Spion: "No figures about Arab Armies." What figures would you like? I have plenty.
"Haganah had 66,000 fighters at the outbreak of war in 48." Only 18,900 were even trained, let alone fully armed and mobilised. the higher number included all members of the organisation.
Of course that included paper and penil pushers, nurses, organisers, smugglers, and so on.
18,900 (and even they wewre not all fully armed, trained, and mobilised) against the Regular Forces of 5 nations (Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq) and the Irregulars of those nations as well as practically all 57 nations now in the Islamic League. Mauritanians were fighting next to Yemeni who biouvaced with Saudi.
"Ratio of 3:1 in terms of Attackers: Defenders as any fool knows." this is not Dungeons and Dragons. Count me as a fool with 24 years Infantry experience. Your number means nothing even though in reality the ratio was actually 5:1 with Arabs being the 5 of course.
You also choose to ignore that Israel was then much more of a praiah than at any other time since the era. The US agitated against the Ratification. Its arms mostly came from surplus dealers in Europe, as well as the Czeck Govt.
The Arabs however were much better off. Jordan, whose Arab Legion was composed of crack soldiers was fully equipped and trained by the Brits. Its leader was a British military man (and Arab lackey) , Glubb Pasha. Iraq was much the same, ditto on Egypt. Syria had a large French core, as did Lebanon.
"Jews killing Arabs and stealing their homes." First, really did not happen as you see it, and any Arab home was built atop Jewish homes with more than 900 Jewish villages in the Judean portion of the "WB" alone having been destroyed in the Exile Era.Talk about invaders.
"Canuck's quote is bad because we have no idea of its context, with whom he was epaking." Let me help you. His quote is by Azzam Pasha who was then the Secretary General of the Arab League. He was speaking at the time to a meeting of the organisation although he also spoke those same words with very little variation on at least 3 other times. Lest you think it was said in a vacuum, and indeed you almost say as much,
11/29/47: Jamal Husseini , spokesman of the AHC (Arab Higher Committee)tells the UN that the Partiton will result in the Arabs drenching the soil of "Palestine" with every last drop of their blood.
12/01/47:The religous faculty at al Ahzar University in Cairo issued a Fatwa for Jihad against all Jews in relation to the UN Partition vote 2 days previously, the day on which Husseini had uttered his words.
2/16/48: The UN Palestine Commission told a Special Session of the Security Council: " Powerful Arab interests both inside and outside Palestine , are defying the Resolution of the General Assembly and are engaged in a deliberate effort to alter by force the settlement envisaged therein." (Security Council Official Record, Special Supplement, 1948, pp.20)
4/16/48: AHC spokesman Jamal Husseini told the UN Security Council, in Special Session : "The representive of the Jewish Agency told us yesterday that they were not the attackers, that the Arabs had begun the fighting. We did not deny this. We told the whole world that we were going to fight." (Security Council Official Record, S/Agenda/58, pp.19)
4/26/48: Jordan's King Abdullah issued a royal decree saying that it would be his "pleasure and honour to save Palestine and that "the only way left for us (Arabs) is war."
Later accounts by major participants on the Arab side also echo these words. Take the just mentioned Glubb Pasha in his book, " A Soldier With the Arabs" (1957, pp.79): " Early in Janurary, the first detachments of the Arab Liberationa Army (ALA) began to infiltrate into Palestine from Syria. Some came through Jordan and even through Amman, they were in reality to strike the first blow in the ruin of the Arabs of Palestine." (Also notice how he views the whole dynamic between "Palestinians" and their Arab "brethren").
An observer of the era, lthough an indirect participant was the UN delegate from the USSR, Andrei Gromyko. In speaking to the UN Security Council on 5/29/48 he said the following that illustrates how even future stalwart allies of the Arab Cause actually saw the Arabs' actions in that era: " This is not the first time that the Arab States, ehich organised the invasion of Palestine, have ignored a decison of the Security Council or of the General Assembly. The USSR delegation deems it essential that the Council should state its opinion more clearly and more firmly with regard to this attitude of the Arab states toward decisons of the Security Council." (Security Council Official Record, SA/Agenda/77, pp.2).
Had it only been words though...
Would you like me to outline the violence instigated by the Arabs in that same time frame? Violence that even the Un recognised and deplored while formally recognising the non-agression of the fledgling State of Israel? Let me know.