Reds! A Revolutionary Timeline Timeline - Post-1900 - Users' Choice! (2024)

Excerpts from "Our Milchemet al-Tachrir, AKA: The Palestinian War of Liberation" (1970; Abdullah Hasan, Nablus University Press)

…Planning for the revolutionary war of independence began as soon as November 1943. Due to rumblings of war in the Horn and Kurdistan, as well as with the ongoing World Revolutionary War, Palestine was left with an unusually light occupation. A substantially low number of garrisons, as well as the devastation caused by the 1942 Axis invasion to Palestine's defenses, made the country ripe for the taking in the eyes of the PFLP. Although the executive was hesitant, Kemal Ouda – coleader of the PFFL, pointed out that time was of the essence, as the FBU could eventually intensify their support for the Zionists, and or the Arab nationalists. This convinced them, and finally in December they contacted the American Commission for the Levantine Proletariat, telling them they were beginning preparations for their war – and that they would need support.

One key to this was the docks of Jaffa. Already a hotbed of communism, the dockworkers had joined the reopened APFL and were now dominated by PKP politics. Another key was the absolute swarm of support personnel and logisticians that the UASR had unleashed upon their allies thanks to Lend Lease: American ships, crews and bases leased from the Franco-British were akin to tomatoes in a chopped salad [1]. And well, if spoilage was just the cost of business, what's a little extra weight? Don't tell people it's bullets. The ACLP conducted the smuggling operation primarily through the Horn, where the Workers' and Farmers' Revolutionary armed forces were already established, and because at that time the Mediterranean was not yet fully safe to ship traffic.

In February of 1944, it was announced that the Mandate would be reestablished. The land of the law would be finally civilian, instead of a military occupation. The occupation had lasted only a short few months. This was once again due to wartime pressures, and because by that point, the Allies already had the Italians and the Turks on the retreat. The FBU did not foresee the Axis ever invading Palestine again. Perhaps it was shortsightedness on the FBU's part, but they had also announced that the new High Commissioner would be The Viscount Gort, the former Governor of Malta who had oversaw its disastrous two-week defense before being overwhelmed by the Regia Marina. Either way, occupation or not, it would not provide an impediment to the PFLP's plans, and in fact would only accelerate them [...]

On 22 April 1944, a massive and sudden outbreak of shootings and violence broke out all over the cities of Jaffa and Tel Aviv. PFLP and PFFL militants, following six months of revisions and planning, lead a sudden demonstration of Arab-Jewish workers in the city. Rousing the people, they declare a strike in Jaffa at the same time they begin their operations against the Haganah and Meyi. PFFL operatives were observed wearing unfamiliar insignia and clothes, and pushing onward north to the city of Tel Aviv. They hoped to strike gravely at the head of the enemy: either kill or capture David ben Gurion. This fails however, and much of the Zionist leadership is able to flee. Yigal Allon, the Commander in Chief of the Palmach, is critically wounded by the PFFL operatives, while Yitzhak Rabin, a brigade commander, was killed in the fighting. At the same time, the city of Tel Aviv was left with burning cars on the streets, improvised barricades, many dead bodies and so many many bullet holes in the walls, leaving an unpleasant impression of the war to come. While their first operation of the war had not gone as intended, the PFLP now had their control over the heart of Zionism. Tel Aviv, a striking and deep cut on the Zionist forces. If they could impose control that is, for it was also the heart of Zionism, and the citizens of Tel Aviv began violent demonstrations and a campaign of civil disobedience against their newfound occupiers. This did not stop the PFLP. The city would never again see a Haganah uniform – only curfews.

Only hours later, a similar whirlwind of violence would sweep Jerusalem. PFFL militants, also wearing unfamiliar uniforms, encircle the Government House compound in eastern Jerusalem and successfully defeat the British troops stationed there in a standoff. The Viscount Gort is captured and held under arrest by PFLP forces, and moved to an unknown location. Yisrael Galili, commander of the Jerusalem PFFL forces, is dispatched to subdue the Jewish quarter in the "Two Days Operation". However, the operation fails at reaching its intended objective, as Moshe Dayan, the Haganah commander responsible for its defense, holds out. The right-eyepatched commander became a rallying voice for the beleaguered Zionists. Nevertheless, after several more days of fighting Galili is able to capture the quarter, and with that, the rest of the British and Zionist forces either retreat, die or surrender to PFLP forces.

The PFLP moves onward to Latrun, the British fortress compound splitting Highway 1, the artery between Jaffa and Jerusalem.

Its capture is critical.

On 24 April 1944, Radwan al-Hilu, Mufid Nashashibi, Joseph Berger and Nathan Yellin-Mor, representing the three factions of the PFLP, held a "Congress of the People" at the Government House. In prior communiques, it was decided that Judeo-Arabic would be the language of the Congress. Ironically, very few of the attendees knew how to speak the dialect. They recruited Amit Shlaim, an Iraqi Jew, to be their scribe: most of the Congress was spoken in Arabic and Hebrew. The people gathered for half an hour as the flagbearer, Emile Touma, hurriedly sped down Jerusalem in a taxi to arrive in time for the ceremony. Then, with the blaring of loudspeakers, they unveiled the flag of Palestine for the first time, and draped it over the wall. al-Hilu and Berger revealed the recently written Palestinian Declaration of Independence, and brought it to key leaders and delegates to sign the Declaration.

