Selections from classical Torah sources
which express the special relationship between
the People of Israel and Eretz Yisrael

THE CARMEL PLAN

Rusty iron rails driven into the ground in the Dania quarter of Haifa are the only reminders left of what was known as the "Carmel Plan."

These rails were supposed to have served as barriers against the tanks of Rommel's Afrika Korps quickly approaching Palestine in 1942. The plan was to turn Mount Carmel into a Masada-like mountain fortress from which the Jews of Palestine would fight to the death if the German forces broke through the last line of British resistance at El Alameen.

Although the Jewish community in Palestine forgot its differences with the British over the White Paper and joined the allied war effort (in sharp contrast to the flirtation of Haj Amin Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, with Hitler and Mussolini), the British refused to supply their Jewish allies with arms to defend themselves because they were afraid that they might not be returned. General Montgomery's forces turned back Rommel's army, and the Carmel Plan, with the help of Hashem, was never put into effect.