O Jerusalem!

by Larry Collins

  CHAPTER 15:

  AN UNLIKELY LAWRENCE

  Material on the personality and role of John Glubb in 1948 was accumulated in extensive interviews with the Pasha himself and over thirty of the officers, English and Arab, who served under him in the Arab Legion. An account of his interview with Ernest Bevin, expanded upon in conversation with the authors, is to be found in Glubb's memoir of the period, A Soldier with the Arabs. Supplementary information was also obtained in interviews with Sir Harold Beeley and Tewfic Abou Hoda's private secretary Hamad Bey Farhan.

  The account of Pablo de Azcarate's treatment on his arrival in Jerusalem is based on an interview with him and his own description of the incident in his book Mission in Palestine. In a letter to the authors July 17, 1969, Sir Alan Cunningham referred to the treatment accorded Azcarate in the following terms: "I wish to make it perfectly clear why we acted as we did with the Spanish diplomat sent to Jerusalem by the U. N. I was personally prepared to give him any help and information he wanted but what I must make clear is that the British Government had made it perfectly clear to me and to others that we would not be responsible for implementing the U. N. plan."

  The description of Fawzi el Kaujki's entry into Palestine is taken from interviews with Kaujki, Sir Gordon MacMillan and Yehoshua Palmon and from the diary of Jacques de Reynier of the Red Cross, who visited Amman just after Kaujki passed through Transjordan and was given a description of his passage by diplomats who witnessed it.

  Copies of David Shaltiel's initial observations on the Jerusalem situation and his recommendations to Tel Aviv are on file in his personal archives, and the quotations used on pages 202 and 203 are from those archives. The account of his meeting with Yoshua Zetler was furnished by the latter. Jacob Tsur provided a description of his meeting with Jerusalem's rabbis. The passage on the seizure of the Schneller Compound is based on an interview with Nahum Stavy.

  CHAPTER 16:

  THE HABERDASHER FROM KANSAS CITY

  The account of the Jewish Agency explosion is based on interviews with Chaim (Vivian) and Aura Herzog, Fawzi el Kutub, Yitzhak Navon, Bajhat Abou Gharbieh, Gershon Avner, Yitzhak Levi, Emile Ghory and Robert Bowie and on an exhaustive investigation into the incident made by the U. S. Consulate in Jerusalem.

  The passage on the U. S. reversal on partition contains excerpts from the Jacobson letter referred to in the notes on chapter 14, the papers of Clark Clifford on file at the Truman Library—including his report on how Austin's speech was made—and interviews with Clifford, Loy Henderson and Judge Samuel Rosenman. For Chaim Weizmann's account of his conversation with President Truman, see Vera Weizmann's The Impossible Takes Longer.

  CHAPTER 17:

  THE CONVOY WILL NOT ARRIVE

  The quotes from Haj Amin Husseini's letter to the governments of Egypt, Syria and Lebanon are taken from the Lebanese copy of the letter contained in the personal archives of Riad Solh. The report of the Lebanese consul in Jerusalem is contained in the same archives. Madame Neuville's personal scrapbook and diary provided most of the details of her farewell dinner. Interviews with Fawzi el Kutub, Emile Ghory and Bajhat Abou Gharbieh provided material for the description of the Montefiore explosion. Dov Joseph, Haroun Ben-Jazzi and Moshe Rashkes furnished information about the convoy ambush. Both Rashkes and Ben-Jazzi later recorded their versions of the ambush, Rashkes in an unpublished English manuscript and Ben-Jazzi in a private memoir in Arabic for his tribe.

  CHAPTER 18:

  A HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF HELL

  A detailed history of the settlement of Kfar Etzion, containing extensive quotes from settlers' diaries and the kibbutz's archives, may be found in Siege in the Hills of Hebron, edited by Dov Knohl. The account of the convoy's dispatch and subsequent ambush was compiled from over a score of interviews with actors in the drama. They included Yitzhak Ben-Sira, Yigal Yadin, Mishael Shacham, Eliyahu Arbel, Yitzhak Levi, Uzi Narciss, Amos Chorev, Benjamin Golani, Chaim (Vivian) Herzog, Yehuda Lash, Uriel Ofek, Shmuel Matot, James Pollock, Colonel George W. Harper, Lieutenant Nigel Brommage, Kamal Irekat, Anwar Nusseibi, Abou Said Abou Reech and Yousef Abdou. Also used were the communications dispatched between Jerusalem Haganah headquarters and Tel Aviv contained in David Shaltiel's archives and certain descriptive material from the diary of Jacques de Reynier.

