1948: A History of the First Arab-
Israeli War by Benny Morris
The Indespensible Book On The Beginnings Of The Arab/Israel Conflict
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 wars political dimensions.
Benny Morris probes the motives and aims of the protagonists on the basis
of newly opened Israeli and Western documentation. The Arab side—
where the archives are still closed—is illuminated with the help of
intelligence and diplomatic materials.
Morris stresses the jihadi character of the two-stage Arab assault on the
Jewish community in Palestine. Throughout, he examines the dialectic
between the wars 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 Powers—Britain, the United
States, and the Soviet Union—in 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.
Personal Review: 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War
by Benny Morris
More than 60 years after Israel's War of Independence, passions regarding
its conduct and outcome are running higher than ever. Benny Morris has
done historical research an invaluable service in writing this book that
clarifies the background, conduct and outcome of this critical military
conflict that has had such revolutionary effects on not only the Middle East,
but also the whole world. Morris was considered 20 years ago a
"revisionist historian" in Israel because he overturned some popular myths
in Israel that were propagated due to inordinate feelings of inferiority and
lack of confidence. This made him a darling of post-Zionist and anti-Zionist
circles. However, in writings of his that he was made since then, he has
shown himself a stauch supporter of the Zionist enterprise and has
angered those same anti-Israel circles. In spite of the fact that he is so
controversial his book has the ring of truth about it. What convinced me of
this is the fact that he used only contemporary records and documents of
the period as his sources and he did not use interviews, biographies, and
reminiscences that came out years later and which are inevitably distorted
due to peoples' attempts to justify their decisions, to cover up
embarrassing facts and simply forgetfulness. A good example is the
efforts by Israel-bashing charlatan historians like Ilan Pappe to claim that
the Zionists had a malevolent plan to expel all the Arabs from Palestine
since before the war broke out. Morris clearly shows that this could not be
the case, since large Arab populations were left in place, particularly in the
Galilee section of northern Israel and that the Israeli Arab population has
grown and prospered under Israeli rule. However, it must be pointed out
that "population exchanges" were NOT considered "shocking" in the time
period that the war occurred.....similar things had been done between
Greece and Turkey in the 1920s, the expulsion of ethnic Germans from
Eastern Europe after World War II, and the creation by a Muslims of a
ethnic/religiously sectarian state in India led to something like 1 million
deaths and 10 million refugess, yet no one wants to reverse that outcome
that like those who support the Palestinian "Right of Return". Morris
makes clear that it was the Arabs who started the war and who attacked
the Jews with the expressed intent of "driving them into the sea" (Morris
provides ample evidence of this as expressed not only to their own

population but to Westerners as well). This increased the Jewish fighters
motivation to hit the Arabs before they could wipe out the Jews.
Morris clearly explains the general strategic flow of the war, something that
is missing from earlier books on the subject and he shows the decision
making by the leaders that led to this. The book does lack some of the
"color" of previous histories (e.g. Dan Kurzman's "Genesis 1948")that give
stories of individuals who participated in the war and specific small-scale
engagements but the book does not suffer from this at all . He points out
that the war had two distinct phases, the first being the "Civil War" which
broke out immediately upon the adoption by the UN of the 1947 Partition
Resolution. This was between local Palestinian armed groups with the
addition of foreign Arab volunteers and the Jewish armed groups, primarily
the Hagana, ETZEL (Irgun) and LEHI (Sternist) fighters. Morris points out
that although the Arabs had years to prepare for the struggle, they were
totally incapable of mounting a coherent fight. He notes that Palestinians
from one town or village were rarely willing to go to fight for another town,
and that Palestinians from the large towns such as Shechem (Nablus) and
Hevron that were not involved in the fighting did not send many fighters to
help their "brother" Palestinians. Morris says that this is a major indication
that the concept of "Palestinian national identity" didn't exist then. The
Jews quickly blunted the Arab offensive and turned around and went on
the offensive themselves. The second phase was the organized invasion
by the neighboring Arab state upon the declaration of the State of Israel on
May 14, 1948. Morris shows that as far as manpower was concerned, both
sides were evenly matched, but that the Arab side had far more firepower,
particularly tanks, artillery and aircraft. In spite of this, the Arab states
fought a poorly run, uncoordinated war and they also quickly found
themselves on the defensive, eventually begging for a cease-fire. Still, the
Jews had something like 5800 killed out of a population of 600,000,
including a quarter who were civilians. In spite of the fact that both sides
claimed that there were atrocities against civilians, Morris notes that this
war had far fewer atrocities against civilians that have had much more
recent wars such as those involved in the break-up of Yugoslavia or the
Sudanese civil wars.
One of the most important things Morris brings in the book is the clear
evidence that the Arab side would not consider making real peace with
Israel, that the view the existence of any Jewish state of any size as
unbearable humiliation that refutes the Muslims' right, as they see it, to
control the Middle East, and eventually the world, and that Arab attitudes
today have not changed in any significant way, in spite of the exitence of
"peace agreements" between Israel and Jordan, Egypt and the
Palestinians. These peace agreements are viewed by the Arabs merely as
temporary cease-fires made in order to allow the Arabs to strengthen
themselves pending a resumption of hostilities.
Morris ends the book on something of a pessimistic note, saying that
although Israel won the war in 1948 and also subsequent wars, its future is

still far from assured, but I don't agree with it. However, for there to be a
change in Arab attitutes it is first mandatory that Jews and non-Jews who
live in Israel or support it to understand the truth of what happened and to
reject the false views of people like Ilan Pappe and various anti-Israel
propagandists. Once the truth is known and spread to others, Israel can
take a firmer stand on its rights and to make it clear that it will not grovel to
the Arabs and make endless concessions to try to pacify those who will not
be passified. Only a strong stand by Israel will make the Arabs realize that
Israel is here to stay, and the eventually, a modus-vivendi, if not formal
peace, can be achieved. Reading Morris' book is the first step in the this
direction.
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