Here’s Wikipedia for background:
The Battle of Nitzanim was a battle fought between the Israel Defense Forces and the Egyptian Army in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, on June 7, 1948 (29 Iyar, 5708 in the Hebrew calendar). It was the first major Egyptian victory of the war, and one of the few cases of Israeli surrender.
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Israelis viewed the surrender of Nitzanim as a humiliation, especially after the Givati Brigade published a leaflet denouncing the defenders. The residents of Nitzanim demanded a probe into the battle, and one was conducted by the General Staff, siding with the residents and coming to the conclusion that surrender was justified.
OK. So, why was surrender justified? And why were 33 killed, and 105 captured?
Wikipedia is far too vague:
The difficult circumstances of the battle by the residents of Nitzanim, the bitter isolation of the combatants, the lack of communication with the rear-front, lack of ammunition and food, and due to the high number of casualties in that defense, brings honor to all those who fought bitterly there, until the last bullet. What happened in Nitzanim happened also to other places, the defenders of which fought bravely to the last option.
What was so different this time? Why were they “isolated”, why the “lack of communication with the rear-front”? How come ammunition and food reinforcements weren’t replenished for 15 hours?!
Hebrew-language Wikipedia is even worse. It doesn’t even have the above paragraph.
All it says is this:
Commander Yitzchak Pundak originally critical of the surrender, spent years investigating, later learned the truth and traveled all the way to Manhatten in 2003 to apologize for firing one of the defenders of Nitzanim.
But what is that ugly truth the establishment still seems so determined to obfuscate?
The truth is, Nitzanim was on the wrong side politically. Nitzanim belonged to “No’ar Hatzioni“, and the higher-ups to “Hashomer Hatza’ir”, of course…
Enough said.
Conclusion: Criminalizing decentralized self-defense has cost us Jewish lives from the start.