Charlie:
Since you mentioned it: no, the Zionists were wrong to fight in Yerushalayim during the war. Had the Zionists stayed out of Yerushalayim, which was to become an international city, Jordan would not have entered the war as agreed with the UN and there would have been no fight.
As to your claim that “Arab rashaim who would have killed every Jew, Zionist or not”, it is the Zionists who shot at the Rabbanim who tried to surrender to the Arabs against the wishes of the invading Zionists rather than have the Zionists wrongly and needlessly sacrifice more Jewish blood for their Zionist war.
To the point: Jews were able to daven at the kosel prior to the Zionist invasion of E”Y in the early-to-mid 1900s. In fact, the Chevron Massacre occurred because the “Religious Zionists” insisted on controlling the Kosel rather than listening to Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld who begged them to be grateful that the Arabs didn’t stop the Jews from davening at the Kosel and to not antagonize the Arabs by insisting on Zionist control of the Kosel, back in 1929.
The “Religious Zionists” didn’t care and, ultimately, the Arabs murdered the non-Zionist innocent Yeshiva students as a result.
Again, Jews were able to daven at the Kosel prior to 1948 and it was the Zionists who caused them to lose that access.