Hélène Fillion, Catherine Guyon, Jeanne Conchon and Jacqueline de la Cruz were yeomanlike in the long hours of work they devoted to typing our manuscripts and translating from English to French. To Ginette and René Dabrowski and Paulette and Alexandre Isart, who looked after our well-being during many arduous months, our special thanks.
Finally, without the encouragement and support of our friends at Reader's Digest, headed by Fulton Oursler, Jr., it would not have been possible to accomplish our task. To them, and to our friends and editors Peter Schwed, Mike Korda and Dan Green in New York and Robert Laffont and Pierre Peuchemaur in Paris, and our agents Irving Lazar and Nicholas Thompson goes our deep gratitude.
La Biche Niche,
Les Bignoles,
Ramatuelle, France
CHAPTER NOTES
PROLOGUE
Interviews: Rabbi Shar Yeshuv Cohen; Masha and Rivka Weingarten, daughters of Rabbi Mordechai Weingarten; Lieutenant Colonel G. W. Harper, commanding officer of the Suffolk Regiment; Assiya Halaby; Sir William Fitzgerald; Sir Alan Cunningham; Sir Gordon MacMillan; Brigadier C. P. Jones; Richard Chichester, aide to Sir Alan Cunningham; Dana Adams Schmidt, The New York Times; Eric Downton, the London Daily Telegraph.
Written sources: Ma'ariv; the New York Herald Tribune; The New York Times.
CHAPTER 1:
DECISION AT FLUSHING MEADOW
Material on the United Nations partition debate and its background came from, on the Arab side, interviews with Dr. Charles Malik, Camille Chamoun, Farid Zeinedine, Jamal Husseini, and Azzam Pasha of the Arab League; on the Jewish side, interviews with Dov Joseph, Michael Comay, Moshe Tov, Rose Halprin, Walter Eytan, Morris Rivlin, and Arthur Lurie, who served with the Jewish Agency at Lake Success and in New York, and Joseph Linton and Eliahu Elath, the Agency representatives in London and Washington. An interview with Sir Harold Beeley provided information on the British position. Interviews with Loy Henderson, Robert Lovett, Raymond Hare, Judge Samuel Rosenman and Carlos Romulo contributed to the material on the U. S.'s role.
Written sources: Alan R. Taylor, Preclude to Israel; The Forrestal Diaries; Jon Kimche, Seven Fallen Pillars; Dov Joseph, The Faithful City; Sumner Welles, We Need Not Fail; Anny Latour, The Resurrection of Israel; Sami Hadawi, Bitter Harvest; Zeef Sharaf, Three Days; Harry S Truman's Memoirs; Maurice Samuel, Light on Israel; Fred J. Khouri, The Arab-Israeli Dilemma; the private papers of Riad Solh and Jamil Mardam; cables and correspondence of Camille Chamoun and Dr. Charles Malik between New York and Beirut; Report of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine; the Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, bibliographical material on Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver; the Truman Library, Presidential correspondence and cables, 1947; The New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune, The Times, London.
Most of the material for the passage on the Arab and Zionist backdrop to 1947 is from written sources. Also included, however, is material from interviews with David Ben-Gurion, Azzam Pasha, Sir John Glubb, Anthony Nutting, Sir Alec Kirkbride and Sir John Martin. The written sources are Jon Kimche, Seven Fallen Pillars; John Marlowe, The Seat of Pilate; Sami Hadawi, Bitter Harvest; Fred J. Khouri, The Arab-Israeli Dilemma; Dov Joseph, The Faithful City; Geoffrey Furlonge, Palestine Is My Country: The Story of Musa Alami; Christopher Sykes, Crossroads to Israel; Maurice Samuel, Light on Israel; Jean-Pierre Alem, Juifs et arabes: 3000 ans d'histoire; Report of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, and a survey of Palestine prepared for the committee by the mandatory government, June 1947; Leonard Stein, The Balfour Declaration; Michael Adams, "The Twice Promised Land," Manchester Guardian, Nov. 9, 1947; Anny Latour, The Resurrection of Israel; Marius Modiano, Les Juifs, le judaĭsme; Christopher Sykes, Orde Wingate; Cecil Roth, History of the Jews.