  David Ben-Gurion's meeting with the chiefs of the Haganah was reconstituted in an interview with Mr. Ben-Gurion, who called on the entries in his diary of the time for information.

  CHAPTER 19:

  "HANG ON TO JERUSALEM WITH YOUR TEETH."

  For the figures from Dov Joseph's famous chart summarizing Jerusalem's food reserves, we are indebted to his assistant for food supplies, Arieh Belkind, who allowed us to make a copy of his personal copy of the chart, given to him as a souvenir by Dov Joseph. Interview material from our conversations with Dr, Joseph was used extensively in the opening and closing passages of the chapter. For the account of Ocean Trade Airways' flight to Beit Darras we are indebted to interviews with Freddy Fredkens, Ehud Avriel, Aaron Remez, Amy Cooper and Shimon Avidan. The description of the meeting at which Operation Nachshon was decided contains material from interviews with Joseph Avidar, Yigal Yadin and David Ben-Gurion. Parts of Mr. Ben-Gurion's speech quoted in the passage are from his diary or from Netanel Lorch, The Edge of the Sword, the Israeli Defense Force's authorized history of the 1948 war.

  Yitzhak Rabin provided much material on objectives and tactics of the operation, as did an extensive analysis he prepared of it for a lecture at the Israeli Defense Force's War College, later published in the I.D.F.'s monthly bulletin. The account of Abdul Khader Husseini's trip to Damascus is based on interviews with Safwat Pasha, Wasfi Tell and three men who accompanied Husseini—Emile Ghory, Kassem el Rimawi and Mounir Abou Fadel.

  CHAPTER 20:

  SIX WORDS ON A BUMPER

  The description of the opening phases of Operation Nachshon and the arrival of the first convoys is based on interviews with Dov Joseph, Uzi Narciss, Emile Ghory, Kamal Irekat, Yitzhak Rabin, Yosef Tabenkin, Chaim Haller, Harry Jaffe, Bronislav Bar-Shemer, Shimon Avidan, Iska Shadmi, Amos Chorev, Mordechai Gazit and Haim Laskov. Excellent material on the operations is also to be found in Netanel Lorch, The Edge of the Sword. Haaretz and the Palestine Post contain contemporary accounts of the convoy's arrival.

  CHAPTER 21:

  "ONE OF THE ARABS WE KILLED LAST NIGHT"

  The account of Abdul Khader Husseini's death is based on interviews with survivors of the fighters for Kastel: Kamal and Rashid Irekat, Bajhat Abou Gharbieh, Mordechai Gazit, Uzi Narciss, Nadi Dai'es, Yigal Arnon and Kassem el Rimawi. Abdul Khader's last letter quoted at the beginning of the chapter was furnished by his wife.

  CHAPTER 22:

  THE PEACE OF DEIR YASSIN

  The story of the sinking of the S.S. Lino is based on interviews with Freddy Fredkens, Munya Mardor and Fouad Mardam. A detailed account of the incident is also to be found in Mardor's memoir Strictly Illegal. The details of the arms offers, real and spurious, including some of the original documents, made to the Arabs are contained in the personal archives of Riad Solh and Jamil Mardam. Tuvia Arazi kindly gave us access to his late brother's papers and memoirs for the details of his arms-purchasing activities recounted in this chapter.

  As explained in the footnote on page 276, the survivors' stories of the massacre of Deir Yassin are quoted from the official British investigation of the incident made shortly after it took place. Although the authors interviewed, with some difficulty, a number of survivors of the massacre in Jerusalem in 1969, only the account of Ahmed Eid was used. This was because of the fear that perhaps over the years the survivors' accounts of what happened might have been altered to conform with some of the propaganda excesses associated with it. In any event, their accounts related in 1969 amply confirmed the details in the British report. Also used in the passage on Deir Yassin were interviews with two Haganah officers, Yeshurun Schiff and Eliyahu Arieli. Although neither man saw e
vidence of rape, both confirmed the wantonness, savagery and amplitude of the slaughter. The diary of the Red Cross's Jacques de Reynier, written on the evening of his trip to Deir Yassin, provides further corroboration of the slaughter.

  Shaltiel's report to Tel Aviv on the attack, contained in his archives, makes these observations: "There was no military advantage in their plan and it did not fall into the general defense of the Yishuv. . . . No forces of Haganah participated in this action . . . the exhibition of women and children of Deir Yassin in the streets of the city was a degrading spectacle." After the war, appearing before a board of fellow officers compiling a history of the 1948 conflict, Shaltiel made the following statement: "I can't say I didn't know about it [Deir Yassin]. One day before, Yeshurun Schiff told me about it. I met with the commander of Lechi [the Stern Gang] and informed him of my opposition; I emphasized that the village was friendly to us; they insisted; I said, if so, you must hold the village. I suggested they help us with Kastel, they refused. During the battle I was forced to order a unit of Palmach to assist them with cover fire in order to extricate them."

