Would crushing armed Zionists actually be perceived favorably in the international community after the Holocaust, though?
Well this is why an International Mandate would be required as OTL domestic and international condemnation of fighting the Jewish terrorists made HMG reluctant to continue to carry out the Palestine Mandate.
I do know people who served out in Palestine during this time in both the British Army and Palestine Police (British Paramilitary Police) - and despite the sympathy for the Jewish people's plight I easily got the impression that they had more sympathy for the Arabs (Palestinians whatever??) than the Jewish.
They would often having acted on tip offs etc discover weapon caches and wanted terrorists - at one place they knocked down a cook house in a Jewish village and dug down many feet in order to find a large cache of guns and ammunition buried below it.
Had the will of HMG been robust enough and the backing from the UN giving them the necessary mandate then I doubt that the modern state of Israel would exist today
However as you say there was a lot of Sympathy for the Jewish peoples both in Britain and in the International community (largely I think due to the guilt of them ignoring the plight of the Jewish people in Europe before the war, particulalrly those from Germany and Czechoslovakia with many thousands being turned away etc or refused permission to immigrate) so I cannot see this happening.