As Palestinians mark the 74th anniversary of the Nakba, and Israelis 74 years of statehood, we should take a moment to debunk one of the most enduring myths surrounding the 1948 war: The legend of great Arab armies, unified in spirit, invading Israel to liberate Palestine.
In a time-honored fable perpetuated by both Arabs and Israelis alike, the war is depicted as an epic battle between a Jewish David and an Arab Goliath. This is the sheer mythologizing of history.
But the war was not a little Israeli David facing a giant Arab Goliath. It was a highly motivated and relatively organized Israel fighting a fragmented Arab coalition whose governments entered the war to compete for their slice in Palestine.
King Abdullah I of Jordan was there to annex Palestine and create a Hashemite Greater Syria. The Syrians, who feared Jordan more than Israel, were there to stop Jordan from annexing the West Bank. Egypt was there to block the Hashemites, occupy the Gaza Strip, and assert its supremacy over its Arab neighbors. Palestine was a
— source Jews For Justice For Palestinians | Seraj Assi | May 5, 2022