Aharon Golub, Kaddishel: A Life Reborn

The War of Independence

D avid Ben-Gurion declared the State of Israel on May 14, 1948 in Tel Aviv and formed a government. The Haga- nah became the nation’s army. At first, its elite fighting unit, the Palmach, remained in place because the Palmach officers were the best trained and most experienced. When the War of Independence broke out, our group moved into military barracks and actively participated in battle. We were part of the Harel Brigade, one of the three brigades of the Palmach; the other two were IJtach and Chativat HaNegev (the Negev Brigade). I did not go with our group to their field assignments because of my physical problem. I had to accept this. I remained at the kib- butz and continued to study business management in Haifa. I felt I was making a contribution by helping prepare for the future. My apartment at Yagur became a gathering place for us and whenever a member of the group had a few days off, he stayed with me. Our group was assigned to defend the corridor to Jerusalem, which the Arabs were blocking. The Arabs had laid siege to the city and conditions there were bad, with no food and not enough water. The Haganah sent convoys of armored trucks carrying food, water, and medical supplies and the Arabs attacked them when they went through the Castell area. The road there was very narrow and passed between two mountains. The Arabs would sit on the mountains and throw hand grenades down onto any passing trucks, buses, or cars and blow them up. This was true even before 1948, when the British were still there, so the Jews had to do everything clandestinely and could not show any force. Most actions were car- ried out at night and everything had to be dismantled by daybreak. Iftach

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