressed their convictions in the capacity of the Arab Liberation Army to help the Palestinians and to force the international community to give up on the UN-backed partition plan. The following summit took place in Cairo on 10 April, with the situation having clearly developed with the death of Al-Hussayni and the debacle at Mishmar Ha'emek.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Preparations made by the Arab League
Once again, Ismail Safwat called for the immediate deployment of the Arab state armies at the borders of Palestine, and for the need to go beyond the established policy of participating in little more than small-scale raids towards taking part in large-scale operations. For the first time, the Arab leaders discussed the possibility of intervening in Palestine.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Preparations made by the Arab League
Syria and Lebanon declared themselves ready to intervene immediately, but King Abdullah refused to let the Arab Legion forces intervene immediately in favour of the Palestinians, a move which irritated the Secretary-General of the League, who declared that Abdallah only cedes to the British diktat.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Preparations made by the Arab League
Nonetheless, Abdullah declared himself ready to send the Legion to assist the Palestinian cause after 15 May. In response, Syria insisted that the Egyptian army also take part, and, in spite of the opposition of Egypt's prime minister, King Farouk responded favourably to the Syrian request, but due to his aim of curbing the Jordanians' hegemonic goals rather than his desire to help the Palestinians.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Preparations made by the Arab League
Later on, following the visit of several Palestinian dignitaries in Amman, and despite the opposition of Syria and the Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, Azzam Pasha accepted Abdullah's proposition and sent Ismail Safwat to Amman to organize a coordination between the Arab Liberation Army and Jordan's Arab Legion. It was decided that command over the operations would be reserved for King Abdullah, and that the Iraqis would deploy a brigade in Transjordan to prepare for intervention on 15 May.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Preparations made by the Arab League
On 26 April, the 'intention to occupy Palestine' was officially announced at the Transjordanian parliament and the Jewish people were 'invited to place themselves beneath King Abdullah's jurisdiction.' The intention to spare their lives was also promised. Yishuv perceived this declaration as being one of war and encourages the Western world to pressure the King, through diplomatic means, to prevent his intervention.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Preparations made by the Arab League
On 30 April, Jordanians, Egyptians and Iraqis disputed the command of Abdullah. Abdullah received the honorary title of Commander-in-Chief, while the Iraqi general, Aldine Nur Mahmud, was named Chief of Staff. Despite this show of unity, it was agreed that each army would act independent of each other in the theatre of operations.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Preparations made by the Arab League
On 4 May, the Iraqi task force arrived at Mafraq. It was composed of a regiment of armoured tanks, a regiment of mechanized infantry, and twenty-four artillery weapons, and included 1500 men. The Egyptians formed two brigades, deploying around 700 men into the Sinai. The Syrians could not put together a better force, whereas the Lebanese announced that they could not take part in military operations on 10 May.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Preparations made by the Arab League
It was only two days before, on 8 May, that the British Foreign Office was certain of the Arab invasion. Whereas British analysts considered that all Arab armies, except the Arab Legion, were not prepared for the engagements to come, the Egyptian officers claimed that their advance would be 'a parade with the least risk,' and that their army 'would be in Tel Aviv after just two weeks.'


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Haganah offensive (1 April – 15 May 1948), Preparations made by the Arab League
The state of preparation of the army was such that they did not even have maps of Palestine. At the time, the final plans of invasion had not even been established yet. British leaders tried in vain to make the Arab leaders reconsider their decision, and Ismail Safwat resigned in indifference, but the Arab states seemed resolute. On 15 May 1948, the Arab League announced officially that it would intervene in Palestine to guarantee the security and right to self-determination of the inhabitants of Palestine in an independent state.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Results and aftermath
According to Benny Morris, the result of these five and a half months of fighting was a "decisive Jewish victory". On one side, the "Palestinian Arab military power was crushed" and most of the population in the combat zones was fleeing or had been driven out. On the other side, the "Haganah transformed from a militia into an army" and succeeded "in consolidating its hold on a continuous strip of territory embracing the Coastal Plain, the Jezreel Valley, and the Jordan Valley." The Yishuv proved it had the capability to defend itself, persuading the United States and the remainder of the world to support it and the "victory over the Palestinian Arabs gave the Haganah the experience and self-confidence [...] to confront [...] the invading armies of the Arab states."


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Results and aftermath
According to Yoav Gelber, during the six weeks between the Haganah offensive on 1 April and the invasion of the Arab armies, the Arabs were defeated in almost every front. The Jewish forces captured four cities (Tiberias, Jaffa, Safed, and Haifa) and 190 villages; most of their residents fled. The refugees flooded Samaria, central Galilee, Mount Hebron region, Gaza region, as well as Transjordan, Lebanon, and southern Syria. With the defeat of the Palestinian forces and the ALA, the Arab League saw no other option than to invade at the end of the British Mandate. The process of deciding to invade and preparing for the attack began two or three weeks before the end of the Mandate, when the level of the defeat was revealed and it was clear the ALA could not prevent it.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Results and aftermath
Although the Haganah was a poorly armed ragtag militia, its offensive of the last weeks went well, because Arab villages did not come to the help of their neighboring Arab villages or towns. Moreover, only a few young Arab men from untouched areas (e.g. Nablus, Hebron) participated in the fighting in Jerusalem, Haifa, etc. Anwar Nusseibeh, a supporter of the Mufti, said the Mufti refused to issue arms to anyone except his political supporters and only recruited his supporters for the forces of the Holy War Army. This partially accounts for the absence of an organized Arab force and for the insufficient amount of arms, which plagued the Arab defenders of Jerusalem.


1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Results and aftermath
On 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion, on behalf of the Jewish leadership, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. The 1948 Palestine war entered its second phase with the intervention of the Arab state armies and the beginning of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.


1947–1949 Palestine war
The 1947–1949 Palestine war was a war fought in the territory of Palestine under the British Mandate. It is known in Israel as the War of Independence (Hebrew: מלחמת העצמאות, Milkhemet Ha'Atzma'ut) and in Arabic as a central component of the Nakba (Arabic: النَّكْبَة, lit. ' the disaster'). It is the first war of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the broader Arab–Israeli conflict. During this war, the British Empire withdrew from Mandatory Palestine, which had been part of the Ottoman Empire until 1917.


