ALBERT EINSTEIN'S ZIONISM
The Movement to Resurrect the Jewish Homeland
as seen through the eyes of its most exceptional advocate

A year-by-year account of Einstein's take on ideas and events as they shaped the Zionist struggle
(THIS WORK IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION. EDITORIAL REVIEW, COPYEDITING, FULL REFERENCING, PERMISSIONS AND CREDITING IS IN PROGRESS)

An Internet Project By

Daniel S. Cutler

© 2005

Defeat of Nazism - Stateless Holocaust Remnant-
Einstein Opposes Zionist Independence but Demands Immediate Immigration of Jews to Palestine Israel Independence War - Israel Reborn / Arab Nakbah

"In This Last Period of the Fulfillment of Our Dreams ...
One Thing That Weighed Heavily Upon Me ...
we [Zionists] were compelled ... to assert our rights through force of arms; it was the only way to avert complete annihilation."

Citizen Einstein Left: Einstein's secretary Helen Dukas, Right: Stepdaughter Margot take the oath of US citizenship

August 16

Einstein writes Otto Nathan to help Philippe Halsman, "the Austrian Dreyfus"
Wrongly convicted of murdering his father in 1928, Halsman will become a Life Magazine star photographer and take this iconic portrait of his benefactor.

Zionist Revisionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky in USA,
enlisting support for a Jewish army to fight Nazis

A regiment of enlisted Zionist Jews from Palestine fighting in the British Army want to fight the Nazis as a national body under their own flag. Jabotinsky, co-creator of the Jewish Legion in WWI, champions that cause.

Eventually the British will allow Zionist Jews to fight under their own flag as The Jewish Brigade link.
A British-planned Palestinian Arab counterpart fails to attract adequate enlistment. Though several thousand Palestinian Arabs serve with British forces, the Palestinian nationalist cause is completely identified with Hitler, thanks to the Mufti's efforts on behalf of the Third Reich.

The "Arab Legion" that does fight in WWII fights for the Nazis.

Jabotinsky dies of a heart attack near New York
(His remains were re-interred on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem in 1965.)  Einstein thoroughly opposed militarism in Zionism and signed a public letter repudiating Jabotinsky's successor, Menachem Begin.

USA:

January
LEHI (Lohmai Herut Yisrael - "Fighters for Israel's Freedom" (called "Stern Gang" by British ) break away from Irgun in protest against wartime truce with Britain.
Their leader offers to ally with Nazis against Britain. He is rebuffed.

Fanatically anti-British, the tiny dissident group rejects mainstream Zionism. Dubbed "Stern Gang" by the British (after founder Avraham Stern) they openly espouse terrorism to drive out the British and establish a Jewish state modeled on fascist Italy. In a bizarre footnote to history, founder Avraham Stern even offered alliance with Nazi Germany to expel British from Palestine. Stern's letter to Berlin got no response.

April 3, 1941

Pro-Nazi coup instigated in Iraq by Mufti Amin al-Husseini
Nazi sympathizer Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and four generals lead a military coup after Iraqi ruler flees to British air base at Hibbanya, and then to Amman. Germany sends weapons and aircraft to Husseini, but pro-Nazi coup fails. (The Mufti's right-hand man in Iraq, Kharaillah Tulfah was Saddam Hussein's uncle and mentor).

June 1

Pro-Nazi Iraqis riot against Jews after British put down coup.

The "Farhud" (violent dispossession) is triggered against Jews greeting the returning ruler (a regent, ruling in place of the underage king). Murders, rapes, and looting continue for two days. In several instances Muslims defend their Jewish neighbors against the mobs.

Churchill incensed at Palestinian leaders' support for Nazis
Churchill: Britain now owes the Arabs nothing after the war. (Righteous Victims pg. 166)

FASCIST ITALY:

Mufti escapes Iraq, reaches Rome, obtains Mussolini's support
From Rome he declares jihad against Britain.

Mufti calls for jihad against British

THE MUFTI'S WWII FATWAH AGAINST BRITAIN
May 10, 1941

In the name of Merciful and Almighty God. I invite all my Moslem brothers throughout the whole world to join in the Holy War for God, for the defense of Islam and her lands against her enemy. O Faithful, obey and respond to my call. O Moslems! Proud Iraq has placed herself in the vanguard of this Holy Struggle, and has thrown herself against the strongest enemy of Islam ... The English have overthrown the Ottoman Empire, have destroyed Moslem rule in India, inciting one community against another; they stifled the Egyptian awakening, the dream of Mohammed Ali, colonizing Egypt for half a century. They took advantage of the weakening of the Ottoman Empire to stretch out their hands and use every sort of trick to take possession of many Arab countries as happened to Aden, the 9 Districts, the Hadramut, Oman, Masqat and the Emirates of the Persian Gulf and Transjordan. The vivid proof of the imperialistic designs of the British is to be found in Moslem Palestine which, although promised by England to Sheriff Hussein has had to submit to the outrageous infiltration of Jews, shameful politics designed to divide Arab-Moslem countries of Asia from those of Africa. In Palestine the English have committed unheard of barbarisms; among others, they have profaned the el-Aqsa Mosque and have declared the most unyielding war against Islam, both in deed and in word. The Prime Minister at that time told Parliament that the world would never see peace as long as the Koran existed. What hatred against Islam is stronger than that which publicly declares the Sacred Koran an enemy of human kind? Should such sacrilege go unpunished? ... I invite you, O Brothers, to join in the War for God to preserve Islam, your independence and your lands from English aggression. I invite you to bring all your weight to bear in helping Iraq that she may throw off the shame that torments her. O Heroic Iraq, God is with Thee, the Arab Nation and the Moslem World are solidly with Thee in Thy Holy Struggle!

