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Essay on Jewish Arab Conflict World Civilization - 1949- 1981
In the days, months and years that followed the 1948 War of Independence, the Israeli government had to face two supreme tasks. The first was to absorb the tide of destitute, physically and mentally handicapped Jewish immigrants, who poured copiously into the country following the British departure and Ben Gurion’s announcement that the 1939 White Paper and all immigration laws based upon it were null and void. Ben Gurion’s statement was reinforced by the ‘Law of Return’ which was passed by the Knesset on 5 July 1950 and said, among other statements, that: ‘Every Jew has the right to immigrate to the country’.
This became one of the most important laws ever passed by the Israeli parliament, for it opened the gates of Israel and enabled every Jew to come and join in the attempt to build a nation and a state and to become automatically one of its citizens. During the first seven and a half months of the state’s existence, 101,819 Jewish immigrants arrived, and they were added to in 1949 by 239,076 new arrivals, in 1950 by 170,597, in 1951 by 172,245 and between 1952 and 1955 by 92,204 Jews; in addition there were 88,338 Jewish births during these last four years. Entire Jewish communities had left their homes and countries of origin and immigrated to Israel.
The other task of the Israeli government was to reorganize the Israeli military and transform it into an efficient, professional body capable of defending the fledgling state. In fact, it was necessary to build it from scratch, for when hostilities ended most of the forces that had won the 1948 war, about 100,000 troops, were demobilized and the armed forces had now effectively ceased to exist. Worse still, weapons and ammunition were in short supply, the remaining forces were under-equipped and military standards were appalling......