The announcement of the revolution is broadcasted by radio by captured stations, and the entire Mandate is taken by a red storm – also at the same time, the creation of the "Palestinian People's Armed Forces" (referred to as the Quwwat in Arabic, and Kokhot in Hebrew), is broadcasted. Red banners are hoisted over the street lights and the arches of Jerusalem, writing in bold letters the name of the newly declared country, in various languages – the "Hitachadut HaPalestinit" in Hebrew, and in Arabic the "Ittihad Afilastiniyy".

After the events of 22-24 April, the Palestinian War kicks into high gear. At the start of the war, the Quwwat had roughly 10,000 men under their command; however, they were facing off perhaps a combined force of 50,000 if the Haganah, the various disorganized Arab volunteer groups, and the British military garrison were to act together upon them.

The People's Armed Forces were led by four generals: Kemal Ouda the chief, who had led the PFFL before its reinvention as the Quwwat, and a couple of recent breakaways from Meyi and the Haganah: Moshe Sneh, Shimon Avidan, Yisrael Galili and Nathan Yellin-Mor. Yellin-Mor would primarily serve as a chief of intelligence operations, which proved to be extremely important during the first few months of the war. Galili was a surprise, considering he had been one of the Haganah's top generals. The Generals' Affair, following the obliteration of organized Jewish resistance in the formation of the Holy Land State, saw Ben-Gurion unseat Galili – a TCI fellow traveller, and begin the reorganization of the Haganah under a similar structure to that of the British Army.

Feeling betrayed, Galili inevitably began to consider joining the PFFL, especially with words of encouragement from his fellow defector, Avidan. Galili and Avidan were not the only ones changing their allegiances: a great many had also begun to reconsider their Zionism in the wake of the Axis occupation and the Holocaust being literally brought to Palestine. While many of the Palestinians had already knew to some vague extent about the mass death, Galili was party to the preliminary findings of the "HaShoah BaEretz Yisrael" Committee, for private use by the rebuilt Jewish National Council and which spread among top ranking Yishuv leadership. Even though the full report would not be published until long after the War, at this time they already had horrifying estimates – ranging from 24,000 to 40,000 Jews and a further 10,000 to 15,000 Arabs dead – primarily as a result of the KZ Akers concentration camp, the invasion – the torments, and the massacres.

If Palestine was no longer the safe refuge that they dreamed of, then the fundamental basis for their dream had been undermined. The Holocaust had been a major shift in Palestinian politics – it led to major polarization in Palestinian society, shifting people farther to the extremes as people finally became convinced that one or the other cause was all the more necessary, and stopped waffling to and fro. Thus, the center weakened, and so did the Haganah. Galili and Avidan were outspokenly supportive of the PFLP when they had carried out the Government House bombing back in 1943. Finally, they offered their services to the PFFL, where they were handily accepted after proving their loyalties to the PFLP. When Galili was newly revealed as a commander in the Quwwat, ben-Gurion proceeded to call him the "Great Betrayer"; the affair also left many troops in the Haganah demoralized; not to mention, a large contingent had also defected with Galili and Avidan.

In the Haganah, following the Generals' Affair and the reorganization, David ben Gurion became the principal leader. Under him would be Ya'akov Dori, chief of the general staff, and Yitzhak Sadeh as the field operations commander. Dori, in bad health, was forced to delegate much of his tasks to Sadeh, ironically named the "Old Man". The Haganah also had a similar amount of troops to the Quwwat, with around 10,000. In the following months they would be bolstered by the devastated Meyi joining their ranks, which added around 1,000 fighters, though ultimately the bulk of the growth for both the Quwwat and the Haganah consisted of conscripts.

For the Arab nationalists, comprising those that had not joined the Quwwat and the PFLP, they were commanded by Fawzi al-Qawuqyi – one of the leaders of the 1935-1937 Arab Rebellion. Qawuqyi succeeded in organizing an impromptu force of a thousand fighters under the "Arab Salvation Army", however, compared to both the Quwwat and the Haganah they were at a numerical disadvantage. This would have to be ameliorated by joining forces with the Arab Legion of Transjordan, a highly trained force of a couple thousand troops under the control of Glubb Pasha, a British officer. The Legion was greatly weakened by the Italo-Turkish invasion of the Levant, and as arguably the best trained force in the Middle East, they had been a huge target for the invaders. Consequently, the Legion's numbers rapidly evaporated under their, well primarily the Turkish genocidal onslaught, before they finally retreated deeper into the desert to evade death.

While they were indeed quite weak, the Legion were also fiercely battle-hardened and were gaining in numbers once the occupation had ended. With the sudden breakout of the war in Palestine, the Legion decided to secure the land for the Hashemite royal banner, and were unlike Qawuqyi in that they explicitly advocated for Palestine to fall under dominion, with Transjordan, of a Hashemite kingdom.

About the British. The British military forces in Palestine under GOC Douglas McConnell, handily outnumbered all three combined, with a force of around 35,000. However, they were suffering from a serious resource drain, and in reality, 35,000 would not be even enough to hold all of Palestine, especially a Palestine devastated by the Axis occupation and retreat. As if the High Commissioner being held hostage wasn't enough the Quwwat had also successfully broken through the already less-than-impenetrable fortresses at Latrun, and controlled the pass over which highway traffic between the coast and Jerusalem travelled. However, while things were on the upswing for the PFLP, they had also suffered around half a hundred casualties in taking Latrun – a high price to pay. For that number however they took a little over 60 British soldiers as POW. The Quwwat's "Plan Spear", the military operation to establish a controlled axis from Jaffa-Aviv to Jerusalem, had completely succeeded, and ensured the survival of the revolution: from here now on, it would be crushing the already weakened Haganah, all the while fending off attacks from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Arab Salvation Army.