NAZI GERMANY, BERLIN:

November

Palestinian leader meets Hitler, agree their common enemy: The Jews
Hitler: We're natural allies - we have the same enemy, namely the Jews.  When we win, Mufti will be Fuehrer of Muslims.

Record of the Conversation Between the Fuehrer and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem on November 28, 1941, in the Presence of Reich Foreign Minister and Minister Grobba in Berlin, Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918-1945, Series D, Vol. XIII, London, 1964, p. 881ff in Walter Lacquer and Barry Rubin, The Israel-Arab Reader, (NY: Penguin Books, 2001), pp. 51-55.

Mufti Amin al-Husseini recruits Nazi Waffen SS Muslim Divisions to fight for Hitler
His Muslim troops pledge allegiance to the Nazi regime in an official statement prepared by SS Chief Heinrich Himmler. They include Bosnian Muslims recruited into Waffen SS units Hanjar (named for a dagger worn by Turkish officers), 13th Waffen SS division; the Kama 23rd Waffen SS division; and the Albanian Skanderbeg 21st Waffen SS division. These units distinguished themselves brutally suppressing Tito's anti-fascist resistance fighters, committing genocide of Serbs, and by implementing the Final Solution to the "problem" of Jews and Roma ("Gypsies"). The Mufti calls his SS troops "the Cream of Islam".

April

Ustashe Fascist Party sets up Nazi puppet state of Independent Croatia

US PACIFIC TERRITORY, PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII:

1942

Associated with the Ben Gurion faction, the program implies acceptance of less than the entire historic Land of Israel, and therefore, meets opposition.

In a private memorandum earlier Ben Gurion suggested that due to the urgency of accommodating the influx of refuge Jews it might be necessary to transfer Arabs to neighboring Arab countries.

February 24

OFF COAST OF TURKEY:

768 Jewish escapees from Nazis denied refuge in Palestine or anywhere else, drown at sea.

Stranded off coast of Turkey, British tow the disabled Struma out to sea and set it adrift. Hopelessly overcrowded with now malnourished , sick refugees, with  no country willing to accept them, the Struma is torpedoed by a Russian submarine. 768 drown, one survivor.

The British High Commissioner in Palestine, Sir Harold MacMichael, says of SS Struma:

The fate of these people [Jews fleeing Nazi Germany] was tragic, but the fact remains that they were nationals of a country at war with Britain, proceeding direct from enemy territory. Palestine was under no obligations towards them.

British High Commissioner in Palestine

British Navy continues to block Jewish refugee boats from reaching Palestine.
Some refuge boats are fired on as they approach the coast; some are turned back.
During the war 3 refuge ships will be sunk; 21 boats will succeed in running the British blockade, landing some 15,000 refugees.

Mufti Amin al-Husseini's other efforts for Hitler:
Radio propaganda on behalf of Nazi Germany, espionage, fifth column activities in Muslim regions of Europe and the Middle East, formation of schools and training centers for imams and mullahs to accompany the Muslim SS and

Mufti Radio Plea for for Axis

Haj Amin el Husseini flies the flag for the Nazis in a broadcast from Italy. Among other things, he declared that "if England and America win the war, the Jews will dominate the world. If on the other hand the victory is carried off by the Axis, the Arab world will be freed. The Axis is befriending us. Fight for its victory."

New York Times, November 12, 1942. page 9

Heinrich Himmler to Mufti:
"Natural Alliance" in Our "Common Struggle"
November 2, 1943

To the Grand Mufti: The National Socialist Movement of Greater Germany has, since its beginning, inscribed upon its flag the fight against world Jewry. It has, therefore, followed with particular sympathy the struggle of the freedom-loving Arabians, especially in Palestine, against the Jewish interlopers. It is in the recognition of this enemy and of the common struggle against him that lies the firm foundation of the natural alliance that exists between National-Socialist-Greater Germany and the freedom-loving Moslems of the whole world. In this spirit I am sending you on the anniversary of the infamous Balfour Declaration my hearty greetings and wishes for the successful pursuit of your struggle until the certain final victory.

Signed: Reichsfuehrer-S.S. Heinrich Himmler

At the Nuremberg Trials, Adolf Eichmann's deputy Dieter Wisliceny (subsequently executed as a war criminal), testified:

The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan. ... He was one of Eichmann's best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures. I heard him say, accompanied by Eichmann, he had visited incognito the gas chamber of Auschwitz.

March 1

"Kill Jews" urges Mufti Amin Al-Husseini
In a March 1 broadcast to Muslim SS troops by radio broadcast from Berlin:

Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases This pleases God, history and religion.  This saves your honor. God is with you.

Mufti Amin al-Husseini Radio Berlin broadcast, March 1, 1944

March 12
Einstein recalls first Zionist appearance in US on occasion of Zionist leader's 65th birthday:

The Arab case for Palestine made by Princeton scholar Phillip Hitti (A History of Arab Peoples) to US Congress Committee on International Relations. His testimony is reprinted in Princeton Herald.

Hitti's salient points:

1. Local Arabs descend from Canaanites, he maintains. They precede Israelite claim on the land.
2. Jerusalem is the third most important Muslim holy site.
3. The land was won through jihad and is therefore a bequest of Allah to Muslims for eternity.

Einstein rebuts Phillip Hitti's anti-Zionist testimony.

Einstein and his historian friend Eric Kahler, like Einstein, a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, compose a rebuttal:

Near Florence Italy,
August 3

Nazis murder wife and two daughters of Einstein's cousin Robert

August 21

United Nations foundations set
Allies meet to discuss postwar world at Dumberton Oaks conference, Washington D.C.

