1948 Arab-Israeli War

Playboy

Hi

I'm looking to find some inforamtion regarding the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and I was hoping people could give me advice on where to look for it.

Basically I'm trying to find some information about the reaction of the Western Media to these events and how the war was potrayed in the media.

I'm also looking for any documentaries on those events telling either side of the story. Would appriecate any reccomendations

Cheers

Zebra3

Well, firstly expect western (especially US) media sources to back Israel as the UN backed the partition of British occupied Palestine into two seperate states even though Jews made up a mere 15% of the mandate. For many racists in the British establishment it was seen as the perfect way of getting the Jews who survived the Holocaust out of Europe.

While it concentrates on more than just the 1948 war, I highly recommend the following book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gideons-Spies-Israels-Legendary-Service/dp/1906217416/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209674375&sr=8-3

Fratton Fred

secondly, don't expect all responses to be neutral and non biased.

Manic Moran

Fratton Fred wrote: »

secondly, don't expect all responses to be neutral and non biased.

LOL.

It's actually a very good question. You would think that given that the UN basically set up the country, when the various Arab states set about trying to remove it they'd have done something like a Korea to help out. But they rather left Israel hanging in the wind to scrape together whatever it could find, including out of military scrapyards. I'm not sure it was war-weariness, or general apathy. Russia and the US both denounced the agression, but basically seemed to do bugger-all in practise. ("Or else.... we will write you a letter telling you how angry we are!")

I don't have a practical answer to you about the international view on it, though. I think it was probably still close enough after the end of WWII that nobody wanted to acknowledge another war, but that's just personal speculation. "If they want to fight it out, so be it. Let them."

NTM

wasper

Zebra3 wrote: »

Well, firstly expect western (especially US) media sources to back Israel as the UN backed the partition of British occupied Palestine into two seperate states even though Jews made up a mere 15% of the mandate. For many racists in the British establishment it was seen as the perfect way of getting the Jews who survived the Holocaust out of Europe.

While it concentrates on more than just the 1948 war, I highly recommend the following book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gideons-Spies-Israels-Legendary-Service/dp/1906217416/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209674375&sr=8-3

The plan to give the Jews a country in Palestine was done in 1917 during WW1 before the Holocuast that happened in WW11.

McArmalite

Try researching Noam Chomsky's writings and speeches, just Google it and you'll find plenty. He's amazing.

Snickers Man

Might be an interesting project. What did the western papers of the time really say?

Of course the most reliable thing to do would be to go to the primary sources themselves and look them up. The Irish Times is available online for perusal (for a fee) Failing that I'm sure there are copies of all the contemporaneous newspapers in the main libraries of the country. Might have to come to the National Library in Dublin to access the Irish and British ones.

What would be interesting would be to try and find out just how powerful the Arab armies of the time were. All were emerging from colonial domination at the time (or were still suffering it). Britain still largely ruled the roost in Egypt, for example. Only five years previously, one of the biggest battles of World War Two was fought on Egyptian soil (El Alamein). What part did the Egyptian army play in that? Was there even such a thing?

The notion of a mighty host of surrounding Arab armies bearing down on a bunch of socialist farmers is a bit of a myth. About the only professional and well equipped Arab army at the time was the Jordanian Arab Legion. It was led by an Englishman and many of its officers were British. The Israelis always give credit to the Jordanian army for being the most professional it faced. And in that war, it held its own against the Zionists/Israelis and indeed pushed them out of some areas they had captured. It managed to hold on to the Old City of Jerusalem and the West Bank for another 20 years.

I would suspect that British newspaper opinion might have been very divided. There would have been some sympathy for the Zionist cause but remember that some of the loonier Zionists were quite adept at terrorism, blowing up the Kind David Hotel, centre of the British administration and then hanging two British sergeants and booby trapping their bodies. The sort of thing that tends not to go down too well with Fleet Street.

The Germans would probably have kept fairly shtumm about it all. That is assuming they had a free press in 1947/48. They were still in the throes of post war occupation at the time.

Americans would, I suspect, have been solidly in favour of Israel.

Interested to see what you come up with.

Snickers Man

Manic Moran wrote: »

LOL.

You would think that given that the UN basically set up the country, when the various Arab states set about trying to remove it they'd have done something like a Korea to help out. But they rather left Israel hanging in the wind to scrape together whatever it could find, including out of military scrapyards.

The UN resolution was to set up two countries: a Palestinian state and a Jewish one (later to be called Israel).

The Arabs rejected the idea of a Jewish state out of hand; the Zionists warmly welcomed the notion of a partitioned Palestine but completely rejected (in deed anyway) the borders which the UN had planned. They started moving into Arab areas and evicting the inhabitants LONG BEFORE their own declaration of a state and long before the invasion by other Arab armies, such as they were.

The UN did little to stop them because, in effect, the UN power in Palestine was the British who were only there, legally at any rate, to execute the mandate of the UN's predecessor the League of Nations. The British made desultory efforts to limit the scale of the internecine fighting but in reality they were trying to extricate themselves with as little further damage to themselves as possible.

As always in situations such as this, some soldiers on the ground favoured the Zionists, others favoured the Arabs. One of the most notorious acts of Arab terrorism, a truck bombing which killed dozens of Jews, was actually carried out by two British army deserters.

When the King of TransJordan (as was) offered as a solution to take over the Westernmost part of the proposed state of Palestine with his British equipped and officered army, the British jumped at the chance.

A good starter book for this period is Oh Jerusalem by Collins and La Pierre. Manages to be quite impartial, which is an achievement.

donaghs

wasper wrote: »

The plan to give the Jews a country in Palestine was done in 1917 during WW1 before the Holocuast that happened in WW11.

It wasn't so much a plan as a vague promise from Balfour. As far as I know, the first plan for a Jewish homeland in Palestine came from the UN after WW2.

Zionists began promoting the idea of returning to Palestine in the 19th c.