Voices of the Past | Yosef Trumpeldor

Diary entries and letters from Trumpeldor’s final days, 1920

January 4

Many have asked: If the French with their rifles and machine guns can’t stand up to the Arabs, how can we […]? None of us doubted the imminence of Arab attack. The question “Should we flee to Metulla?” hung in the air. But none of us dared ask it. In fact, in the brief meeting we held, we made a decision: to stay put no matter what. Not to let armed Arabs anywhere near the house. And – when the time came – to defend ourselves until the last, selling our lives as dearly as possible.

January 5

There aren’t enough armed men (there should be forty to fifty at each post). Not all those here now have guns (Tel Hai has twenty-five men and eighteen rifles; Kfar Giladi, eighteen and sixteen). Bullets – a hundred to each gun; there should be a thousand apiece, or at least five hundred. Heavier ammunition – none. Food supplies are dwindling. Even flour – so little that in a week we’ll be starving. Some have no shoes, underwear, or blankets, but how are we to get all these (or even some)? We’re convinced that our friends in the south are ready and willing to help, but is the way clear? We suppose that as long as the victory-drunk bandits are roaming the roads, getting here is dangerous. We don’t want colleagues coming to help us to fall into the Arab trap.

February 9

To the Defense Committee of [Kibbutz] Ayelet Ha-shahar

A new generation, a generation of Jews living in the land of Israel, free men, standing on the border, ready to sacrifice their lives to guard it. And there, in the interior, they’re endlessly negotiating, whether or not to agree to the budget, i.e., whether or not to help the defenders of the homeland. Hamara is no more. Metulla has almost slipped from our hands, and a terrible threat looms over Tel Hai and Kfar Giladi […]. Two graves have already been filled. Forty young people here are in danger […]. Will they continue bartering? Will help come too late? It may be too late, but they know the reckoning will come – sooner or later, but it will come.

To Zionist leaders in Jaffa

The situation in the Hula Valley is becoming more serious. Gangs of bandits roam, drunk with victory. Another fifteen people must be replaced […]. More people are required who know the language and can come to terms with our neighbors.