Arab attack with sinking hearts. They had only forty guns, and br

the Arabs had large quantities of weapons and ammunition.

The attack began. Desperately the defenders held on within br

a fixed radius. The Arabs attacked, looted, and burned houses br

outside the defense perimeter. Four Jews were dead, and the br

colony was on the verge of collapse and slaughter when British br

troops arrived to save them.

Only courage and miracles saved the large settlement of br

Hadera and Rehovot from slaughter. The book History of the br

Haganah (Israel Defense Ministry) describes the attack on Re- br

hovot by Arabs of Ramle: “Thousands of men, women and chil- br

dren came like locusts upon this settlement, with the usual br

battle-cries: ‘Eleyhom’ [“Charge them”] and ‘Itbach Al-Yahud’ br

[“Slaughter the Jews”]. They approached the settlement loot- br

ing everything in their path and burning huts in the orchards.”

Coexistence in the month of May 1921, forty-six years be- br

fore the Israeli “occupation” that is the real obstacle to peace in br

the Middle East. . . .

November 2, 1921, marked the fourth anniversary of the br

Balfour Declaration that had promised the Jews an enigmatic br

“national home.” The Arab press, leaders in the drive for an end br

to Zionism, called for a day of mourning, a work stoppage, and br

demonstrations to protest the declaration, which they coined br

“the death sentence passed on the Palestinian people.”

In Jerusalem, 5,000 Jews were packed into the Jewish quar- br

ter, most of them totally unfamiliar with self-defense. The day of br

the general strike saw thousands of frenzied Arabs attacking br

those Jews, mostly Sephardic, who lived in the Muslim quarter. br

The Sephardim remained there in the mistaken belief that the br

Arabs were opposed only to the recent European, or br

Ashkenazic, immigrants. They were wrong. To the credit of the br

Arabs, they did not discriminate against Jews on the basis of br

communal background. They killed all—equally.

Among the Jews killed in the first assault was a sexton in br

the Yeshiva Torat Chaim and nineteen-year-old Yitzhak br

Mesner, who was stabbed to death while escorting a group of br

women and children to safety.

At 11:30 hundreds of screaming Arabs, headed by Sheikh br

Vad Al-Halili, attempted to smash into the Jewish quarter. br

They were driven back after a sharp struggle in which the sheikh br