Steve Kramer – Western Galilee Adventure
There’s no end to adventures in Israel, despite it’s relatively small size. The regions of the country are tremendously varied, from the 9,200 ft high Mt. Hermon, to the many valleys nestled between mountains and hills, to the hundreds of miles of beaches at sea level, to the Dead Sea, more than 1,300 feet below sea level, to the Negev Desert, and finally, to the Red Sea resort of Eilat, from whose mountains one overlooks Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
During May we celebrated the marriage of dear friends on the Mediterranean Sea beachfront at Nachsholim, midway between the ancient city of Caesarea and the Jewish-Arab metropolis of Haifa. The beautiful wedding ceremony was held at sunset on the water’s edge, which threatened to drench the feet of the wedding party. After a great party and much needed sleep, we ventured further north into the Western Galilee with some of the celebrants for a 3-day weekend. The groom had arranged for us to rent all ten cabins at a small resort in Liman, near the modern seaside town of Nahariya.
We had a great time in our verdant encampment, a combination of retired or near-retired couples and three young families with kids. The highlight of the weekend, not including the two great barbecue dinners, was the tour we did one afternoon with Oren, a local “tour guide and story-teller, ” at the battlefield near Yechiam.
Oren told us the story of the Yechiam convoy:
The 1939 German takeover of Czechoslovakia precipitated WWII. The Nazi war machine was a huge challenge for the Allies, which Britain, led by the indefatigable Winston Churchill, met head on. France, however, was a disappointment of epic proportions. After a quick surrender to the Nazis, the collaborationist Vichy government assumed power. The Nazis used Vichy French troops and airbases to infiltrate into Lebanon, Syria, and other areas of the UN French Mandate in the Middle East.
“In 1941, Britain invaded both Syria and Lebanon, fighting Vichy French garrisons loyal to Germany. Resistance lasted five weeks before an armistice was finally signed on July 14, giving the Allies control of both Syria and Lebanon. Among those wounded in the fighting was the 26-year-old leader of Palestinian [Jewish] volunteer forces, Moshe Dayan, the future hero in the fight for an independent Jewish state. He lost an eye [when a bullet hit his binoculars].” (history.com)
Oren related how in 1945 Churchill revived the promise to the “helpful Jews” to bring about the Jewish National Home in Palestine. However, in the post-war election he and his Conservative Party were defeated by the Labour Party. The Labour platform also included promises to the Jews, but its subsequent acts were pro-Arab. The feeling of those running Britain’s foreign policy was that it was stupid to support the Jews in Palestine, whose numbers were vastly inferior to the dominant Arabs. Besides that, the Mideast”s vast oil reserves were owned by the Arabs.
When the United Nations Partition Plan was passed in November 1947, Britain was in the midst of retreating from many of its colonial enterprises, including Palestine, which were costing Britain more than they were worth. Skirmishes between Arab irregular forces and more organized Jewish ones began immediately. According to our guide Oren, the Jews wanted sovereignty in their homeland while the Arabs mostly wanted to rid “Arab Land” of the Jews.
At that time, there were hardly any Jewish settlements in Western Galilee, where Jewish settlement building had been hindered by the British. To supply the scattered Jewish communities and mixed cities like Haifa, convoys of vehicles were compulsory because isolated vehicles were easily ambushed and destroyed by Arab bands. But the Jews were far more organized and democratic than their adversaries, which Oren traced back to the first Zionist convention called by Theodor Herzl in 1897. He noted that the Jews chose their own leaders, while the Arabs were ruled from the top by autocrats. This fact alone made for a tremendous difference in fighting effectiveness.
The small settlement of Yechiam, due east of Nahariya, and other settlements in the Western Galilee, came under siege immediately after the Jews accepted the UN Partition Plan – which the Arabs rejected out of hand. Roads were rarely open to Jewish vehicles, but there were some agreements reached locally to open some of them. Yechiam was in dire need of a convoy to bring it necessities and fighters and an attempt was made on March 28, 1948.
It was a total catastrophe. There were 89 soldiers from the Haganah (the paramilitary force which became the backbone of the IDF) headed to Yechiam in a 7-truck convoy from Nahariya. The convoy left several hours late, at 1 pm, after having to rebuild a destroyed bridge over a creek. They were on the Baksheesh (bribery) road, which was outside of any agreement. Sure enough, an ambush was detected by Jewish intelligence operative and the message was sent: Don’t continue into an ambush of 400-500 Arabs!
The dire warning was ignored and the convoy heedlessly continued. The roads and villages along the route were unusually quiet and empty; the attack came suddenly from both sides of the road while the convoy was passing a cemetery. Unfortunately, it was a very successful ambush.
The first truck driver broke through seven blockades and continued on, with only the driver sustaining injury. Six more vehicles followed. The second vehicle got stuck in a ditch, halting the convoy, which then absorbed heavy fire. The Haganah fighters were trapped! They knew no prisoners would be taken, so they fought on with all their strength.Their trucks were strafed continually and set on fire. One wounded survivor managed to escape and crawled to Yechiam, a journey of 12 hours! Because his jaw was broken, the wounded man’s shouts to the guards patrolling outside the village were not heard (but he survived).
46 of the 89 soldiers were killed, while the rest managed to escape. It was later discovered that the first and last trucks had only 1 fatality, the commander. The rabbi in Nahariya took most of the death trauma on himself, according to Oren. The rabbi purified all bodies and buried them in 2 mass graves, men and women together. He told everyone that he had identified each soldier. The rabbi’s claim was accepted.
In that same week three convoys failed to reach their objectives. The result was the stoppage of the convoy strategy, which was devised to support isolated settlements. Instead, Operation Nachshon emerged, a new strategy to push the Arabs out out of the way using overwhelming force.
“The name ‘Operation Nachshon’ was derived from the biblical personage Nachshon Ben Aminadav who was the first to jump into the Red Sea when the Jews fled Egypt. Operation Nachshon was a first in many respects. It was the first major Haganah operation and it was the first time that a ‘brigade force’ was employed. Before this the Haganah had operated in smaller, company-size groups only. The brigade force, comprised of three battalions and numbering 1,500 men, was specifically organized for this operation.” (www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/)
Less than a week after the Yechiam debacle, Operation Nachshon began. Many Arabs irregulars were defeated, many of them deserted, and many soldiers and civilians fled, urged on in part by their leaders who promised them all the spoils after the Jews were quickly pushed into the sea. On May 15, following the Declaration of Independence by David Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv (Jerusalem was under siege), the War of Independence began in earnest.
Oren’s story telling made quite an impact on our group. We were at the actual site of the attack and were able to explore the area and clamber over the preserved but wrecked vehicles which dotted the site. It was a true Zionist moment in a modern Israeli weekend celebration: while we enjoyed ourselves, we were made very aware of the sacrifices our fathers and uncles (figuratively speaking) paid for us, to allow Jews to live free in their homeland, part of which is the beautiful Western Galilee.
pics:haaretz.com, enwikipedia.
