Sixty-five Ex-GI’s in Haganah, United Press, NY Times, Jan. 20, 1948.

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JERUSALEM, Jan. 19 (UP)-The Jewish Agency for Palestine said today that sixty-five Americans attending school in Palestine under the GI Bill of Rights had enlisted in the Haganah.

The commander of the Haganah, a former colonel in the British Army, said at a secret headquarters that his troops “dominate every road, every path leading in and out of Jaffa” and would cut off and hold as hostages 100,000 Arabs if there was any massacre of Jews in isolated settlements in the north or south.

The commander said that the Jews were preparing for a war of at least a year with the Arabs but that the fighting would probably last three or four years.

A masked band of members of Irgun Zvai Leumi, terrorist organization, robbed the Maspero cigarette factory, near Tel Aviv, of 2,000,000 cigarettes in daylight. Members of the Haganah tracked the trucks down and, after what was described as a “fist fight,” took 1,500,000 cigarettes and carried them back to the factory.