Haganah

The Haganah is founded after the Tel Hai and Jerusalem attacks as the Yishuv's general defensive militia, organized under the labor movement and the Jewish Agency rather than any single settlement. For most of its history it operates under a doctrine of havlagah, restraint — defending communities and convoys without initiating reprisals — which its critics consider passivity and its leaders consider political necessity under British rule. It develops in stages from a loose network of local guards into a real army: the field companies of the 1930s, cooperation with the British during the Arab Revolt under Orde Wingate, the Jewish Brigade in the Second World War, illegal arms manufacture, and the organization of clandestine immigration. On 31 May 1948 it is converted by law into the Israel Defense Forces, and its command structure, doctrine, and senior officers become those of the new state's army.