Read The Sword And The Olive Online
Authors: Martin van Creveld
The Sword And The Olive (14 page)
When it was all over the usual analyses emerged, and excuses for failure were sought and found:
50
The Palestine insurgency had caught the British armed forces amid the post-World War II demobilization, with the result that there was very great personnel turbulence, and stability could not be achieved. This factor affected operational readiness and training, which in turn caused troops and commanders to resort to repetitive, often routinized and unimaginative tactics. Instead of acting, the British forces reacted—sometimes so slowly that they took an entire night to decide whether or not to mount a search after a police station had been attacked.
51
In doing all this they suffered from inadequate intelligence, which in turn resulted from insufficient familiarity with the country, its language, and its culture. Although the police and especially the CID were better at gathering intelligence than the army, cooperation between them was defective, owing to the latter’s reluctance to study and adopt police methods. There was a lack of political guidance from above, which led to the division and duplication of effort; it also prevented the authorities on the spot from developing an effective counterpropaganda line. The need to operate in full view of British and world media constituted another handicap, since it compelled the forces to forego the use of the harshest (and presumably most effective) methods. And so on, and so on, ad infinitum if not ad nauseam.
50
The Palestine insurgency had caught the British armed forces amid the post-World War II demobilization, with the result that there was very great personnel turbulence, and stability could not be achieved. This factor affected operational readiness and training, which in turn caused troops and commanders to resort to repetitive, often routinized and unimaginative tactics. Instead of acting, the British forces reacted—sometimes so slowly that they took an entire night to decide whether or not to mount a search after a police station had been attacked.
51
In doing all this they suffered from inadequate intelligence, which in turn resulted from insufficient familiarity with the country, its language, and its culture. Although the police and especially the CID were better at gathering intelligence than the army, cooperation between them was defective, owing to the latter’s reluctance to study and adopt police methods. There was a lack of political guidance from above, which led to the division and duplication of effort; it also prevented the authorities on the spot from developing an effective counterpropaganda line. The need to operate in full view of British and world media constituted another handicap, since it compelled the forces to forego the use of the harshest (and presumably most effective) methods. And so on, and so on, ad infinitum if not ad nauseam.
In retrospect, each of these very different explanations probably contained an element of truth. Yet each overlooks the critical factor, namely, that war is a moral and physical struggle by means of the latter.
52
Physically speaking, British losses in the struggle were so small as to be almost negligible. From summer 1945 to summer 1947 British losses amounted to a little less than 400, including 125 dead and 259 wounded
53
—far fewer than those claimed by a single day of battle during World War II or a single night of bombardment during the Blitz
.
In any event, it was precisely the “victories” won by the security forces that ended up working against them. Perhaps most damaging to the British was the repeated spectacle of immigrants, many of them former concentration camp inmates with numbers still tattooed on their arms, being manhandled, wounded, and sometimes killed by troops who sought to transfer them to prison camps or else to other ships prior to internment. As early as 1942 the train of events that led to the sinking of
Struma
had been called “stupid, callous, and inhuman” in the House of Lords.
54
Now the unedifying events in Palestine were being displayed all over the world by newspapers and newsreels. Some stories were deliberately spread by the Jewish Agency as part of a well-coordinated propaganda campaign, whereas others were produced by journalists sent to cover the events.
55
52
Physically speaking, British losses in the struggle were so small as to be almost negligible. From summer 1945 to summer 1947 British losses amounted to a little less than 400, including 125 dead and 259 wounded
53
—far fewer than those claimed by a single day of battle during World War II or a single night of bombardment during the Blitz
.
In any event, it was precisely the “victories” won by the security forces that ended up working against them. Perhaps most damaging to the British was the repeated spectacle of immigrants, many of them former concentration camp inmates with numbers still tattooed on their arms, being manhandled, wounded, and sometimes killed by troops who sought to transfer them to prison camps or else to other ships prior to internment. As early as 1942 the train of events that led to the sinking of
Struma
had been called “stupid, callous, and inhuman” in the House of Lords.
54
Now the unedifying events in Palestine were being displayed all over the world by newspapers and newsreels. Some stories were deliberately spread by the Jewish Agency as part of a well-coordinated propaganda campaign, whereas others were produced by journalists sent to cover the events.
