Editing Haganah (section)

=== Post–World War II ===
[[File:Haganah.jpg|thumb|Haganah members in training (1947)]]
[[File:Hagana Ship - Jewish State at Haifa Port (1947).jpg|thumb|Haganah ship ''Jewish State'' carrying illegal Jewish immigrants from Europe at the [[Port of Haifa|Haifa Port]] (1947)]]
The Saison officially ended when the Haganah, Irgun and the Lehi formed the [[Jewish Resistance Movement]], in 1945. Within this new framework, the three groups agreed to operate under a joint command. They had different functions, which served to drive the British out of Palestine and create a [[Jewish state]].

The Haganah was less active in the [[Jewish insurgency in Palestine|Jewish Rebellion]] than the other two groups, but the Palmach did carry out anti-British operations, including a raid on the [[Atlit detainee camp]] that released 208 illegal immigrants, the [[Night of the Trains]], the [[Night of the Bridges]], and attacks on [[Palestine Police Force|Palestine Police]] bases.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://info.palmach.org.il/show_item.asp?levelId=42858&itemId=8697&itemType=0 | title=דף הבית | access-date=2015-05-13 | archive-date=2015-05-18 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518090415/http://info.palmach.org.il/show_item.asp?levelId=42858&itemId=8697&itemType=0 | url-status=dead }}</ref> The Haganah withdrew on 1 July 1946, but "remained permanently unco-operative" with the British authorities.<ref>Horne, Edward (1982). ''A Job Well Done (Being a History of The Palestine Police Force 1920–1948)''. The Anchor Press. {{ISBN|978-0-9508367-0-6}}. pp. 272, 288, 289</ref> It continued to organize illegal Jewish immigration as part of the [[Aliyah Bet]] program, in which ships carrying illegal immigrants attempted to breach the British blockade of Palestine and land illegal immigrants on the shore (most were intercepted by the [[Royal Navy]]), and the Palmach performed operations against the British to support the illegal immigration program. The Palmach repeatedly bombed British radar stations being used to track illegal immigrant ships, and sabotaged British ships being used to deport illegal immigrants, as well as two British landing and patrol craft.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.palyam.org/English/Palyam_overview_en|title=The Palyam|website=www.palyam.org|access-date=2015-05-13|archive-date=2011-08-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817085312/http://www.palyam.org/English/Palyam_overview_en|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Palmach performed a single assassination operation in which a British official who had been judged to be excessively cruel to Jewish prisoners was shot dead.<ref>Ben-Yehuda, Nachman: ''Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice'', pp. 227–229</ref> The Haganah also organized the [[Birya affair]]. Following the expulsion of the residents of the Jewish settlement of Birya for illegal weapons possession, thousands of Jewish youth organized by the Haganah marched to the site and rebuilt the settlement. They were expelled by British shortly afterward while showing [[passive resistance]], but after they returned a third time, the British backed off and allowed them to remain.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://info.palmach.org.il/show_item.asp?levelId=42858&itemId=8724&itemType=0 | title=דף הבית | access-date=2015-05-13 | archive-date=2015-05-18 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518090323/http://info.palmach.org.il/show_item.asp?levelId=42858&itemId=8724&itemType=0 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

In addition to its operations, the Haganah continued to secretly prepare for a war with the Arabs once the British left by building up its arms and munitions stocks. It maintained a secret arms industry, with the most significant facility being an underground bullet factory underneath Ayalon, a kibbutz that had been established specifically to cover it up.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/remembrance-and-independence-2013/how-a-fake-kibbutz-was-built-to-hide-a-bullet-factory.premium-1.515584|title=How a Fake Kibbutz Was Built to Hide a Bullet Factory|first=Debra|last=Kamin|date=15 April 2013|newspaper=Haaretz}}</ref>

British estimates of the Haganah's strength at this time were a ''paper strength of 75,000 men and women'' with an effective strength of 30,000.<ref>Horne. p. 288, 289.</ref> After the British army, the Haganah was considered the most powerful military force in the Middle East.<ref>[https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21646709-what-successive-generations-learned-about-terrorism-middle-east-long-long-road The birth of Israel: Long, long road], economist.com.</ref>
Research by Amos Perlmutter estimated that the Haganah budget in 1946 was £400,000, and by October 1947 its budget had reached £3.3 million. The same source estimated that the membership of the Haganah was 7% of the Jewish population in Palestine.<ref>[[Middle East International]] No 5, August 1971, Publishers [[Christopher Mayhew|Lord Mayhew]]; Quoted by [[John Richmond (diplomat)]] p. 33</ref>

In July 1947, eager to maintain order with the visit of [[UNSCOP]] to Palestine and under heavy pressure from the British authorities to resume collaboration, the Jewish Agency reluctantly came into brief conflict with the Irgun and Lehi, and ordered the Haganah to put a stop to the operations of the other two groups for the time being. As Palmach members refused to participate, a unit of about 200 men from regular Haganah units was mobilized, and foiled several operations against the British, including a potentially devastating attack on the British military headquarters at Citrus House in Tel Aviv, in which a Haganah member was killed by an Irgun bomb. The Haganah also joined the search for two British sergeants abducted by the Irgun as hostages against the death sentences of three Irgun members in what became known as the [[The Sergeants affair|Sergeants' affair]]. The Jewish Agency leadership feared the damage this act would do to the Jewish cause, and also believed that holding the hostages would only jeopardize the fates of the three condemned Irgun members. The attempts to free the sergeants failed, and following the executions of the three Irgun members, the two sergeants were killed and hanged in a eucalyptus grove. However, the campaign soon disintegrated into a series of retaliatory abductions and beatings of each other's members by the Haganah and Irgun, and eventually petered out. The campaign was dubbed the "Little Season" by the Irgun.<ref name=Bell/><ref name=Hoffman>Hoffman, Bruce: ''Anonymous Soldiers'' (2015)</ref>