Only a week later on 1 May, the PFLP uprising would reach a new climax on Labor Day with large-scale demonstrations in the cities and the declaration of an indefinite general strike against the British and Zionists. The PFLP would begin a rapid transition to dual power by establishing spontaneous local councils and soviets, immediately building a new revolutionary state though at the moment under the control of the Quwwat forces.

Following communiques and negotiations between the Franco-British and the PFLP – promising their continued support for the World War and the return of all hostages – in exchange, the FBU would withdraw from Palestine completely. In the next month, the war would ramp up as McConnell pulled his forces out of Palestine and proclaimed a policy of non-intervention on either side. The Franco-British would however, secretly begin channeling arms and equipment to the Zionist forces. Among the dockworkers of the ports of Palestine a common joke would spread: "Today, we smuggle British bombs, tomorrow we smuggle American rifles…"

As a result of the dire situation the Zionist forces now found themselves in – especially the weakened Haganah, they were forced to put aside their differences. On 30 May, Meyi and the Haganah merged, announcing the formation of the "Israeli Liberation Army", its Hebrew acronym the "Tzachal". This would represent the unification of all Zionist forces in Palestine.
Fortunately for the PFLP, the capture of Latrun and the consequent encirclement of the Zionist forces around Jerusalem provided impossible to dislodge for the new Tzachal. While "Red Haifa", despite having one of the lowest number of PFLP militants at the beginning of the rebellion, had been one of the most ardent supporters of the revolution, the city was now embroiled by the beginning of Sadeh's onslaught as the Tzachal besieged it from the Carmel mountains. The Quwwat was especially worried about maintaining supplies to the city.

Meanwhile, the Arab Salvation Army had already controlled large swathes of territory, north of the Jezreel Valley, around Acre and parts of the Hula Valley. In the south, Gaza was also under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood; the PFLP and the other forces scrambled to control whatever territories remained unoccupied – especially with the British withdrawal from the Negev Desert, normally a restricted military zone.

The threat of a popular Arab resistance in the countryside in the West Bank, as feared by PFLP leadership, proved to have never materialized: the Quwwat soldiers took the cities of Nablus, Ramallah, Tulkarm and Jenin without any real resistance – owing to their preexisting sympathies to the PFLP already.

In the latter days of July 1944, the Arab Legion – coming to the aid of the incredibly underfunded and ragtag ASA, would finally enter the war, taking control of the eastern hills of the West Bank and substantial areas of the Negev, including Umm al Rashrash, the village on the Red Sea and future city of Palestine. If it was not yet more bad news the Arab Legion had also picked up some serious firepower from 'accidentally dropped equipment' by McConnell's forces as the contingent made its way out of Palestine. Ironically, the Franco-British government back in Westminster was publicly embarrassed, about the now very public fact that British officers were employed in a foreign army; they ordered them to return to Transjordan. The officers complied and did as instructed, only to sneak across the border and resume their activities in the Arab Legion – resulting in a bizarre media event. In actuality the officers were where they needed to be for the Franco-British government… bogging down the damn Reds.
Uninterrupted, forces of the Legion successfully make it far west enough to meet up with members of the Muslim Brotherhood on the border with Egypt. Back east, Legion forces attempting to subjugate the Jewish settlements on the southern shores of the Dead Sea meet unexpected resistance from the Etzioni Brigade, which had fled south from Gush Etzion[2] after finding their besieged position by the Quwwat untenable. The Legion and the Etzionis settled into a bitter stalemate as neither could gain the upper hand on each other, and the former could not penetrate their defenses: while they were fierce, for the Etzionis it was a fight for their survival.

While the Arab Legion north nipped away at the PFLP, threatening to crush all in their maw, further west General Sneh enacted Operation "Yated", successfully seizing control of the Jewish cities of Rehovot, Ness Ziona and Yavne. The soldiers travelled as far south as Isdud[3] and Majdal[3], before finally meeting resistance from the Muslim Brotherhood. More importantly, this also served to massively enlarge the Jaffa-Jerusalem axis, and to leave the Tzachal forces in the Negev encircled by the Brotherhood, the Legion and the Quwwat. The following month would see the complete breakdown of Zionist forces in the south with the exception of the Dead Sea encampment, and its partition between the PFLP, the Legion and the Brotherhood.

Following negotiations on 3 August 1944, the Muslim Brotherhood was subordinated to the control of the Arab Legion, and the south falls under their undisputed occupation. Only the PFLP holds out in the Negev, based in Hebron and Beersheba; they are soon barraged by an array of halfhearted offensives from the Arab Legion, which experience mixed success at best: they are too focused on subduing the Etzioni Brigade. For all the good work in the South, the Tzachal had also successfully seized control of the Jezreel Valley, and under Sadeh "Red Haifa" was now barely holding on. If there was any consolation for the city it was the fact that the Arab Salvation Army had unexpectedly and stubbornly held on to control of the Hula Valley, continuing to pester the Jewish settlements in the North. Ben Gurion grew irate at the commander responsible for the floundering northern campaign – Moshe Dayan. "That cynic, that fool, has still got his undies in a bunch from Jerusalem." To make matters worse, during an attack from Qawuqyi Dayan had left an entire company under another commander to fend for themselves, pulling out after only a few hours. He was sacked, and demoted to a lower ranking post.

