A report by the Haifa District HQ of the British Police sent on April 26, 1948, noted that "Every effort is being made by the Jews to persuade the Arab populace to stay and carry on with their normal lives, to get their shops and businesses open and to be assured that their lives and […]

When the onslaught of the local Arabs had been in progress for over four months, and a month before the planned invasion by the seven Arab states, about, half the population still remained in the area mapped out by theUnited Nations as the Jewish state. Now began the fantastic phase of the exodus. A large […]

Kenneth Bilby, one of the Americans who covered Palestine for several weeks during the war of 1948, wrote soon afterwards on his experience and observations: The Arab exodus, initially at least, was encouraged by many Arab leaders, such as Haj Amin el Husseini, the exiled pro-Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem, and by the Arab Higher Committee […]

The earliest voluntary refugees were understandably the wealthier Arabs of the towns, who made a comparatively leisurely departure in December 1947 and in early-1948. At that stage, departure had not yet been proclaimed as a policy or recognized as a potential propaganda weapon. The Jaffa newspaper Ash Shalab thus wrote on January 30, 1948: "The […]

Only a George Orwell or a Franz Kafka could have done justice to the story of the Arab refugee problem. For twenty years, the world has been indoctrinated with a vision of its origins, its scope, the responsibilities for its solution. The intent of this picture is, roughly, that in 1948 the Jewish people launched […]

It was not long before the Soviet Union invited Egypt to submit specifications of the arms and equipment needed to replenish her armed strength. The flow of tanks and planes and guns from the Black Sea ports to Egypt was renewed. Later, the Soviet Union began to supply arms with even more pronounced exclusivity to […]

The Arab states tried to starve Israel of water. First they refused to cooperate in an American-sponsored scheme for regional exploitation of the sources of the Jordan. Next they tried by force-employing artillery -to interfere with Israel’s own efforts to realize her meager water resources (by diverting that part of the Jordan River that ran […]

Special Editor’s Note: OurJerusalem.Com is grateful to Shmuel Katz, author of Battleground, for his kind permission to serialize his book, which has been described as "the bible of pro-Israel activists." Battleground – Part 1: On May 14, 1967, the territorial limits of the State of Israel were the lines agreed upon in her Armistice Agreements […]

The sanctity of the minutes of the British Cabinet in London has, however, saved one item of direct docuinentary evidence on the British government’s relationship to the “‘revolt” and to the “rebels.” The disturbances were not even mentioned when the Cabinet met soon after they broke out. Nor was the outbreak discussed at the next […]

GUARANTEES OF PEACE Battleground – Chapter 10 Peace will not come as long as the powers abet Arab visions of a paradise on earth, encourage them in their hopes of destroying and inheriting Israel, and equip them with the instruments for the undertaking. The prospect of peace will appear on the horizon when the Arab […]