The Arabs set off a truck bomb at Ben Yehuda Street, and Jews took out their anger on the British. It was becoming clear that the British had lost control in Palestine. To end the violence, the US State Dept proposed a new Trusteeship plan, and to abandon the Partition plan, which would have given the Jews an independent state.

Violence between Jews and Arabs continued through the month of January, 1948. Jewish leaders apologized for the Semiramis Hotel bombing, but the Irgun set off a bomb at Jaffa Gate, and Arabs blew up the Palestine Post newspaper building. Did this bombing play a part in getting the Dead Sea Scrolls out of the war zone?

The war between Jews and Arabs continued, and just as Jerusalem was cut off from the rest of the Jewish settlement, so the Jewish Quarter of the Old City was being cut off from Jerusalem. Jews tried to drive Arabs out of their neighborhoods, and even blew up the Semiramis Hotel to drive Arabs out of Katamon.