MENACHEM BEGIN SPECIAL EDITION SIGNED BOOK HAMERED "THE REVOLT" ISRAEL 1950

For sale, First edition Menachem Begin's book 'HaMered' - The Revolt, The Memories of the Commander of the Irgun (The National Military Organization in the Land of Israel). Special edition for rehabilitation of freedom fighters, published by Achiasaf publishing house, Israel , 1950.  Signed on title page "For complete redemption M. Begin". Leather hardcover with the Irgun metal badge on the front cover. Very good condition. 514 pages. Size: 9.5x6.5 inch.

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he 1948 Arab–Israeli War or the First Arab–Israeli War was fought between the State of Israel and a military coalition of Arab states and Palestinian Arab forces. This war was the second stage of the 1948 Palestine war, known in Arabic as al-Nakba (Arabic: النكبة‎, "The Catastrophe") and in Hebrew as the Milkhemet Ha'atzma'ut (Hebrew: מלחמת העצמאות‎, "War of Independence") or Milkhemet Hashikhrur (Hebrew: מלחמת השחרור‎ "War of Liberation"). The war was preceded by a period of civil war in the territory of the Mandatory Palestine between Jewish Yishuv forces and Palestinian Arab forces in response to the UN Partition Plan. An alliance of Arab states intervened on the Palestinian side, turning the civil war into a war between sovereign states. The fighting took place mostly on the former territory of the British Mandate and for a short time also in the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon. As a result of the war, the State of Israel kept nearly all the area that had been recommended by the UN General Assembly Resolution 181 and took control of almost 60% of the area allocated to the proposed Arab state, including the Jaffa, Lydda and Ramle area, Galilee, some parts of the Negev, a wide strip along the Tel-Aviv-Jerusalem road, West Jerusalem, and some territories in the West Bank. Transjordan took control of the remainder of the West Bank and East-Jerusalem, and the Egyptian military took control of the Gaza Strip. No Arab Palestinian state was created. Armistice agreements were signed between all belligerents except Iraqis and Palestinians. Important demographic changes occurred in the country. Between 600,000 and 760,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from the area that became Israel and they became Palestinian refugees. The war and the creation of Israel also triggered the Jewish exodus from Arab lands. In the three years following the war, about 700,000 Jews immigrated to Israel, residing mainly along the borders of the State. ***** Israel's War of Independence (1947-1949) In human terms, the War of Independence was Israel's costliest war, with over 6,000 Israelis were killed and 15,000 wounded. The war consisted of 39 separate operations, fought from the borders of Lebanon to the Sinai Peninsula and Eilat.​​ null Israeli soldiers view Syrian tank destroyed at Kibbutz Degania (Photo: GPO) In December 1946 - at the first post-war Zionist Congress in Basle - David Ben Gurion assumed the defense portfolio, including responsibility for the Haganah, which at the time concentrated on the struggle against the British. Although British restrictions, searches and detentions made the building of a clandestine force - with armor and artillery, air and sea power - well-nigh impossible, Ben-Gurion decided early on that this was the decisive task: to build up a force in preparation for an assault by the regular armies of the Arab countries, which the yishuv would have to face alone, without outside help. He found the Haganah woefully ill prepared for such an eventuality and set about energetically to rectify this. Since import and deployment of heavy weapons were not practicable as long as the British held sway over Palestine, it was decided that manpower should be readied in the country and equipment purchased abroad - to be "married" in time to throw back an Arab assault, if not to prevent it; in time for 15 May 1948, the day envisaged for the termination of the British Mandate and the day after Israel would declare its independence. The War of Independence (1947-49) The war was fought along the entire, long border of the country: against Lebanon and Syria in the north; Iraq and Transjordan - renamed Jordan during the war - in the east; Egypt, assisted by contingents from the Sudan - in the south; and Palestinians and volunteers from Arab countries in the interior of the country. It was the bloodiest of Israel's wars. It cost 6,373 killed in action (from pre-state days until 20 July 1949) almost 1% of the yishuv (the Jewish community) - although that figure includes quite a number of new immigrants and some foreign volunteers. In the First Phase (29 November 1947 - 1 April 1948), it was the Palestinian Arabs