1947–1949 Palestine war
The war culminated in the establishment of the State of Israel by the Jews, and saw a complete demographic transformation of the territory the Jews occupied, with the displacement of around 700,000 Palestinian Arabs and the destruction of most of their urban areas. Many Palestinian Arabs ended up stateless, displaced either to the Palestinian territories captured by Egypt and Jordan or to the surrounding Arab states; many of them, as well as their descendants, remain stateless and in refugee camps.


1947–1949 Palestine war
The territory that was under British administration before the war was divided between the State of Israel, which captured about 78% of it, the Kingdom of Jordan (then known as Transjordan), which captured and later annexed the area that became the West Bank, and Egypt, which captured the Gaza Strip, a coastal territory on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in which the Arab League established the All-Palestine Government.


1947–1949 Palestine war
The war had two main phases, the first being the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, which began on 30 November 1947, a day after the United Nations voted to divide the territory of Palestine into Jewish and Arab sovereign states, and an international Jerusalem (UN Resolution 181), which the Jewish leadership accepted, and the Palestinian Arab leaders, as well as the Arab states, unanimously opposed.


1947–1949 Palestine war
This phase of the war is described by historians as the "civil", "ethnic" or "intercommunal" war, as it was fought mainly between Jewish and Palestinian Arab militias, supported by the Arab Liberation Army and the surrounding Arab states. Characterised by guerrilla warfare and terrorism, it escalated at the end of March 1948 when the Jews went on the offensive and concluded with their defeating the Palestinians in major campaigns and battles, establishing clear frontlines. During this period the British still maintained a declining rule over Palestine and occasionally intervened in the violence.


1947–1949 Palestine war
The British Empire scheduled its withdrawal and abandonment of all claims to Palestine for 14 May 1948. On that date, when the last remaining British troops and personnel departed the city of Haifa, the Jewish leadership in Palestine declared the establishment of the State of Israel.


1947–1949 Palestine war
This declaration was followed by the immediate invasion of Palestine by the surrounding Arab armies and expeditionary forces in order to prevent the establishment of Israel and to aid the Palestinian Arabs, who were on the losing side at that point, with a large portion of their population already fleeing or being forced out by the Jewish militias.


1947–1949 Palestine war
The invasion marked the beginning of the second phase of the war, the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The Egyptians advanced on the southern coastal strip and were halted near Ashdod; the Jordanian Arab Legion and Iraqi forces captured the central highlands of Palestine. Syria and Lebanon fought several skirmishes with the Israeli forces in the north. The Jewish militias, organised into the Israel Defense Forces, managed to halt the Arab forces. The following months saw fierce fighting between the IDF and the Arab armies, which were being slowly pushed back.


1947–1949 Palestine war
The Jordanian and Iraqi armies managed to maintain control over most of the central highlands of Palestine and capture East Jerusalem, including the Old City. Egypt's occupation zone was limited to the Gaza Strip and a small pocket surrounded by Israeli forces at Al-Faluja. In October and December 1948, Israeli forces crossed into Lebanese territory and pushed into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, encircling the Egyptian forces near Gaza City. The last military activity happened in March 1949, when Israeli forces captured the Negev desert and reached the Red Sea. In 1949, Israel signed separate armistices with Egypt on 24 February, Lebanon on 23 March, Transjordan on 3 April, and Syria on 20 July. During this period the flight and expulsion of the Palestinian Arabs continued.