On a hot summer day, under the command of Kemal Ouda, the Quwwat staged a series of arson attacks on the Carmel Mountains, covered in easily burnable Aleppo pine. A blaze soon engulfed the forests of the mountains, causing the massive 29 August fire – which began to threaten the lives of the Tzachal soldiers, based away in the mountains. The forest fires send titanic billowing clouds into the sky, discoloring the sunset and sunrise – an ominous sight for the Tzachal, at this point their control limited to the Jezreel Valley, and a good sign, yet not really, for the starved citizens of Haifa.

In September of 1944, the PFLP enacted two successful operations against both the Tzachal and the Arab Legion: the first of which was Operation "Hof Al Gharib", commanded by Shimon Avidan. Hof Al Gharib would see the defection and the crumbling of the last Tzachal forces in a long besieged strip south of Haifa and north of Tel Aviv, finally seeing the entire west coast seized by the PFLP with the exception of Gaza, and the north, of course.
In the east, Yisrael Galili, after adapting to his new command in the West Bank at long last led a series of successful offensives against the outnumbered Legionaries, culminating in a cinematic battle at Umm al Abor on the Jordan River. This battle would finally see the Arab Legion being expelled from the West Bank, leaving just the Negev forces – which were faring marginally better. They had at last broke into the defenses and entered the Dead Sea Jewish settlements at the expense of a hundred men. The brigade begin the "Long Retreat" into the Negev desert, accompanied by the evacuated civilians of the kibbutzim and the moshavim, the remaining soldiers weary and uncertain of their future, having fought off three encirclement operations by the Arab Legion before breaking.

Elsewhere, the Legion and Brotherhood also had Moshe Sneh on the defensive, contesting and engulfing the town of Majdal in a bitter and slow battle. The Muslim Brotherhood also finally and successfully pressured the Kingdom of Egypt into intervention: Egyptian military battalions begin to enter Gaza and the Negev in droves. Although the Italian occupation had resulted in the defeat of the Egyptian Army and the seizure of their equipment, their hasty and hellish retreat – especially through the Sinai Desert – had left an enormous number behind. Some of this was already being exploited to good use by the Muslim Brotherhood. All in all, although they had been wounded, it all balanced out by the time for their entrance into the Palestinian War.

In October, the Tzachal's attempts to eradicate the Arab Salvation Army threat once and for all, finally meet crushing success when Qawuqyi is captured by Palmach operatives in a night raid and killed on site. This was the first victory by a recently recovered Yigal Allon, who was now proving how indispensable he was to the Zionist effort. The irregular army begins to collapse. However, despite the dying down of the Carmel forest fire, things could only look worse for the Tzachal: Quwwat battalions, under the command of Avidan and Ouda, manage to take control of the mountains and the coastline pass to Haifa, finally relieving the long embattled city.

The "International Volunteer Brigades - Levantine Detachment" under the control of Jimmie Strauch, land in November of 1944, at the port of Jaffa with the goal of assisting the PFLP forces and are a most welcome sight. They are immediately directed up north to help with the Tzachal threat. Meanwhile, Yisrael Galili and Moshe Sneh finally link up their forces in the south, starting Operation "Mabul" (lit. torrential flood), an arduous campaign to defeat the Legion, even now supported by the Egyptian Army. To their benefit however, with the arrival of the IVB Levantines, a new surge of American weaponry and equipment bolster the Quwwat and would be especially helpful against the tanks of the Egyptians.

Even with the impending arrival of the IVB Levantines, however, the Tzachal had not run out of surprises: nor did Dayan either. Dayan, acting on the orders of Allon, began Operation "Mechiqa", a series of brutal, punitive and genocidal raids in the northern West Bank, striking deep at the Quwwat logistical corridor that supported the Haifa pass. Dayan would remark in his post-war memoirs: "...I, suffering from perhaps my wartime madness, shouted to my Tzachal soldiers, the tironim: "Who here wants to strike a bloody dagger through some Arab hearts in the night?!" The tironim, most of them former Irguniks and Meyiists, raised their palms, outstretched palms into the air excitedly. Never had I seen such a show of hands. They were all eager, unlike the Gachalchiks[4]… Now we were about to leave for this operation, which we had called 'Erasure', and it was not just any normal operation…" And deep they struck: the Tzachal managed to reach all the way to Jenin, inundating the city in all manner of atrocity: it would be remembered by the Jeniniks[5] as "the Scouring" to this day. Almost sixty percent of the former population had been decimated.

The plundering of the city and the genocidal treatment of the Tzachal on the city's residents, accompanied the encirclement of the Haifa-supporting Quwwat forces to the west, threatening to collapse the northern theater.

Finally, the Levantines arrived, and this time, a first for Palestine: with tanks. Indeed, up to this point in the war, the war had been fought entirely with regular infantry, motorized in some places here and there – armored vehicles pretty much a given, mostly though, if they were mobile, it was on a horse. Hitherto, none of the warring factions in Palestine had enough tanks or the logistics necessary to support them. That all changed with the Levantine detachment however, and they whipped the Tzachal good: in fact, the action was so successful that the Quwwat was able to pursue the Tzachal all the way to one of their major bases: Mishmar HaEmek - the Guard of the Valley.

The Second Battle of Mishmar HaEmek would be a long fought battle, lasting several days and nights as the Tzachal fanatically held out at their base. An artillery platoon was brought in by the Quwwat, barraging the kibbutz with shells. Ironically Mishmar HaEmek had been one of the most collectivist places in the Yishuv – it was founded as a workers' kibbutz. And here, it was, being shelled by the Communists. The shelling was not without some criticism for they had killed nineteen non-combatants -- women, children and men, and destroyed the school of the kibbutz at the same time. Victory was victory however, and the Quwwat captured the kibbutz by the end of November. It wasn't just absolutely significant for them either, the kibbutz had been a strategic objective for a long time as it controlled a major route from Jenin to Haifa. For that entire time the PFLP had subsisted on makeshift roads and the Hadera-Haifa coastal route for the logistics of the Haifa battles.