Einstein is pessimistic about the organization's ability to maintain peace.
It's fatal flaw: Each state retains individual sovereignty. He will say of the UN...

By holding onto their sovereignty, the great states make the weapons race unavoidable and this will in turn make future wars unavoidable. The fear of these wars’ frightfulness leads in two directions, working as a deterrent, but also compelling a preventive war... The physicists are well-behaved; they are all against secret armament, and they are in favor of preventing wars on an international basis. But they are afraid of drawing the final consequence—a world government that alone has military power.

Albert Einstein to Otto Nathan, 12 November 1945, Adele and Morris Bergreen Albert Einstein Collection, Vassar College Library cited in Action at a Distance: Einstein as Activist By Jessica Heckman

Late 1944
Mufti Amin al-Husseini's Nazi agents paratroop into Palestine to poison Tel Aviv's water
A mixed German-Arab SS commando crew sponsored by the Mufti parachutes into Palestine in a last ditch effort to trigger all-out war between Arabs and Jews, drawing off British troops from anti-Nazi campaign. They are discovered and arrested  before completing their first mission: poisoning Tel Aviv's wells.

November 6, 1944
Right-wing Jewish LEHI (Stern Gang) assassinates British Minister responsible for deporting Jewish refugees
Lord Moyne, the British Secretary of State in Cairo, declared on 9 June 1942 in the House of Lords that the Jews were not the descendants of the ancient Hebrews and that they had no "legitimate claim" on the Holy Land. at his place of residence in Cairo was responsible for implementing the White Paper, responsible for the deportation of the immigrant ships

May:

Mile Budak captured by Tito's partisans, tried and executed. They now demand the Mufti to face justice.

Yugoslavia indicts Mufti Amin al-Husseini as a war criminal. He escapes
but is captured in France and placed under house arrest

Hundreds of thousands of displaced persons stranded throughout Europe
Poles brought to Germany as slaves, Russian prisoners awaiting return home. Among the displaced: 100,000 traumatized Jewish survivors of Nazi death camps

Allies create Displaced Persons camps
Russian POWs, Polish slave laborers, liberated concentration camp inmates await repatriation to homes

Jewish DPs can't return to former homes
Some who try are murdered by neighbors who have confiscated their property (notably on July 4, 1946: 43 Holocaust survivors straggle back to Kielce, Poland and are murdered by neighbors). Others have nowhere to go, as their communities have been liquidated, families exterminated.

"Illegal" immigration secretly land ships of Jewish refugees. If caught, British send them to detention camps.

65 "illegal" immigrant boats embarked for Palestine 1945 - 1948. Most of the boats were intercepted by the British, the passengers transferred to detention camp at Atlit. From August 1946, the British begin deporting Jewish refugee immigrants to detention camps in Cyprus

December

Einstein: Jewish immigration to Palestine  must be immediately resumed with no restrictions:

Einstein responds:

Einstein ceaselessly speaks out on behalf of Jewish war refugees and Holocaust survivors

Einstein slams anti-Zionist Jews

Anti-Zionist American Jews advance what they call a "just and peaceful resolution" of Palestine conflict.
American Council for Judaism publishes their denunciations of Zionism in a full page ad in New York Post (Nov. 20, 1945).

"Jewish products and manufactured goods shall be considered undesirable to the Arab countries." All Arab "institutions, organizations, merchants, commission agents and individuals" are called upon "to refuse to deal in, distribute, or consume Zionist products or manufactured goods."

Arab League Boycott declaration, December 2, 1945

November 1945

Arab League reestablishes Arab High Committee for Palestine.

After changes it becomes Arab Higher Committee (1947), headed by Mufti Amin al-Husseini

President Truman: Allow in 100,000 Jewish refugees. Britain: No!
Arabs demand an independent Arab state, end to Jewish immigration, cessation of all land sales to Jews

Jewish DPs: Open the Gates to Palestine!
Allow free immigration for holocaust survivors

USA:

An Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry

A British-US Committee of Inquiry is formed to decide policy towards Jewish immigration to Palestine. Six Americans and six Brits investigate DP camps in Europe, take testimony in Palestine and Washington. ( Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion and Walter Lowdermilk argued for Jewish statehood.Judah Magnes - with no support from Zionist mainstream nor Arab nationalists - continued to argue for a binational state.)

January 1
Einstein called to testify to Anglo-American Committee in Washington:

Einstein cheerfully delivers a scathing indictment of Britain

1. Britain unfit to rule in Palestine
In India, Britain's colonial policy is to stir strife between communities, according to the principal of "divide and conquer".
Britain's Palestine policy is "a small model of India"; Jewish-Arab tensions are "artificially created".
"British colonial rule is based on the 'native' - Do you know what it is, the 'native'? - and he is a very exploited man."
British colonial governors "always were in tacit alliance with the land-owning class which opposes the bulk of the people." (Arab landowners are dependent on keeping the masses impoverished and ignorant so Zionist raising the standard of living threatens them.) The British empowered the Mufti Amin al-Husseini - exactly the kind of "trouble-maker" they need for their purposes.
"As long as Britain rules Palestine there will be no peace between the Jews and the Arabs."
Einstein repeatedly denounces the very commission as nothing but a ploy to give the appearance that Britain is doing something while retaining power in Palestine.

2. Immediately end restrictions on immigration of Jews to Palestine
The majority of dispossessed Jewish refugees should immediately be permitted to settle in Palestine.
The Jews there will take responsibility for rehabilitating these destitute people. (Indeed, after Independence, once Jewish refugees did arrive, Einstein himself lead efforts to raise funds for their resettlement).

