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Michael Kadish
Introduction to Israeli History
4/28/99
When people talk about their experiences during the War of Independence, they now seem certain that at that time, they had no doubts of victory. I find this all very hard to swallow. I think that many of the future Israelis had to at least a shadow of doubt that there would be a Jewish State, and I think there are reasons enough to back me up.
They certainly knew it was a momentous occasion. The fact that May 5th, 1948 would be an historic occasion for the Jewish people had been established nearly six months before. My parents intentionally set it up so that they would be married that day. But most everybody now seems to say that they had no fear it would work. Many people explain it similarly to S. Yizhar, who says,
Were people really that positive? The war was a sure thing? This wasn't going to be another failure, another Bar Kokhba revolt?
Some people were expecting it not to work, expecting a fall. One of these men was named David Ben Gurion. Ilan Troen writes that during the course of official events in creating the State, Ben Gurion's diary was relatively bland. It was only when disaster struck that he recorded it in detail in the diary. He saw it coming, and figured it was an eventuality. More to the point, "he wrote that he mourned after the concluding ceremony [of the inauguration of the state] even as he did when the UN voted for partition on Nov. 29. The reason of this is not explicitly explained."2 It's rather obvious. He foresaw doom.
One could say that it was the monstrous pressure on The Old Man, that the one in charge is allowed to worry, but I am certain there were others. The average Moshe Cohen in the street had every reason to worry. At the time, the odds were set by the UN at 1:1 that Israel could win the war. Seeing as how the Arabs had more money, more arms, more troops, and more experience with the region. The reasons for giving a 50% shot to Israel are unclear, but it would seem that it had either something to do with the "secret powers of the Jews" (though that kind of showed itself impotent by the Nazis.) or that the Jews were more European. Either way, the Jews should have seen that the credit given to them were based on illusions; the Jews knew that the illuminati business was fake, and that the Arabs were skilled fighters, from the riots.
Many outsiders thought that Israel didn't stand a chance. Yohai Eliav, a Pathan in India, recalls,
There was reason to think that Israel would lose. Besides the advantages that were listed above, Israel's military strategy was not so great. The army made an incredible amount of mistakes, but after the war, refused to look at them. People seemed to want to accept the victory without wanting to improve through analyzing. It seemed they were saying that "we won, let's not think about how, but ok, good, we won." Meanwhile, because nobody checked up on what had happened, commanders that perhaps should have been dismissed were promoted instead; the result was that the IDF as an army became literally effete and a sequence of military failures between 1949 and 1953 and actually jeopardized the state's existence.4
One of my teachers used to tell me that history was just a series of freak occurrences. But in the case of Israel's independence, it seems more than normal. The only reason that Palestine was not captured by the Nazis involves a story that causes a few reader to double take. As told by Aron Barth:
The whole thing was all enough freak occurrences to create a modern day version of "Dayeinu." Weitzman was responsible for the initial British pledge to assist Zionism. He was by chance, a chemist, by chance he was able to assist the British with his abilities, by chance he thereby hobnobbed with the British leaders, and by chance he was able to give credit to the Zionist movement.6
By chance Herzl was in Paris during the Dreyfus case, by chance this transformed him into a new man, by chance he was a gifted writer and orator in different tongues, by chance he was able to unite many of the Jews in what before was not accepted at all, by chance he was a great organizer, by chance, he was willing to sacrifice himself for the goal.7
That's all well and good for religious Zionists like the writer from whom I sourced, and myself. We can look at it as God's hand in giving us the Holy Land, as described at the end of Amos, (Which is by chance, read on the Shabbat that falls immediately before or after Yom Ha'azmaut every year�), but for those who did not follow Rav Kook z"l, it would look like just a random sequence of events. Surely the luck would run out.
Stereotypically, we Jews have not been known to be optimistic. The secular Zionists, who were the vast majority had no God to put their faith into, and had gone through the pogroms of Eastern Europe, Nazi Germany, Viche France, and then the British Mandate (who, right or wrong, was considered anti-Semitic). I before said that we could make a new "Dayeinu," so in that tone, let me ask, �� ����� ���� ���, ��� ������?" People really weren't afraid that the Jews were going to get screwed again? There is no god to offer reparations here; there was just a history that repeated itself.