David ben Gurion, having been close to the frontlines at that time, nearly tasted death when an artillery shell exploded only some distance from him. It was fortunate for Ben Gurion that the fragments missed – but had he died, the Tzachal almost certainly would have crumbled. The loss of Mishmar HaEmek would put the Tzachal on the back footing for the rest of the war; Moshe Dayan, promoted back to his original rank and manic with his successful operations against Jenin, plunged into a major depression. The winter was not well for the Tzachal and Dayan, who began to suffer from restless nights.

Suddenly, on the 4th of December 1944, one and a half thousand troops secretly would run away from their posts from the Tzachal, in one of the largest mass defections of the war. Most of them were primarily from Gachal, but of the 1500, a third were also normal Palestinian-born soldiers – among them – a commander by the name of Moshe Dayan. Dayan had exchanged secret communiques with the PFLP prior to his defection. He hoped that in exchange for his surrender he might be at least partially pardoned of his war crimes in Operation Mechiqa. Whether he got his wish would remain to be seen until after the end of the war, as the defectors were interned into a camp as POWs by the Quwwat. The camp was the absolute bottom of the barrel, but it had been nothing many of the pioneers had not seen. It was not great, but not terrible either.

Meanwhile – many kilometers away, Ben-Gurion, praying for a Hanukkah miracle – believing that the Tzachal may once be successful like the Maccabees were, would not get to see any that eve on the 10th. The Quwwat continued their relentless offensives against Zionist forces, capturing the western half of the Jezreel Valley and laying siege to the city of Nazareth. At last, in the middle of the holiday, Ben Gurion called for a ceasefire with Berger and al-Hilu. Seeing the writing on the wall, the Zionist leader called for peace talks at the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, a holy site and ideal for the care which it commanded. After a week of deliberation, mediated by officials from the Franco-British Union and the Union of American Socialist Republics, the Zionists surrendered to the PFLP once they had been assured and guaranteed that they would be treated fairly, moreover, that they might be pardoned for any crimes in the course of the war, and that the Palestinian Federation would allow continued Jewish immigration into Palestine.

This was a point which greatly strained the Jewish-Arab leadership of the Federation. Finally, thanks to their key diplomat, Muhammad Ashkar, they ultimately conceded, on the condition that the immigrants had no other recourse but to go to Palestine – that is, Palestine was the only safe refuge for them and that they were in a dangerous, life-threatening situation.

This was a date which indeed is remembered in history. From here on to the present today, Palestine's immigration policy would be informed by the "Law of Refuge" – that served as a framework, a guiding principle – not just that – it also became the ethos of the Federation.

It was good news and a Christmas miracle. By New Years' on 1 Jan 1945, the PFLP celebrated the surrender of ZIonist forces with large red parades in Haifa, Jerusalem and Ramallah. Many of the former Irguniks and Meyiists were not covered in the "list of pardonable persons" however, and they were mysteriously absent from the surrendering battalions[...]

The failure of the Tzachal in the War of Liberation can be attributed to the Tel Aviv Attacks, from which it never really recovered. The psychological wounding of the Zionist leadership, the loss of initiative, mass defections furthermore and its resulting information leaks, a strategic disadvantage, all compounded to set it on a death course. It is also, of course, hard to keep fighting when the enemy at times, is you, a fellow Jew; the bipolar disorder from which some of the commanders – Dayan is a particularly good example – apparently suffered from, did not help either. Following the retreat of the Italo-Turkish occupation forces, an attitude of complacency had effectively penetrated not just the Zionist leadership but also the British military garrison. It was complacency that cost the Zionists Tel Aviv and the lives of their commanders. They did not seriously believe that the Communists would stage an uprising, let alone so early. Historian Samuel Reid writes: "In fact it would have been better for the PFLP had they started earlier." The defectors from the Zionist forces also gave the PFLP an intelligence advantage, by giving them an expose into the Zionist mentality.

Nevertheless, the road was far from over.

The missing far-right had in fact decided to break away from the Tzachal, and to begin an insurgency of their own in the newly PFLP-controlled north under the name of "Meshachrerei Hadashim Yisrael", or the 'New Liberators of Israel' (Mahi). Fortunately for the PFLP, behind the Mahi insurgency were the same Meyi and Irgun rightists, which Nathan Yellin-Mor knew all too well. With the Mahi's predictability, the PFLP could afford to focus less resources on the North and instead direct more men and arms to Operation Mabul. The IVB Levantines would be sorely needed there indeed. The operation had proceeded in two phases: "Mabul A", which had mostly floundered. No, it was Mabul B, where the tempo of the war really picked up. In one of the surprises of the war, many of the Tzachal soldiers – primarily the defectors, joined the Quwwat in special battalions to fight against the common enemy - the Egyptian invader.

The Quwwat was able to retake control of Majdal and push onward to the fort of Iraq Suwaydan, roughly 30 km northeast of Gaza City. In the sea, the warships of the Quwwat navy – one surviving ship from Haifa and two American-supplied ships -- battled with the Egyptian navy. Further east in the Negev, however, the Quwwat were facing difficulties against the Legionaries who continued to use the desert to evade capture and decisive battles. Beersheba continued to be out of reach for the PFLP, and they would need time to set up a new logistical corridor to the long-neglected southern front.

