Other Arms Sources to Palestine in the 1948 War

Abstract

A Western intelligence error, which permeated to the historiography of the Arab-Israeli dispute, ascribed Israel’s military capability and success in 1948 mainly to the assistance obtained from Czechoslovakia. It has already been shown that this aid had severe limits: it did not include artillery, armour, or indeed many aircraft that were serviceable while the war was still being fought. To be sure, Israel’s military arsenal in 1948 did not come from any dominant single source, but from diverse, world-wide sources, as well as from the production of weapons at home. While much of the assistance bought in Czechoslovakia failed to become useful in the war, many of the weapons which did play a role in deciding the war in Israel’s favour came from Western Europe. Most of the weapons from Western Europe arrived at an early stage, before or immediately after the imposition of the UN embargo. The Israelis had been more familiar and better connected in the twilight world of arms-sales — including governments, police, ports, airports and the underworld — than had the Arabs. This was mainly due to the Israelis’ long experience gained through years of running illegal immigration. In some countries in Western Europe the political circumstances were now also particularly favourable to Israeli support.