Exodus - Leon Uris [296]
Sarah Ben Canaan listened at Yad El and she remembered the first time she had seen Barak ride into Rosh Pinna on a white Arab steed with his great red beard flowing down on his tunic.
“... re-establishment of the Jewish state, which would open the gates to all Jews and endow the Jewish people with equality of status among the family of nations ...”
Dov and Karen held hands quietly in the dining hall and listened to the loud-speaker.
“In the second world war the Jewish people in Palestine made their full contribution to the struggle.... On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution requiring the establishing of a Jewish state in Palestine ... the right of the Jewish people to establish their independent state is unassailable. It is the natural right of the Jewish people to lead, as do all other nations, an independent existence as a sovereign state.
“We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine, to be called the State of Israel.”
Kitty Fremont felt her heart leap—Jordana smiled.
“The State of Israel will be open to immigration to Jews from all countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the principles of liberty, justice, and peace as conceived by the prophets of Israel; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of religion, race, or sex; will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, education, and culture, will safeguard holy places of all religions; and will loyally uphold the principles of the United Nations Charter ...
“... In the midst of wanton aggression, we yet call upon the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve the ways of peace and play their part in the development of the state, on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its bodies and institutions.
“... we extend our hand in peace and neighborliness to all the neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate ...
“... With trust in Almighty God, we set our hand to this declaration at this session of the Provisional State Council, on the soil of the homeland, in the city of Tel Aviv, on this Sabbath eve, the fifth of Iyar 5708, the fourteenth day of May 1948.”
After two thousand years, the State of Israel was reborn.
Within hours, through President Harry Truman, the United States became the first of the nations of the world to recognize the State of Israel.
Even as the crowds in Tel Aviv danced the hora in the streets, Egyptian bombers took off en route to the city to destroy it and the armies of the Arab world crossed the frontiers of the infant state.
Chapter Nine
AS THE INDIVIDUAL ARAB armies violated the borders of Israel they boasted of immediate victory and began to issue glorious communiques giving vivid descriptions of imaginary triumphs. The Arabs revealed that they had a “master plan” for throwing the Jews into the sea. If a master plan existed there was no master commander, for each Arab country had its own idea of who should run the armies and each Arab country had its own idea of who should rule Palestine afterward. Bagdad and Cairo both claimed leadership of the Arab world and of a “greater Arab state”; Saudi Arabia claimed leadership as the country which held the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina; Jordan aspired to Palestine as part of the mandate; Syria had never dropped the claim that Palestine was the southern part of an Ottoman province. And so—the “united” Arabs attacked.
NEGEV DESERT
A much-heralded Egyptian aggressive force came from bases in the Sinai through Arab-held Gaza along the coast. The first of two Egyptian columns, backed by tanks, armored cars, artillery, and modern aircraft, moved along the coastal road which followed the railroad due north to the Jewish provisional capital of Tel Aviv. The Egyptians were confident the Jewish settlements would break and run before their awesome, overwhelming