CHAPTER 2:
"AT LAST WE ARE A FREE PEOPLE."
Interviews for the events in Jerusalem on Partition Night came from Ambara Khalidy, Samy Aboussouan, Nassereddin Nashasshibi, General Abdul-Aziz Kerine, Dr. Rajhib Khalidy, Gibrail Katoul, Nassib Boulos, Katy Antonious, Sami Hadawi, Hazem Nusseibi, Hameh Majaj, Haidar Husseini, Meir Rabinovitch, Gershon Avner, Netanel Lorch, Uri Cohen, Mona and Issac Givton, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Reuven Ben-Yehoshua, Zev Benjamin, Ruth Kirsch, Heinz Gruenspan, Yaacov Salamon, Reuven Tamir, Uri Saphir, Ezra Spicehandler, Uri Avner, David Rothschild. Interviews with Emile Ghory and Israel Amir provided material for each side's first preparations.
The description of events in Cairo came from Said Mortagi, then an attaché at Farouk's palace, and from a senior member of Nokrashy Pasha's staff who must remain anonymous.
Published sources: The New York Times; the New York Herald Tribune; L'Orient, Beirut; Haaretz, Tel Aviv; the Jerusalem Post; Anny Latour, The Resurrection of Israel; Walter Lever, Jerusalem Is Called Liberty; Dov Joseph, The Faithful City; Benoist Mechin, Le Roi Saud; Eretz Israel, Vol. 8, Sukenik Memorial Volume.
CHAPTER 3:
"PAPA HAS RETURNED."
Material for the passage on the Mufti of Jerusalem came from interviews with the Mufti himself, his kinsmen Haidar, Daoud and Jamal Husseini, Rassam Khalidy (who was imprisoned with him), Rashid Berbir (his host at his last lunch in Berlin), Emile Ghory and numerous Palestine Arab sources among his friends and foes. Sir Alec Kirkbride provided British background, and Tuvia Arazi and Moshe Pearlman information from the Jewish side. Written sources include Dov Joseph, The Faithful City; Christopher Sykes, Crossroads to Israel; Walter Lever, Jerusalem Is Called Liberty; Jon and David Kimche, Both Sides of the Hill; Joseph B. Schechtman, The Mufti and the Fuehrer; Netanel Lorch, The Edge of the Sword; Lukasz Hirszowicz, The Third Reich and the Arab East; Minutes of Session No. 63, Criminal Case No. 40/61, District Court of Jerusalem: The Attorney General of the Government of Israel v. Adolf, the son of Adolf Karl Eichmann. In addition, portions of the Mufti's diary are available in Arabic in Beirut.
Material on the Commercial Center riots was provided on the Arab side in interviews with Haj Amin Husseini, Emile Ghory, Kamal Irekat, Jamil Tukan, Nassib Boulos, Khazem Khalidy, Nadi Dai'es, Kay Albina, Zihad Khatib, Dr. Samy Aboussouan and others; Zvi Sinai, Yosef Nevo and Israel Amir contributed on the Haganah side. An interview with Jerusalem District Commissioner James Pollack was also used. Written sources are the Palestine Post; Haaretz, Tel Aviv; L'Orient, Beirut; The New York Times; the New York Herald Tribune; The Times, London.
CHAPTER 4:
TWO PASSENGERS TO PRAGUE
Material for the passages related to Arab and Jewish arms gathering comes from interviews with David Ben-Gurion, Ehud Avriel, Eliahu Sacharov, Joseph Avidar, Shaul Avigour, Haim Slavine, Rudolf G. Sonneborn, Azzam Pasha, General Abdul-Aziz Kerine, Fouad Mardam, Colonel Sami Shoucair, and Ahmed Sherabati. The passage about the road to Jerusalem includes interview material from Yigal Yadin and Mishael Shacham.
Written Sources: Edgar O'Ballance, The Arab–Israeli War, 1948; reports of Eliahu Sacharov to David Ben-Gurion on the arms-purchasing mission, 1947–48; personal archives of Ehud Avriel, Shaul Avigour and Joseph Avidar; Munya Mardor, Strictly Illegal; the private papers of Jamil Mardam; the Jerusalem Post; Haaretz, Tel Aviv; L'Orient, Beirut; The New York Times; the New York Herald Tribune.
