GRANDMA'S ARMY - CREATION OF THE IDF

 

The War of Independence of the Jewish people in the land of Israel began on the 29th of November 1947 -  a result of the Arabs’ objection to the UN resolution regarding the partition of the country into an Arab state, and a Jewish state. The Arab population within Mandatory Palestine immediately rejected the resolution, and declared war on the Jews. The goal of the Arabs was initially to block the Partition Resolution and to prevent the establishment of the Jewish state. The Jews, on the other hand, hoped to gain control over the territory allotted to them under the Partition Plan.

Up until 1 April 1948, it was the Arabs in Palestine who took the offensive - with the help of volunteers from neighboring countries. The yishuv suffered severe casualties and disruption of passage along most of the major highways.

From April until May 14^th 1948, the Haganah and Etzel forces succeeded in launching attacks against the Arabs, in which, the force of Palestinian Arabs was finally broken. On 15 May 1948, following the Israeli Declaration of Independence fhe civil war was transformed into a conflict between Israel and the Arab States. 

                                                                            

[In an autobiographical passage, the nine year old Amos Oz, Israel’s world renowned author, recalled that night in Jerusalem when the State of Israel was declared. “As my father stroked my head in his darkened bedroom he said”: ‘From the moment we have our own state, you will never be bullied just because you are a Jew……Not that. Never again. From tonight that's finished here. Forever’.

"I reached out sleepily to touch his face, just below his high forehead, and all of a sudden, instead of his glasses, my fingers met tears. Never in my life, before or after that night, not even when my mother died, did I see my father cry. And in fact I didn't see him cry that night either. Only my left hand saw."]

The critical phase of the fighting opened with the simultaneous, coordinated assault on the fledgling state by five regular Arab armies. In addition, the Arabs possessed an overwhelming superiority of soldiers and heavy equipment - armour, artillery and airforce.

The war was fought along the entire, long border of the country: against Lebanon and Syria in the north; Iraq and Transjordan - renamed Jordan during the war - in the east; Egypt, assisted by contingents from the Sudan - in the south; Arabs  and volunteers from Arab countries in the interior of the country.

In the middle of the War of Independence the IDF was born, not on  May 15^th, but  two weeks later. From 15^th of  May to the 31st, Ben-Gurion negotiated with the "dissident" armed organizations, the Etzel and Lehi, convincing them to disband voluntarily and to join the Haganah.

From July 1948 to July 1949, after tense early fighting, Israeli forces, now under joint command, were able to gain the offensive: Operation Yoav, in October, cleared the road to the Negev, culminating in the capture of Be'er Sheva; Operation Hiram, at the end of October, resulted in the capture of the Upper Galilee; Operation Horev in December 1948 and Operation Uvda in March 1949, completed the capture of the Negev.

Altogether, the war consisted of 39 separate operations, fought from the borders of Lebanon to the Sinai Peninsula and Eilat.

During the last significant battle, the Israeli Defense Forces succeeded in moving the battlegrounds into enemy territory, especially on the Egyptian  front.

​​In the end, Israel not only ejected the invading Arab forces - it also captured and held some 5,000 km. over and above the areas allocated to it by the United Nations.

In human terms, the War of Independence was the bloodiest of Israel's wars, with 6,373 Israelis killed and 15,000 wounded.

The war officially ended with the ceasefire agreements between Israel and the Arab countries that participated in the war. These agreements defined the borders of the State of Israel until the Six Day War in 1967.

Despite being drastically outnumbered, the newly-formed IDF worked together to win the war. Israel emerged victorious and, once and for all, the Jewish people began to build their nation, the State of Israel.