who took the offensive, with the help of volunteers from neighboring countries; the yishuv had little success in limiting the war - it suffered severe casualties and disruption of passage along most of the major highways. In the Second Phase (1 April - 15 May) the Haganah took the initiative, and in six weeks was able to turn the tables - capturing, inter alia, the Arab sections of Tiberias, Haifa and later also Safed and Acre, temporarily opening the road to Jerusalem and gaining control of much of the territory alotted to the Jewish State under the UN Resolution. The Third Phase (15 May - 19 July), considered the critical one, opened with the simultaneous, coordinated assault on the fledgling state by five regular Arab armies from neighboring countries, with an overwhelming superiority of heavy equipment - armor, artillery and airforce.  On 31 May the Haganah was renamed the "Israel Defence Forces". The IDF suffered initial setbacks, including the loss of the Etzion Bloc in Judea, the area of Mishmar Hayarden in the north and Yad Mordehai in the south, but after three weeks was able to halt the offensive, to stabilize the front and even initiate some local offensive operations. The Fourth Phase (19 July 1948 - 20 July, 1949) was characterized by Israeli initiatives: Operation Yoav, in October, cleared the road to the Negev, culminating in the capture of Be'er Sheva; Operation Hiram, at the end of October, resulted in the capture of the Upper Galilee; Operation Horev in December 1948 and Operation Uvda in March 1949, completed the capture of the Negev, which had been alotted to the Jewish State by the United Nations. Simultaneously, the Arab countries signed Armistice Agreements: first came Egypt - 24 February 1949; followed by Lebanon - 23 March; Jordan - 3 April; and Syria - 20 July. Only Iraq did not sign an armistice agreement with Israel. It preferred to withdraw its troops and hand over its sector to the Arab Legion of Jordan. In the end Israel not only ejected the invading Arab forces - it also captured and held some 5,000 km2 over and above the areas allocated to it by the United Nations. In the middle of the War of Independence, the IDF was born, not on 15 May, but two weeks later; for two more weeks Ben-Gurion negotiated with the "dissident" armed organizations, the Etzel and Lehi, convincing them to disband voluntarily before he disbanded them in the Order of the Establishment of the IDF on 31 May 1948. That order provided for only one armed force, subordinate to the constitutional government. There was complete continuity between the Haganah and the IDF: Ya'acov Dori, the Chief of Staff; the members of the General Staff; the commanders from brigade-level downwards - all were automatically confirmed in their appointments. At the end of the war the IDF had over 100,000 full-time men and women in uniform, as compared to the mere handful of full-time soldiers at its beginning. In addition to 12 brigades, mostly infantry, it had several regiments of artillery. The first armored regiments were equipped with light armored vehicles, some captured, some "requisitioned" from the departing British troops; and a few tanks - two Cromwells "bought" from the withdrawing British and some reconstituted from American scrap.  The Navy consisted at first of reconverted illegal immigrant vessels. There were the elements of an Air Force - Spitfires and Messerschmidts, acquired mainly in Czechoslovakia, in addition to the light civilian planes which the Haganah had used for reconnaissance and communications purposes. Some World War II US war surplus bombers were bought as scrap. These carried out their first "strategic attack" on Cairo, en route to Israel, even before reaching their homebase. Armed with a Baedeker tourist guide, one of them bombed and strafed Abdeen Palace: rudimentary, to be sure, but entirely unexpected and, therefore, psychologically effective. As soon as the armistice agreements were signed and the immediate danger had passed, the IDF - except for a small nucleus - was not only demobilized, but effectively disbanded. The new state had urgent tasks which required all its resources, above all that of absorbing the flood of new immigrants, who at last were able to come "home". An attempt to keep the demobilized soldiers in some sort of reserve framework failed. However, for the time being there was little inclination on the Arab side to renew full-scale fighting. Not that they had come to face reality and recognized Israel - far from it; but they did realize that to fight against Israel required thorough preparation. In the meantime they found what was considered a perfect tool to show their own people that the war was not over yet and at the same time both to harrass Israel and embarrass her. Palestinian