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Israel
SECURITY: A PERSISTENT NATIONAL CONCERN
Historical Background
Ancient Jewish military tradition is deeply rooted in biblical
history and begins with Abraham, who led an ad hoc military force.
Joshua, who conquered Canaan, is an early hero, and David, who
captured Jerusalem, is regarded by Israeli Jews as their greatest
king and warrior. Solomon organized and maintained the first standing
Jewish army (see Ancient Israel , ch. 1).
Little in the way of military tradition arose out of the nearly
2,000 years of the Diaspora. In fact, the lack of military prowess
in the Jewish communities of the Diaspora was commonly viewed
as a cause of their hardships and became a major motivation for
building a strong defense establishment within Israel. As a result
of the Russian pogroms of the 1880s, a small number of Jews began
settling in the area of Palestine and, determined to end the centuries
of persecution, created self-defense units called Shomrim, or
Guardsmen, to protect the early settlements. In 1909 the Shomrim
were formally organized throughout the area of Jewish settlement
in Palestine and renamed HaShomer, or the Watchmen. Although HaShomer
numbered fewer than 100 men at the organization's peak, these
armed militias became extremely important to Israeli military
tradition. Many members of HaShomer joined the Jewish Legion,
which fought with the British against imperial Germany during
World War I. They also established a precedent of armed self-defense
of the Zionist movement, which during the War of Independence
in 1948 would flower into the IDF.
Increasing tensions between the Arab communities and the growing
Jewish communities of Palestine brought the need to expand the
capacity of the Yishuv (see Glossary) for self-defense (see Events
in Palestine: 1908-48 , ch. 1). In 1920, after serious Arab disturbances
in Jerusalem and in northern Palestine, HaShomer militias were
disbanded and replaced by the Haganah (abbreviation for Irgun
HaHaganah, Defense Organization), which was intended to be a larger
and more wide-ranging organization for the defense of all Palestinian
Jewry. By 1948, when it was disbanded so that the IDF would be
the sole Israeli military organization, the Haganah was a force
of about 30,000.
The Haganah, financed originally through the Zionist General
Federation of Laborers in the Land of Israel (HaHistadrut HaKlalit
shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael, known as Histadrut) and later through
the Jewish Agency (see Glossary), operated clandestinely under
the British Mandate, which declared the bearing of unauthorized
arms by Palestinian Jews to be illegal. Arms and ammunition were
smuggled into the country, and training was conducted in secret.
In addition to guarding settlements, the Haganah manufactured
arms, built a series of roads and stockades throughout Palestine
to facilitate defense, and organized and defended groups of Jewish
immigrants during periods under the Mandate when immigration was
illegal or restricted.
Arab attacks on Jewish communities in 1921 and 1929 found the
Haganah ill-equipped and ineffective: more than 100 Jews were
killed in 1929 alone. When renewed Arab rioting broke out in Jaffa
(Yafo) in 1936 and soon spread throughout Palestine, the Mandate
authorities--realizing that they could not defend every Jewish
settlement--authorized the creation of the Jewish Settlement Police,
also known as Notrim, who were trained, armed, and paid by the
British. In 1938 a British intelligence officer, Captain Orde
Charles Wingate, organized three counterguerrilla units, called
special night squads, manned by British and Jewish personnel.
As both of these organizations contained a large number of Haganah
members, their formation greatly increased the assets of the Haganah
while providing a legal basis for much of their activities. Although
these nearly continuous disturbances from 1936 to 1939 cost the
lives of nearly 600 Jews and more than 5,000 Arabs, Israeli observers
have pointed out that Jewish casualties would have been far greater
were it not for the increasing effectiveness of these paramilitary
units (see The Palestinian Revolt, 1936-39 , ch. 1).
During these disturbances, the Haganah's policy of havlaga,
or self-restraint, under which retaliation against the Arab community
at large was strictly forbidden, was not aggressive enough for
some. Under Vladimir (Zeev) Jabotinsky and later Menachem Begin,
these dissidents in 1937 established the National Military Organization
(Irgun Zvai Leumi, known both as the Irgun and by the acronym
Etzel). Initially the Irgun waged a campaign of terror, sabotage,
and reprisal against the Arabs. After the British government issued
a white paper in May 1939 extending the Mandate for ten years
and placing limits on Jewish immigration, however, the Irgun turned
its terrorist activities against the British troops in Palestine
in an all-out struggle against the Mandate authority.
With the outbreak of World War II, Irgun leaders settled on a
policy of cooperation with the British in the war effort; but
a hard core within the organization opposed the policy and accordingly
split off from the larger body. This group, led by Avraham Stern,
formed the Fighters for Israel's Freedom (Lohamei Herut Israel--Lehi),
known as the Stern Gang. The Stern Gang, which included Begin
and later Yitzhak Shamir, specialized in the assassination of
British and other officials. At their peaks, the Irgun contained
about 4,000 men; the Stern Gang, 200 to 300. Defeat of Nazi Germany
in 1945 precipitated a resumption of anti-British activities by
both Haganah and Irgun in pursuance of their common ultimate goal,
the establishment of a national home and the creation of a sovereign
Jewish state.
During World War II, about 32,000 Palestinian Jews, both men
and women, volunteered for the British army. In 1944 about 5,000
of these were formed into the Jewish Brigade, which fought successfully
in Italy in 1945. With so many of its members serving abroad,
the ranks of the Haganah were depleted, and in 1941 its leaders
decided to raise a mobile force--the Palmach (abbreviation of
Pelugot Mahatz--Shock Forces--see Glossary)--of approximately
3,000 full-time soldiers, whose mission was to defend the Yishuv.
Trained with the aid of the British, the Palmach was the first
full-time standing Jewish army in more than 2,000 years and is
considered the direct forerunner to the IDF. For many years, the
vast majority of IDF officers were veterans of either the Palmach
or the Jewish Brigade.
Data as of December 1988
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