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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Israel
Index
The War of Independence was the most costly war Israel has
fought; more than 6,000 Jewish fighters and civilians died. At the
war's end in 1949, the fledgling state was burdened with a number
of difficult problems. These included reacting to the absorption of
hundreds of thousands of new immigrants and to a festering refugee
problem on its borders, maintaining a defense against a hostile and
numerically superior Arab world, keeping a war-torn economy afloat,
and managing foreign policy alignments. Faced with such intractable
problems, Ben-Gurion sought to ensure a fluid transition from
existing prestate institutions to the new state apparatus. He
announced the formation of a Provisional Council of State, actually
a transformed executive committee of the Jewish Agency with himself
as prime minister. Weizmann became president of the council,
although Ben-Gurion was careful to make the presidency a distinctly
ceremonial position. The provisional government would hold
elections no later than October 1948 for the Constituent Assembly
to draw up a formal constitution. The proposed constitution was
never ratified, however, and on February 16, 1949 the Constituent
Assembly became Israel's first parliament or
Knesset (see Glossary).
A key element of Ben-Gurion's etatism was the integration of
Israel's independent military forces into a unified military
structure. On May 28, 1948, Ben-Gurion 's provisional government
created the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Hebrew name of which,
Zvah Haganah Le Yisrael, is commonly abbreviated to Zahal, and
prohibited maintenance of any other armed force. This proclamation
was challenged by the Irgun, which sailed the Altalena, a
ship carrying arms, into Tel Aviv harbor. Ben-Gurion ordered
Haganah troops to fire on the ship, which was set aflame on the
beach in Tel Aviv. With the two camps on the verge of civil war,
Begin, the leader of the Irgun, ordered his troops not to fire on
the Haganah. Although the Altalena affair unified the IDF,
it remained a bitter memory for Begin and the Irgun. Begin
subsequently converted his armed movement into a political party,
the Herut (or Freedom Movement). By January 1949, Ben-Gurion had
also dissolved the Palmach, the strike force of the Haganah.
Data as of December 1988
Etatism
The War of Independence was the most costly war Israel has
fought; more than 6,000 Jewish fighters and civilians died. At the
war's end in 1949, the fledgling state was burdened with a number
of difficult problems. These included reacting to the absorption of
hundreds of thousands of new immigrants and to a festering refugee
problem on its borders, maintaining a defense against a hostile and
numerically superior Arab world, keeping a war-torn economy afloat,
and managing foreign policy alignments. Faced with such intractable
problems, Ben-Gurion sought to ensure a fluid transition from
existing prestate institutions to the new state apparatus. He
announced the formation of a Provisional Council of State, actually
a transformed executive committee of the Jewish Agency with himself
as prime minister. Weizmann became president of the council,
although Ben-Gurion was careful to make the presidency a distinctly
ceremonial position. The provisional government would hold
elections no later than October 1948 for the Constituent Assembly
to draw up a formal constitution. The proposed constitution was
never ratified, however, and on February 16, 1949 the Constituent
Assembly became Israel's first parliament or
Knesset (see Glossary).
A key element of Ben-Gurion's etatism was the integration of
Israel's independent military forces into a unified military
structure. On May 28, 1948, Ben-Gurion 's provisional government
created the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Hebrew name of which,
Zvah Haganah Le Yisrael, is commonly abbreviated to Zahal, and
prohibited maintenance of any other armed force. This proclamation
was challenged by the Irgun, which sailed the Altalena, a
ship carrying arms, into Tel Aviv harbor. Ben-Gurion ordered
Haganah troops to fire on the ship, which was set aflame on the
beach in Tel Aviv. With the two camps on the verge of civil war,
Begin, the leader of the Irgun, ordered his troops not to fire on
the Haganah. Although the Altalena affair unified the IDF,
it remained a bitter memory for Begin and the Irgun. Begin
subsequently converted his armed movement into a political party,
the Herut (or Freedom Movement). By January 1949, Ben-Gurion had
also dissolved the Palmach, the strike force of the Haganah.
Data as of December 1988
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