Palmach

The Palmach is established in May 1941 under Yitzhak Sadeh as the Haganah's permanent mobilized strike force, created in cooperation with the British when a German advance through North Africa toward the British-ruled Land of Israel appears likely. Because the Yishuv cannot fund a standing army, its fighters live and train on kibbutzim, working part of each month to pay for their own service, which gives the force an unusually egalitarian and ideologically socialist character. It develops the Yishuv's elite capabilities, including commando raids, sabotage, the naval unit (Palyam) and the air unit, and the Arabic-speaking undercover Mista'arvim, and plays the decisive role in the critical battles of 1948, including opening the road to Jerusalem with its Harel Brigade. Ben-Gurion dissolves its independent command in late 1948, unwilling to allow a politically distinct force inside the national army, and the decision remains one of the era's rawest controversies.