1948 War
Upon Britain’s 1947 announcement to quit governing Palestine, communal violence between Jews and Arabs flared again. Following the UN majority vote to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, hostilities dramatically escalated. When the British left in May 1948 and Israel declared independence, the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon failed to prevent Israel’s creation. Earlier Arab states’ rejection of two states and the war’s outcome had gripping consequences: the dream of creating a Jewish state was realized; no Arab or Palestinian state came into being; Israel increased its size by nearly 37% above what had been allocated to it; Jordan held the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem including the Old City; and Egypt held the Gaza Strip. Some 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were displaced as a result of the war, and more than 800,000 Jews from Arab lands left and most came to Israel over the next five years as anti-Jewish sentiment soared. No treaties were signed ending the war.
Allon, Yigal. The Making of Israel’s Army. New York: Universe Books, 1970.
Avnery, Uri, and Christopher Costello. 1948: A Soldier’s Tale: The Bloody Road to Jerusalem. Oxford: Oneworld, 2008.
Bar-Joseph, Uri. Best of Enemies: Israel and Transjordan in the War of 1948. S:l: Routledge, 1987.
Ben-Gurion, David. Israel: A Personal History. New York: Funk & Wagnalls; Distributed by T.Y. Crowell, 1971.
Creveld, Martin Van. The Sword and the Olive: A Critical History of the Israeli Defense Force. New York: Public Affairs, 1998.
Dayan, Moshe. Moshe Dayan: Story of My Life. New York: Da Capo, 1992.
Gandt, Robert L. Angels in the Sky: How a Band of Volunteer Airmen Saved the New State of Israel. New York: W.W. Norton, 2017.
Garcia-Grandos. Jorge, The Birth of Israel. New York, Knopf, 1949.
Gelber, Yoav. Palestine, 1948: War, Escape and the Emergence of the Palestinian Refugee Problem. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2006.
Golan, Aviezer. The War of Independence. Tel-Aviv: Chief Education Officer of the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Ministry of Defense, 1974.
Gordis, Daniel. “Independence” Israel. New York: Harper Collins, (2016): 163-191.
Heller, Joseph. The Birth of Israel, 1945-1949: Ben-Gurion and His Critics. Gainesville (Fla.): U of Florida, 2003.
Herzog, Chaim. The Arab-Israeli Wars War and Peace in the Middle East. London: Arms and Armour, 1985.
Herzog, Chaim, and Shlomo Gazit. The Arab-Israeli Wars: War and Peace in the Middle East from the 1948 War of Independence to the Present. New York: Vintage Books, 2005.
Horowitz, David. State in the Making, New York, Knopf, 1953.
Ilan, Amitzur. The Origin of the Arab-Israeli Arms Race: Arms, Embargo, Military Power and Decision in the 1948 Palestine War. New York: New York University Press, 1996.
Karsh, Efraim. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Palestine War 1948. Oxford: Osprey, 2014.
Khalidi, Rashid. “The Palestinians and 1948 the Underlying Causes of Failure.” The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948, edited by Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim, New York: Cambridge University Press, (2001): 12-36.
Khalaf, Issa, Politics in Palestine Arab Factionalism and Social Disintegration 1939-1948, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991.
Kimche, Jon and David, Both Sides of the Hill Britain and the Palestine War, London: Secker and Warburg, 1960.
Kurzman, Dan. Genesis 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War. New York: Da Capo Press, 1992.
Levenberg, Haim. The Military Preparations of the Arab Community in Palestine, 1945-1948. London: Frank Cass, 1993.
Lorch, Netanel. Edge of the Sword: Israel’s War of Independence, 1947-1949. New York: Putnam’s, 1961.
Milstein, Uri, and Alan Sacks. History of Israel’s War of Independence: A Nation Girds for War. Lanham: U of America, 1996.
Naor, Moshe. Social Mobilization In The Arab/Israeli War Of 1948: On the Israeli Home Front. S.l: Routledge, 2013.
Nomis, Leo, and Brian Cull. The Desert Hawks: An American Volunteer Fighter Pilot’s Story of Israel’s War of Independence, 1948. London: Grub Street, 2008.
Plascov, Avi. The Palestinian Refugees in Jordan 1948, 1967, London: Cass, 1981.
Rashḳes, Moshe. Days of Lead: Defying Death during Israel’s War of Independence. NA: Apollo, 2018.
Rivlin, Benjamin (ed.), Ralph Bunche and His Times, New York: Holmes and Meier, 1990.