3. UN trusteeship for Palestine, pending home rule.
No single country should be entrusted with the Mandate. Rather, Palestine should be jointly administered by the United Nations.

3. Einstein's shocker: No need for Jewish homeland to be a nation-state
When asked his opinion about the form of government home rule should take, Einstein shocks his supporters by declaring:

Zionist leaders ask Einstein to clarify his remarks to the Committee
by signing a statement penned by his friend Rabbi Stephen Wise stating that Jews should be able to immigrate "freely within the limits of the economic absorptive possibilities of Palestine, which in turn should have a government that made sure there was no "Majorisation...of one group by the other."

Einstein signs, but adds a private note to Stephen Wise:

Anglo-American Committee on Palestine recommendation: "Repeal White Paper"
(1939 British restriction on Jewish immigration)

1. Permit immediate immigration of 100,00 Jewish refugees
2. Set up of a binational state.
3. Do not dismantle Jewish Haganah militia - Doing so would insure attacks on the Jews.

British government ignores the report

September until February 1947
A New London Conference
At the later stages of the conference, the British government presents its own proposal for two autonomous provinces in Palestine, which would continue to be governed under the British High Commissioner. (Einstein later accuses British of delaying and obfuscating for the purpose of maintaining control of Palestine.) Both the Arab and the Jewish sides reject the British proposal.

Jews of Palestine arm for the struggle
to evict the British and to defend themselves against their hostile neighbors.

Einstein chairs Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists

Einstein's contribution: Only a world government backed by supranational military might can save the world from future wars.

January (probably)
Einstein further defends Zionism
against charges of being overly nationalistic:

Syria gains independence from France.

May:
Transjordan declares independence
Eastern Palestine now known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

June 3

"Papa has returned."
Coded message announces Mufti's return to middle east, having been allowed to escape French custody in return for a promise to not contest French rule in North Africa. Message from Cairo arrives in Mufti's Jerusalem headquarters: "Papa has returned". Collins and La Pierre, O Jerusalem! , Simon and Schuster (1972) p 59

June
"Black Sabbath" British crackdown on Jewish terrorists -
Also called Operation Agatha: 3,000 Jewish activists arrested in the largest British action against Jews. British raid Jewish Agency, remove records to British administrative HQ in King David Hotel.

July 22
British HQ in Jerusalem's King David Hotel bombed by Irgun
killing 91 largest Jewish action against British by Irgun led by Menachem Begin.

Einstein writes to Siegfried Hessing, Polish writer and student of philosophy concerning Hessing's proposal that Einstein write a forward to his book on Baruch Spinoza. Einstein opens his letter acknowledging the continued suffering of Hessing and his fellow Jews in the Cyprus Displaced Persons Camp while awaiting transport to Palestine. He empathizes "with all the painful experiences" Hessing is undergoing.

1947

USA:

January
Truman to Britain: Admit 100,000 Jews to Palestine immediately.

Attlee reply: No.

One must remember that within these camps were people from almost every race in Europe and there appears to have been very little difference in the amount of torture and treatment they had to undergo. Now if our offices had placed the Jews in a special racial category at the head of the queue, my strong view is that the effect of this would have been disastrous for the Jews.

Clement Atlee, British prime Minister

British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin adds insult:

Jews should return to their former homes and just get over their "fears and nerves".

February

Britain transfers Palestine issue to the United Nations

UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP)
formed two months later. 11 members charged with investigating, recommending solution to Problem of Palestine

SYRIA:

April 30
Arab League countries set invasion of Jewish territory
All Arab states must prepare their armies to invade Palestine and block emergence  of a Jewish state, decides Political Committee of the Arab League

June 13
Einstein lobbies India's incoming Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for India to vote in the UN in favor of partitioning Palestine:

Arab population increased, prospered under Zionist influx

July 29

Three Irgun men executed by British.

Irgun kidnaps, hangs two British sergeants in revenge.

British soldiers go on shooting spree in Tel Aviv, killing five, wounding twenty.

June-July

UNSCOP tours Palestine. Meets Jewish leaders, but Arabs boycott

July

REFUGEE SHIP EXODUS INCIDENT
UNSCOP members, hundreds of reporters and photographers witness cargo of 4,500 Holocaust survivors dragged off by British troops intent on sending them back to Germany.

PARTITION OF PALESTINE

August 31
New York City

UNSCOP REPORT PUBLISHED:
Recommendation: Partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states
(Two weeks earlier a Muslim state, Pakistan, was formed by partitioning India. An enormous population exchange saw twenty million people displaced.)

PALESTINE:

November 14, 1947, just
Egyptian delegate's veiled threaten: If partition, then anti-Jewish massacres in Arab lands

The proposed solution might endanger a million Jews living in the Muslim countries. Partition of Palestine might create in those countries an anti-Semitism even more difficult to root out than that of Nazism. If the UN decides to partition Palestine, it might be responsible for the massacre of a large number of Jews.

If a Jewish state were established ... riots would break out in Palestine, [and] would spread through all the Arab states, [leading] to a war between two races."

Heykal Pasha, Arab League Spokesman

 

November 29

UN General Assembly debates partition of Palestine
A number of Arab delegates (Egyptian, Iraqi and Palestinian) threaten violence against the indigenous Jewish communities of the Middle East and North Africa.

November 30

UN votes: Partition Palestine
into Jewish and Arab states UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (Partition Plan) adopted

Zionists disappointed in the size of the proposed Jewish state, but leaders accept the plan.
Arabs vow to thwart UN resolution, will not tolerate Jewish independence.

