In 1920 the region of Tel-Hai in northern Palestine saw large-scale attacks by Arab bands against Jewish settlements. In one of these battles the Jews lost Josef Trumpeldor, one of the founders of the Jewish Legion and the only Jew ever to win a commission in the Czar of Russia’s army. The need for a larger Jewish defense organization became apparent. A new group called the Hagana (Hebrew for"defense")replaced Hashomer. Hagana members were trained in the use of small arms and unit warfare;some of the arms were bought in vienna. As usual after a war, these were surplus military weapons of the period—the Austrian 1907 Roth-Steyr 8mm pistol, the 1912 Steyr 9mm pistol, and The Austrian 1888/90 8mm straight pull rifle and the Austrian Schwarzlose 8mm machine gun M07/12 were also used by the Hagana.
“Our task is not to kill, but to defend ourselves,” Became the motto of the Hagana. Havalagah (restraint)described the mood that prevailed among these settlers, who could best be described as “reluctant warriors.”
In 1929 disturbances broke out once again. After a 7-year period of relative peace, Arab mobs incited by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem attacked isolated Jewish settlements. It soon became aparen to the Hagana high command that their forces would have to be quickly expanded to meet the new challenge. The country was then divided into 20 regional centers, each commanded by a trained officer, to furnish needed protection to the isolated settlements. Special training courses for officers were immediately instituted to enable he Haganah to cope with the new situation. Since light arms continued to be bought from many sources, ammunition supply became a nightmare. Pistols, for example, ranged from the lowly 22 rimfire to the 455. Extablishment of secret underground workshops to make small arms, components and ammunition relieved this problem to a certain extent.