1947–1949 Palestine war
In the three years following the war, about 700,000 Jews immigrated to Israel from Europe and Arab lands, with one third of them having left or been expelled from their countries of residence in the Middle East. These refugees were absorbed into Israel in the One Million Plan.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Background
The 1948 War was the outcome of more than 60 years of friction between Jews and Arabs who inhabited the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The land is called "Eretz Yisrael" or "Land of Israel" by the Jews, and "Falastin" or "Palestine" by the Arabs. It is the birthplace of the Jewish people and Judaism. Throughout history, the territory has had many conquerors. One of these was the Roman Empire, which crushed a Jewish revolt during the second century, sacked Jerusalem and changed the land's name from Judaea to Palaestina, meaning "land of the Philistines", a nation that occupied the southern shore of the land in ancient times.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Background
After the Romans came the Byzantines, Early Arab Caliphates, Crusaders, Muslim Mamluks and the Ottoman Empire. By 1881, the land was ruled directly from the Ottoman capital. It had a population of about 450,000 Arabic speakers, 90% of them Muslim, the rest Christian and Druze. Some 80% of the Arabs lived in 700 to 800 villages and the rest in a dozen towns. There were 25,000 Jews, who constituted the "Old Yishuv" (yishuv means "settlement" but referred to the Jewish inhabitants of Palestine). Most of them lived in Jerusalem and were ultra-Orthodox and poor. They had no nationalistic views.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Background, Jewish immigration to Palestine
Zionism formed in Europe as the national movement of the Jewish people. It sought to reestablish Jewish statehood in the ancient homeland. The first wave of Zionist immigration, dubbed the First Aliyah, lasted from 1882 to 1903. Some 30,000 Jews, mostly from the Russian Empire, reached Ottoman Palestine. They were driven both by the Zionist idea and by the wave of Antisemitism in Europe, especially in the Russian Empire, which came in the form of brutal pogroms. They wanted to establish Jewish agricultural settlements and a Jewish majority in the land that would allow them to gain statehood. They settled mostly the sparsely populated lowlands, which were swampy and subjected to Bedouin robbers.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Background, Jewish immigration to Palestine
The Arab inhabitants of Ottoman Palestine who saw the Zionist Jews settle next to them had no national affiliation. They saw themselves as subjects of the Ottoman Empire, members of the Islamic community and as Arabs, geographically, linguistically and culturally. Their strongest affiliation was their clan, family, village or tribe. There was no Arab or Palestinian Arab nationalist movement. In the first two decades of Zionist immigration, most of the opposition came from the wealthy landowners and noblemen who feared they would have to fight the Jews for the land in the future.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Background, Jewish immigration to Palestine
In the beginning of the 20th century, the Jewish population of Ottoman Palestine was between 60,000 and 85,000, two-thirds of them members of the Zionist movement, mostly living in 40 new settlements. They encountered very little violence in the form of feuds and conflict over land and resources with their Arab neighbours or criminal activity. Between 1909 and 1914, this changed, as Arabs killed 12 Jewish settlement guards and Arab nationalism and opposition to the Zionist enterprise increased.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Background, Jewish immigration to Palestine
In 1911, Arabs attempted to thwart the establishment of a Jewish settlement in the Jezreel Valley, and the dispute resulted in the death of one Arab man and a Jewish guard. The Arabs called the Jews the "new Crusaders", and anti-Zionist rhetoric flourished. Tensions between Arabs and Jews led to violent disturbances on several occasions, notably in 1920, 1921, 1929 and 1936–1939.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Background, World War I
During the war, Palestine served as the frontline between the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire in Egypt. The war briefly halted Jewish-Arab friction. The British invaded the land in 1915 and 1916 after two unsuccessful Ottoman attacks on Sinai. They were assisted by the Arab tribes in Hejaz, led by the Hashemites, and promised them sovereignty over the Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire. Palestine was omitted from the promise, first planned to be a joint British-French domain, and after the Balfour Declaration in November 1917, a "national home for the Jewish people". The decision to support Zionism was driven by Zionist lobbying, led by Chaim Weizmann. Many of the British officials who supported the decisions supported Zionism for religious and humanitarian reasons. They also believed that a British-backed state would help defend the Suez Canal.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Background, The Arab states
Following World War II, the surrounding Arab states were emerging from mandatory rule. Transjordan, under the Hashemite ruler Abdullah I, gained independence from Britain in 1946 and was called Jordan in 1949, but remained under heavy British influence. Egypt gained nominal independence in 1922, but Britain continued to exert a strong influence on it until the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 limited Britain's presence to a garrison of troops on the Suez Canal until 1945. Lebanon became an independent state in 1943, but French troops did not withdraw until 1946, the same year Syria won its independence from France.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Background, The Arab states
In 1945, at British prompting, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan, and Yemen formed the Arab League to coordinate policy among the Arab states. Iraq and Transjordan coordinated closely, signing a mutual defence treaty, while Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia feared that Transjordan would annex part or all of Palestine and use it as a stepping stone to attack or undermine Syria, Lebanon, and the Hijaz.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Background, The 1947 UN Partition Plan
On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution "recommending to the United Kingdom, as the mandatory Power for Palestine, and to all other Members of the United Nations the adoption and implementation, with regard to the future government of Palestine, of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union", UN General Assembly Resolution 181(II). This was an attempt to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict by partitioning Palestine into "Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem". Each state would comprise three major sections; the Arab state would also have an enclave at Jaffa in order to have a port on the Mediterranean.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Background, The 1947 UN Partition Plan
With about 32% of the population, the Jews were allocated 56% of the territory. It contained 499,000 Jews and 438,000 Arabs and most of it was in the Negev desert. The Palestinian Arabs were allocated 42% of the land, which had a population of 818,000 Palestinian Arabs and 10,000 Jews. In consideration of its religious significance, the Jerusalem area, including Bethlehem, with 100,000 Jews and an equal number of Palestinian Arabs, was to become a Corpus Separatum, to be administered by the UN. The residents in the UN-administered territory were given the right to choose to be citizens of either of the new states.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Background, The 1947 UN Partition Plan
The Jewish leadership accepted the partition plan as "the indispensable minimum," glad to gain international recognition but sorry that they did not receive more. The representatives of the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab League firmly opposed the UN action and rejected its authority in the matter, arguing that the partition plan was unfair to the Arabs because of the population balance at that time. The Arabs rejected the partition, not because it was supposedly unfair, but because their leaders rejected any form of partition.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Background, The 1947 UN Partition Plan
They held "that the rule of Palestine should revert to its inhabitants, in accordance with the provisions of [...] the Charter of the United Nations." According to Article 73b of the Charter, the UN should develop self-government of the peoples in a territory under its administration. In the immediate aftermath of the UN's approval of the partition plan, explosions of joy in the Jewish community were counterbalanced by discontent in the Arab community. Soon after, violence broke out and became more prevalent. Murders, reprisals, and counter-reprisals came fast upon each other, resulting in dozens killed on both sides. The sanguinary impasse persisted as no force intervened to put a stop to the escalating violence.


1947–1949 Palestine war, 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine
The first phase of the war took place from the United Nations General Assembly vote for the Partition Plan for Palestine on 29 November 1947 until the termination of the British Mandate and Israeli proclamation of statehood on 14 May 1948. During this period the Jewish and Arab communities of the British Mandate clashed, while the British organised their withdrawal and intervened only occasionally. In the first two months of the Civil War, around 1,000 people were killed and 2,000 injured, and by the end of March, the figure had risen to 2,000 dead and 4,000 wounded. These figures correspond to an average of more than 100 deaths and 200 casualties per week in a population of 2,000,000.


1947–1949 Palestine war, 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine
From January onwards, operations became increasingly militarised. A number of Arab Liberation Army regiments infiltrated Palestine, each active in a variety of distinct sectors around the coastal towns. They consolidated their presence in Galilee and Samaria. The Army of the Holy War, under Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni's command, came from Egypt with several hundred men. Having recruited a few thousand volunteers, al-Husayni organised the blockade of the 100,000 Jewish residents of Jerusalem.


1947–1949 Palestine war, 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine
To counter this, the Yishuv authorities tried to supply the city with convoys of up to 100 armoured vehicles, but the operation became more and more impractical as the number of casualties in the relief convoys surged. By March, al-Husayni's tactic had paid off. Almost all of Haganah's armoured vehicles had been destroyed, the blockade was in full operation, and hundreds of Haganah members who had tried to bring supplies into the city were killed. The situation for those in the Jewish settlements in the highly isolated Negev and North of Galilee was more critical.


