Reply #54: google 30 seconds: hagana and arms

[pelsar]

The almost unarmed, bedraggled, unorganized group that is presented as being Israels defense is a farce, The Haganah was well armed, well trained albeit by the British, very organized force, already an army

organized yes....thats why they prevaled .....intelligent use of limited resources and high motivation to prevent holocaust II

oh... obviously the arab govt disagreed with you...they figured they would win.....

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Though revisionist historians have claimed that the Jews had military superiority over the Arabs, it was not in evidence. The Haganah had primitive arms and few soldiers. Perhaps 20,000 combat troops could be found in April 1948, and these were lacking artillery, and in some cases were without rifles. The defeat of the Jewish Yishuv (settlement community in Palestine) seemed inevitable to many, and prompted US support for a trusteeship plan that would postpone implementation of independence for Israel and Palestine.

From the Jewish point of view, the situation became quite desperate, as attested by the intelligence report below, prepared in March 1948. To meet the problem, the Haganah had already prepared Plan D, which was to remove the Arab irregulars that had taken over villages in the Jerusalem corridor. However, that too offered only a temporary respite from the siege. When the Jordan Legion attacked Jerusalem in May, the road was blocked at Latrun. The Israelis failed to dislodge the British trained and equipped Jordan Legion from Latrun in three costly attacks. Jerusalem was saved from starvation by a strict rationing plan and by a by-pass road built around the Latrun fortifications. The Etzion block was lost following a massacre of 50 surrendered defenders, and Ataroth and Neve Ya'akov were abandoned. These territories were annexed to Jordan, and the annexation, acquisition of territory by force, was approved by the UN through silence. The "Jerusalem Corridor" originally allocated to Palestinians, became part of Israel, and tens of thousands of refugees fled and were expelled from Lod, Ramla and other towns. Jerusalem itself was divided between Israel and Jordan.



http://www.mideastweb.org/jeruint.htm
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