Negev. On 21 November ten people were injured when Arabs attacked a bus on the way from Cholon to Tel Aviv.
Three different groups were fighting against each other. A British government - without any moral authority - tried to keep out the refugees, who were streaming into the land from Europe, week after week. Their refusal to allow in the fugitives on board the Exodus3 sent shock waves around the world. A small group of young people, agents of the Haganah,4 were trying to set up an under-ground network in Europe and the Arab states. Their attempts to find ways through this blockade gained tremendously in support from the Exodus affair. At the same time other small groups were fighting the British administration through acts of sabotage. A con-tinuous cycle of terror and counter-terror eroded the basis for a nor-mal life.
And on the other side of the border Haj Amin al-Husseini5 was meeting with the leaders of the Arab states. They made the decision to use armed force to destroy the "Zionist danger" once and for all.
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In this atmosphere of threatening crisis, the UN decision was like the first thunder announcing a refreshing storm after days of hot, sticky weather. Everyone felt instinctively: the die is cast. The uncertainty, the paralyzing indecision is at an end.
The most brilliant director would not have been capable of pro-ducing a scene of such spontaneously erupting joy. These young peo-pie were not happy about the partition, which would divide Palestine into little pieces. They were not celebrating the approaching battles. Their joy was an expression of freedom: the walls of the ghetto have fallen, the road out is clear, new horizons for activity and life are open.
But there were some who remained quiet on that night. They went around with gloomy faces, and took no part in the celebrations. They looked upon the dancing, jubilant youth and wondered: how many of these will still be living next year?
Because they knew the decisive battle was yet to come: a bloody war in the struggle between Israelis and Arabs, which had been approaching for thirty years, ever since the Balfour Declaration.6