Israeli Civil War

so I've been reading up on the early years of Israel, and found that they were deeply politically divided, while most early parties having armed wings, the threat of Arab attack united them in those years, even so even during the 1948 the friction between left and right broke into open battle during the Altalena Affair my thought was thus if Jordan had agreed to put its Arab Legion under the command of the other Arab nations, leading to the Legion being defeated like the other Arabs army, with out the fear of the Arabs could we see a civil war between Israelis? would it be Left(Haganah) vs. Right(Irgun) or Far-Left(Palmach) vs. Center-Left(Haganah) vs. Right(Irgun)?
 
I think that as long as there are slightly hostile countries in the vicinity that want parts of israel there's going to be no civil war. No side is dumb enough to do that though I could see the USSR encouraging some far left to do something. Not necessarily that it would lead to a civil war.
 

Deleted member 1487

Highly doubtful, Irgun was a minor player at this point and Haganah was much more powerful and would have wiped them out pretty quickly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun#The_1948_Palestine_War
In the autumn of 1947 the Irgun membership was approximately 4,000 people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun#The_1948_Palestine_War
There were two confrontations between the newly formed IDF and the Irgun: when Altalena reached Kfar Vitkin in the late afternoon of Sunday, June 20 many Irgun militants, including Begin, waited on the shore. A clash with the Alexandroni Brigade, commanded by Dan Even (Epstein), occurred. Fighting ensued and there were a number of casualties on both sides. The clash ended in a ceasefire and the transfer of the weapons on shore to the local IDF commander, and with the ship, now reinforced with local Irgun members, including Begin, sailing to Tel Aviv, where the Irgun had more supporters. Many Irgun members, who joined the IDF earlier that month, left their bases and concentrated on the Tel Aviv beach. A confrontation between them and the IDF units started. In response, Ben-Gurion ordered Yigael Yadin (acting Chief of Staff) to concentrate large forces on the Tel Aviv beach and to take the ship by force. Heavy guns were transferred to the area and at four in the afternoon, Ben-Gurion ordered the shelling of the Altalena. One of the shells hit the ship, which began to burn. Sixteen Irgun fighters were killed in the confrontation with the army; six were killed in the Kfar Vitkin area and ten on Tel Aviv beach. Three IDF soldiers were killed: two at Kfar Vitkin and one in Tel Aviv.


After the shelling of the Altalena, more than 200 Irgun fighters were arrested. Most of them were freed several weeks later. The Irgun militants were then fully integrated with the IDF and not kept in separate units.


The initial agreement for the integration of the Irgun into the IDF did not include Jerusalem, where a small remnant of the Irgun called the Jerusalem Battalion, numbering around 400 fighters, and Lehi, continued to operate independently of the government. Following the assassination of UN Envoy for Peace Folke Bernadotte by Lehi in September 1948, the Israeli government determined to immediately dismantle the underground organizations. An ultimatum was issued to the Irgun to liquidate itself and integrate into the IDF or be destroyed. The Irgun accepted the ultimatum, and shortly afterward, it's fighters began enlisting in the IDF and turning over their arms.[66]

Irgun was pretty badly handled and broken up easily because Irgun understood it would not survive a confrontation that got any bigger.
 

jahenders

Banned
I agree -- with the exception of a few wing nuts, most Israelis would realize that a true civil war would be effectively committing national suicide. This was far more true in the 40s-80s than now. It would still be devastating, in part because it would split and/or erode foreign support.

I think that as long as there are slightly hostile countries in the vicinity that want parts of israel there's going to be no civil war. No side is dumb enough to do that though I could see the USSR encouraging some far left to do something. Not necessarily that it would lead to a civil war.
 
I think that as long as there are slightly hostile countries in the vicinity that want parts of israel there's going to be no civil war. No side is dumb enough to do that though I could see the USSR encouraging some far left to do something. Not necessarily that it would lead to a civil war.

COMPLETELY TRUE, dude ;)

United they'd have a good chance of standing, divided they would most assuredly fall.
 
Highly doubtful, Irgun was a minor player at this point and Haganah was much more powerful and would have wiped them out pretty quickly.

Irgun was pretty badly handled and broken up easily because Irgun understood it would not survive a confrontation that got any bigger.

So what would the effects of that have been?
 
At the risk of getting into some ASB territory, but if Israel managed to negotiate a lasting peace settlement with the neighbouring Arab countries, and/or the Arab states were willing to accept a petition of Palestine, then that would remove/greatly lessen the siege mentality that helped bind the various factions together. Throw in some Soviet Union skullduggery (they were originally quite supportive of Israel as they saw it as a potential beachhead for socialism in the region before Nasser's revolution), and some CIA shenanigans, and boom potential civil war.
 
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