55
The outcome was a public-relations disaster that could not but affect the British people and the troops themselves. To watch five fast destroyers escort a rickety, 420-ton steamer,
Chayim Arlozoroν
, until it hits a rock and sinks is bad enough (the occupants were rescued); to have to board the ships and fight it out with their miserable human cargoes is worse. As one soldier remembered, “When you went alongside they were out of control ... you used to get badly attacked.... Some of the blokes got knocked on the ground and women put knitting needles into their testicles, so we had pads. They used to bombard us with tins of fruit ... and everybody used to grab them.”
56
As humiliation followed humiliation even Winston Churchill, an acknowledged expert on such matters, accused the British troops of not knowing how “to behave like men.”
57
At one point ETSEL kidnapped and flogged a number of British officers in retaliation for the flogging of its own men. Thereupon a French newspaper published a cartoon showing a member of His Majesty’s forces holding his tin hat behind him. The caption explained that since “the threatened area” had moved from the head to the buttocks the salute too should be similarly transferred.
Chayim Arlozoroν
, until it hits a rock and sinks is bad enough (the occupants were rescued); to have to board the ships and fight it out with their miserable human cargoes is worse. As one soldier remembered, “When you went alongside they were out of control ... you used to get badly attacked.... Some of the blokes got knocked on the ground and women put knitting needles into their testicles, so we had pads. They used to bombard us with tins of fruit ... and everybody used to grab them.”
56
As humiliation followed humiliation even Winston Churchill, an acknowledged expert on such matters, accused the British troops of not knowing how “to behave like men.”
57
At one point ETSEL kidnapped and flogged a number of British officers in retaliation for the flogging of its own men. Thereupon a French newspaper published a cartoon showing a member of His Majesty’s forces holding his tin hat behind him. The caption explained that since “the threatened area” had moved from the head to the buttocks the salute too should be similarly transferred.
The British government was learning that under certain circumstances and given sufficient time Thucydides’s words in the Melian dialogue may become inverted. It is not always “they who are strong do what they can, they who are weak suffer what they must.”
58
Instead, and no less frequently, it is the weak who do what they can, the strong who suffer what they must. Though much weakened by World War II, the British at the time still constituted a world empire. As such they found themselves “fighting” the weak, the helpless, the pregnant, and the semistarved. They were damned if they “lost” and twice damned if, as usually happened, they “won” and “succeeded” in restoring order, arresting suspects, and even stopping immigrants from reaching their destination. Although their lives were seldom in very great danger—the more so because they tended to spend a growing part of their time on base—the British troops found the experience “repugnant” and “frustrating”; the struggle ended by taking away their self-respect, whereupon they turned tail and left. It was a lesson that others, not least the Israelis themselves, were destined to learn later and to their cost.
58
Instead, and no less frequently, it is the weak who do what they can, the strong who suffer what they must. Though much weakened by World War II, the British at the time still constituted a world empire. As such they found themselves “fighting” the weak, the helpless, the pregnant, and the semistarved. They were damned if they “lost” and twice damned if, as usually happened, they “won” and “succeeded” in restoring order, arresting suspects, and even stopping immigrants from reaching their destination. Although their lives were seldom in very great danger—the more so because they tended to spend a growing part of their time on base—the British troops found the experience “repugnant” and “frustrating”; the struggle ended by taking away their self-respect, whereupon they turned tail and left. It was a lesson that others, not least the Israelis themselves, were destined to learn later and to their cost.
CHAPTER 5
AT WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE
D
ESPITE THE considerable roles that ETSEL and LECHI played in ejecting the British, both were strictly underground organizations with extremely limited capacities for overt military action. This was much less true of Hagana, which, thanks in part to the semilegal status it had enjoyed during various periods of its existence, was already preparing to wage a conventional war against the Arabs even as it was struggling against the British. In PALMACH it possessed a strike force of exceptional quality; in CHISH and CHIM it possessed at least a pool of trained or semitrained personnel, most of whom, however, were not yet formed into units let alone assembled and exercised. Accordingly the period between 1945 and 1948 was one of large-scale military construction and organization.
ESPITE THE considerable roles that ETSEL and LECHI played in ejecting the British, both were strictly underground organizations with extremely limited capacities for overt military action. This was much less true of Hagana, which, thanks in part to the semilegal status it had enjoyed during various periods of its existence, was already preparing to wage a conventional war against the Arabs even as it was struggling against the British. In PALMACH it possessed a strike force of exceptional quality; in CHISH and CHIM it possessed at least a pool of trained or semitrained personnel, most of whom, however, were not yet formed into units let alone assembled and exercised. Accordingly the period between 1945 and 1948 was one of large-scale military construction and organization.