Rogan, Eugene L., and Avi Shlaim. The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Safran, Nadav. From War to War: The Arab-Israeli Confrontation, 1948-1967. New York: Pegasus, 1969.
Sela, Avraham, and Alon Kadish, (ed). The War of 1948: Representations of Israeli and Palestinian Memories and Narratives. Indiana University Press, 2016.
Stein, Leslie. The Making of Modern Israel 1948-1967. Hoboken: Wiley, 2014.
Tal, David. War in Palestine, 1948: Israeli and Arab Strategy and Diplomacy. London: Routledge, 2014.
Tal, David. War in Palestine, 1948: Strategy and Diplomacy. London: Routledge, 2004.
Weiss, Jeffrey, and Craig Weiss. I Am My Brother’s Keeper: American Volunteers in Israel’s War for Independence 1947-1949. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 1998.
Alami, Musa. “The Lesson of Palestine,” MEJ, 1948. https://israeled.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Alami-intro-Kalman-and-article-text.pdf
Alami, Musa. “The Lesson of Palestine,” MEJ 3:4 (October 1949): 373-405.
Allon, Yigal. “Lessons from the War of Independence,” Sepher HaPalmach, Israel: United Kibbutz, 1952-53, 430-436, (translated by Roni Eshel and edited by Ken Stein). https://israeled.org/resources/documents/lessons-war-independence/
Bareli, Avi. “A Ruling Party in the Making: Mapai in the 1948 War,” Israel Affairs, 23:2 (April 2017): 273–302.
Ben-Ze’ev, Efrat. “The Palestinian Village of Ijzim during the 1948 War: Forming an Anthropological History through Villagers Accounts and Army Documents,” History and Anthropology, 13:1 (2002): 13-30.
Bunyan, James. “To What Extent Did the Jewish Brigade Contribute to the Establishment of the Jewish State?” Middle Eastern Studies, 51:1 (2015): 28-48.
Eppel, Michael. “The Arab Sates and the 1948 War in Palestine: The Socio-Political Struggles, the Compelling Nationalist Discourse and the Regional Context of Involvement.” Middle Eastern Studies, 48: 1 (2012): 1-31.
Evron, Yair, “May 1948 to October 1956,” The Middle East: Nations, Superpowers and Wars, Praeger, (1973): 15-77.
Falah, Ghazi. “The 1948 Israeli-Palestinian War and Its Aftermath: The Transformation and De-Signification of Palestine’s Cultural Landscape,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 86:2 (June 1996): 256-85.
Frank, Haggai, Zdenìk Klíma, and Yossi Goldstein. “The First Israeli Weapons Procurement Behind the Iron Curtain: The Decisive Impact on the War of Independence.” Israel Studies, 22:3 (2017): 125-52.
Gertz, Nurith. “Ethical and National Redemption.” Israel Studies, 23:3 (Fall 2018): 52–60.
Golan, Arnon. “Redistribution and Resistance: Urban Conflicts During and Following the 1948 War.” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 1:2 (2002): 117-130.
Halamish, Aviva. “Mapam in the War of Independence: From the War Front to the Opposition Back Benches.” Journal of Israeli History, 33:2 (2014): 145-168.
Kabalo, Paula. “Challenging Disempowerment in 1948: The Role of the Jewish Third Sector during the Israeli War of Independence.” Israel Studies Forum, 24:2 (2009): 3-27.
Kabalo, Paula. “Leadership Behind the Curtains: The Case of Israeli Women in 1948.” Modern Judaism, 28:1 (2008): 14-40.
Kadish, Alon and Avraham Sela. “Myths and Historiography of the 1948 Palestine War Revisited: The Case of Lydda,” Middle East Journal 59:4 (Autumn 2005): 617-34.
Katz, Yossi and Shmuel Sandler. “The Origins of the Conception of Israel’s State Borders and Its Impact on the Strategy in 1948-49.” The Journal of Strategic Studies 18:2 (June 1995): 149-171.
Khalidi, Rashid. “The Palestinians and 1948: The Underlying Causes of Failure.” in Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim, eds., The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948, Cambridge University Press, (2001): 12-36.
Mintz, Matityahu. “Ben-Gurion and the Soviet Union’s Involvement in the Effort to Establish a Jewish State in Palestine.” Journal of Israel History, 26:1 (March 2007): 67-78.
Morris, Benny. “Origins of the Palestinian Refugee Problem.” New Perspectives on Israeli History: The Early Years of the State, edited by Laurence J. Silberstein, New York: New York University Press, 1991: 42-56.