I see one of two possible, or rather, more probable mentalities that the Zionists in Palestine must have had. One is that the Jews were fighting to be martyrs, the other is that the Jews then, and always, were blindly passionate about their goals, and this was a rare occurrence where they came forth.
It is a stereotype of the Jew to be suffering, complain that he is suffering, and then to try to remain in the position so as to use the suffering.8 Racist or not, there is history to it. At the sixth Zionist congress, the Uganda proposal was voted down. The majority of the voters who shot it down were of Russian Jewry. These were the people who needed a homeland more than any of the other groups, suffering pogroms, and massive anti-Semitism.9
Maybe we can call it Jewish masochism. This sounds pretty hideous, but lines like those of Sham Eden, "In Jerusalem we had no ammunition, we had no food, we got two pieces of bread per person, we had no running water, two buckets of water a day per person, and for a long time that's all we had."10 But they stayed. They had endurance. Just like all of the chilutznikim we hear of. Was she sure of the Jewish success? She does not say in the article, but it seems unlikely. "It's been said we don't believe in miracles but we depend on them. How (we made it), to this day I don't understand."11
There could\would be failure, but there was little else to do. The other possibility relies on that. Jews fight for what they believe in. It seems that the majority of people who remember the time were as assured of success as S. Yizhar. But, if it was luck that got them through it, then they had no reason to be so secure in the knowledge they would succeed. That is, unless we accept the point that we often are sure that our fight will win. Antisemites today, blame most of the modern day revolutions on the Jews, referring especially to Britain in the 1680's, America in 1776, France in 1789, the failed Confederacy in 1861, Russia in 1917, and the counter-cultural revolution in the 1960s.12
The first one is a bit hard to swallow, as Jews had little presence in England at the time. However, the rest have increasing truths to them, to the point that a successful argument saying that Jews were inconsequential in the Bolshevik revolution or the Chicago 7, would blow me away. The difference here is that the Jews, despite what the antisemites are saying, were not doing it for the sake of Jews. They were doing it, at times for personal reasons, but mainly for their country. When the Jews had fought for their own, they had been unsuccessful. However, going by the same assumption of the continuous Jewish passion, the Jews have had this same passion in all the failed attempts that we have gone through. It's disturbing, but does this mean that during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the fighters thought they would lead to the demise of the Nazis? Have Jews gone into every battle "knowing" they'd be victorious?
No, that's silly. Ben Gurion didn't think they'd be victorious. He mourned. When Israel lost Jerusalem, I find it impossible to believe that the people still felt assured of victory. It had to have been moment to moment success, I can't see any other way. They can say NOW, "Oh I knew it all along," but at the time, it's clear they couldn't have really thought that.
When people finish read mystery novels, a common response is, "Oh, I knew who did it from the first page." How many of those people really did not however, fall for any of the red herrings?
1 Mishal, Nissim. Those Were the Years� Miskal - Publishing Distribution Ltd., Tel Aviv. 1998. p. 15.
2 Page 141 in the reader.
3 Avichail, Rabbi Eliyahu. The Tribes of Israel, Amishav, Jerusalem, 1995. P.94.
4 Milstein, Uri. The Survival Principle. "Survival" Publishing House, Kiryon, Israel. 1991. P.40.
5 Barth, Aron. The Modern Jew Faces Eternal Problems. The Publishing Department of the Jewish Agency, Jerusalem, 1972. P.113-4
6 Ibid. p.12
7 Ibid.
8 "Oy, am I thirsty, I am thirsty, I'm dying of thirst. I need�"
"...Here sir, please, here's some water, please, drink this."9 Barth, Aron. The Modern Jew Faces Eternal Problems. The Publishing Department of the Jewish Agency, Jerusalem, 1972. P.56
10 Irwin, Julie "Israel's birth recalled in joy and bitterness" The Cincinnati Enquirer Sunday, April 26, 1998, p.20
11 Ibid.,
12 http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-worldconspiracies-folder.html