Israel's friends like to say that the combined Arab nations all attacked Israel as soon as she declared her independence. But it is not quite true: they attacked much earlier than that, and the between the time of the UN Partition decision and May, 1948, the Arabs already started attacking Jews all the while gearing up for the much larger war to come. And the British pretty much gave up on any pretense of protecting the Jewish citizens of Palestine.
Iraq wanted to position it's troops in Transjordan:
Arabs attacked and burned Jewish homes, murdering women and kidnapping babies:
Jews lived together with the enemy - no wall, no security, and no interest by the British to keep the peace. At any moment there could be sniper fire, and many Jews were killed just doing their normal day-to-day activities.
The Arab countries continued to criticize the Partition plan but were confident of their ability to kill the Jews who actually thought they had a right to live in peace in the land of Israel - making it a religious obligation to join the war against the Jews: (page 2)
So the time period between Partition and independence was hardly peaceful. The war already started, and it was by no means clear (within a few years of the Holocaust) that any Jews would survive, let alone that Israel would win.