fedayun (suicide troops) infiltrated across the long and ill-protected border - and it should be recalled that no place in Israel was far from the border: infiltrations for the purpose of stealing farm equipment were followed by the laying of mines, the killing of individuals, and wholesale massacres. The fedayun were trained, equipped and paid for by Egyptian Intelligence, although they operated mainly from bases in Jordan, so that Jordan would bear the brunt of Israel's retaliation, which inevitably followed. And each time Israel retaliated, the Security Council condemned it; condemnation of an Arab government had long since become an impossibility, because of the Soviet veto. The infiltrations - however painful, militarily and diplomatically - were no more than a diversion from the main concern of the IDF: preparations for the second round. Yigael Yadin, who had taken over from Ya'akov Dori as Chief of the General Staff, devoted his energy to organizing the reserves and streamlining the command structure - elements of which remain in effect to this day. At the same time, particular attention was paid to the development of armor. Israel's numerical inferiority to its neighbors and potential enemies; its realization that because of the lack of strategic depth it was bound to transfer fighting as soon as possible to enemy territory and its proven advantage at swift, often improvised manoeuvers - all pointed to the need for armor. The newly found alliance with France at the time of the Suez crisis provided the unique opportunity to equip a major part of the IDF with French-made tanks. This "miracle" occurred at a moment of desperation, when no other country, East or West, was willing to supply Israel with arms, whereas countries from both East and West rushed to offer their wares to the Arabs. Particularly worrisome was the Czech- Egyptian arms deal, which threatened Israel with a whole range of state-of-the-art Russian hardware. ****  About the War of Independence Israel's War of Independence is the first war between the State of Israel and the neighboring Arab countries. It started on the eve of the establishment of the state (May 14, 1948) and continued until January 1949. The war broke out following the rejection of the United Nation's Partition Plan, Resolution 181 of the General Assembly (November 29, 1947), by the Arab states and the Arab Higher Committee. The representatives of the Arab states threatened to use force in order to prevent the implementation of the resolution. Stage 1: November 29, 1947 - March 31, 1948 Arab violence erupted the day after the ratification of Resolution 181. Shots were fired on a Jewish bus close to Lod airport, and a general strike declared by the Arab Higher Committee resulted in the setting fire and the plundering of the Jewish commercial district near the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. There were still 100,000 British troops stationed in Palestine, which were much stronger than both Arab and Israeli forces. Nevertheless, the British policy was not to intervene in the warfare between the two sides, except in order to safeguard the security of British forces and facilities. During this period, Arab military activities consisted of sniping and the hurling of bombs at Jewish transportation along main traffic arteries to isolated Jewish neighborhoods in ethnically mixed cites and at distant settlements. The Hagana, the military arm of the organized Yishuv, (the Jewish community of Palestine) put precedence on defensive means at first, while being careful to restrict itself to acts of retaliation against perpetrators directly responsible for the attacks. On the other hand, the Etzel (an armed Jewish underground organization), an opponent of the Hagana which did not accept the authority of the official institutions, carried out acts of retaliation less discriminately, such as the planting of a bomb in the Arab marketplace. Between December 1947 and January 1948, the Arabs, with the help of volunteers from neighboring Arab countries, made attempts to conquer distant Jewish settlements (Kfar Etzion, Tirat Zvi, Kfar Szold) but were warded off by the Jewish defenders. Acts of terror, with the help of British deserters, were more successful particularly in Jerusalem. These acts included the explosion of the national institutions building, the editorial offices of the Palestine Post, and several buildings on Ben-Yehuda Street. In January 1948, a voluntary military force lead by Fawzi el Kawukji entered Palestine and took control of the Arab populated north. Other volunteers, mostly belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt entered Hebron and Bethlehem in the south. Kawukji's troops, the "Army of Salvation," numbered in January 1948 about 2,000 