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The 1947 UN Partition Plan (Resolution 181)
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The borders of the proposed Jewish State would have been indefensible. Overall, it was to comprise approximately 5,500
square miles, with a population of 538,000 Jews and 397,000 Arabs.
The Arab State was to be 4,500 square miles
with a population of 804,000 Arabs and 10,000 Jews. Jerusalem was to be administered as an international zone leaving more
than 100,000 Jews in Jerusalem isolated and surrounded by proposed the Arab state.
According to British statistics,
more than 70 percent of the land in what would become Israel was not owned by Arabs. It belonged to the mandatory government.
Map from Jewish Virtual Library.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths2/Partition.html |
THE NEWBORN STATE
INVADED BY SIX ARAB ARMIES
On May 15, 1948, the day after Israel declared its independence, , the Arab League declared a “Holy War”,
with the publicly declared intention of driving the Jews into the sea. Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Kaukji’s Liberation
Army and Iraq invaded the newborn state. Among the first to fall were the isolated settlements of the Etzion Bloc, where
the town of Efrat now stands.
Map by Maurice Ostroff and Saville Kaufman.
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THE 1949 ARMISTICE LINES
By the time the armistice lines were drawn, the struggle for survival had cost Israel the lives of more than 6,000 of
its total population of 600,000. The armistice left the country vulnerable with a waist only 9 miles wide (15 km.), with the
Galilee dominated by the Syrian army on the Golan Heights and Egypt in control of the Gaza Strip. Jerusalem, which had been
besieged and starved of food, water and arms, had been divided. Jordan, having expelled the Jews from the Old City, annexed
East Jerusalem together with a large area on the West Bank of the River Jordan.
Map by Maurice Ostroff
and Saville Kaufman. |
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