Celebrating UN partition vote

A huge crowd jams the St. Nicholas Arena in the upper Manhattan section of New York, Nov. 29, 1947, during a celebration by the National Committee on Labor Palestine, after the U.N. voted in favor of the partition of Palestine and the new Jewish state of Israel. (AP Photo and original caption) Einstein addressed this group nine years earlier under very different circumstance.

Israel's Independence War / Arabs' Al Naqba
Phase 1: "Civil War" from passage of UN partition resolution November 30, 1947 to proclamation of independence May 14, 1948

Civil War, Part 1: Palestinian victories:
As hostilities commence Zionists prepare for statehood within UN allotted borders, assuming a large Arab minority that will be accorded "full rights, needs, and freedom ...in the Hebrew state without discrimination", striving for "co-existence with freedom and respect" Bennie Morris And Now for Some Facts in The New Republic, May 8, 2006

Palestinian forces initiate hostilities with sniping attacks on Jewish traffic. Initially no one yet knows whether this is transitory violence or prelude to war. Haganah reprisals first confined to specific attackers, then, by February, more general reprisals. Irgun and LEHI acting independently revert to their 1937-39 terror tactic of bombing Arab markets and bus stops. Palestinian Arabs retaliate with terror bombings. (Benny Morris Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, pg 66-67).

Palestinian refugee exodus, Stage 1 (of 4)
December 1947 - March 1948
Most of the Palestinian national leadership (Arab Higher Committee) departs along with Palestinian upper and middle class townspeople. They expect to return when situation stabilizes. Also, many fear living under Jewish rule or even under Mufti Amin al-Husseini. Contributing factors: general lawlessness as British suspend services winding down involvement in Palestine. Arab volunteers from Syria and Iraq extort from wealthy families and abuse locals.

Jews celebrate partition vote, Arabs furious
Civil war ensues fought by paramilitary groups, militias, non-governmental military organizations.

November 30 cont'd

Arabs snipe at traffic on the intercity roads, pedestrians in cities
Arab Higher Committee reasserts its leadership, National Committees set up in cities and bands of irregulars roam countryside, as in 1936

Arab attacks on south Tel Aviv neighborhoods
(Later, on December 8, hundreds of Palestinian irregulars led by Hassan Salame launch a frontal assault on the bordering Tel Aviv neighborhood as British troops stand by. The assault is repelled by Haganah.)

Arab anti-Jewish attacks unhindered by British.

Palestinian Jewish Defense chiefs: No retaliation, don't play into Mufti's hands
Retaliation, they fear, may play into the hands of the Mufti to incite wider resistance to UN plan.
Jewish leaders hope violence will blow over, like the intense but brief violence of 1920,1921,1929.


But Irgun kills 10 British and Arabs

British soldiers pack a car with explosives
on a Jerusalem street and blow up 60 Jews in retaliation.

December 11

Britain announces plans to quit Palestine
in 5 months.

Arab League vows war to prevent establishment of Jewish State
Arab League is divided between a Hashemite bloc (Transjordan and Iraq) and an anti-Hashemite bloc led (Egypt and Saudi Arabia). King Abdullah of Transjordan is seeking to enlarge his rule to "Greater Syria", i.e., adding Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Meanwhile, King Faruq of Egypt sees Abdullah's ambition as a direct threat to Egypt's leadership of Arab world. Rulers of Syria and Lebanon see King Abdullah as threat to the independence of their countries. Also, they correctly suspected him of being in cahoots with the enemy.

Dec 13, 1947

Irgun bombs Arab shoppers at Jerusalem's Damascus Gate

December

Irgun bombs Arab bus in Haifa

December 31

Haganah reprisal on Arab village outside Haifa

Several independent non-belligerency agreements are struck between Arab and Jewish neighbors
Most between Jewish and Nashashibi-connected villages. Mufti Husseini allies oppose any reconciliation and quash nascent agreements.

SYRIA:

Palestinian force under Mufti Amin al-Husseini' and Arab Higher Committee:
The Jaysh al-Jihad al-Muqaddas (Holy Warriors)
Commanders: Abdul Khader Husseini (the Mufti's cousin) and Hasan Salama. Both are graduates of Nazi SS commando training.

Palestinan force organized by Arab League: The Arab Liberation Army
Some 4,000 Arab volunteers for the Palestine jihad, trained in southern Syria bases.
Commander: Fawzi al-Quwakji. Also trained by Nazi SS, al-Quwakji harbors a personal grudge against his rival, the Mufti and Abdul Khader Husseini.

January

Jan. 5
Haganah blows up Jerusalem's Semiramis Hotel. Jewish Agency apologizes
Mistaking it for Khader Husseini's headquarters. Eleven Christian Arabs killed, none involved in the fighting. David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meyerson (later Golda Meir) both apologize for the bombing to the British High Commissioner, Alan Cunningham.

Jan. 7
Irgun sets off a bomb at Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem
14 Arabs killed, 40 wounded. 

Arab Liberation Army attacks rural Jewish kibbutzim
Kfar Szold (Jan 9-10), Kfar Uriah (Jan 11), Etzion Bloc (Jan 14)

Haganah command: Defense only

"We must avoid making mistakes that would make it easier for the Mufti stir up trouble. "
Benny Morris, Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, Cambridge University Press (1987) Pg. 35

February 5
Palestinian forces divide Palestine into four zones
Quwakji's Arab Liberation Army fights in Galilee and Samaria; Abdul Khader Husseini commands Jerusalem district, Lydda area under Hassan Salame. (All three have been trained by Nazi SS.) Southern areas of Palestine are to be under an Egyptian commander. Determines at a meeting in Damascus with Mufti Amin al-Husseini, the Palestinian Military Committee.