CHAPTER 5:
TWO PEOPLES, TWO ARMIES
Material for the passage on the Haganah includes interviews with Israel Amir, Netanel Lorch, Eliyahu Arbel, Shalom Dror, Colonel Gershon Rivlin, Zvi Sinai, Bobby Reisman, Carmi Charny and Jacob Tsur. Material for the Arab passage includes interviews with George, Raymond and Gaby Deeb, Hazem Nusseibi, Abou Khalil Genno, Kamal Irekat, Emile Ghory, Bajhat Abou Gharbieh, Kassem el Rimawi, Haidar, Daoud and Haj Amin Husseini, and Peter Saleh, all of whom participated in one way or another in Jerusalem's Arab defense structure, and Izzat Tannous and Youssef Sayegh, who were involved in the Arab Higher Committee's financial activities.
Written sources: Dov Joseph, The Faithful City; Netanel Lorch, The Edge of the Sword; Sefer ha-Palmach (Book of the Palmach); Jon and David Kimche, Both Sides of the Hill; Fre
d J. Khouri, The Arab–Israeli Dilemma; Edgar O'Ballance, The Arab–Israeli War, 1948; Jon Kimche, Seven Fallen Pillars; Aref el Aref, El Nakla (The Tragedy).
CHAPTER 6:
"WE WILL STRANGLE JERUSALEM."
In the passage on the Arab League, and in subsequent passages on the organization, the private papers of Riad Solh and Jamil Mardam and a set of the minutes of the League's sessions were used extensively—the minutes for the meetings themselves, the papers for an Arab evaluation of them. Of the principal participants, only Azzam Pasha and King Feisal are still alive. Azzam and his private secretary Wahid el Dali were extensively interviewed.
Material for the Haganah meeting comes largely from interviews with David Ben-Gurion and a number of other men who participated in it.
In this chapter and subsequent chapters much of the material dealing with King Abdullah comes from interviews with a number of men close to him: his physician and confidant Dr. el Saty, his private secretary Nassereddin Nashasshibi, Azzam Pasha, Sir John Glubb and Sir Alec Kirkbride; the family of his late Foreign Minister, Fawzi el Mulki; Arab historians Khazem and Walid Khalidy and Aref el Aref; and a number of newsmen who interviewed him frequently during the period, including Nassib Boulos of Time and Samir Souki of the United Press. A translation of his memoirs is also available in English.
The passage on Sir Alan Cunningham comes largely from interviews with the last High Commissioner, with Sir Harold Beeley and with Sir Gordon MacMillan, and from the latter's final report to the War Office.
Material on Abdul Khader Husseini here and elsewhere comes largely from interviews with his principal lieutenants, notably Kamal Irekat, Emile Ghory, Kassem el Rimawi, Mounir Abou Fadel and Bajhat Abou Gharbieh. Aref el Aref's El Nakla (The Tragedy), an Arabic history of the 1948 war, contains much background material on him. His widow, Madame Wajiha Husseini, made available his letters and writings in her home in Cairo.
CHAPTER 7:
"ARE WE NOT NEIGHBORS . . . ?"
Descriptive material on life in Jerusalem in December 1947 includes interviews with Jacob Tsur, Dov Joseph, Max Hesse, Heinz Kraus, Youssef Sayegh, Hilda Shiber, Hazem Nusseibi and Nairn Halaby, and unused material from the original Time magazine files of Don Burke and Nassib Boulos.
Written material includes Dov Joseph, The Faithful City; Daniel Spicehandler, Let My Right Hand Wither; Walter Lever, Jerusalem Is Called Liberty; The New York Times; the New York Herald Tribune; the Palestine Post, The Times, London. The passages on transportation, early Haganah strategy in Jerusalem and the first skirmishes are based on interviews with Ruth Givton, Zvi Sinai, Zelman Mart, Israel Amir, Abbras Tamir, Yosef Nevo, Mordechai Gazit and Shalom Dror of the Haganah, and with David Ben-Gurion, Emile Ghory and Kamal Irekat.