In February 1945, Operation Pleshet began. The Sea Quwwa successfully defeated the Egyptians off the Gazan coast, finally allowing for a flotilla of ships, packed to the brim with soldiers, to prepare for an amphibious landing. At the same time, Yisrael Galili's forces set off from Iraq Suwaydan, marching towards Beit Hanoun. The Air Quwwa is deployed for the first time, using American-made F-34E Belladonnas. Pleshet had been the first time the Quwwat attempted a true combined arms offensive against any major enemy ever, and this showed: the commanders had difficulty coordinating between all the various arms. In the end though, they managed, and the sudden bombings from the air caught the Egyptian garrison in Beit Hanoun off guard. Beit Hanoun was swooped by Galili's forces, and the combined arms offensive pressed onward to Gaza City. Around 5,500 troops in total attack the city, covered by Palestinian air, from both the desert and the sea. The city is handily captured, and three thousand Egyptian soldiers, plus a similar sized contingent of Muslim Brothers, are either killed or taken prisoner.

Egyptian morale had virtually collapsed by March 1945 as a result of Pleshet: the Quwwat takes the initiative, and the Legionaries are unable to keep the Quwwat from winning in the "Battle of Beersheba", an offensive led by Moshe Sneh and the Levantine Detachment. With the collapse of the Beersheba stronghold, the road ahead to Umm al Rashrash – the gate to the Red Sea, is open.

In a surprise, Glubb Pasha – the leader of the Arab Legion, calls for an armistice with the PFLP. The loss after loss on the part of the Legion had been seriously demoralizing, and Pasha – or perhaps his Franco-British superiors, decided enough was enough. If nothing else, the incredibly shoddy performance of the Egyptian Army was proof that the war against the Federation would be unwinnable. Glubb Pasha was not Palestinian. He was not even an Arab by blood. But he was loyal, or rather, claimed to be loyal to the Jordanian Hashemites, and so he asked Emir 'Abdullah to allow him to return to Transjordan and call off the invasion. It was not even really the Emir that had instigated the entire exercise, but nevertheless the emir, Glubb Pasha's good friend, complied, and called on the Arab Legion to end the war and return.

The announcement of an armistice between the Legion and the PFLP killed any fire the Egyptian Army had in pursuing the war. The wind – blown away from 'Abdullah's peace declaration – from their sails, the Army called a ceasefire with the PFLP and to join the armistice negotiations after several weeks of fighting, as their king wavered whether to continue the war or not.

On March 25th, the armistice was called, and Palestine finally fell silent with the cessation of gunfire after nearly a year of the war.

Then the people exploded into celebration.

Finally, for the first time without shooting each other, the leaders of the war met: Glubb Pasha, Emir 'Abdullah, King Farouk, and the PFLP Quadrumvirate, at the city of Aqaba in Transjordan. 'Abdullah did not like the idea of even giving the Egyptian king Farouk one step into Transjordan, and publicly refused to be in the same room as him – remarking: "That mongrel son of an Albanian farmer, playing toy soldiers with his army!". He had been referring to the disastrous micromanagement of the army by Farouk, which he believed cost the Egyptian Army the war. In fact this was not Farouk's first rodeo: the king had also micromanaged the defense of Egypt against the Italian invasion, going about as well as you'd expect. The Palestinian War was a last attempt to salvage his prestige, and to prove that Egypt was not just a Franco-British client; this too, did not go well. Anyhow, despite the tensions between the Arab leaders, the conference proceeded ahead.

The PFLP was clear about their demands: Get the hell out of Palestine. End the war. Stop interfering in the affairs of the region. Any and every proposal to draw borders beyond what had already been laid down by the Mandate of Palestine was rebuked by the leaders of the Front. Their advantage in the war and in the negotiations were clear from the start of the Aqaba conference, and ultimately the Arab nationalist parties conceded. Farouk would childishly say at the end: "And you're not getting a single cent of mine in reparations!", receiving frosty looks from both of the PFLP leaders.

They at last exited, walking away without looking back: the conference was over, the struggle was over, but something new was beginning: the Federation …

Excerpts from "76 Years of the Palestinian Federation" (2020 ed; Rotem Amin, University of Jaffa)

…The Federation, following the end of the revolutionary war of independence, would finally transition to civil rule under a PFLP-only provisional government at its capital in Jerusalem. At this time, the opposition parties which characterized the later political system of the Federation, had not yet existed or been founded. Nevertheless the PFLP was brimming with factionalism - mainly from the remnants of the National Defence Party, and the Left-Meyiists under Nathan Yellin-Mor. One of the first acts of the Provisional Government was to establish a Constitutional Convention. This was to determine the future electoral-economic-governmental system of the fledgling country. This was followed by a declaration of war on Nazi Germany and the rest of the Axis for a variety of reasons: to repay its comrades in the Comintern for their support, to honor its promise to the Franco-British, gain favorability and prestige, and also increase its chances of becoming a founding member of the United Nations. Though Palestine never participated in any operations directly itself, it continued to support the war effort logistically. Many of its citizens would also serve in the international volunteer brigades and British legions in the closing days of the war. A tradition developed -- one where everyone was expected to volunteer for military service. It continued long after the war had ended. The Provisional Government would frame its participation in the war as the Federation's first trial as a unified, independent country. Redemption and reconciliation between veterans of the war and a shoulder to shoulder march to thrust the sword of liberation into the common enemy – the genocidal fascist menace - would be a key theme.[...]

