1948: A History Of The First Arab-Israeli War By Benny Morris -- A Book Review And Links To Other Books

From The Times Online:

Between 1945 and 1948, the British government deployed 100,000 troops in a hopeless struggle to arbitrate between Arab residents and Jewish settlers in Palestine, under the terms of a League of Nations mandate. The commitment cost Britain, which was broke, £200m. In 1947, 60 British soldiers died there and 189 were wounded, victims, mostly, of Jewish terrorism. The following year, 114 were killed and 230 wounded.

Britain was reluctant to support the Zionist campaign for statehood, not least because of the damage such an outcome would inflict upon its standing in the Arab Middle East. But the burden of half-hearted refereeing was intolerable. When the Soviet Union amazed everyone by joining America to support the establishment of a Jewish state, the British threw up their hands. They agreed to surrender their mandate on May 15, 1948.

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Additional books on the Israeli / Arab conflict (during this period) can be freely downloaded from Bookyards. They are the following:

Arab And Israeli Conflict From 1951 To 1955 by E. H. Hutchison
Arab World Past Present And Future by Nejla Izzeddin
Arabs And The West by Clare Hollingworth
Backdrop To Tragedy The Struggle For Palestine by William R. Polk
Background Of The Middle East 1952 by Ernest Jack
Bridgehead The Drama Of Israel 1957 by J. Franke
Early Israel And The Surrounding Nations by Archibald Sayce
First Ten Years A Diplomatic History Of Israel by Walter Eytan
Israel The Establishment Of A State by Harry Sacher
Middle East In Crisis 1959 by Carol A. Fisher