The Old City passage contains material from interviews with Isser Natanson, Mordechai Pincus, Baruch Agi, Daoud Alami, Avraham Banai, Nadi Dai'es, Gershon Finger, Yisrael Lehrman, Moshe Russnak, Rivka and Masha Weingarten, Yehuda Choresh, Rabbi Shar Yeshuv Cohen, Dr. Avraham Orenstein, Zohar Vilbush, Ellie Lichenstein and James Pollock. Written sources include Adina Maarechot, Megillat Heir Haatika (Notes on the Scroll of the Old City); Aharon Liron, Yerushalayim Haatika Bematzor Be-Bakran (Old Jerusalem in Siege and Battle); The Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, published by the Israel Exploration Society, Jerusalem (1968); the communications logbook of the Jerusalem Haganah headquarters; Dov Joseph, The Faithful City; Edgar O'Ballance, The Arab–Israeli War, 1948.
The story of the old Syrian is based on an interview with Gaby Deeb. The Irgun passage includes material from interviews with Uri Cohen, Yehoshua Zetler and Yeshua Ophir. Written sources includes The New York Times and Menahem Begin's The Revolt.
The passage relative to intelligence gathering in the city is based on interviews with Shalhevet Freir, Yitzhak Navon, Herman Mayer, Benyamin Gibli, Yitzhak Levi, Chaim (Vivian) Herzog and Emile Ghory.
CHAPTER 8:
THE SANTA CLAUS OF THE HAGANAH
The Christmas passage is based on interviews with Mishka Rabinovitch, Gershon Avner, Samy and Cyril Aboussouan, James Pollock and Berthe Malouf. Written sources include The New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Palestine Post and the files of Time magazine's Jerusalem correspondent, Don Burke. The Antwerp passage is based on an interview with Xiel Federmann.
CHAPTER 9:
JOURNEY TO ABSURDITY
The passages relating to the destruction of the Hotel Semiramis and the bombing at Jaffa Gate are based on interviews with the participants and the survivors of the actions. Yitzhak Navon of Haganah intelligence identified the source on which the decision to destroy the hotel was based. Emile Ghory confirmed his presence there with Abdul Khader Husseini's jeep the day before the decision was made. There were in fact no Arab irregulars in the hotel at the time of its destruction. Mishael Shacham, Israel Amir and Avram Gil described the action from the Haganah viewpoint. Wida Kardous and Samy Aboussouan described it from the viewpoint of the hotel's occupants.
Uri Cohen and Hameh Majaj were the principal sources of information on the Jaffa Gate bombing. The incident on the road New Year's Eve is based on an interview with Golda Meir.
CHAPTER 10:
"BAB EL WAD ON THE ROAD TO THE CITY"
The descriptions of Jerusalem life and its preparations for a siege is based on numerous interviews, among them those with Dov Joseph, Zvi Leibowitz, Alexander Singer, Arieh Belkind, Avraham Picker, Ruth and Chaim Haller, Max Hesse, David Rothschild, Ambara Khalidy, Abbras Tamir and Yosef Nevo. Written sources included Dov Joseph's The Faithful City, the private papers of Riad Solh and the diary of Jacques de Reynier. Among these whose interviews contributed to the passage on Bab el Wad were Haroun Ben-Jazzi, Emile Ghory, Major Michael Naylor Leyland of the Life Guards, Yehuda Lash and Reuven Tamir.
The working documents of the U. N. Working Committee on Jerusalem are available at the U. N. Copies of the British documents referred to on page 150 are on file with Haganah intelligence in Tel Aviv. The report of the Jewish Agency's request for 500 marines and Chief Secretary Gurney's quote are contained in declassified cables from the U. S. consul general in Jerusalem to Washington.
CHAPTER 11:
GOLDA MEIR'S TWENTY-FIVE "STEPHANS"
The account of the Haganah's and the Arabs' arms-procurement activities are based largely on interviews with Eliahu Sochaczever, Avner Treinin, Jonathan Adler, Eliahu Sacharov, Emile Ghory, Raymond Deeb and Joseph Avidar and on the latter's voluminous personal archives. A detailed account of the Haganah's Jerusalem arms activities is also to be found in Pinhas Vaze's Ha-Mesima: Rechesh.