At the same time, the Government was worried about an institution of theirs, one that seemed on the verge of becoming a bureaucratic singularity. It was the Quwwat, and it was a massive creature. It was not only responsible for the defense of the Federation, the oversight of the Palestinian international volunteer brigades, but also the wartime economic wellbeing of Palestine. Thus it was decided by the leadership that a program of extensive cutbacks for the Quwwat was in order, which would also facilitate its debureaucratization. The period of war communism would finally end by late 1946, concurrent with the implementation of a socialist economy under the Provisional Government and its "Economics Bureau" …

The core of the PFLP – the Palestine Communist Party, were originally orthodox Marxist-Leninists who had no real independence from Moscow in the beginning: they bent over and submitted their will to every directive from the Soviet Union.

However, the PKP had since made a radical transformation (especially after the original Jewish leadership had returned from their downright horrible experiences in the USSR, as it tried to consolidate its grip over parties internationally). Bundism, Tsurikkerism and DeLeonism were major imports of the party, thanks to their longtime connections with the Jewish-American Labor Bund and the American Commission for the Levantine Proletariat. The Party, and even the entire PFLP held a great admiration and respect for their patron the UASR. One of the commitments of the PFLP charter was the establishment of a federal governmental model: this would be an ideal fit for a multinational socialist country – the entire raison d'etre for the existence of the PFLP. It was thus no surprise that they picked the name "Palestinian Federation" when declaring independence.

At the end of the war, the soviets and the Provisional Government of the Federation represented just ~1.6 million people. Although the soviets were highly irregular in size and functioning, some soviets representing far more people than others, and some like completely dysfunctional families, the Constitutional Convention decided that since they already existed, it would be better to use them as the basis for a new soviet democracy in Palestine. It would however, require a new soviet reform, but that was the point of the Convention, right?[...]

The resulting system as described in the Constitution can be summarized as:

• A federal soviet democracy, based around the 'Nahal's – the 17 constituent territories of Palestine.
• These nahals would be composed of "near councils"[6] at the base and "nahali councils"[7] at the top.
• These nahali councils elect the 170 seat Assembly of Delegates, the government of Palestine's legislative branch, known as the Memshelah/Tamthil.
• This would then elect the Administration, which would serve as the collective executive government of the country when the Tamthil is not in session.
• It is presided over by the Madyan, that determines the formation of the Administration also with the ability to call new administrative elections at any time.
• Moreover, the Madyan is also Palestine's supreme court, interpreting the constitutionality of administrative acts (the Constitution like in the UASR is also freely determined by the Memshelah) and serving as the highest court of appeals.

[...]
General elections were called for January 1948: the Provisional Government would continue to rule the Federation for two and a half more years. This was probably longer than necessary however the PKP-dominated PFLP Provisional Government felt like it needed to prove itself as a 'good government of the people'. The end of the World Revolutionary War would also mean an influx of Holocaust survivors and Jewish refugees, which the Government had already begun preparing for since its formation. As the elections approached, the Front eventually disintegrated, as the factions could no longer sit on their hands under PKP rule.

First, Nathan Yellin-Mor broke away with his Left-Meyiist cadre, founding the party "L'Canaan" to represent the burgeoning Canaanist cultural movement. Then, an ex-NDP member of the PFLP, Anwar al-Khatib, also broke away and created the "Country's Party", an Arab interests party with the goal of appealing to the Arab-dominated agricultural industry (hence Country's).

The PKP and other socialist dominated remnants of the Front would continue the banner under the name "PFLP", deliberating on what form it should take and holding on to its name to remind the people who was responsible for their freedom. Even at the moment that the other factions had left, the PFLP had already transformed significantly. In the end, a few months before the elections were to begin, they changed their name.

They were now the "People's Movement for the Continued Liberation of Palestine". Originally, as they were the only party to adopt such a name structure, people began referring to them as just the "People's Movement" or simply the "Movement".

Eventually however, after omitting the last word, the Hebrew acronym, "Tahlah", gained mass appeal and achieved mass popularity, catching on as the everyday name of the Party.

The remaining Zionists attempted to run David ben Gurion – pardoned and still a resident of Palestine – but the Government adopted legislation barring any "high-ranking leader, holding the minimum equivalent title of officer of any enemy movement and faction in the Palestinian Revolutionary War of Liberation", from ever running in a political office, or voting, or really, having equal rights. It thus fell to Berl Katznelson[8], an acceptable compromise candidate (given that he was an outspoken supporter of the Peel Commission) to represent the "Mifleget Po'elei Moledet" (Mapam), or the Workers' Party of the Homeland. Neither the Country's Party, L'Canaan nor Mapam would gain a substantial percentage in the 1948 elections, and the Tahlah won 70% of the popular vote. After it was revealed that the Left-Meyiists in L'Canaan bore among them a frankly excessive number of crypto-fascists in the "Eizenkot Affair", the Assembly of Delegates banned it from ever running. Although Yellin-Mor faced controversy, the leader of L'Canaan was not denied the right to political office like Ben Gurion, for he was still greatly respected in the country as a former commander in the war. Still, he never ran again for government and instead focused on cultural-social agitation for the Canaanist movement. To clear his reputation, he in fact publicly applied for Tahlah membership.
In his words: "I no longer desire to continue politics. Going into politics to establish a new culture, a new society, was a mistake: to do so, one needs to go into society. … I am terribly regretful of the fact that I was blind to my peers' affiliations. I founded L'Canaan because I believed the Palestinian people were separated. I think that today, "Jew" and "Arab" is an artificial division, a division imposed on us thousands of years ago, to keep us powerless. We were originally Canaanites. And this is my goal: to remind you of that fact." The Canaanist movement would remain alive in the end.

