Open Writing

David Ben Gurion issued a proclamation that the State of Israel was now in existence and he became the country's first Prime Minister. Israel had been born. Friday, the 14th May, 1948.

It was nearly a stillbirth. As the Mandate ended, the Arab armies advanced. The news that I received from the Arabs was local, as it affected their suburb or village, but the Jews gave me a better idea of the overall picture.

They told me how the Egyptian Army had advanced from Rafa, on the Sinai border, had taken Gaza and was heading towards Tel Aviv. They also sent a force that had reached Beersheba and the southern part of Jerusalem. Jordan's Arab Legion, with the Iraqis, had taken the West Bank while Iraqi mobile patrols had cut the Haifa-Tel Aviv coastal road thus reaching the sea.

The Arab Legion had also swooped down and captured Lydda airport, just a few miles from Tel Aviv, while the Syrian Army was in the Galilee area and the Lebanese had taken Nazareth. The only good news was that the Jews still held their area in Jerusalem and that the Arab Legion was being taken on at Latrun, while here in Haifa it had only taken a week to defeat the Arabs and the whole town was now under Jewish control.

But the bad news outweighed the good, and overall things looked very black indeed. At this stage, a Jew came to me, smiling broadly, "Have you heard? Have you heard?" he asked excitedly.

"I've heard plenty, what this time?"

"Well, King Abdulla made a speech and in it he said, 'Advance, my Arab brothers. Advance to victory. Soon we will throw the Jews into the sea and Palestine will at last become a part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.’ How about that?"

The Jew burst out laughing then continued, "You watch! The Arabs are all so jealous of each other, and they are not fighting the war for Abdulla, as he imagines they are doing. You watch; they will be bickering in disarray. We will have time to recover."

He was right. Almost immediately, whether by coincidence or by the facts that the Jew related being correct, the United Nations arranged a cease fire.

There is little doubt that if King Abdulla made such a speech, (for the story was based on rumour, as far as I could see), it would have contributed to the jealousy and mistrust between the Arab nations. We learnt afterwards that the Arabs were suffering from supply problems as well. In retrospect, I had the impression, sitting there in Haifa, rather like a spectator at a boxing match, that the Jews did not win the first battle for Palestine. It was more a case that the Arabs lost it.

My Jewish friend was also correct in that the cease fire gave Israel time to recover. Help poured in from the USA with arms and money, while Israel purchased arms and much needed supplies of munitions from Czechoslovakia. I saw a Spitfire fighter come in to land at Haifa. Whence it had come was a mystery to me.

In the Arab Legion there were quite a number of seconded British officers and they took part in the fighting. This led to questions being asked in the House of Commons, and the officers were withdrawn from the Arab Legion — for ever. The Arab Legion had been trained by an Englishman, Major General Sir John Glubb, or Glubb Pasha, as he was known to his Arab friends. To his Bedouin soldiers he was known as Abu Haneek, meaning 'Father of the Jaw', a reference to his face, disfigured in World War 1. Glubb Pasha spoke perfect Arabic and could live like the Bedouin, who adored him.

The Arab Legion was superbly trained. The tough Bedouin soldiers with their strong, loyal allegiance to the King, made formidable foes, to be treated with respect, and they inflicted heavy casualties on the Jewish fighting forces.

The Egyptian Army was not of the same calibre. The soldiers were from the fellaheen, the peasants, not to be compared with the tough Bedou. I entered an Arab cinema showing a news reel of the Egyptian advance into Palestine. Capturing a Jewish settlement, the war was put on hold, while flags were raised and a discordant band played, as officers were decorated on the spot. One officer had a truck. Inside were a large bed, easy chairs, a wardrobe, a refrigerator and an electric generator. Now that, I thought, is the way to go to war.

Prime Minister Ben Gurion also had internal trouble brewing from none other than Menachem Begin, who arranged for a shipment of arms and several hundred recruits for his IZL, with the intention of carrying out a coup d'etat. The Haganah thwarted his ambitions and, finally, Menachem Begin finished up in gaol. El Hamddilah!

The IPC suddenly remembered that they had left five British gentiles behind and they sent in a Company, De Havilland Rapide, to fly us out to the Lebanon. I had watched the birth of Israel, an experience not to be missed. But now, I was not sorry to leave.