LYCOS RETRIEVER 
1948: Israel
built 629 days ago
On May 4, 1948, the Arab Legion attacked Kfar Etzion. The defenders drove them back, but the Legion returned a week later. After two days, the ill-equipped and outnumbered settlers were overwhelmed. Many defenders were massacred after they had surrendered.6 This was prior to the invasion by the regular Arab armies that followed Israel's declaration of independence.
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On May 14, 1948, the state of Israel was proclaimed. British troops by this date had pulled out. The next day Arab forces from Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon occupied areas in the south and east not apportioned to the Jews, then captured the small Jewish quarter of the old city of Jerusalem. Azzam Pasha, the Secretary-General of the Arab League made the intentions of many Arabs clear when he declared, "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades." (Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf4.html, Jan. 7, 2004, and Foreign Relations of the United States 1947, (DC: GPO, 1948), 1249)
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More than 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and more than 400 Palestinian towns and villages were wiped off the map by the creation of Israel in 1948, said Al-Akhras. He ... noted that yesterday was the fifth anniversary of the Qana massacre in Lebanon, during which Israeli troops, using American weapons, killed more than 100 Lebanese civilians who sought shelter in a U.N. compound.
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Citation: President Truman's statement recognizing the State of Israel, May 14, 1948. Charles Ross Papers, 1904-1967, Alphabetical Correspondence File: "Handwriting of the President," Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Administration.
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