It is important to note that none of the parties in the Palestinian Federation were ever right-wing in any sense. Social democracy is the furthest you can go to the Right within the Palestinian system. Socialism is enshrined as a basic principle in the Constitution of the Palestinian Federation. Even though the Provisional Government and the Constitutional Convention could not pursue to establish the Federation as an official dictatorship of the proletariat for geopolitical and diplomatic reasons, they sure did their best to make it all but in name.[...]

Demographically, the Jewish population would of course, rapidly increase in the coming years – primarily as a result of the intake of Holocaust and WRW refugees - coming out to a total of 320 thousand[9] as the PFLP had promised all along, back then at the Church of the Annunciation. This realization would have to come at the same time as the state emerged teetering on bankruptcy. It was in a hunger and devoid of natural resources: the Holy Land was said to be filled with milk and honey, but there was, also, not much more else.

To cope with the economic pressures, especially as the Federation had to admit thousands of immigrants into the country every month, the Tahlah enacted a grand reorganization of how life was structured in Palestine. Radwan al-Hilu and Joseph Berger called on the people to begin a grand social-economical revolution. "We are immediately transitioning to socialism", the Tahlah said in their presses. Central to this was the commune, a new unit of settlement slash social unit the Tahlah had created in order to replace all the kibbutzim and especially the moshavim. The "Komunalitziya of 1948-1951" would see much of the country being swept away in the phenomenon, primarily and especially the immigrants. This was actually an austerity plan and also an investment plan in disguise, as the government hoped to reduce rationing itself, and the focus on it, by using the communal lifestyle as a central focus of life, and to use the commune to build infrastructure which the Federation desperately needed. Rationing on basic necessities like food ultimately had to be done. The country had been running an import-export deficit for multiple years in order to keep everyone fed. The government also hoped to reduce the food rationing pressures by encouraging agricultural production in the mostly rural communes, although there were plenty of urban communes established[...]

Concurrent with the Komunalitziya, the Federation lobbied in the outer world for the payment of reparations. In 1951, they were finally able to sign treaties with the Germans, providing an immeasurably helpful flow of foreign capital into the country. The necessity for rationing practically and immediately ended as soon as they had begun their payments. Aid went beyond just monetary – from the east came a shower of technicians, technical expertise, technology, all kinds of materiel and personnel [...]

Ironically, the promises to the Franco-British Union to support their war efforts were a blessing for the Federation's economy. It kept the economy mostly intact even as it was undergoing socialization by the Provisional Government and later the Tahlah. A large black market developed as a result of rationing and communalization, which proved impossible for the Tahlah to eliminate. However their plan had entirely succeeded in keeping tensions low within the country. "As a result of the Komunalitziya, Palestine's population was allowed to increase massively while nobody, not a single one starved. We had very little but by sharing it we were able to grow." – wrote University of Hebron Arab professor Khadra Nazal. The Tahlah imposed the principle of "No One Left Behind", which became a popular slogan among the Palestinians. "Toiling away in the fields and in the factories as Jews and as Arabs with your fellow countrymen, completely irrespective of race, quickly broke any reservations one or the other had about each other.", approved Nazal. Despite the rabble rousing of the Zionist remnants especially in regards to what they decried as restrictive immigration policies, many of the new muhajirs quickly assimilated and became some of the Tahlah and the Federation's most enthusiastic supporters. A unified Palestinian identity was thus successfully built in the Komunalitziya[...]

This has been the final post in the "History of Palestine" series.

The Tahlah continues to exist and govern to the present; in 2020, Palestine is a thriving majority-Arabic[10] speaking country with a population just a little over 9 million.

[1] The ITTL term for "Israeli salad". If you haven't heard of it, PLEASE try it. It's good.

[2] A Jewish settlement near Jerusalem, which stands between it and Hebron.

[3] Isdud - OTL known as Ashdod. Majdal - OTL known as Ashkelon.

[4] Name for a person recruited by GaCHaL (Giyus Chutz La'Aretz), or "Overseas Drafting". Gachal primarily drafted from European immigrants, nearly all of whom were Holocaust survivors themselves.

[5] Modern name for a resident of Jenin

[6] Near councils are a catch all name for "local", "regional", and "city" councils – determined by whether the governed settlement is classified as a city or not, and if not, whether it is big enough for local representation alone, or to be grouped with other settlements in a regional council.

[7] The nahali councils, or the far councils, are in a sense equivalent to the republican congresses of soviets of the UASR.

[8] Does not die of an aneurysm like OTL.

[9] The top three: 120,000 Jews would arrive from Europe in general, followed by 70,000 from Iraq, then nearly 100% of the Turkish Jewish community – 50,000 Jews. Morocco, Yemen, and Syria each saw 20,000 Jews emigrate, followed by 15,000 from Egypt and a further 5,000 from the rest of North Africa. This would take place over a period of 15 years from the Federation's founding. It should be noted that some of the immigrants came in fact as a result of pogroms as a reaction to the Palestinian War. General antisemitism blending with anticommunism, periodic red scares and tensions with Palestine/Iran would contribute to the exodus; the Turkish Jewish community left as a result of trauma and persecution from the Turanist period, and similarly for the European Holocaust refugees.

[10] In the present, the Palestinian Federation's population is 59% Arab, 39% Jewish and another 2% covering other minorities. 3% of the population natively speaks Yiddish, another 12.1% Palestinian Judeo-Arabic, 27.3% Hebrew, and 57.9% Southern Levantine Arabic. Nearly 100% of the population speaks Arabic or Judeo-Arabic as a L2 at least, 90% some basic Hebrew at least, and 70% know at least some English.