1947–1949 Palestine war, 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine
This caused the US to withdraw its support for the Partition plan, and the Arab League began to believe that the Palestinian Arabs, reinforced by the Arab Liberation Army, could end the partition. The British decided on 7 February 1948 to support Transjordan's annexation of the Arab part of Palestine.


1947–1949 Palestine war, 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine
While the Jewish population was ordered to hold their ground everywhere at all costs, the Arab population was disrupted by general conditions of insecurity. Up to 100,000 Arabs from the urban upper and middle classes in Haifa, Jaffa and Jerusalem, or Jewish-dominated areas, evacuated abroad or to Arab centres to the east.


1947–1949 Palestine war, 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine
David Ben-Gurion ordered Yigal Yadin to plan for the announced intervention of the Arab states. The result of his analysis was Plan Dalet, which was put in place at the start of April.


1947–1949 Palestine war, 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Plan Dalet and second stage
The adoption of Plan Dalet marked the war's second phase, in which Haganah took the offensive.


1947–1949 Palestine war, 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Plan Dalet and second stage
The first operation, Nachshon, was directed at lifting the blockade on Jerusalem. In the last week of March, 136 supply trucks had tried to reach Jerusalem; only 41 had made it. The Arab attacks on communications and roads had intensified. The convoys' failure and the loss of Jewish armoured vehicles had shaken the Yishuv leaders' confidence.


1947–1949 Palestine war, 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Plan Dalet and second stage
1,500 men from Haganah's Givati brigade and Palmach's Harel brigade conducted sorties to free up the route to the city between 5 April and 20 April. The operation was successful, and two months' worth of foodstuffs were trucked into Jerusalem for distribution to the Jewish population. The operation's success was aided by al-Husayni's death in combat.


1947–1949 Palestine war, 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Plan Dalet and second stage
During this time, and independently of Haganah or Plan Dalet, irregular troops from Irgun and Lehi formations massacred 107 Arabs at Deir Yassin. The event was publicly deplored and criticised by the principal Jewish authorities and had a deep effect on the Arab population's morale. At the same time, the first large-scale operation of the Arab Liberation Army ended in a debacle, as they were roundly defeated at Mishmar HaEmek. Their Druze allies left them through defection.


1947–1949 Palestine war, 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Plan Dalet and second stage
Within the framework of creating Jewish territorial continuity according to Plan Dalet, the forces of Haganah, Palmach and Irgun intended to conquer mixed zones of population. Tiberias, Haifa, Safed, Beisan, and Jaffa were taken before the end of the Mandate, with Acre falling shortly after. More than 250,000 Palestinian Arabs fled these locales.


1947–1949 Palestine war, 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Plan Dalet and second stage
The British had essentially withdrawn their troops. The situation pushed the neighbouring Arab states to intervene, but their preparation was not completed, and they could not assemble sufficient forces to turn the tide of the war. The majority of Palestinian Arab hopes lay with the Arab Legion of Transjordan's monarch, King Abdullah I. He did not intend to create a Palestinian Arab-run state, as he hoped to annex much of Mandatory Palestine. Playing both sides, he was in contact with the Jewish authorities and the Arab League.


1947–1949 Palestine war, 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, Plan Dalet and second stage
Preparing for Arab intervention from neighbouring states, Haganah successfully launched Operations Yiftah and Ben-'Ami to secure the Jewish settlements of Galilee, and Operation Kilshon. This created an Israeli-controlled front around Jerusalem. The inconclusive meeting between Golda Meir and Abdullah I, followed by the Kfar Etzion massacre on 13 May by the Arab Legion, led to predictions that the battle for Jerusalem would be merciless.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Arab Invasion
On 14 May 1948, the day before the expiration of the British Mandate, David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Both superpower leaders, U.S. President Harry S. Truman and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, immediately recognised the new state, while the Arab League refused to accept the UN partition plan, proclaimed the right of self-determination for the Arabs across the whole of Palestine, and maintained that the absence of legal authority made it necessary to intervene to protect Arab lives and property.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Arab Invasion
Over the next few days, contingents of four of the seven countries of the Arab League at that time, Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, and Syria, invaded the former British Mandate of Palestine and fought the Israelis. They were supported by the Arab Liberation Army and corps of volunteers from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Yemen. The Arab armies launched a simultaneous offensive on all fronts: Egyptian forces invaded from the south, Jordanian and Iraqi forces from the east, and Syrian forces invaded from the north. Cooperation among the various Arab armies was poor.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, First truce: 11 June – 8 July 1948
The UN declared a truce on 29 May, which began on 11 June and lasted 28 days. The ceasefire was overseen by UN mediator Folke Bernadotte and a team of UN Observers, army officers from Belgium, United States, Sweden and France. Bernadotte was voted in by the General Assembly to "assure the safety of the holy places, to safeguard the well being of the population, and to promote 'a peaceful adjustment of the future situation of Palestine'". He spoke of "peace by Christmas" but saw that the Arab world had continued to reject the existence of a Jewish state, whatever its borders.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, First truce: 11 June – 8 July 1948
An arms embargo was declared with the intention that neither side would make gains from the truce. Neither side respected the truce; both found ways around the restrictions. Both the Israelis and the Arabs used this time to improve their positions, a direct violation of the terms of the ceasefire.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, First truce: 11 June – 8 July 1948
"The Arabs violated the truce by reinforcing their lines with fresh units (including six companies of Sudanese regulars, Saudi battalion  and contingents from Yemen, Morocco ) and by preventing supplies from reaching isolated Israeli settlements; occasionally, they opened fire along the lines". The Israeli Defense Forces violated the truce by acquiring weapons from Czechoslovakia, improving training of forces, and reorganising the army. Yitzhak Rabin, an IDF commander who would later become Israel's fifth prime minister, said, "[w]ithout the arms from Czechoslovakia... it is very doubtful whether we would have been able to conduct the war".