Al-Ahram Egyptian newspaper headlines:

February 9
"Attack on Palestine begins next week."

February 15

"Arab forces preparing to march on Palestine

The Arab forces are ready to launch the Jihad outside and inside Palestine according to a master plan, to be implemented in several phases.

In an interview in Le Monde, reported in Al-Ahram the same day former Wehrmacht officer Fawzi al-Qawuqji , says:

"Major military operations have not started yet, but when the war breaks out, we will stun the Jews and the whole world. The war may last for a month; it could last for a century. But we will surely win."

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1998/1948/367_qwqj.htm

 

Mufti's commander: "We will strangle Jerusalem"
Abdul Khader Husseini, the Mufti's cousin, sees Jewish Jerusalem as Jews' most vulnerable target. Lays siege to the city, cutting off food.

February
Arab forces succeed in cutting roads between Jewish population centers

TIME Correspondent Eric Gibbs: "I stood on a high escarpment amid a crowd of Arab soldiers, watching their 105-millimeter Schneider howitzer lob big shells into Jewish convoys trying to round a perilous bend in the road, two miles away. A Haganah truck or armored car looked like a tiny beetle as it climbed slowly and unsuspectingly towards danger. As the howitzer fired, Arabs waited tensely for the shell to land, bony brown hands clutching at rifles, eyes narrowed to slits. Another instant and a black mushroom of smoke grew silently out of the road. By the time the sound had echoed back, the vehicle was rolling helplessly down the precipice. From the escarpment rose an Arab cheer; one man jumped up and kissed both chubby cheeks of Captain Selim Assil, a staff officer from Fawzi's headquarters. ..

 

In the north, Irgunists masqueraded as blue-uniformed Palestine police, surprised a small British army camp. They lined up four soldiers against a wall and shot them in the back. While some raiders broke into arms dumps, others sprayed the camp with machine-gun fire from an armored car. The camp commander was shot dead as he stepped from his office. Then the raiders made off with 62 rifles, 38 Sten guns, 18 Bren guns, 4 bazookas, and ammunition.

"We're Very Worried." But the real battle was still the battle for the roads. For the Jews in Jerusalem, it was a matter of survival. Each day food grew scarcer, bread lines longer. Those most immediately threatened by the Arab stranglehold were 1,500 Orthodox Jews living in the Old City, surrounded by blockading Arabs. What food they got was coming through in British convoys...

Said Sheik Yaseen el Bakri, head of some of the Old City's Arab forces: "We understand the food situation is very bad in the Jewish quarter. It will be no more than two weeks before they have to surrender. After the 15th of May, if there is no foreign interference, it will take no more than three months to solve the Palestine problem."

Time Magazine Monday, Apr. 19, 1948
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798381-1,00.html

Mufti's explosives expert plots attacks on Jews in Jerusalem's New City:
Fawzi al-Kutub is one of several Palestinian Arab commanders who graduated from Nazi SS commando course

Feb 1
Fawzi al-Kutub destroys Palestine Post building
The primary English language newspaper of Jewish Palestinians (renamed Jerusalem Post after independence, it continues publishing today).

.

.

Feb 11
Four Haganah men disarmed by British and handed to Arabs at Jaffa Gate who kill them.
Jewish Anti-British sentiment is intense.

Feb 21
Fawzi el-Kutub truck-bombing of Jerusalem's Ben Yehudah Street.
The explosives are driven by two British deserters

March 10

Plan D: Raze hostile Arab villages to clear roads, open communication lines
With Palestinian forces winning the war for the roads and Arab armies mobilizing on their borders Haganah Defense planners determine to secure internal lines of communication, gain control of main roads, secure border areas in preparation for expected invasion. Plan D (tochnit dalet) , submitted to Haganah general staff March 10, gives brigade and battalion commanders permission to raze or empty hostile - or potentially hostile villages.

The earlier Plan B (1945) outlined strategy should Palestinian Arabs renew attacks as in 1936-1939. It conceived Hagana as an adjunct to British forces. Subsequent Plan C (May 1946) presented guidelines for retaliation against organized attacks by Arab forces, including how to deal with British forces should they help the Arabs.

March 11
Jewish Agency Building blown up
Suicide truck bomber sent by Fawzi al-Kutub

Series of Arab victories in rapid succession:

March 27
Large Jewish convoy to isolated Etzion Bloc ambushed, destroyed by village militias
commanded by Kamal Erikat, deputy of Adul Khader al-Husseini, in largest convoy ambush of the war.

Arab militias destroy Jewish convoy Galilee.
Men returning next day to collect bodies find many have been mutilated.

March 31
Jewish food convoy to Jerusalem destroyed near Kibbutz Khulda by village militias.

Conditions worsen for besieged Jews in Jerusalem's Old City.

Said Sheik Yaseen el Bakri, head of some of the Old City's Arab [Palestinian] forces: "We understand the food situation is very bad in the Jewish quarter. It will be no more than two weeks before they have to surrender. After the 15th of May [when British troops will withdraw leaving Palestinian forces unhindered], if there is no foreign interference, it will take no more than three months to solve the Palestine problem."

Time Magazine Monday, Apr. 19, 1948
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798381-1,00.html

Civil War, Part 2: Jews go over to offense, crush Palestinian military
Suffering defeats at hands of Palestinian militias, and facing pan-Arab invasion, Haganah changes strategy. Goes over to offensive, begins uprooting Palestinian communities "unsystematically and without a general policy" in order to open internal lines of communication and deny bases to militias.
Bennie Morris And Now for Some Facts in The New Republic, May 8, 2006

Palestinian refugee exodus, Stage 2 (of 4)
1948 April - June, Principal cause: Arab villagers' fear of attacks, or actual attack

April 1

Arab, Jewish commanders secretly meet
Yehoshua ("Josh") Palmon for Haganah (Jewish), Fawzi al-Qawuqji, Arab Liberation Army
Both hope to thwart the Mufti. Al-Qawukji has by now was under the influence of the Mufti's archrival, Emir Abdullah of Transjordan.

