On November 29, 1947, the UN voted to partition western Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab States (GA Resolution 181). Although the area allocated to the Jewish State was very much smaller than had been promised in terms of the Balfour Declaration [1], and which comprised more than 75% desert, the Jewish leadership accepted partition, but all the Arab states rejected it. Had the Arabs accepted partition then, there would be no Palestinian refugee problem today.
 
The State of Israel was declared on May 14, 1948, and the very next day the newborn state was attacked by the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon as well as the Arab Liberation Army commanded by Fawzi al-Kaukji; seven armies in all.

The kibbutzim in the Etzion Bloc had already been overrun on May 12 by an overwhelming force of the Jordanian Army, led by many British officers.

Arab League Secretary, General Azzam Pasha declared, "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.”

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al Husseini, who had met with Hitler in 1941 and had been involved in recruiting support for Germany among Muslims during WW2 proclaimed, "I declare a Holy War, my Moslem brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all!"

Israel was left on its own to face the Arab onslaught. No one expected the Jewish State to survive.  Even the CIA estimated that the Jews would not last more than a few weeks. But, against all reasonable expectations, Israel survived the onslaught even though at that time, its population comprised only 600,000 to 650,000 people, including women, the elderly and infants.  The price in human lives and suffering was high. More than 6,300 (about 1% of the population) were killed and many more maimed.

From day one, Tel Aviv and other strategic targets were attacked and bombed with impunity by Egyptian Spitfires, DC-3 Dakotas and C-47 bombers.  At that stage, Israel had no combat aircraft and no anti-aircraft artillery with which to defend itself. Tel Aviv was also bombarded by the Egyptian Navy.


Today, “new historians,” led by Benny Morris  and Ilan Pappe, attempt to rationalize Israel’s survival in 1948 by claiming, without any foundation, that the Jews had superior forces and equipment.

But we, who participated in that war, know the absurdity of these revisionist claims. No less an authority than US Secretary of State George C. Marshall, warned Foreign Minister-to-be Moshe Sharett against signing Israel’s Declaration of Independence. Marshall reportedly told Sharett, “Believe me, I am talking about things about which I know. You are sitting there in the coastal plains of Palestine, while the Arabs hold the mountain ridges. I know you have some arms and your Haganah, but the Arabs have regular armies. They are well trained and they have heavy arms. How can you hope to hold out?"  [2]

About 4,400 volunteers (known as Machal), including men and women, Jews and non-Jews, most of them World War II veterans, came from 56 countries to help Israel in its war for survival and played a significant role in the outcome of the war.
 
Periods of fighting were interrupted by temporary cease-fires and when the war officially ended in January 1949, Israel held the 5,500 square miles allotted to it by the UN partition plan, plus an additional 2,500 square miles. Transjordan held the eastern sector of Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Egypt held the Gaza Strip.

Armistice agreements were negotiated and eventually signed with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria between January and July 1949, based on the lines at the end of the fighting.

Contrary to the impression held by many people, Israel is surprisingly tiny. It is smaller than the state of New Jersey in the USA, or the Kruger National Park in South Africa, and has a vulnerable, narrow waist-line only 9 miles (15 km) wide.