Maximum Realistic Territorial Gains for Israel in 1948-1949?

Out of curiosity--what was the maximum realistic territorial gains which Israel could have gotten in its 1948-1949 war with several Arab states?
 
The war stopped with Israelis "winning", if the imposed cease fire had been a little later the Israelis might have much more if not all of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas, random bits of the west bank. Those were all in the Palestine Mandate. Perhaps some of Gaza as well. Taking bits of Syria (Golan), TransJordan (Aqaba), or Egypt (some of the Sinai) might have be militarily possible had the conflict continued a little longer, the politics of the Jews taking territory belonging to another sovereign state as opposed to a bigger piece of the Mandate pie would be very tricky. There would be a lot of pushback from those who supported Israel, and I doubt the Israelis would have attempted to take territory they knew they'd have to give back. Temporarily holding some bits of "foreign" territory pending an armistice or some formal agreement is possible, but outright incorporation, which would have been the fate of any Mandatory territory unlikely.

The Israeli position on the post war lines was that the Arabs had rejected the partition plan, and now that they had lost militarily asking for a return to those lines was a non-starter.
 
Battle of Latrun...

The easiest way for the Israelis to end up with much more land, including perhaps all of Jerusalem would be for the Battle of Latrun (actually spread out of a couple of months) to be won by the Israelis.
 

TinyTartar

Banned
They probably could have taken the rest of Jerusalem had the war kept going, and I think were in a position to make a move on modern day Gush Etzion and the southern West Bank.

They could have militarily taken the Sinai peninsula I think if they do separate peaces, but not keep it. Gaza is a possibility as well.

I don't think they could have taken much of anything militarily east of the Jordan, nor the Golan heights.

Politically speaking, anything outside of the mandate is going to be a big problem.
 
Sinai

They could not take Sinai as the Brits were making noises to activate the Anglo Egyptian tdefense pact over the few miles of Sinai that the Israelis actually conquered and ultimately gave back.the battle of Latrun turning out better would have probably lead to the conquest of Jerusalem and probably Bethlehem.
 
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