The passage on the formation of the Liberation Army in Damascus was based primarily on interviews with men who served there, notably Safwat Pasha, Wasfi Tell, Mike Elissa, Khazem Khalidy, Fawzi el Kaujki, Azzam Pasha and Haidar Husseini. Excellent newspaper accounts on the army's activities were compiled at the time by Dana Adams Schmidt of The New York Times, by Samir Souki of the United Press and, in Arabic, by Ali Nasseridine.
The description of Golda Meir's trip to the United States is based primarily on an interview with the Israeli Prime Minister. A more detailed account may be found in Marie Syrkin's Golda Meir.
CHAPTER 12:
"SALVATION COMES FROM THE SKY."
The details contained in the passage on the Haganah's arms-purchase activities in Europe are based largely on interviews with Ehud Avriel and Shaul Avigour and on study of their voluminous personal files. For the section on the development of the Haganah Air Service, interviews with Aaron Remez, Ezer Weizman, Mordechai Hod, Jerry Renov, Al Schwimmer and Amy Cooper were indispensable. A detailed and excellent account of the Haganah's arms-procurement activities in the U. S. may be found in Leonard Slater's The Pledge.
CHAPTER 13:
"WE SHALL BECOME AS HARD AS STONE."
The account of the destruction of the Palestine Post was compiled from interviews with those in the building or involved in the attack, including Fawzi el Kutub, Salah el Haj Mir, A
bou Said Abou Reech, Emile Ghory, Abou Khalil Genno, George and Gaby Deeb, Ted Lurie and Shimshon Lipshitz. Excellent contemporary accounts of the explosion are to be found in the Post itself, The New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune. An interesting footnote to the explosion took place at a dinner party in Ramallah shortly after the Six-Day War. Among those attending were Ted Lurie, the paper's editor, and Abou Khalil Genno, who had fired the explosives that destroyed it.
The description of the Mufti's life in Cairo was compiled from interviews with Haj Amin himself and several of his collaborators, notably Emile Ghory and Haidar Husseini. Most of the material on Abdul Khader's Cairo visit was furnished by his wife.
The passage on David Shaltiel's arrival in Jerusalem was compiled largely from his voluminous personal papers, which contained copies of all his command's communications and to which we were given access by his widow, Dr. Yehudit Shaltiel, and his literary executors Avriel Katz and Arye Levavi, Israel's ambassador to Bern. In addition, material from interviews with Mrs. Shaltiel and his close collaborators, notably Yeshurun Schiff, are included.
CHAPTER 14:
A FLASH OF WHITE LIGHT
The background to the U. S. State Department's reversal on the partition of Palestine is covered in detail in a number of works, including President Truman's Memoirs, The Forrestal Diaries, Christopher Sykes's Crossroads to Israel, and The Impossible Takes Longer, by Chaim Weizmann's widow, Vera Weizmann. In addition, a great deal of material on the incident is contained in the papers of Harry S Truman and Clark Clifford on file at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. Mr. Jacobson's role is covered at great length in a letter dated April 1, 1952, from Jacobson to Josef Cohn of the Weizmann Archives. A copy of the letter is on file at the Truman Library. Interviews with Clark Clifford, Loy Henderson, Sir Harold Beeley, Judge Samuel Rosenman and Raymond Hare also were used.
The description of the explosion on Ben Yehuda Street is based largely on interviews with the victims and the perpetrators. On the Jewish side, they included Dov Joseph, David Rivlin, Heinz Gruenspan, Uri Saphir, Uri Avner and Yaacov Orlovsky. On the Arab side, they included Bajhat Abou Gharbieh, Fawzi el Kutub, Kamal Irekat and Emile Ghory. Certain aspects of the role of the English deserters Brown and Madison were furnished by Don Burke, formerly of Time, to whom they gave their story, and by a former officer of British Intelligence in Palestine who requested anonymity. Good newspaper accounts of the incident are contained in Haaretz and the Palestine Post. Aref el Aref's El Nakla (The Tragedy) has an account of the explosion seen from the Arab side.
O Jerusalem! Page 69
