1948 : A History of the First Arab-Israeli War

by Benny Morris

• ISBN13: 9780300151121
• ISBN10: 0300151128
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2009-04-28
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

This history of the foundational war in the Arab-Israeli conflict is groundbreaking, objective, and deeply revisionist. A riveting account of the military engagements, it also focuses on the war's political dimensions. Benny Morris probes the motives and aims of the protagonists on the basis of newly opened Israeli and Western documentation. The Arab sidewhere the archives are still closedis illuminated with the help of intelligence and diplomatic materials. Morris stresses thejihadicharacter of the two-stage Arab assault on the Jewish community in Palestine. Throughout, he examines the dialectic between the war's military and political developments and highlights the military impetus in the creation of the refugee problem, which was a by-product of the disintegration of Palestinian Arab society. The book thoroughly investigates the role of the Great PowersBritain, the United States, and the Soviet Unionin shaping the conflict and its tentative termination in 1949. Morris looks both at high politics and general staff decision-making processes and at the nitty-gritty of combat in the successive battles that resulted in the emergence of the State of Israel and the humiliation of the Arab world, a humiliation that underlies the continued Arab antagonism toward Israel

Author Biography

Benny Morris is professor of history in the Middle East Studies Department of Ben-Gurion University, Israel. He is the leading figure among Israel's "New Historians," who over the past two decades have reshaped our understanding of the Israeli-Arab conflict. His books include Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001; Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956; and The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Abbreviations	p. xi
List of Maps	p. xiii
Staking Claims: The Historical Background	p. 1
The United Nations Steps In: UNSCOP and the Partition Resolution	p. 37
The First Stage of the Civil War, November 1947-March 1948	p. 75
The Second Stage of the Civil War, April-mid-May 1948	p. 113
The Pan-Arab Invasion, 15 May-11 June 1948	p. 180
The First Truce, 11 June-8 July 1948, the International Community, and the War	p. 264
The "Ten Days" and After	p. 273
Operations Yoav and Hiram	p. 320
Operation Horev, December 1948-January 1949	p. 350
The Armistice Agreements, January-July 1949	p. 375
Some Conclusions	p. 392
Notes	p. 421
Bibliography	p. 493
Index	p. 507
Illustrations follow page	p. 270
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