Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

April 22, 2026

An Update on Israel and Its War—from 1948

“Recognition from even one of the Arab countries would be worth far more.”

To get a sense of what it was like for an American Jew to live through the dramatic moments of Israel’s creation, I went back to the June 1948 issue of Commentary—and its “this month in history” feature, composed by Maurice Goldbloom. At the time, it was not yet certain that the fledgling Jewish state, which had declared its independence on May 14, would survive the war against it. Here’s one passage I found especially striking, given what has transpired since:

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