JEWISH M142 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Divine Judgment, Haganah, Histadrut
Document Summary
Source of unity for the israeli nation state: creation of a unified national army, centralist chain of command, no more units/paramilitary organizations connected with political parties. Hardships in enforcing state authority state of tension between government and rightist-groups. Altalenah affair on june 22, 1948: french arms donated to irgun : palmach bombarded irgun. Ben gurion fought with people within his party : potential generals revolt : ben gurion ordered dismissal of yisrael galili, chief of staff of haganah. Palmach ordered to reorganize into idf: palmach allied with kibbutz movement, more leftist than mapai, dismissed yigael alon, former commander of palmah from idf, ben-gurion wanted to model idf on british army. Army with a civilian mentality: 2000-5000 men and women: supported themselves and fought for the palmah, worked for their labor in the kibbutz. Embodiment of the sabra: sabra is a thorny bush. Kibbutz: sense of brotherhood, a lot of people took on hebrew names to establish their identity.