  The Irgun, of course, has always denied that the slaughter took place, claiming that whatever killing occured in Deir Yassin was a result of legitimate military action.

  An account of Deir Yassin from the Irgun's standpoint is contained in Menahem Begin's The Revolt. A more detailed reconstruction of the affair was published by Uri Millstein in Haaretz August 30, 1968. In addition to those individuals already mentioned, Sir Alan Cunningham, Sir Gordon MacMillan, Brigadier C. P. Jones, James Pollock, Zelman Mart of the Haganah, Yeshua Zetler of the Stern Gang, and Menachem Adler, Mordechai Ranana and Amnon Lapidot of the Irgun were also interviewed.

  Fawzi el Kaujki's cabled explanation of his defeat at Mishmar Ha'emek was found in the papers of Jamil Mardam.

  CHAPTER 23:

  "SHALOM, MY DEAR . . ."

  Vital in compiling the story of the ambush of the Hadassah convoy were the report, issued May 5, 1948, of the committee of inquiry formed by the Jewish Agency to investigate the attack, Colonel Churchill's report to his superior, and the diary entries of the Highland Light Infantry for the day, a copy of which was furnished the authors by Colonel Churchill. Among the survivors interviewed were Mrs. Esther Passman, Mrs. Fanny Yassky, Sonia Astrachan, Dr. Yehuda Matot, Malka Zakagi, Benjamin Adin and Dr. David Ullman; among the attackers, Mohammed Neggar, Daoud Alami, Bajhat Abou Gharbieh, Yahia Zouwi, Mohammed Da'ud and Jamil Bazian; among the British, Colonel Churchill, Michael Naylor Leyland, Captain James Crawford, James Pollock, Sir Alan Cunningham and Sir Gordon MacMillan; among the Haganah, Zvi Sinai, Yitzhak Levi, Moshe Hillman, and Zelman Mart.

  The account of the Arab League's Cairo meeting is taken largely from interviews with Azzam Pasha and his secretary Wahid el Dali, and from the minutes of the meeting itself. The description of Farouk and Riad Solh's meetings was provided by Antonio Pulli and is referred to at length in a letter from Solh to his Foreign Ministry in Solh's papers. The description of his visit to Al Ahram was provided by the paper's owner at the time, Bishara Takla.

  CHAPTER 24:

  "ATTACK AND ATTACK AND ATTACK."

  The passage relating the shift in Arab and Haganah tactics and the arrival of the last Operation Nachshon convoys is based on interviews with Yigal Yadin, Yitzhak Rabin, Dov Joseph, Josef Tabenkin, Uzi Narciss and Emile Ghory, and on cabled exchanges between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, one of which is quoted, contained in David Shaltiel's papers. The account of David Ben-Gurion's meeting with the Jerusalem Haganah is based on an interview with Mr. Ben-Gurion, his diary entry of the time and an interview with Eliyahu Arbei. A copy of the Weizmann-Truman letter referred to on page 301 was given to the authors by Judge Rosenman.

  The chapter's concluding passage on Egypt's war preparations is based on interviews with Said Mortagi, King Farouk's senior military aide, with Mohammed Hassanein Heikal, now editor of Al Ahram, with George Deeb and with a highly placed member of the Prime Minister's entourage.

  CHAPTER 25:

  A MESSAGE FROM GLUBB PASHA

  The precise details of the Passover rations and of other weekly rations cited later in the book were taken from the files of Arieh Belkind. The account of the fight for the Monastery of St. Simeon at Katamon was compiled from interviews with Peter Saleh, Abou Farouk, Gaby Deeb, Brigadier C. P. Jones, Yitzhak Rabin, David Elazar, Uzi Narciss, Benny Marshak, Uri Ben-Ari, Yosef Tabenkin, Eliyahu Sela, Yitzhak Navon and Yitzhak Levi.

  The description of the Arab League meeting in Amman includes interview material from Azzam Pasha, Dr. Mohammed el Saty and Colonel Charles Coker. The quotes attributed to King Abdullah were found in the personal archives of Riad Solh. Colonel Desmond Goldie and his Haganah interlocutor Shlomo Shamir furnished the account of their meeting in Naharayim. Interviews with Ariyeh Schurr, Carmi Charny and Dan Ben-Dor form the basis of the passage describing preparations for the takeover of central Jerusalem. President Truman's message to his legal adviser concerning the dispatch of U. S. troops to Palestine is on file with his papers in the Truman Library. We are indebted to Eliahu Elath for his description of the meeting between Moshe Sharett and Secretary Marshall at which he was present.