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, First truce: 11 June – 8 July 1948
As well as violating the arms and personnel embargo, both sides sent fresh units to the front. Israel's army increased its manpower from approximately 30,000 or 35,000 men to almost 65,000 during the truce and its arms supply to "more than twenty-five thousand rifles, five thousand machine guns, and more than fifty million bullets".


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, First truce: 11 June – 8 July 1948
As the truce began, a British officer stationed in Haifa said the four-week-long truce "would certainly be exploited by the Jews to continue military training and reorganization while the Arabs would waste [them] feuding over the future divisions of the spoils". On 7 July, the day before the truce expired, Egyptian forces under General Muhammad Naguib renewed the war by attacking Negba.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Second phase: 8–18 July 1948
Israeli forces launched a simultaneous offensive on all three fronts: Dani, Dekel, and Kedem. The fighting was dominated by large-scale Israeli offensives and a defensive Arab posture and continued for ten days until the UN Security Council issued the Second Truce on 18 July.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Second phase: 8–18 July 1948
Israeli Operation Danny resulted in the exodus from Lydda and Ramle of 60,000 Palestinian residents. According to Benny Morris, in Ben-Gurion's view, Ramlah and Lydda constituted a special danger because their proximity might encourage cooperation between the Egyptian army, which had started its attack on Kibbutz Negbah, and the Arab Legion, which had taken the Lydda police station. Widespread looting took place during these operations, and about 100,000 Palestinians became refugees. In Operation Dekel, Nazareth was captured on 16 July. In Operation Brosh, Israel tried and failed to drive the Syrian army out of northeastern Galilee. By the time the second truce took effect at 19:00 18 July, Israel had taken the lower Galilee from Haifa Bay to the Sea of Galilee.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, 18 July 1948 – 10 March 1949
At 19:00 on 18 July, the second truce of the conflict went into effect after intense diplomatic efforts by the UN. On 16 September, a new partition for Palestine was proposed but it was rejected by both sides.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, 18 July 1948 – 10 March 1949
Palmach Infantry go into action during the fight for Beersheba, 21 October


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, 18 July 1948 – 10 March 1949
IDF forces near Beit Natif (near Hebron) after it was occupied, October


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, 18 July 1948 – 10 March 1949
Israeli bombardment of the Iraq Suwaydan fort, held by the Egyptian army, on 9 November


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, 18 July 1948 – 10 March 1949
During the truce, the Egyptians regularly blocked with fire the passage of supply convoys to the beleaguered northern Negev settlements, contrary to the truce terms. On 15 October, they attacked another supply convoy, and the already planned Operation Yoav was launched. Its goal was to drive a wedge between the Egyptian forces along the coast and the Beersheba-Hebron-Jerusalem road, and to open the road to the encircled Negev settlements. Yoav was headed by Southern Front commander Yigal Allon. The operation was a success, shattering the Egyptian army ranks and forcing Egyptian forces to retreat from the northern Negev, Beersheba and Ashdod. Meanwhile, on 19 October, Operation Ha-Har commenced operations in the Jerusalem Corridor.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, 18 July 1948 – 10 March 1949
Before dawn on 22 October, in defiance of the UN Security Council ceasefire order, ALA units stormed the IDF hilltop position of Sheikh Abd, overlooking Kibbutz Manara. The kibbutz was now besieged. Ben-Gurion initially rejected Moshe Carmel’s demand to launch a major counteroffensive. He was wary of antagonising the United Nations on the heels of its ceasefire order. During 24–25 October, ALA troops regularly sniped at Manara and traffic along the main road. In contacts with UN observers, Fawzi al-Qawuqji demanded that Israel evacuate neighbouring Kibbutz Yiftah and thin out its forces in Manara.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, 18 July 1948 – 10 March 1949
The IDF demanded the ALA's withdrawal from the captured positions and, after a “no” from al-Qawuqji, informed the UN that it felt free to do as it pleased. On 24 October, the IDF launched Operation Hiram and captured the entire upper Galilee, originally attributed to the Arab state by the Partition Plan. It drove the ALA back to Lebanon. At the end of the month, Israel had captured the whole Galilee and had advanced 5 miles (8.0 km) into Lebanon to the Litani River.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, 18 July 1948 – 10 March 1949
On 22 December, large IDF forces started Operation Horev. Its objective was to encircle the Egyptian Army in the Gaza Strip and force the Egyptians to end the war. The operation was a decisive Israeli victory, and Israeli raids into the Nitzana area and the Sinai Peninsula forced the Egyptian army into the Gaza Strip, where it was surrounded. Israeli forces withdrew from Sinai and Gaza under international pressure and after the British threatened to intervene against Israel. The Egyptian government announced on 6 January 1949 that it was willing to enter armistice negotiations. Allon persuaded Ben-Gurion to continue as planned, but Ben-Gurion told him: "Do you know the value of peace talks with Egypt? After all, that is our great dream!" He was sure that Transjordan and the other Arab states would follow suit. On 7 January 1949, a truce was achieved.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Course of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, 18 July 1948 – 10 March 1949
On 5 March, Israel launched Operation Uvda; by 10 March, the Israelis reached Umm Rashrash (where Eilat was built later) and took it without a battle. The Negev Brigade and Golani Brigade took part in the operation. They raised a hand-made flag ("The Ink Flag") and claimed Umm Rashrash for Israel.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Aftermath, Armistice lines
In 1949, Israel signed separate armistices with Egypt on 24 February, Lebanon on 23 March, Transjordan on 3 April, and Syria on 20 July. The armistice lines saw Israel holding about 78% of Mandatory Palestine (as it stood after the independence of Transjordan in 1946), 22% more than the UN Partition Plan had allocated. These ceasefire lines were known afterwards as the "Green Line". The Gaza Strip and the West Bank were occupied by Egypt and Transjordan, respectively. The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization and Mixed Armistice Commissions were set up to monitor ceasefires, supervise the armistice agreements, to prevent isolated incidents from escalating, and assist other UN peacekeeping operations in the region.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Aftermath, Casualties
Israel lost 6,373 of its people, about 1% of its population in the war. About 4,000 were soldiers and the rest were civilians. The exact number of Arab losses is unknown but is estimated at between 4,000 for Egypt (2,000), Jordan and Syria (1,000 each) and 15,000.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Aftermath, Demographic consequences
During the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War that followed, around 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled. In 1951, the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine estimated that the number of Palestinian refugees displaced from Israel was 711,000. This number did not include displaced Palestinians inside Israeli-held territory. The list of villages depopulated during the Arab–Israeli conflict includes more than 400 Arab villages. It also includes about ten Jewish villages and neighbourhoods.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Aftermath, Demographic consequences
The causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus are a controversial topic among historians. The Palestinian refugee problem and the debate around the right of their return are also major issues of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Palestinians have staged annual demonstrations and protests on 15 May of each year.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Aftermath, Demographic consequences
During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, around 10,000 Jews were forced to evacuate their homes in Palestine or Israel. The war indirectly created a second, major refugee problem, the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim lands. Partly because of the war between Jews and Arabs in Palestine, hundreds of thousands of Jews who lived in the Arab states were intimidated into flight, or were expelled from their native countries, most of them reaching Israel. The immediate reasons for the flight were the popular Arab hostility, including pogroms, triggered by the war in Palestine and anti-Jewish governmental measures.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Aftermath, Demographic consequences
In the three years following the war, about 700,000 Jews immigrated to Israel, where they were absorbed, fed and housed mainly along the borders and in former Palestinian lands. Beginning in 1948, and continuing until 1972, an estimated 800,000 to 1,000,000 Jews fled or were expelled. From 1945 until the closure of 1952, more than 250,000 Jewish displaced persons lived in European refugee camps. About 136,000 of them immigrated to Israel. More than 270,000 Jews immigrated from Eastern Europe, mainly Romania and Poland (over 100,000 each). Overall 700,000 Jews settled in Israel, doubling its Jewish population.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Historiography
Since the war, Israeli and Arab historiographies have interpreted the events of 1948 differently. In Western historiography, the majority view was that the vastly outnumbered and ill-equipped Jews fended off the massed strength of the invading Arab armies; it was also widely believed that the Palestinian Arabs left their homes on their leaders' instructions.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Historiography
In 1980, with the opening of the Israeli and British archives, Israeli historians started giving new insights into the history of this period. In particular, the roles played by Abdullah I of Jordan and the British government, the goals of the different Arab nations, the balance of force, and the events related to the Palestinian exodus have been viewed with more nuance or given new interpretations. This insight around the past "transforms quickly into a debate about legitimacy in the present. A major reason for this grip of the past over the present is the unfulfilled quest of both Israelis and Palestinians for legitimacy..." Some issues continue to be hotly debated among historians of the conflict.