troops and it was estimated that their number reached 5,000 - 8,000 troops in February. This force dispatched officers and small units to cities (Jerusalem, Jaffa) that were expected to be conquered by Jewish forces. Jewish settlements in the north where also attacked (Tirat Zvi, Mishmar Hanegev, Ramat-Yochanan), with limited military results. Jewish vehicles on the main roads came under attack as well which resulted in the cutting off of some remote settlements from Jerusalem, the Negev from Tel-Aviv and the western Galilee from Haifa. These attacks nearly achieved political success: On March 19, 1948 the United States suggested to impose on Palestine temporary trusteeship rule by the United Nations instead of partition. Stage 2: April 1, 1948 - May 14, 1948 Due to political and military reasons, the Hagana's command decided to take the initiative and gain control of the territory allocated to the Jewish State and establish effective communication lines with Jewish settlements outside of those boundaries. "Operation Nachshon" reopened the road to the besieged Jewish section of Jerusalem, although only briefly. The Hagana captured the entire city of Tiberias in which there were besieged Jews in the old city (April 18), Haifa (April 22), the area connecting Tel-Aviv with her outlying neighborhoods, the Jerusalem neighborhoods Katamon and Shech Jarach (Shech Jarach was later vacated as a result of an ultimatum by the British), the Western Galilee, the entire city of Safed (the Jewish quarter was under siege). British intervention prevented the conquest of Jaffa by Jewish forces (the city surrendered later in May). Though the irregular nature of the warfare prevented the taking of prisoners, usually the rights of Arab inhabitants not participating in combat were preserved. In Haifa for example, the Jewish authorities did the utmost to prevent the mass exodus of Arabs. In other cases, like Dir Yasin, an Arab village on the western outskirts of Jerusalem, that was captured by the Etzel and the Lechi, there was no effort to prevent the killing of innocent residents. The opposite actually occurred - it has been claimed that the killing was intentional and was carried out to expedite the flight of the Arab population. A number of Arab attacks, such as that on the convoy descending from Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, resulted in many casualties, but without strategic gains. Kawukji's "Army of Salvation" was in fact defeated at this stage. The creation of a continuous strip of Jewish-controlled territory contributed to the decision by the president of the United States to suspend the trusteeship plan and enabled the proclamation of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. Stage 3: May 15, 1948 - June 10, 1948 On May 15, Egyptian airplanes struck Tel-Aviv. This attack signaled the invasion of Israel by the Arab states' regular armies. The Arab states' original decision was to assist the Arabs of Palestine by sending volunteers, money, arms and logistic aid, while placing their regular troops along the border. There was no intention of a full invasion. This decision was changed, in contrary to military estimates, in the first half of June. King Farouk of Egypt forced the decision on his government and Army which opposed the invasion. The decision to invade was mostly Egyptian. One of the main reasons of the Egyptians was to thwart a supposed plan by king Abdullah of Jordan to annex territories on the west bank of the Jordan River. The original plan of the invading armies, that was not properly coordinated, was a northern movement by Egyptian forces towards Tel-Aviv, advancement of Syrian, Lebanese and Iraqi forces towards Haifa, and the conquest of the west bank and Jerusalem by Jordan's Arab Legion. The entry of five regular armies into the battle created a critical problem for the Hagana (the IDF was officially established only on June 27), which did not yet have artillery, armor, or an air force. The Egyptian army advanced along the coast, attacking some Jewish settlements on the way (Nirim, Kfar Darom) and circumventing others (Nizanim, Yad Mordechai). They were halted only 35 kilometers from Tel-Aviv by a hastily enlisted force aided by the first fighter airplanes that arrived from Czechoslovakia. The Arab Legion captured The Etzion Bloc, Beit Ha'Arava, and the potassium plants on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. Two settlements north of Jerusalem were evacuated. The Legion entered Jerusalem and captured, after a struggle, the isolated Jewish Quarter in the Old City, but failed repeatedly in its attempts to invade the western areas of Jerusalem. The Hagana failed in its attempts to expel the Legion from Latrun, which overlooked the road to besieged Jerusalem. Instead, an