No sooner had V-E Day arrived (May 8, 1945) than Ben Gurion went to the United States.
1
Within weeks he succeeded in getting together a committee of twenty Jewish millionaires who were willing to help—“the best Zionist meeting ever” he noted in his diary.
2
Funds, now already measured in millions of dollars per year, were made available and put at the disposal of Hagana agents such as Teddy Kollek, who later was to become mayor of Jerusalem and was destined to make his early mark in this field. Since many countries had laws against the export of arms to the Middle East, ruses had to be used, including one occasion when light bombers (Beauforts) were purchased under the pretext of making a movie. Some of the arms were shipped to Erets Yisrael, as already related. However, most were stored abroad in anticipation of the day when the British mandate would end.
1
Within weeks he succeeded in getting together a committee of twenty Jewish millionaires who were willing to help—“the best Zionist meeting ever” he noted in his diary.
2
Funds, now already measured in millions of dollars per year, were made available and put at the disposal of Hagana agents such as Teddy Kollek, who later was to become mayor of Jerusalem and was destined to make his early mark in this field. Since many countries had laws against the export of arms to the Middle East, ruses had to be used, including one occasion when light bombers (Beauforts) were purchased under the pretext of making a movie. Some of the arms were shipped to Erets Yisrael, as already related. However, most were stored abroad in anticipation of the day when the British mandate would end.
As those components of Hagana not engaged in the day-to-day task of defending against the Arabs or fighting the British expanded, it became necessary to set up an office that would coordinate its now very far-flung and multitudinous activities. With war clearly approaching, Ben Gurion wanted to have his hand firmly on the helm. Accordingly, late in 1946 he created a defense portfolio in the Jewish Agency with himself at its head. The chain of command now went from Ben Gurion as head of the Agency to Ben Gurion as minister of defense (although, as he used to say later on, with him it was often the prime minister who went to see the minister of defense instead of vice versa). Next in line was Yisrael Galili, a Hagana veteran and a representative of the
kibbuts
movement who had taken over from Sneh as
rosh mifkada artsit
and who in turn commanded Yaakov Dori as chief of the General Staff.
kibbuts
movement who had taken over from Sneh as
rosh mifkada artsit
and who in turn commanded Yaakov Dori as chief of the General Staff.
At War for Independence: Hagana members defending
Kibbuts
En Charod, February 1948.
Kibbuts
En Charod, February 1948.
In April 1948, Ben Gurion, using Hagana’s failure to break the siege of Jerusalem as his excuse, pointed out that
two
Jewish Agency representatives in charge of defense were one too many.
3
Galili, a political rival, was fired. So was Sadeh, the founder of PALMACH and thus the natural candidate for the job (however, the previous year he had displeased Ben Gurion—who sometimes acted as a tin-pot dictator—by penning an article where he denied the need for unconditional obedience under all circumstances).
4
While Sadeh was sidetracked to command a brigade, Galili became an
eitses geber
(Yiddish for adviser), a position that as leader of a left-wing party and member of several cabinets (and, later, as Golda Meir’s reputed lover) he retained on and off for the next twenty-five years. From then on the minister of defense for the Jewish Agency dealed directly with the chief of staff or, since the latter was ailing, with his deputy, Yigal Yadin. Later, when the Agency’s executive turned itself into the government of Israel, that arrangement remained in force.
two
Jewish Agency representatives in charge of defense were one too many.
3
Galili, a political rival, was fired. So was Sadeh, the founder of PALMACH and thus the natural candidate for the job (however, the previous year he had displeased Ben Gurion—who sometimes acted as a tin-pot dictator—by penning an article where he denied the need for unconditional obedience under all circumstances).
4
While Sadeh was sidetracked to command a brigade, Galili became an
eitses geber
(Yiddish for adviser), a position that as leader of a left-wing party and member of several cabinets (and, later, as Golda Meir’s reputed lover) he retained on and off for the next twenty-five years. From then on the minister of defense for the Jewish Agency dealed directly with the chief of staff or, since the latter was ailing, with his deputy, Yigal Yadin. Later, when the Agency’s executive turned itself into the government of Israel, that arrangement remained in force.
