Table Of Contentsharfman - index - 1 08/01/2014 17:10 Page i
“Daphna Sharfman skillfully navigates through this labyrinth of players,
interests and goals. She interweaves major events with ordinary people's
experiences – linking political processes and military moves with daily
life and social phenomena – into a vivid, coherent and penetrating
picture of life in Palestine during those crucial years.” From the
Foreword by Yoav Gelber, author of Palestine 1948: War, Escape and
the Emergence of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, Professor Emeritus,
University of Haifa
While the conflicts and national aspirations in British mandatory
Palestine in particular and the Middle East in general were evident
before the outbreak of the Second World War, the war itself accelerated
and enhanced national expectations and presented continuing tactical
and strategic dilemmas to British, Arab and Jewish leaders. British
strategic policy during the war failed to provide answers to the political
issues of the growing national demands in Palestine, and led to severe
distrust of British policy among Arabs and Jews, as the two communi-
ties were framing mostly opposing reactions to wartime developments,
and to conflicting expectations and policies towards post-war solutions
for Palestine.
The aim of this work is to analyse the continual development of
strategic plans and political dilemmas that arose during the war period,
which led to the subsequent post-war circumstance where American
and Soviet involvement impacted on the strategic thinking of all
involved parties, notwithstanding the British military victory. Analysis
includes: the pre-war British strategic situation in Palestine, and the war
events in Palestine and its Middle East neighbour countries (at the mili-
tary–strategic level and the repercussions of the outcome of the war for
the local Palestinian population). At the heart of the discussion lies
British interests and policies framed towards Jews and Arabs; analysis of
the two communities’ conflicting interests and policies; and the
resultant sea-change in the establishment of the Jewish state which
brought in its wake the emergence of a New Middle East.
Cover illustration: Aussie Day – Australian soldiers march in Ben
Yehuda Street, Tel Aviv, 10 July 1940. Photo by Pinn Hans, The State
of Israel National Photo Collection.
Dr. Daphna Sharfman is a lecturer in the Political Science
Department, Western Galilee College, Israel. She is the author of books
and articles in the fields of human rights, Israeli government, human
rights and foreign policy, and the British mandate in Palestine history.
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PA L E S T I N E I N T H E
S E C O N D W O R L D WA R
Strategic Plans and Political Dilemmas
The Emergence of a New Middle East
DAPHNA SHARFMAN
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Copyright © Daphna Sharfman, 2014.
Published in the Sussex Academic e-Library, 2014.
SUSSEX ACADEMIC PRESS
PO Box 139
Eastbourne BN24 9BP, UK
and simultaneously in the United States of America and Canada
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes
of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sharfman, Daphna.
Palestine in the Second World War : strategic plans and political dilemmas, the
emergence of a new Middle East / Daphna Sharfman.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-84519-526-7 (h/b : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-78284-076-3 (e-pub)
ISBN 978-1-78284-077-0 (e-mobi)
ISBN 978-1-78284-078-7 (e-pdf)
1. World War, 1939–1945—Palestine. 2. Palestine—History—1929–1948.
3. Zionism—Palestine—History—20th century. 4. Arab nationalism—
Palestine—History—20th century. 5. Palestine—Strategic aspects. I. Title.
DS126.3.S427 2014
956.94’04—dc23
2013037750
This e-book text has been prepared for electronic viewing. Some features, including
tables and figures, might not display as in the print version, due to
electronic conversion limitations and/or copyright strictures.
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Contents
Foreword by Yoav Gelber viii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
PART I The Military Campaigns of 1939–1942
1 Strategic Background 5
The Axis Strategic Background: Italy and Germany 10
2 The War Arrives in the Middle East and Palestine 14
The Iraqi Campaign 17
The Syria–Lebanon Campaign 18
The Middle East in British Strategy 22
The War in the Desert and the Defence of Palestine 23
(1941–42)
3 Palestine at War – Military and Security Considerations 27
Enemy Aliens and Spies 28
The Lehi Approach the Axis Powers 30
Defence Measures 31
Fears of Invasion 32
The Palestine Regiment 37
Plans for Evacuation 40
Panic in Egypt 41
4 Palestine at War – Social and Economic Developments 43
The Early Period of the War 43
The Wartime “Boom” 44
Economic Reform and Rationing 45
Welfare and Unemployment 47
Agricultural and Industrial Revival 47
The Social and Economic Impact of the British Army 48
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vi Contents
5 The Palestine Volunteers to the British Army 51
British Proposals and the Jewish Response 51
The Jewish Debate 53
Recruitment Begins 54
6 The Jewish Army 56
The British Debate 57
A Decision 60
A Delay 61
A Final Decision 66
7 British–Jewish Clandestine Cooperation (Part One) 68
The Balkans 70
The DarienAffair 70
The Levant 71
The Invasion of Syria 73
Anti-Vichy Operations 75
The “Palestinian Scheme” 75
Operations in Egypt 77
The Haifa Interrogation Bureau 77
8 Political Developments 80
The White Paper of 1939 80
The Land Transfer Regulations 82
Churchill Becomes Prime Minister 84
Arab Policy and the Mufti 85
The Renewed Debate 86
The Biltmore Program 88
9 Immigration to Palestine 93
Action Against Immigration 94
Fears of German Agents 97
Diplomatic Initiatives 99
Illegal Immigration 101
The PatriaDisaster 103
Illegal Immigration Continues 104
The StrumaAffair 108
10 Summary and Conclusions to Part I 114
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Contents vii
PART II British–Jewish Tension, 1943–1945
