The Haj - Leon Uris [98]
Aside from the larger cities with mixed Arab and Jewish populations, there were some three hundred exclusively Jewish settlements in Palestine. Each had a Haganah unit, consisting mainly of citizen-soldiers. The bulk of the Jewish population lived in a belt from Haifa to Tel Aviv. This would be the principal defense line.
However, some fifty settlements were either in densely populated Arab areas or in remote locations, such as the Negev Desert and the Dead Sea. To defend these meant stretching supply lines beyond their means. The Arabs would have their best success slicing up the roads. In order to carry on normal transportation, the Jews had been forced to armor plate their vehicles and move them in large convoys. It would add to an already overtaxed supply line. Militarily it made little sense and many of the Haganah commanders were dead set against it. They argued hotly for the evacuation of these more isolated settlements. This would enable the Yishuv to consolidate, shrink their communications and supply lines, and set up a defense in a tighter area.
Ben-Gurion doggedly shook off the advice. ‘We will not give up a single settlement without a fight!’
‘But, B.G., we are overextended.’
‘The first settlement we cede without a battle will only encourage the Arabs and demoralize every Jew in Palestine,’ the Old Man answered.
‘But the first time we lose a settlement in battle will demoralize us even more!’ Gideon Asch shouted from the end of the long table.
‘If we cannot win this battle for the roads,’ B.G. retorted, ‘then we cannot have a state.’ He arbitrarily halted further debate for the moment and asked the various section chiefs to give their assessments.
The head of manpower gave a shaky picture. The Haganah had nine thousand battle-ready men in the eighteen- to twenty-five-year-old age group. These troops would largely carry out a defensive mission. Their units would be called upon to hold the settlements and towns against the initial Arab assaults.
The Haganah’s striking force, the Palmach, was pumping its numbers up to a final capacity of three to four brigades with a total strength of several thousand men.
This was the core of their fighting capacity. In an all-out war against five regular Arab armies, the Yishuv could count on raising perhaps another twenty thousand men.
The Irgun and the Stern Group had a few thousand men, mostly urban guerrillas, but they operated independently and would only cooperate with the Haganah on a case-by-case basis.
The grim fact was that they would be outnumbered by the Arabs by a ratio of at least five to one. If the Arabs were determined, they could draw from a vast population pool and throw endless reinforcements at the Yishuv.
The ordnance chief followed with an even more sobering report. The Haganah arms inventory consisted of ten thousand rifles and a few thousand submachine guns, light machine guns, and mortars. To complicate matters, the rifles required a number of different calibers of ammunition. The Yishuv had nine single-engine aircraft of the Piper Cub variety and forty pilots. They had no fighter planes, no bombers, no tanks, no artillery, and no vessels. They would be outmatched in firepower by the Arabs by a ratio of a hundred to one.
Ben-Gurion next turned to the underground arms procurement head. Agents had been combing the world but were having little success. One hopeful sign was an initial discussion with the Czechs, but what might come out of it appeared to be too little and too late.
Finances? They were flat broke. Golda Myerson had been dispatched to America in a desperate mission to raise funds, a small ray of hope as the Jewish community of that country raised several million dollars.
‘What Golda has done has been a miracle,’ the financial director said, ‘but when it comes right down to it, it amounts to a few days’ oil revenues for the Saudis. The Arabs can outspend us by as much as they choose: a thousand to one, ten thousand to one, a million to one.’
‘Now, Gideon,’ Ben-Gurion said, ‘maybe you have