At a lower level, these reforms were followed by the construction of a proper general staff. Various blueprints were submitted, mainly by former members of the British armed forces. Another key figure was Yisrael Beer, a Russian-born, horse-toothed veteran of the Spanish civil war with a reputation as a theoretician (he claimed to have earned a Ph.D. in military history) who acted as Ben Gurion’s personal military adviser. The fundamental choice was between the Franco-American model and the German model, which, earlier in the century, had been transmitted to Britain by way of military writer Spencer Wilkinson.
5
The former system united operations, intelligence, training, and doctrine in a single division, known as the General Staff Division; the latter had one division each for operations, intelligence, personnel, and supply. By adopting the Anglo-German model the IDF thus put much greater emphasis on operations as opposed to the other two divisions, namely, personnel (comprising manpower administration, discipline, and justice) and supply (which took care of stocks and armaments as well as financial matters). Over the years these arrangements have often been modified in detail, but the basic idea—where the head of the General Staff Division unites operations, intelligence, training, and doctrine and acts as a
primus inter pares
under the chief of staff (COS)—still persists.
5
The former system united operations, intelligence, training, and doctrine in a single division, known as the General Staff Division; the latter had one division each for operations, intelligence, personnel, and supply. By adopting the Anglo-German model the IDF thus put much greater emphasis on operations as opposed to the other two divisions, namely, personnel (comprising manpower administration, discipline, and justice) and supply (which took care of stocks and armaments as well as financial matters). Over the years these arrangements have often been modified in detail, but the basic idea—where the head of the General Staff Division unites operations, intelligence, training, and doctrine and acts as a
primus inter pares
under the chief of staff (COS)—still persists.
Actual preparation for conscripting manpower and building an army got under way in late 1947. A decree for military registration was issued on November 28; by the middle of 1948 a total of almost 50,000 men and women aged seventeen to thirty-five had been called up. Besides 27,000 previous Hagana members, they included perhaps 7,000-10,000 recent immigrants who, as they were being concentrated in transit camps in various European countries, had been mustered even before they reached their new homeland. As the figures indicate, so long as the British presence continued, the response made by members of the
Yishuv
was modest, and indeed there was much talk about “deserters” and “shirkers.” Once they left, it became possible to put state authority behind the mobilization process, however, and the numbers it produced became much larger. By the end of 1948 almost 200,000 persons, of whom 164,000 were male, had been registered for service.
6
Yishuv
was modest, and indeed there was much talk about “deserters” and “shirkers.” Once they left, it became possible to put state authority behind the mobilization process, however, and the numbers it produced became much larger. By the end of 1948 almost 200,000 persons, of whom 164,000 were male, had been registered for service.
6
The task of classifying the conscripts, organizing them in units, issuing them equipment, training them, and preparing them for battle was enormous—the more so since it had to be carried out by beginners. (In the entire
Yishuv
there was probably not one person who had commanded as much as a battalion in action, and the British did in fact comment on the “amateurishness” of the organization.)
7
Moreover, so far from obtaining any breathing space, it was already engaging in hostilities with the Palestinians.
Yishuv
there was probably not one person who had commanded as much as a battalion in action, and the British did in fact comment on the “amateurishness” of the organization.)
7
Moreover, so far from obtaining any breathing space, it was already engaging in hostilities with the Palestinians.
During the last months of 1947 the other side too had been making preparations for the conflict. The Arab population living west of the River Jordan must have numbered 900,000-1.2 million; the higher estimate is probably the most accurate. Of those, rather fewer than 10,000 had some kind of formal training, having served with various British units, mainly police. Organization was still limited to bands, that is, loose associations based either on the village or, on a slightly larger scale, the clan; in the towns there also were a number of
jihadias
(associations of holy warriors). The largest
jihadia
was centered in Jaffa and may have counted perhaps 2,000-3,000 men.
8
Here and elsewhere, the warriors brought along their own arms, complete with fifty to seventy rounds of ammunition. However, they did not possess heavy weapons or a logistic infrastructure, let alone the kind of bureaucratic organization that is the backbone of any modern army. The “arms industry” was limited to the manufacture of primitive bombs.
jihadias
(associations of holy warriors). The largest
jihadia
was centered in Jaffa and may have counted perhaps 2,000-3,000 men.
8
Here and elsewhere, the warriors brought along their own arms, complete with fifty to seventy rounds of ammunition. However, they did not possess heavy weapons or a logistic infrastructure, let alone the kind of bureaucratic organization that is the backbone of any modern army. The “arms industry” was limited to the manufacture of primitive bombs.
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