1947–1949 Palestine war, Historiography
Palestinian and Arab historians have also provided context, but their work tends to be apologetic, rely on subjective sources, and assign blame for the Arab defeat. Palestinian historians since the 1960s who have used historical methodologies have not had the same impact on Arab society as Israeli New Historians did in Israeli society. This is due, in part, to fear that critical analysis of their role in the war might weaken the Palestinian position in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Unlike Israel and Britain, Arab governments have not released relevant primary sources from their archives.


1947–1949 Palestine war, In popular culture
A 2015 PBS documentary, A Wing and a Prayer, depicts the Al Schwimmer-led airborne smuggling missions to arm Israel.


1947–1950 in French Indochina
1947–1950 in French Indochina focuses on events influencing the eventual decision for military intervention by the United States in the First Indochina War. In 1947, France still ruled Indochina as a colonial power, conceding little real political power to Vietnamese nationalists. French Indochina was divided into five protectorates: Cambodia, Laos, Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina. The latter three made up Vietnam.


1947–1950 in French Indochina
In 1946 a civil war had broken out between the French forces in Vietnam and the Việt Minh insurgents, led by Ho Chi Minh who had declared independence and the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The objective of the Việt Minh and other Vietnamese nationalists was full independence from France and unification of the three French protectorates. The Việt Minh was dominated by communists.


1947–1950 in French Indochina
Initially the United States had little interest in Vietnam and was equivocal about supporting France, but in 1950, due to an intensification of the Cold War and a fear that communism would prevail in Vietnam, the U.S. began providing financial and military support to French forces. Paralleling the U.S. aid program, Communist China also began in 1950 to supply arms, equipment, and training to the Việt Minh. Vietnam played an increasingly important role in the worldwide competition between the communist world, headed by the Soviet Union, and the "Free World" led by the United States. The French suffered severe military defeats in late 1950 which resulted in American military aid being increased to prevent victory by the Việt Minh.


1947–1950 in French Indochina
The article titled First Indochina War describes the war between the Việt Minh and the French in more detail. This article is preceded by 1940–46 in the Vietnam War and followed by other articles year-by-year.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
French Overseas Minister Marius Moutet visiting Vietnam said that the Việt Minh "have fallen to the lowest level or barbarity" and that "before there is any negotiation it will be necessary to get a military decision.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
American diplomat Abbot Low Moffat told a British diplomat that the French were facing a disaster in their war in Vietnam.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
Secretary of State George C. Marshall in a telegram to the American Embassy in Paris criticized France's "dangerously outmoded colonial outlook and method" but also warned that Việt Minh leader Ho Chi Minh had "direct Communist connections."


