 On one side , the opponents of Ben @-@ Gurion attacked his " moral authority " . They said that the intrusion into Latrun by the " scum of the earth " immigrants who died had changed the situation for the worse . And the number of victims , and the proportion of immigrants , inflated in the narratives : from " several hundreds of dead " to " 500 to 700 dead and even " 1 @,@ 000 to 2 @,@ 000 dead " . The proportion of immigrants making up this total of victims was up to 75 % . His opponents accused Ben @-@ Gurion of wanting to take out the myth of the " invincible Arab Legion " and to justify the abandonment of the city of David to Abdallah . ( Anita Shapira considers this story to be at the origin of the theory of Avi Shlaim who brought forth what she considers as the myth of the collusion between Ben @-@ Gurion and Abdallah . ) On the other side , those supporting Ben @-@ Gurion put everything to advance the case of the " historic sacrifice " by the immigrants , laying the failure to their poor training . 
