my perspective about Consequences of the First Israel-Arab War
Greetings from the Eastern Lao Empire.
When I first read about Israel's founding war and N4kba, like everyone else, I thought Israel had more problems regarding violence, deportation, etc. But after reading more carefully, I realized something was wrong.
Note: I'm not ignoring or denying the events Israel did, nor am I completely denying the suffering the Palestinians endured.
My question is, what really happened after First Israel-Arab War? Did the Jews expel the Palestinian Arabs? Or was there another reason? First, a very classic argument from the Palestinian majority is that they deserve more land. Indeed, the Arab population in Palestine is about 1.2 million, while the Jewish population is about 600,000, almost double. When the civil war began, the Israeli side had about 10,000 poorly equipped soldiers scattered around the territory, and they were surrounded. Not to mention the surrounding forces, which were better equipped and always on standby. How on earth could approximately 30,000 men at the beginning and 110,000 later stand against 1.2 million to expel over 700,000? Sun Tzu wrote in his Art of War: if you outnumber your opponent ten times, surround them; if you outnumber them five times, attack them directly; if you outnumber them twice, divide them; if you outnumber them equally, fight cautiously; if you outnumber them, retreat. The numbers were a maximum of 40 times, 12 times in the later stages, and at least those who could fight on equal terms. If that many men fought with the spirit of two intifadas, the Israelis would certainly have lost. But that didn't happen. It's true that Israel expelled some villages, and it's true that they wiped out entire populations, but the problem is it wasn't that many. A few hundred thousand people isn't a small number, and the problem is the Israelis had to fight against a much better-armed army; herding goats is easier than herding humans. I suspect that most left voluntarily or were incited or threatened by others, despite Ben Gurion's pleas to stay.
I can tentatively conclude that First Israel-Arab War was mythologized to obscure the fact that the defeat was due to Arab negligence, and blaming everything on the Israelis is truly illogical. In the East, we have a saying, "Reproach yourself first before you reproach others." Sometimes Palestinian Arabs need to objectively recognize themselves; only then will they be "free."