The Arab-Israeli Conflict.The Palestine War 1948.
Author: Efraim Karsh
Publisher:Osprey; August 2002
Essential Histories
ISBN: 9781841763729
96 pages
PDF
32 Mb About this book
The Palestine War has been by far the most important military encounter in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This book examines the origins of the war and its progression through two distinct stages: the guerrilla warfare between the Arab and Jewish communities of Mandatory Palestine, and the conventional inter-state war between the State of Israel and the invading Arab armies. In doing so it assesses the participants, their war aims, strategies and combat performance. Finally, it examines the reasons for Israel's success in the face of seemingly impossible odds and for the failure of the Arab nations to turn their military and numerical superiority into victory on the ground.

Contents
Introduction · Chronology · Background to war; The burden of history · Warring sides: Strengths and weaknesses of Arabs and Jews · Outbreak : 'The Arabs of Palestine will never submit to partition'· The fighting: From inter-communal strife to inter-state war · Portrait of a soldier: Trapped on the battlefield· The world around war: The great game · Portrait of a civilian: Leaving Jerusalem · How the war ended: From ceasefire to armistice · Conclusion and consequences: Perpetuating the Arab-Israeli conflict.