Why limit it to “war leaders”?

 

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/10017972/Arab-war-leaders-cowards.html?fb

 

'Arab war leaders cowards'

Arab leaders were described as cowards by the head of British military intelligence in Palestine during the 1947-8 civil war, previously secret files have disclosed.

Fighters from the Haganah parade with what would soon be the Israeli flag in 1948 Photo: AFP

By Press Association

6:00AM BST 26 Apr 2013

Lt Col C.R.W. Norman said Arab soldiers were "following the cowardly example of their inept leaders" by fleeing in their thousands as Jewish forces advanced.

In his final fortnightly intelligence report before the British mandate for Palestine was due to end, he reported that the Arabs "deserted positions and jettisoned arms and equipment" in the Battle of Haifa.

In his explanation of their actions, Lt Col Norman stated: "The desertion of their leaders and the sight of so much cowardice in high places completely unnerved the inhabitants."

But the British military chief went on to explain that the Arabs blamed Britain for losing the battle.

"Their leaders immediately set about endeavouring to save their face rather than their only deep water sea port, and the blame for the whole action was placed on the head of the British," he wrote on May 6 1948.

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The records on Palestine, released at the National Archives in Kew, also demonstrate how Britain had no faith in Jewish paramilitary organisation Haganah creating a balanced situation in the city of Jaffa.

^{Haganah militiamen on the Castel Heights on the Jaffa Road captured after stiff Arab resistance in 1948 (AFP)}

"It is more than likely that the whole area will be empty by the end of the mandate, leaving Haganah free to come in disguised as the protectors of Arab property and making a great show of inviting the Arabs home again to live happily ever after," Lt Col Norman predicted.

He described how the Arab military and civil leaders "left as soon as they had got the measure of their opponents" in the Battle of Jaffa.

Lt Col Norman also dismissed hopes of a ceasefire being maintained in Jerusalem without an armed third party to enforce it.

"Temptations are many and discipline almost non-existent," he said.

Britain planned to terminate its Palestine mandate on May 15 1948 but the Arab-Israeli War broke out before this took place.