April 9
Irgun-Lehi massacre 93 Arab villagers in Deir Yassin,
one of the villages astride road to Jerusalem. The action is led by Menachem Begun.
(The number of killed noncombatants has been subject to revision. 93 is the number cited by Ilan Pappe (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Oneworld Publications, 2006. pg 91.)

The depth of the shame

TIME Correspondent Eric Gibbs: For the first time, the Irgun and Stern terrorists were fighting against Arabs as a tactical force. While the Zionist General Council was accepting the Irgun's offer to serve under general Haganah direction, the Jewish Agency denounced the terrorists for the Deir Yesin massacre. It called on them to "realize the depth of the shame you have inflicted on Jewry, to whom such acts are utter abomination...

Time Magazine Monday, Apr. 19, 1948
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798381-1,00.html

Attack at Deir Yassin (April 9, 1948, Yitzhak ben Zvi Photo Archives)

Palestine Radio broadcasts exaggerated, fabricated details of Deir Yassin massacre
Expecting to rouse Arab states to indignation and therefore "come to liberate Palestine from the Jews", editor Hazem Nusseibeh and Hussein Khalidi of the Arab Higher Committee miscalculate. Their broadcasts sow panic among Palestinians.

This was our biggest mistake. We did not realize how our people would react. As soon as they heard that women had been raped at Deir Yassin, Palestinians fled in terror.

Hassan Nusseibeh, former Palestine Broadcasting Service Arabic News editor, interviewed in BBC documentary series The Fifty Years' War: Israel and the Arabs (1998)

Mufti's forces collapse with death of commander Abdul Khader al-Husseini

April 6

Haganah breaks blockade of Jerusalem after 5 months siege
First truckloads of food delivered via "Burma Road"

Einstein and Leo Baeck write an open letter in NY Times.
Recognizing legitimacy of self defense, they plead for calm.
(published April 18)

Social psychologist Erich Fromm wrote the initial two drafts (Einstein on Politics pg. 346)

April 16

Palestinian bluntly tells UN "we started it".

"The representative of the Jewish Agency told us yesterday that they were not the attackers, that the Arabs had begun the fighting. We did not deny this. We told the whole world that we were going to fight."

Jamal Husseini

Jamal Husseini, cousin of the mufti

"War of extermination", "momentous massacre" of Jews vowed by Arab spokesman, if Jews declare independence

This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.

Azzam Pasha, Arab League Secretary-General (cited in Collins and LaPierre, O Jerusalem, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972)

to which the Mufti's aid Ahmed Shukeiry (later Palestine Liberation Army commander) adds the goal is

the elimination of the Jewish state

(Benny Morris Righteous Victims pg. 219)

May 4

With war inevitable, Einstein raises funds for Haganah defense
Ten days before the end of the British Mandate in Palestine and the now inevitable war, Einstein composes a letter for auction, the funds raised to go for purchasing arms for the Haganah. (It was sold in Montevideo, Uruguay)

Regarding the Jewish community in Palestine as they brace for being invaded by Arab armies Einstein writes:

May 11

Golda Meir meets secretly with King Abdullah of Jordan in an effort to prevent war on eastern front.
Golda Meir will go on to serve as Israel's foreign minister and it's fourth prime minister (1969-1974).

Israel's Independence War / Arabs' Al Naqba
Phase 2: Pan-Arab Invasion

Round 1: Invasion May 15, 1948 - First Truce, June 11, 1949

The new State of Israel will be defeated within two weeks - opinion of Field Marshall Montgomery, commander of the victorious Allied armies in North Africa and Northern Europe, expressing nearly universal, world military opinion about the outcome (wikipedia). Israeli military planners put their own chances at 50/50.

Palestinian Refugee Exodus Stage 3 of 4, December 1947 - March 1948
Pan-Arab invasion hardens Israeli resolve towards Palestinian population. Most departures due to expulsion and harassment by independently operating Jewish forces. They fear fifth column and to deny bases to enemy.
Fear of atrocities amplified by exacerbations over Voice of Palestine (Arab) Radio.

Declare independence or no? Zionist Council debates
Commander of Jewish forces Yigal Yadin puts Jewish chances of surviving Arab attack at "50-50". Ben Gurion shouts, "It's now or never... There will be no second chance." National Council vote: 6 for, 4 against.

Israel declares independence, offers full citizenship to Arab minority, peace with neighboring states.

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Arab armies invade:
Armies of Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq, and Lebanon, expeditionary forces from Saudi Arabia and Yemen,
Egyptian air force bombs Tel Aviv, which has no anti-aircraft defense.

May 16, 1948

NYT Headline: "Jews in Grave Danger in all Moslem Lands."
Subhead: "Nine Hundred Thousand in Africa and Asia Face Wrath of Their Foes"
(New York Times: May 16, 1948)

"Not like Dachau, is it, Herr Mufti!" says a muscular, armed Jew (labeled "Palestine"
to Hitler's ally, the leader of Palestinian Arabs.

Israel arms:
British continue to provide arms to the Arabs. US embargoes arms to Israel, fearing Arab oil embargo.