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
France expanded the powers of the Vietnamese-led government of Cochinchina to include self-government on internal affairs and an election for a legislature. The elections were postponed because of civil disorder


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
France said that 1,855 of its soldiers in the French Far East Expeditionary Corps had been killed or wounded since the beginning of the civil war in December 1946.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
French forces had pushed the Việt Minh out of most major towns and cities in northern and central Vietnam, including Hanoi and Huế. Ho Chi Minh maintained his self-proclaimed independent government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Thái Nguyên, north of Hanoi.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
Émile Bollaert became France's High Commissioner for Indochina. His priority was to re-open negotiations with the Việt Minh.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
The Việt Minh forces near Hanoi were described as having three defense lines. The first was manned by riflemen, the second by soldiers with knives and spears, and the third by men armed with bows and arrows. French military forces in Vietnam totaled 94,000 and 11,000 reinforcements were en route from France. Việt Minh military forces totaled about 60,000 with another 100,000 part-time fighters and militia.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
In a diplomatic initiative, Ho had sent diplomat Pham Ngoc Thach to Bangkok, Thailand to seek support from the United States and the American business community. Thach met informally with Lt. Col. William B. Low, the assistant military attaché of the U.S. Embassy, and responded in writing to a series of questions posed by the Americans. Thach emphasized the nationalistic nature of the struggle against French colonialism.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
Việt Minh diplomat Pham Ngoc Thach in Bangkok wrote letters to American companies offering economic concessions if they would invest in Vietnam.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
Việt Minh Foreign Minister Hoàng Minh Giám appealed to the U.S. for diplomatic recognition of an independent Vietnam and American economic, political, and cultural assistance.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
Secretary of State Marshall refused to allow Vice Consul James L. O'Sullivan to meet with Thach in Bangkok. Marshall cited the opposition of France to contacts with the Việt Minh as the reason. Thus, the U.S. had rejected Ho Chi Minh's initiative to gain the support on the United States for an independent Vietnam.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
Paul Mus, who had lived for many years in Vietnam, met with Ho Chi Minh at the Việt Minh headquarters in Thái Nguyên 45 miles (72 km) north of Hanoi. Mus proposed a cease fire and a unilateral disarmament by the Việt Minh. Ho said he would be a coward to accept such terms. This was Ho's last meeting with a representative of the French government.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
American Vice Consul O'Sullivan in Hanoi reported to Washington that the destruction in northern Vietnam was "appalling." He mostly blamed the Việt Minh for a scorched earth policy, but also French bombing and shelling.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
Secretary of State George Marshall asked diplomats in Southeast Asia and Europe their opinion of the Việt Minh and its government, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The responses from Southeast Asia said that patriotism and nationalism were the basis of the Việt Minh's popularity and that the Việt Minh's ties with the Soviet Union were extremely limited. However, from France American diplomats said that Ho Chi Minh "maintains close connections in Communist circles" and that his government, if it became independent, "would immediately be run in accordance with dictates from Moscow."


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
Vice Consul James O'Sullivan in Hanoi responded by saying, "it is curious that the French discovered no communist menace in the Ho Chi Minh government until...it became apparent that the Vietnamese...would not bow to French wishes.... It is further apparent that Ho's support (which French to present have consistently underestimated) derives from [the] fact [that] he represents [the] symbol of fight for independence. He is supported because he is acting like [a] nationalist, not because he was or is Communist.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
American consuls in Hanoi and Saigon reported to Washington that the French were planning a major military operation against the Việt Minh. They recommended that the U.S. discourage the French from attempting to reimpose the colonial status quo.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
French General Jean Étienne Valluy led Operation Léa in an attempt to destroy the Việt Minh and capture or kill its leaders. 15,000 French troops descended upon Việt Minh strongholds north of Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh and military leader Võ Nguyên Giáp barely escaped but the French attack bogged down and Operation Léa was a failure.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
In Operation Ceinture The French renewed their attack on Việt Minh strongholds north of Hanoi with a 12,000 man army. They succeeded in briefly capturing much of Việt Minh territory and claimed to have killed 9,500 Việt Minh, probably including many non-combatants, but did not have the manpower to remain to occupy the area. They withdrew their forces, save a few fortified points.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1947
The Hạ Long Bay agreement was reached between the French High Commissioner and former emperor Bảo Đại. The French promised independence to northern Vietnam, but within the French Union and with France retaining control over foreign relations and defence and without unifying Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina, the three French protectorates making up Vietnam. The agreement excluded the Việt Minh from the government. Bảo Đại returned to France and remained there for several months after the agreement was signed while the French attempted to persuade him to return to Vietnam.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1948
American Consul Edwin C. Rendell in Hanoi reported to Washington that the "hard core' of Việt Minh resistance had not been broken by French military offensives. The Việt Minh were stepping up their raids and attacks on French army posts and military convoys.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1948
Ho Chi Minh issued a decree forbidding "one single word or one single line" of criticism of the United States. Ho had not given up on luring the United States to his cause.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1948
Bảo Đại finally returned to Vietnam to attend the signing of a new agreement between France and General Nguyễn Văn Xuân, head of the French-sponsored government of Cochinchina. France recognized the independence of Vietnam within the French Union and endorsed the eventual union of Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina into a single state, but France maintained control of defense, foreign affairs, and finances. Bảo Đại returned to France after the signing, refusing to return to Vietnam without receiving additional concessions from France. Xuan established his government in Hanoi. The agreement had little public support.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1948
The U.S. position against the Việt Minh was hardening. The U.S. Consul in Saigon, George M. Abbott, said that a French truce with the Việt Minh "would result in the non-communist elements [in Vietnam] being swallowed up."


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1948
George Abbott, the U.S. Consul in Saigon, said prompt action was needed by France to grant real independence to a Bảo Đại government.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1948
The U.S. Department of State said that the policy of maintaining French support for a Western European coalition to contain the Soviet Union took precedence over attempting to persuade France to concede more independence to Vietnamese and end the war.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1948
The State Department also concluded that "we are all too well aware of the unpleasant fact that Communist Ho Chi Minh is the strongest and perhaps the ablest figure in Indochina and that any suggested solution which excludes him is an expedient of uncertain outcome. We are naturally hesitant to press the French too strongly or to become deeply involved so long as we are not in a position to suggest a solution or until we are prepared to accept the onus of intervention."


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1948
The French had about 100,000 soldiers in Vietnam. The Việt Minh had 250,000 full and part-time fighters and controlled more than one-half the population of the country. The Việt Minh launched frequent attacks on French forces, especially road convoys. In the Saigon area, the French suffered more that 8,000 casualties in 1948 and had suffered more than 30,000 casualties since the beginning of the civil war in 1946.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1949
U.S. Under Secretary of State Robert A. Lovett said the U.S. should not give its full support to the Bảo Đại government which existed only because of French military forces in Vietnam.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1949
The American Embassy in Paris reported to Washington that the Bảo Đại government was "the only non-communist solution in sight."


