Day 161 of 599 of מלחמת העצמאות MILḤEMET HAʾAẒMAʾUT (War of Independence)

ההגנה HAʾHAGANA and פלמ״ח PALMAḤ were preparing assaults along the road to ירושלים YERUŜALAYIM. The planned action at بيت محسير BAYT MAḤSIR was delayed because the force could not bring its mortars forward. דוד בן-גוריון DAVID BEN-GURION’s diary exposes the practical gap between approving an operation and providing the weapons to execute it. Beginning of מבצע מכבי MIVẒA MAKABI. explains the opening campaign and the danger to deliveries for households of יהודים YEHUDIM.¹

The same diary raises questions about authority over towns and villages brought under the defense forces: command, property, prisoners, looting and care for poor Arab inhabitants. The archive translation includes:

Should we expel Arabs?²

That is a question in a discussion of government, not a recovered general expulsion order. The need to define authority over civilians was real; its implementation requires local records.

The United States secretary of state’s 18:00 Washington cable relayed an impression from משה שרת MOŜE SHARETT that Transjordan’s ruler might occupy the proposed Arab area without attacking the proposed state of יהודים YEHUDIM. It also reported contacts intended to avoid clashes. An impression and a reported contact are not a binding partition agreement. Washington’s evening was already a later local time in the homeland.³

This is Day 161 of the 599-day civil-date series: 1948-05-08. The register assigns its daytime public route כ״ט בניסן ה׳תש״ח 29th 𝑜𝑓 Nisan, AM 5708, a TJD fixed Hebrew calendar conversion rather than a claim that every included occurrence shared the same Hebrew day. Events after local sunset belong to ל׳ בניסן ה׳תש״ח 30th 𝑜𝑓 Nisan, AM 5708. Dated diaries, document records and issue dates cited beside each section supply the reconstruction; a publication or recorded report is not automatically the occurrence date. Linked studies preserve their own timing and source conflicts.⁴

• Why does the diary’s question about civilian administration not establish an issued general expulsion order?
• What would show whether reported contacts actually restrained an approaching force?