Introduction

Armed struggle is hardly a new phenomenon in Palestine. Indeed, for millennia men have turned to violence in order to satisfy their claims and ambitions in the area. Support from the Turks was crucial in view of the fact that permission for the emigration of a large number of Jews to Palestine was considered a sine qua non for success, given the Arab majority in the area. During the many centuries which spanned the pre-Christian era, Palestine was the scene of continual clashes between decaying and newly emergent empires. The Jewish nationalist movement received its initial impetus from members of the diaspora in Europe at the end of the nineteenth century. Despite the desperate circumstances of the Palestinians after the 1948 war, the fires of Palestinian nationalism still flickered. The magnitude of the defeat suffered by the Arab armies led Palestinian leaders to once again question the feasibility of conventional combat against Israeli forces.