Day 450 of 599 of מלחמת העצמאות MILḤEMET HAʾAẒMAʾUT (War of Independence)

The handover study records JTA’s 157 prisoners and Klir’s 153 for the afternoon transfer to the Arab Legion. The arrangements involved משה דיין MOŜE DAYAN and Abdullah el-Tell. Broader estimates of 7,000 Arab and 1,200 captives of מדינת ישראל MEDINAT YISRAʾEL concern possible exchanges across fronts, not completed February 21 releases.¹²

UN G/11 dates Khalid al-Azm’s Damascus meeting February 21. He rejected the political existence of מדינת ישראל MEDINAT YISRAʾEL and objected to elected institutions in ירושלים YERUŜALAYIM, an explicit antizionist position. He advocated refugee return and compensation while claiming Arab governments sought no territorial expansion. The February 11 report of Abu al-Huda’s Gaza ambitions contradicts that universal claim without establishing the same ambitions for every Syrian official.³⁴

Klir’s February 21 entry says חיים ויצמן ḤAYIM WEIZMANN invited party leaders that day. JTA’s later February 23 report gives another account of consultations and faction conditions. The invitation and each ensuing meeting need distinct dates; the later issue does not date all consultations to February 21. These were preparations, not a completed cabinet.⁵⁶

This is Day 450 of the 599-day civil-date series: 1949-02-21. The date register uses its fixed-Hebrew daytime conversion כ״ב בשבט ה׳תש״ט 22nd 𝑜𝑓 Ŝʾvat, AM 5709; after sunset the Hebrew date is כ״ג בשבט ה׳תש״ט 23rd 𝑜𝑓 Ŝʾvat, AM 5709. The UN summary dates the Syrian meeting; JTA and Klir date the transfer, with unresolved counts and clocks. The route identifies this civil-day account and does not assign all related events or reported totals to its daytime Hebrew date.⁷

• What does the handover establish that estimates of prisoners awaiting exchange do not?
• How does comparison of Syrian and Transjordanian statements expose different territorial aims?