28 May
Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter inside the Old City surrenders to the Arab Legion.

Arab Legion expels Jews from Jerusalem's Old City

Israel's Independence War / Arabs' Al Naqba
Phase 2: Pan-Arab Invasion

First Truce, June 11, 1949 - scheduled to go through July 9

Israel rearms with clandestine Czech weapons after secretly sinking ship bringing in clandestine arms meant for Arab forces

June 1

Dissident Jewish militia dismantled, incorporated into Israel Defense Force
Irgun brings in ship arms for its own units on refugee ship Altalena (Jabotinsky's pen name). Ben-Gurion insists there is now only one Israel army. Firefight leaves several Irgun fighters dead and Altalena is sunk with all arms lost. Simultaneous arrest and disarming of Irgun dissidents. Irgun fighters are dispersed within Israel Defense Force.

Round 2: "The Ten Days", Fighting resumes July 8 - July 18, 1948

8 July
Egyptians attack, preempting end of truce (scheduled for July 9) ending the truce and committing the Arab side irreversibly to a second round of fighting.

July 12

Israeli forces captured Lydda (Lod) and Ramla
Seeking to clear road to Jerusalem and clear threat of Arab Legion forces there threatening Tel Aviv.
Expel residents across lines to Arab Legion-held territory

Israeli forces fail to dislodge Arab Legion from Latrun, a former British fort.

North

Israeli forces capture Quwakji's headquarters in Nazareth and route Arab Liberation Army. A hard fought battle against Syrian Army leaves Syrians in control of

Rumors spread by Haganah: Giant Jewish force on its way. Palestinians flee in fear.

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SWITZERLAND:

August 4

Mileva dies
Einstein's first wife.

BINATIONAL STATE UNWORKABLE, EINSTEIN REGRETFULLY CONCLUDES
In the face of rising violence, Arabs and Jews unable to share power. In a letter to Hans Muhsam, then a statistician at The Hebrew University (later, principal statistician for the government of Israel) Einstein writes:

October 22

Qawukji's ALA aided by Syrian infantry capture northern Israeli positions.

Night of October 28 IDF counterattack recaptures all plus some villages in Southern Lebanon

Israel's Independence War / Arabs' Al Naqba
Phase 2: Pan-Arab Invasion

Third truce Oct 31

Einstein celebrates statehood, acknowledges continued suffering of Jews in Cyprus detention camps
Einstein writes to Siegfried Hessing, Polish writer and student of philosophy concerning Hessing's proposal that Einstein write a forward to his book on Baruch Spinoza. Einstein opens his letter empathizing with "all the painful experiences" Hessing and his family have undergone, as at this time they were confined to a Jewish detention camp on Cyprus awaiting emigration to Israel.

Dec 1, 1948

Abdullah crowned King of Arab Palestine
Thirteen later Jordanian parliament confirms union of Transjordan with remnant of
Arab Palestine into The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Before war ends Israel holds first national election

USA:

Menachem Begin visits US on fundraising tour for his new Freedom Party (Herut, predecessor of Likud)

December 4
Einstein, others denounce Begin, Freedom Party

EGYPT:
28th December

Nokrashy Pasha, the prime minister gunned down by Muslim Brotherhood

Israel's Independence War / Arabs' Al Naqba
Phase 2: Pan-Arab Invasion

Operation Horev: Israeli offensive to drive out Egyptian force and compel them to sign armistice - December 22, 1948

Egyptian invasion force staging in Gaza

Final cease fire is ordered January 9, 1949 marking end of first Arab-Israeli War. (Egypt signs armistice in February, followed by other combatants)

USA:

Einstein operated on for abdominal pains
Doctors at Jewish Hospital, Boston find aortic aneurysm, decide it's too dangerous to operate and not an imminent threat.

7 January
UN-decrees cease-fire, marking the formal end to first Arab-Israeli war.

January 25
Israel's first national elections
David Ben-Gurion's party (Mapai) forms a coalition with the religious parties and the Progressive party. Menachem Begin's Herut party, a successor to the Revisionist Movement and the former Irgun

February
Egypt signs armistice,
followed by negotiated cessation of of hostilities with other combatants:

Arabs: This is not peace. Our war will continue...
All Arab states make clear: Armistice agreements are only temporary cease fires - until next round of fighting.

1945 Arab League boycott of "Zionists" intensifies
Three aspects evolve:
Primary boycott prohibits direct trade between Israel and the Arab nations.
Secondary boycott of companies that do business with Israel.
A tertiary boycott blacklist of firms that trade with other companies that do business with Israel.

Egalitarian socialist institutions predominate in new Israeli state. Einstein approves.

On May 1, 1949, Israel had its first May Day Parade with over 20,000 marchers and a crowd of thousands lining the sidewalks to cheer them. All of Israel's labor unions, and cooperative organizations took part, including this float representing the Kibbutzim showing agricultural machinery. The parade ended in Tel Aviv Football Stadium where a gigantic rally was held. Mrs. Golda Mayerson, Israel's Minister of Labor addressed the throng. (AP Photo and original caption)

USA:

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New State of Israel is broke: "Austerity" regimen enforced
Food, other staples tightly rationed. Austerity regulations last ten years.
(Dancing a hora to a song on austerity, austerity, austerity - tzena, tzena, tzena - becomes a hit.)

Einstein: Israel is "precious gift" to all Jews. We must not let it fail economically.
Also, we must work out peace with Arabs

December 10

Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man passes UN General Assembly
Milestone in advancement of Human Rights was secured by Eleanor Roosevelt. Longtime Zionist champion, she had threatened to resign her UN appointment if President Truman failed to recognize and aid the newly formed State of Israel.

ALBERT EINSTEIN'S ZIONISM CONTINUES...