Naor, Moshe. “From Voluntary Funds to National Loans: The Financing of Israel’s 1948 War Effort.” Israel Studies 11:3 (Fall 2006): 62-82.
Naor, Moshe. “Israel’s 1948 War of Independence as a Total War.” Journal of Contemporary History, 43:2 (April 2008): 241-257. https://israeled.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Naor_Moshe-Yishuv-and-total-war-IT.pdf
Nets-Zehngut, Rafi. “Israeli war veterans’ memory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” International Journal of Conflict Management, 28:2 (April 2017): 182-201.
Penslar, Derek. “Rebels Without a Patron State, How Israel Financed the 1948 War,” in Rebecca Kobrin and Adam Teller (eds.), Purchasing Power: The Economics of Modern Jewish History Jewish Culture in Contexts, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015: 181-195.
Rosenberg-Friedman, Lilach. “Captivity and Gender: The Experience of Female Prisoners of War During Israel’s War of Independence,” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues, 33 (Fall 2018): 64–89.
Safran, Nadav. “The War of Independence and the Birth of Israel.” in Israel, the Embattled Ally, Cambridge, MA and London: Belknap Press, (1978): 43-64.
Sela, Avraham. “Arab Historiography of the 1948 War: The Quest for Legitimacy,” Reprinted with author’s permission, as found in Laurence J. Silberstein (ed) NYU Press, 1991, https://israeled.org/avraham-sela-arab-historiography-of-the-1948-war-the-quest-for-legitimacy/
Stein, Kenneth. “The Arab-Israeli War of 1948-A Short History,” Center for Israel Education, (May 15, 2020) https://israeled.org/the-arab-israeli-war-of-1948-a-short-history/
Suwaed, Muhammad Youssef. “Bedouin-Jewish Relations in the Negev 1943-1948.” Middle Eastern Studies, 51:5 (2015): 767-788.
Suwaed, Muhammad Youssef. “The Bedouins in the Galilee in the War of Independence of Israel 1948-1950.” Middle Eastern Studies, 53:2 (2017): 297-313.
Sela, Avraham, “Transjordan, Israel, and the 1948 War: Myth, Historiography, and Reality,” Middle Eastern Studies, 28:4 (October 1992): 623-688.
Shlaim, Avi. “The Debate about 1948,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 27:3 (1995): 287-304.
Shapira, Anita. “Conclusion: The Birth of the State.” In Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948, Oxford, (1992): 355-70.
Stein, Kenneth W. “One Hundred Years of Social Change: The Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem.” In New Perspectives on Israeli History: The Early Years of the State, edited by Laurence J. Silberstein, New York University Press, (1991): 57-81. http://ismi.emory.edu/home/documents/stein-publications/hundred-years-social-change.pdf
Tal, David. “The Battle over Jerusalem: The Israeli-Jordanian War, 1948.” In Israel’s War of Independence Revisited, edited by Alon Kadish, Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, (2004): 307-39.
Tal, David. “Between Intuition and Professionalism: Israeli Military Leadership during the 1948 Palestine War.” The Journal of Military History, 68:3 (2004): 885-909.
Tal, David. “The Forgotten War: Jewish‐Palestinian Strife in Mandatory Palestine, December 1947‐May 1948.” Israel Affairs, 6:3-4 (2000): 3-21.
Tal, David. “The Historiography of the 1948 War in Palestine: The Missing Dimension.” Journal of Israeli History, 24:2 (2005): 183-202.
Tauber, Eliezer. “The Arab Military Force in Palestine Prior to the Invasion of the Arab Armies, 1945–1948,” Middle East Studies, 51:6 (2015): 950-985.
Wasserstein, Bernard, “How the British Left Palestine,” in Wm. Roger Louis, Serendipitous Adventures with Britannia Personalities, Politics and Culture in Britain, Tauris, 2019, pp.259-272. https://israeled.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Wasserstein-How-the-British-Left-Palestine-1.pdf
Yablonka, Hanna. “Holocaust Survivors in the Israeli Army during the 1948 War: Documents and Memory.” Israel Affairs, 12:3 (2006): 462-483.
Yahel, Hazatzelet, and Ruth Kark. “Israel Negev Bedouin during the 1948 War: Departure and Return.” Israel Affairs, 4 (2014): 1-50.
Yitzhak, Ronen. “A Small Consolation for a Big Loss: King Abdallah and Jerusalem During the 1948 War.” Israel Affairs, 14:3 (2008): 398-418.
Yitzhak, Ronen. “Transjordan’s Occupation of Jerusalem in the 1948 War,” Israel Affairs, 25:2 (April 2019): 307–17.