Ben Gurion territorial ambitions 1948[edit]

-3 Ben Gurion territorial ambitions: It is well known that Ben Gurion hoped for more than the U.N. proposed Jewish State. However, one of the reasons that he was such a great leader was his pragmatism. He adapted his plans to the circumstances and to the priorities.

--3a Before the 15 May 1948, his priority was the establishing a Jewish state (Ben-Gurion said "I know of no greater achievement by the Jewish people . . . in its long history since it became a people"). Hence he has done his best to support the U.N partition resolution, including an Arab state.

---According to the Arab League general Safwat: "Despite the fact that skirmishes and battles have begun, the Jews at this stage are still trying to contain the fighting to as narrow a sphere as possible in the hope that partition will be implemented and a Jewish government formed; they hope that if the fighting remains limited, the Arabs will acquiesce in the fait accompli. This can be seen from the fact that the Jews have not so far attacked Arab villages unless the inhabitants of those villages attacked them or provoked them first."

---When he sent Golda for a meeting with king Abdullah, he instructed her that the first priority of the Yishuv was the implementation of the partition resolution, including an Arab state.

-3b During the weeks just before the Arab invasion, Ben Gurion first priority was the Yishuv survival. His generals advised him that the chance is 50:50 only. Retrospectively, they exaggerated the Arabs armies size. Plan D was a set of guidelines, that any other military planner would have similarly written. Important territories had to be conquered in order to prepare for the expected invasion. That included access to Jewish population out of the proposed Jewish state state e.g. Jerusalem corridor, north western Galilee.

-3c In Oct 1948 Israel was established, and it became clear that The Israeli army is stronger than any of the Arab states armies. He planned to fight against the Arab Legion and to annex more of the West bank. During that period, Shertok proposed a puppet Palestinian state.

Morris, 1948 war, p. 197 "The Zionist leadership initially was chary about violating the UN partition borders, lest this bolster the Arabs’ more general desire to overturn the resolution or give offense to the international community. The Zionist shift from unreserved adherence to the UN borders to expansionism was slow and hesitant. The pan-Arab invasion of mid-May ended the hesitancy: if the Arabs were defying the United Nations and were bent on destroying the Jewish state, the Jews would take what was needed for survival, and perhaps a little more."