alternate road was paved to Jerusalem: The "Burma Road" saved the city from certain starvation and surrender. The Syrian army captured Masadeh and Sha'arei Golan south of the Sea of Galilee, but were repelled at the gates of Degania by homemade "Molotov Cocktails" and sightless artillery that arrived from France. The Syrians then turned northward and established a bridgehead at Mishmar Ha-yarden, west of the Jordan River. Malchia was captured by the Lebanese army, which did not really continue to participate in the battle after that. In the beginning of June, the Arab forces lost the advantage, and hope for a swift victory dissipated. At the same time, Israeli forces suffered heavy casualties. Therefore, both sides were relieved by the decision of the UN Security Council to call for a 28-day truce implemented on June 10. Stage 4: June 10, 1948 - July 18, 1948 When the fighting resumed on July 8, the situation had radically changed. Heavy equipment, which was purchased before the establishment of the State of Israel but that entered the country only after the end of the British Mandate, was finally utilized by the IDF. The organization and operation of the army units were restructured. Israel took the initiative in the north. "Operation Dekel" resulted in gaining control of the lower Galilee including Nazareth, but "Operation Brosh" was only partially successful in reducing the Syrian bridgehead near Mishmar Ha-yarden. At the central front, "Operation Danny" led to the capture of Lod and Ramle (including the essential airport) that were in the hands of the Arab Legion. The second stage of the operation was meant to secure Latrun and Ramala to form a wider corridor to Jerusalem, but failed to do so. The attempt to capture the Old City of Jerusalem failed as well. Heavy fighting on all fronts did lead to significant changes to the battle lines. The Egyptians in the south managed again to close the main road to the Negev. A fierce battle was waged in proximity of Kibbutz Negba, near the Hebron-coast road. An alternate route was opened, used at night for Jewish transportation between the north and south (the Egyptians used the east - west route that crossed it during the day). The advantage was now in the hands of Israel, and the Arabs, through the British delegate to the Security Council, requested an unlimited truce. The truce went into effect after 10 days of battle, on July 18. Stage 5: July 19, 1948 - 5 January, 1949 During the second truce, Count Bernadotte, the UN mediator for Palestine, made unsuccessful efforts to achieve a political solution. In the meantime an army of more than 100,000 troops was assembled by Israel. Every sixth Israeli was enlisted. As the result of Egyptian efforts to cut off the Negev militarily and Bernadotte's proposal to remove the Negev from the boundaries of the State of Israel, on October 15, the IDF in a swift operation, ("Operation Yoav") managed to reopen the road to the south and capture Be'er-Sheva on October 21. Egyptian forces situated in the Hebron Mountains and on the southern slopes of Jerusalem were now cut off from their bases. The IDF, in "Operation To-The-Mountain" widened the narrow and unsafe corridor to Jerusalem from the south. The irregular Arab forces, which never agreed to the truce, continued in the meantime their activities of harassment against Jewish forces and settlements in the north. The Israeli counter-offensive, "Operation Hiram" (October 29-31), resulted in the capture of the upper Galilee by the use of a pincer movement from Safed to the east and from the seashore in the west. Areas in Lebanon were also occupied adjacent to the upper Galilee. The objective of "Operation Horev" (December) was to drive out the remaining Egyptian forces from Israel. IDF forces advanced south through the desert to the village of Uja on the border and into the Sinai desert, reaching the sea south of the Gaza Strip. Joint British -American pressure forced Israel to withdraw from the Sinai, but its forces regrouped east of the border with Gaza. At this point, when Egyptian forces in the Gaza Strip were in danger of being cut off, and the routes to Egypt were undefended, Egypt agreed on January 5, 1949 to conduct negotiations for an armistice which had been demanded by the UN Security Council already on November 16, 1948. A new truce was effective on January 7, while one Egyptian brigade, which had a young staff officer named Jamal Abdel Nasser remained besieged and cut off in a small "pocket" around Falouja. The War of Independence caused heavy Israeli losses: More than 6,000 dead including almost 4,000 soldiers - almost 1% of the total population. Arab loses are estimated at about 2,000 regular invading troops and an unknown number of irregular Palestinian forces