  CHAPTER 26:

  "WE SHALL COME BACK."

  The opening passage on preparations for Britain's departure from Jerusalem includes interview material from Sir Alan Cunningham, Sir William Fitzgerald, Golda Meir, Pablo de Azcarate and Ambara Khalidy. The description of life in Jewish Jerusalem is based on interviews with numerous Jerusalemites plus Dov Joseph and his key aides: Zvi Leibowitz for water, Alexander Singer for electric power, and Dan Ben-Dor, Arieh Belkind and Avraham Picker for food. Among those whose interviews were used in preparing the Old City passage were Moshe Russnak, Avraham Orenstein, Leah Vultz, Gershon Finger and Fawzi el Kutub. For the material on Esther Cailingold in this and future chapters we are indebted to her mother, Mrs. Moshe Cailingold, and her brother and sister, Asher Cailingold and Shulamit Kogan.

  The outline of Shaltiel's Operation Pitchfork and the details of his arms and troops strengths were found in documents in his archives. The description of the Arabs' Rawdah School headquarters is based on numerous interviews, including those with Emile Ghory, Bajhat Abou Gharbieh, Mounir Abou Fadel, Anwar Khatib, Ibrahim Abou Dayieh and Nimra Tannous. The stories of the various Arab departures from Jerusalem were recounted by the people who lived them. The cause of the Arabs' flight has been much disputed in the years since 1948. For some time the Israeli government maintained that they were ordered to leave by Arab radio broadcasts to make way for the Arab armies. A careful study of the BBC's recorded archives of all broadcasts of the time by two independent sets of researchers indicates no trace of any such broadcasts. To the contrary, there is documentary evidence that the Mufti's Arab Higher Committee sought (see page 215) to check the outflow and force the earlier refugees to return to Palestine. Unfortunately the Mufti's appointees were most often the first to flee. In Haifa and Acre his commanders disappeared as soon as the fighting began, to Damascus ostensibly in search of arms. There is no doubt the massacre of Deir Yassin played an important role in the creation of a climate of fear and uncertainty among the Arabs. It was also apparent from our interviews with dozens of Arabs that the great majority of those who fled were persuaded they would be returning in a very short time in the van of the conquering Arab armies.

  CHAPTER 27:

  "THROW STONES AND DIE."

  The brief description of Egypt's war preparations and the parliament's declaration of war is based on interviews with Antonio Pulli, with Said Mortagi, Farouk's military aide, and with Ali Amin, a member of parliament present when war was declared. Riad Solh's daughter, Alia, who accompanied her father, described his greeting to the Moroccan volunteers. An account of Syria's preparations and Jamil Mardam's declaration of war is contained in his personal papers. The passage on the Arab Legion's preparations and John Glubb's strategy is based on two lengthy interviews with General
Glubb and interviews with his English officers Nigel Brommage, R. K. Melville, Desmond Goldie, Hugh Blackenden, Charles Coker and John Downes. Azzam Pasha and Sir Alec Kirkbride provided largely identical accounts of their Amman conversation.

  The account of Golda Meir's visit to King Abdullah is based on interviews with Mrs. Meir and Ezra Danin. Ahmed Zurbati showed us the room in his home where the meeting took place, but declined to comment on it. Dr. el Saty provided some insight into the King's intentions, based on the messages he had carried for him to the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem.

  CHAPTER 28:

  BY JUST ONE VOTE

  The description of the fall of Kfar Etzion contained in this and the following chapter is based largely on interviews with the survivors of the colony, Abbras Tamir, Yaacov Edelstein and Yitzhak and Nahum Ben-Sira, and the Arab officers of the Legion directing the attack: Abdullah Tell, Mahmoud Moussa, Qasem el Nasr, Hikmet Muhair, Nawaf Jaber el Hamoud, and Noaf el Karim Mussalam. Both Tell and Hamoud wrote unpublished memoirs which describe the assault in detail. Copies of the messages referred to are all contained in David Shaltiel's archives. An excellent description of the fall of the colony is also to be found in Siege in the Hills of Hebron, edited by Dov Knohl.

  The account of the meeting at the Jewish National Fund and David Ben-Gurion's preparations for it is based on the authors' interview with Mr. Ben-Gurion and his own lengthy description of it as recorded in his diary. The figures for arms given in the passage were taken either from Mr. Ben-Gurion's diary or from the actual invoices furnished the authors by Ehud Avriel.