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1949
France and Bảo Đại concluded the Élysée Accords in Paris which created the State of Vietnam. The Accord reaffirmed Vietnamese autonomy and provided for the union of the three French protectorates of Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina, but France retained control of the military and foreign affairs. The Accord was denounced by Ho Chi Minh and generated little support in Vietnam. Bảo Đại returned to Vietnam as Head of State after the agreement was formally approved by the French parliament.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1949
At a Department of State conference, Consul General George M. Abbott said that the only alternatives to a Bảo Đại government were a colonial war or a communist-dominated government of Vietnam.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1949
The Soviet Union detonated a nuclear bomb at a test site, breaking the United States' monopoly on nuclear weapons. The Soviet nuclear test amplified fears by the U.S. and its allies that the Soviet Union might undertake more aggressive action to spread communism to additional countries, including Vietnam.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1949
Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The triumph of communism in China, resulted in increased fear by the United States that communism would also triumph in Vietnam and that Vietnam would become a puppet state of China and the Soviet Union.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
A U.S. Department of Defense Committee recommended that the U.S. expend $15 million on military aid to combat communism in Vietnam. Secretary of State Dean Acheson said that U.S. military aid might be "the missing component" in defeating communist insurgency in Vietnam. Thus, the U.S. was preparing to become financially involved in the conflict in Vietnam.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
Eight Chinese military advisers left Beijing to travel to North Vietnam and advise and assist the Việt Minh. They would begin work in March.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
Communist China and the Soviet Union extended diplomatic recognition to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as the sole legitimate government authority of all Vietnam. Both promised military and economic assistance to the Việt Minh.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
Reflecting the strong anti-communist views in the U.S., The New York Times said that "the disciplined machinery of international communism, directed by Moscow, is carrying out perhaps the most brilliant example of global political warfare so far known by draining the potential strength of France in the Indo-China civil war." The newspaper further reported that "the French might be able to hold off a concerted communist threat [in Vietnam] if properly equipped.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
Việt Minh leader Ho Chi Minh arrived in Beijing, China. The trip had taken him nearly a month during which he had walked for 17 days from Vietnam to reach southern China. Chinese leader Mao Zedong was not in Beijing, but Liu Shaoqi promised Chinese assistance to Ho.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
Secretary of State Acheson announced U.S. diplomatic recognition of the Vietnamese government of Bảo Đại called the State of Vietnam. Acheson promised economic and military aid to France and the Bảo Đại government. Thus, the U.S., although long skeptical of the suitability of Bảo Đại as a leader and France's colonial rule of Vietnam, came down on the side of both.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
Ho Chi Minh, after visiting China, arrived in Moscow, Soviet Union. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was distrustful of Ho's communist credentials and declined to provide Soviet aid to the Việt Minh. Meeting with Mao in Moscow, however, the Chinese leader offered "all the military assistance Vietnam needed in its struggle against France."


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson said that Ho Chi Minh was "the mortal enemy of native independence in Indo-China."


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
France officially requested military and economic aid from the United States for Indochina. The materials and equipment the French requested totalled $94 million.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
U.S. Ambassador Loy Henderson said that "the Bảo Đại government...reflects more accurately than rival claimants the nationalist aspirations of the people" of Vietnam. In reality, Bảo Đại's State of Vietnam controlled less than one-half the land and people of Vietnam.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
In disagreement with Secretary of State Acheson, the State Department's head of the Far Eastern Division, W. Walton Butterworth said economic and military aid to the French and Bảo Đại's government of Vietnam were not "the missing components" in solving the problem of Vietnam. He warned that it would be a "dangerous delusion" to believe that aid to Vietnam would be as effective as had been American aid to Greece in fending off a communist insurgency. Butterworth would soon be replaced by Dean Rusk.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
French officials told the American Embassy in Paris that without American aid, they might find it necessary to withdraw from Vietnam." In the words of historian Ronald H. Spector, "In time, avoiding French defeat would become more important to the United States than to France."


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
R. Allen Griffin headed a U.S. delegation visiting Vietnam to recommend priorities for United States economic aid to Vietnam.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
Ships of the United States Seventh Fleet and the commander of the Seventh Fleet visited Saigon. It was both an expression of support for France and a show of force.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
Amid a growing consensus in the United States that U.S. aid to contain communism in Indochina was necessary, State Department diplomat Charlton Ogburn sounded a cautionary note. "The trouble is that none of us knows enough about Indochina and "we have had no real political reporting from there since [Charles E.] Reed and [James L.] O'Sullivan left two years ago." Ogburn said the Việt Minh had fought the French to a draw and were unlikely "to wilt under the psychological impact of American military assistance." Even if defeated, the Việt Minh could return to guerrilla tactics and bide their time."


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
U.S. President Harry Truman received and would later approve NSC 68, a secret policy paper prepared by U.S. foreign affairs and defense agencies. NSC 68 expressed an apocalyptic vision of the "design" of the Soviet Union to achieve world domination. This view was bolstered by the recent victory of communist forces in China and by domestic fears of communism, especially those aroused by Senator Joseph McCarthy and Congressman Richard Nixon. The report advocated a massive increase of 400 percent in U.S. budgets for an expansion of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies, plus increased military aid to allies. In the words of a scholar, "NSC-68 provided the blueprint for the militarization of the Cold War."


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff wrote Secretary of Defense Johnson that French Indochina Vietnam was "a vital segment in the line of containment of communism stretching from Japan southward and around to the Indian peninsula." The Chiefs said that the fall of Indochina to communism would result in the fall of Burma and Thailand and probably the fall of the Philippines, Malaya, and Indonesia. This was one of the first expressions of the so-called domino theory which would become a prominent determinant in U.S. policy.


1947–1950 in French Indochina, 1950
The liberal American magazine The New Republic said "Southeast Asia is the center of the cold war....America is late with a program to save Indo-China. But we are on our way."