The 1948 WarOr the May 1948 WarOr the 1948-1949 WarOr the War for Israeli

IndependenceOr the Catastrophe

“A Jewish Triumph and a

Palestinian tragedy”

• Read the official declaration of war• Participants:– Egypt– Iraq– Syria– Lebanon– Transjordan– Saudi Arabia– (Yemen)

Phase I• May 1948 – June 1948• Israel pushed the Arab forces back pretty

definitively • A truce was called and the UN peacekeeping

forces helped mediate• Swedish guy named Bernadotte tried helping

both sides reach an agreement based around the UN Partition Plan as previously passed

• Neither side would have it now

Phase II• July 1948• Egypt and Syria broke the truce and were

easily defeated by the better supplied Israelis• Bernadotte again attempted to mediate and

a truce was called in mid-July• An underground Israeli group assassinated

Bernadotte

Phase III• October 1948- July 1949• Israeli Defense Force (IDF) made some small

offensive moves to secure new borders, but the Arabs did not

• New UN mediator (US guy) tried “proximity talks” where Egyptian and Israeli leaders met with him on the island of Rhodes—in separate rooms

• Israel made separate peace agreements with each Arab country, gaining new territories

• Iraq never signed a peace treaty with Israel—angrily opposed any Arab-Israeli peace—still does.

“Peace” talks• UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine met at

Lausanne (haha)• Now Arabs argued the Partition Plan of 1947 was

fair and Israel should move back to those borders and let Palestinian refugees return home (5-800,000 people?)– Also said that as UN members, Israel agreed to UN

rules• Israel said it was the Arabs who first broke the

UN agreement• He said, she said, repeat. No deal.

Results of the War

• Read the p. 215 section titled “The 1948 War: A Jewish triumph and a Palestinian Tragedy”

• 1. List two reasons the Arabs lost the war.• 2. List at least five reasons the Israelis won the

war.• Read the section titled “The Legacy of the

1948 Arab-Israeli War”• 3. List as many outcomes of the war as you

can find.

Border Changes

1937 1947 1949

Paper 1 Practice