11 Strategic Developments 119
US Regional Involvement 120
Soviet Regional Involvement 121
French Influence 122
12 Political Conflicts in Palestine 123
British Action Against the Yishuv 123
The Separatist Backlash 125
Yishuv Condemnation of the Terrorists 127
The British Reaction 128
13 The British Cabinet and Palestine 130
The Debate on Partition 130
The Decision on the Jewish Army 135
14 The Yishuv in Palestine and the Holocaust 139
The Bermuda Conference 141
Yishuv Attempts to Assist 142
Negotiations on Rescue 143
Immigration (1943–45) 150
15 British–Jewish Clandestine Cooperation (Part Two) 152
Parachutists into Occupied Europe 152
Conclusion 156
16 Summary and Conclusions to Part II 158
Notes 168
Bibliography 200
Index 205
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Foreword by Yoav Gelber
Palestine was not a theater of war in World War II. Military operations
were sporadic and minor, and the bloodiest was the bombing of Tel
Aviv in September 1940 by six Italian bombers that in a few minutes
killed about 130 persons. The Haifa area was bombed several times,
Italian submarines operated close to the Palestine coast and one was
sunk opposite Haifa harbor. Though it was not a battlefield, Palestine
was strategically significant as the only land connection between Africa
and Asia, as the secondary basis of the British Royal Navy in the Eastern
Mediterranean and as a stopover on the air route from the United
Kingdom to the Far East.
Three times during the war Palestine came under direct threat. The
first time was in the summer of 1940, after the surrender of France,
when the French authorities in Syria decided to follow the government
at Vichy. Both Britons and Jews were afraid then of a possible resump-
tion of the Palestinian Arab rebellion, but the fears proved groundless.
The second and most crucial time was in the spring of 1941, when
Britain’s whole position in the Near East appeared to collapse. This time
the Yishuv was hysterical, and many of the phenomena that were later
attributed to the next scare in the summer of 1942 actually took place
a year earlier. The crisis was also the background of the establishment
of the SOE (Special Operations Executive) bureau in Jerusalem and the
preliminary preparation of the country for a possible occupation by the
Axis powers. The third time was in June–July 1942, with the advent of
Rommel at El-Alamein. This time the panic was brief and waned
quickly. Still, Palestine was declared safe only in the spring of 1943, with
the removal of the blackout regime.
Though its role in the military history of World War II was marginal
Palestine was material to the political history of the War period. Its
unique conditions – the competition of two nations over the same small
piece of land, the special affiliation of the British Mandate to the Balfour
Declaration, the connections of the Yishuvto the Jewish communities
that were exterminated in Europe and the conflicts between them – all
shaped the framework for Britain’s policy in Palestine both by itself and
as part of its Middle East policies.
Unlike World War I, in this war the Jews had no space for political
maneuvering. The Yishuv and World Jewry had no alternative but to
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Foreword by Yoav Gelber ix
back the Allies. The British knew it and could afford anti-Jewish steps
to placate the Arabs, who could choose between the Allies and the Axis.
The British did not assess the relative contribution of the Jews and the
Arabs to their war effort, but weighed up the Jews’ value against the
Arabs’ capacity to cause damage, not only in Palestine but in the entire
Middle East. This was the background of the White Paper policy at the
beginning of the war and as long as Britain’s position was precarious it
remained in force.
The Palestinian Arabs were paralyzed during the war, and barely
recovered from their defeat by the British army in 1936–1939. Arab
society leaked its wounds, remained divided and was economically
ruined. It lacked leadership, and no Arab dignitary was ready to risk
occupying the Mufti’s place while he was in Germany. In all the delib-
erations on the establishment of the Arab League – Britain’s principal
political achievement of the War period in the Middle East – the
Palestinian Arabs were absent.
Far from the battlefronts, the war’s first impact on Palestine was
economic. The closure of European markets and the restrictions on
immigration – the main driving force behind the economic growth of
Palestine’s economy – generated a crisis and caused mass unemploy-
ment. In the long run, however, the war accelerated the progress of the
Palestine economy, and the British army replaced immigration as the
principal generator of economic growth.
For the Yishuv this role of the British army created a contradictory
situation. On the hand, since the promulgation of the White Paper in
May 1939 Britain was perceived by many as an opponent, if not worse.
On the other hand, the British army was not only the country’s
protector and defender but also the Jews’ main provider, both as a
direct and indirect employer and as a principal consumer of goods and
services.
During the war the Yishuvbecame a host society. In addition to the
permanent personnel of the British army’s Palestine Base Depot, the
country hosted Commonwealth and allies’ formations – British, Indian,
Australian, Greek, Yugoslav and even Americans – that came to
Palestine for recreation after periods at the fronts or for training
purposes. Individuals were evacuated to Palestine to receive medical
treatment or undergo rehabilitation. Besides, the country served as a
temporary haven to a motley crowd of political exiles, refugees, escapees
and agents from a variety of countries in the Near East and the Balkans.
The presence of so many temporary residents and visitors, mostly males,
contributed to the prosperity of the various entertainment services and
had additional social implications for the host society, such as frater-
nization and mixed marriages.
