Partial list of operations for Unit 101

Unit 101's operations (including those of Unit 202, which followed Unit 101, and Paratroop Battalion 890, which was born after Dayan merged the paratroops with the original Unit 101 commandos) included:

• Nebi Samuel - The operation to detonate Mustafa Samueli's house
• Hebron raid
• Jordanian Legion raid - Azun
• Kuntila
• Egyptian post at Kissufim
• Egyptian HQ - Gaza
• Alei Zait (Olive Leaf) - Syrian posts east of the Kinneret
• Khan Yunis
• Kibeyeh
• Sabha - capture of Egyptian compounds
• Kalkiliya

Source: Bar-Zohar, Michael, and the Israeli Ministry of Defence Publishing House. Lionhearts: Heroes of Israel. New York, 2002.

Meir Har-Zion

"The most outstanding paratrooper at the time was Meir Har-Zion. Meir came to us when Unit 101 was established. He had been a corporal in the Nahal who could not find peace there for his stormy spirit, for his desire to be active, for his belief that we must and could find a way to overcome the Arab terrorist activity. Within a short time he became the most daring fighter in Unit 101 and in the paratroopers, and an excellent scout, perhaps the best that the IDF has ever known.

He outshone the others by far in leadership qualities. His achievements in the battlefield were many. He commanded several operations himself, and played a major role in others. Meir Har-Zion became a symbol of a fighter in the paratroop units and in the army as a whole."

- Ariel Sharon

Source: Bar-Zohar, Michael, and the Israeli Ministry of Defence Publishing House. Lionhearts: Heroes of Israel. New York, 1998.

The commandos

The most prominent commando to emerge from Unit 101 - other than Sharon himself - joined the unit's ranks at the age of nineteen. He took his name from the mountain the ancient City of David stands on - Mount Zion.

"There are few fighters who have influenced the spirit and the fighting methods of a whole army over a period of several years. One of these fighters is Meir Har-Zion. Through his leadership, his determination, and his actions during the days of the courageous reprisal raids of the IDF during the 1950s, Meir Har-Zion contributed greatly to the revolutionary change not only in the army's approach to special operations, but also in its fighting spirit.

There are fighters who shine in one battle. There are legendary commanders who have excelled in one war. Meir Har-Zion is a fighter and a commander of an era. From 1953 to 1956 he fought as a soldier and as an officer, leading scores of operations, from which he returned only after they were sucessfully completed."

- Ariel Sharon

Source: Bar-Zohar, Michael (editor). Lionhearts: Heroes of Israel. Michael Bar-Zohar and the Israeli Ministry of Defence Publishing House, New York. 1998.

Aims of future posts

The background should by now be fairly evident for Israel in the early 1950s. Distended by swarms of largely illiterate, non-Hebrew speaking immigrants, many of whom were very young, the new nation found itself without a formal army capable of stemming the lawlessness and terror occurring daily on its borders. The solution was Unit 101. Questions to be addressed in future posts include:

• Who were the commandos in Unit 101?
• What operations did the unit conduct?
• What tactics, strategy, equipment, and training did the men learn, undergo, and use?
• What political and military aims did the operations have?
• What impact did they have on the citizens of Israel? Were the operations successful, both in the near-term and in the short-term?
• What impact did they have on the Arab population?
• How did they influence Zahal (the Israeli Defence Force) today?

Jewish and Arab populations at partition time

"By the mid-1890s - only a dozen years after the beginning of the First Aliyah - Jews were becoming an important part of the ethnic and religious mix of Palestine, especially in the area eventually partitioned by the United Nations for a Jewish state in 1947. At the time of the partition, there was a clear Jewish majority in the area (538,000 Jews and 397,000 Arabs, emphasis mine)...without any doubt, there was already a significant Jewish presence in that area (what is now central Israel) before the beginning of the twentieth century."

Source: Dershowitz, Alan. The Case for Israel. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2003.

Palestinian refugee camps (1993)

The UN partition plan to separate Palestine into Jewish and Arab states in 1949 dispossessed thousands of Palestinians from the homes they had inhabited before the mandate. Since the birth of the official state of Israel in 1948, many of the children of Ishmael have languished in camps in Tyre, Sidon and Beirut, to the north; along the West bank and the Gaza Strip; and, since 1967, in the interior of the land in Jordan. According to 2002 census figures, the total Palestinian refugee population was 3.9 million, over 1 million of whom live in camps.