KADDISHEL
A Life Reborn
ability to defend itself. Russia had already begun to control what later became the Iron Curtain countries, and this helped Israel make a deal with Czechoslovakia’s well-developed armament company, Skoda, world famous for the manufacture of quality weapons. Immediately after the British withdrawal and the subsequent declaration of the State of Israel, well-equipped Arab forces from Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria attacked from every direction. The Arab armies possessed arms and can- nons, as well as combat aircraft and bombers. Israel had none of these and its arsenal was, in fact, pitiful. An Arab siege on the Old City of Jerusalem and its eighty-five thousand Jews was nearly di - sastrous. The supply line from Tel Aviv was blocked, and the Jews were nearly out of ammunition. The water pipeline from the coast was cut, and water became extremely scarce, as did food. Military priority was given to opening the roads to Jerusalem, especially near Latrun, an important Arab base. Between May 15 and early June, about two thousand homes in the city were destroyed and twelve hundred civilians killed. The Jews secretly enlarged a path, known as the Burma Road, to break the siege and bring food, wa- ter, and ammunition into Jerusalem. “Finally, by June 9, a primi- tive roadbed was cut through the Jerusalem mountains. The first trucks, loaded with cans of food and water, ventured out on the pitted makeshift highway. Several hours later they entered Jerusa- lem, where they were greeted rapturously by the awaiting Jewish population.’’ 2 On June 11, 1948, the UN Security Council mandated a four- week truce, which the Jews used for rebuilding and training troops, as well as for a reorganization into four separate fronts, in the north, east, center, and south. Ben-Gurion had already disarmed and then reunited the Haganah, Lechi, and Etzel under the banner of the Is- raeli Defense Force (IDF), but the move was not without challeng- es. The most difficult and controversial of these was the Altalena affair. The Altalena was a ship, carrying nine hundred volunteers and a tremendous quantity of arms to Israel, for Etzel. When the ship arrived, Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin, the head of Etzel,
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