The of Independence.It had two distinct phases.It

The of Independence.It had two distinct phases.It

The Rabinnovich article titled ‘Seven Wars and a Peace Treaty’,gives achronological background of wars made between Arabs and Israeli’s after thebirth of Israeli state. I: First War;1948-1949 The Israeli’s reffered this waras the war of Independence.It had two distinct phases.It first begun in 1947after UN resolution on the partition of Palestine.The resolution was accepted bythe Jewish community,but Arabs rejected.The result was a civil war.Until May 15,1948 th two feuding communities tried to predispose the outcome of thefull-fledged strife that was bound to folow te evacuation of British forces.

As aresult,much of fighting was mainly over the control of roads and the mixedcities. After Israeli’s declaration of independence,Egypt,Lebanon,Iraq,Syria andJordan invaded Palestine to help Palestinian Arabs.This war lasted eightmonths.Israel Defence Forces (IDF) a formal army,fought with 5 arab statesarmies. By December 1948,it was clear that Israel had won the war.

We Will Write a Custom Essay Specifically
For You For Only $13.90/page!


order now

Egyptian armywas advanced well into Sinai.Lebanese army was pushed back to its borders andIsraelis captured part of South Lebanon.Syrian army was forced to retreat to aline corresponding,to the pre 1948 international boundary.Those zones becamedemilitarized.The war ended with Jordan in control of what became WestBank.

Iraqi army played a minor role,ts major role was pushing the Arab League tointervene in the war. But how could Israel succeed? It enjoyed the benefit ofcoherent leadership,whose impact was magnified by David Ben-Gurion’s ability tointegrate military and politiical elements into comphrensive strategy.Israel waspredicted on social and political structures of its own long before.Later in thewar,it obtained arms and turneits early military disadvantages intoadvantages.Soviet assistance to Israel was one reflection of the internationaldimension of the war.By helping Israel,Moscow hoped to disturb the status quo.In the end of the war,Israel had larger area than the UN partition solution hadreaffirmed.

So Palestine refugee problem was created.It was humuliating forArabs. 2.

THE SINAI-SUEZ CAMPAIGN WAR;OCTOBER 1956 1950’s the antiagonism of thestates was expressed in the means of politic,economics and military acts.TheArab boycott,the closure of Gulf of Tiran and Suez Canal to Israel shipping canbe shown as such examples. Arabs designed a full-scale war to undo theconsequences of 1948-1949 war and destroy Israeli state.For Israel, it would bea limited war,just to stregethen its position and anticipate Aon an arab attack.In the mean time Egypt was growing to be a regional power under the rule ofNasser,who was a pan-Arabist leader,a friend of Soviet Union,It was thefirestarter of struggles against Israel.

There were waves of raids organized byPalestinian groupings from Gaza Strip and West Bank against Israel.Nasse createda tripartite military pact among Egypt,Syria and Jordan. Nationalization of Suezcanal and Britain’s evacuation from the place increased the influence of Egyptover Syria and Jordan.Nasser’s attack on the remnants of of Britain and France’scolonial empires had an important effect too.So France and Israeli alience wasformed.

Briatin and France wanted to save their position in the region.So InOcober 1956,in collusion with Britain and France,Israel attacked Egypt. Iasraelbelieved its was waging a defensive war,Arabs were becoming belligerent.So shedecided to launch the Sinai campaign,to reach Suez Canal,to destroy EgyptianArmy in the Sinai and to capture Sharm el Sheikh,the point at the southern tipof the Sinai Peninsula dominating the Tiran strait.By reaching the SuezCanal,they would pave the way for the Britain and France to launch their ownmilitary operation. Although they were thwarled by USA and SU, Israel evacuatedthe Sinai and the Gaza Strip in 1957( later in return for security arrangementsmade by the Eisenhower adminitration.) Nasser turned this military defeat intopolitical victory.

Sinai was to be demilitarized and to be held by a limitedEgyptian power in case of any surprise attack.Also,UN forces were to be settledin the Gaza Strip,along Sinai and Sharm el-Sheikh. This war showed Israel’simpressive military capability,it contributed to the consolidation of itsregional and international standing.

But Nasser did not take any lessons,hestarted another war.He rested on the advantage of an Egyptian and arab militaybuild up,a sufficiant measuere of Arab cooperation to permit the formation of asingle arab around Israel and Israel’s international isolation. 3.

THE SIX DAYSWAR;JUNE 5-10 1967 Soviet Union felt USA was trying to topple Syrian Baath Partyregime and isolate Nasser,led it to the extend an unsual degree of support toSyria and to feed the Egyptians false information concerning Israel plan toattack Syria.Nasser wanted to gain prestige where he lost in the preview waswith Israel,it was also going to take revenge.Plo was trying establish itspresence and it playeda small role in contributing the war. The outbreak of thewar was bit conflicting,The arabs wanted Israel to be the agressor.So they wereescalating the problems.For example,Egypt blocaded the Tiranstrait,remilitarized Sinai and evacuated the UN forces from here.

Even USAgovernment reached a conclusion that there was no political solution to thecrisi and Israel military action was inevitable.It was an important developmentin the Israel government taking reassurance from USA. Israel sought to achieve anumber of purposes to retain a element of surprise,to deal with what waspercieved as the major threat namely the Egyptian military build up in theSinai,to accompion that within a short period of timr and to limit the scope ofthe war. As a result,the war took six days.It was a watershed in the history ofArab Israeli conflict.

It led the creation of an arms race and military buildupon an entirely different level.Another importatnt result of the war was therenewal of the war for Palestine.Since 1948,there was one authority in controlfor Palestinian Arabs in West Bank.Israel’s posesssion of West Bank,regeneratednationalism,PLO won its autonomy. The unanswered porblem between Israel andSyria emerged after this war;it was the ‘Golan Heights’.

Arabs were once againhumuliated,they understood that Israel could not be defeated by them in the war.4.THE WAR OR ATTRITION, DECEMBER 1968- AUGUST 1970 Israel wanted to use theoccupied areas from the previous wars as tools for peace settlement.

But Arabswere not favour to this,they wanted to punish Israel because it was theagressior and peace was a reward.They came together in August 1967 KhartoumSumm’t Conferance and decided on their wellknown three nos to Israel. They evenwent to complain to Security Council of UN ,but they could not make any headway.So next year Nasser realised that this stalemate was detrimental,and decided tolaunch a war of attrition against Israel , Jordan Syria and PLO was supportingtoo. They were thinking that Israel was either not capable or not interested inlaunching a war on their challenge.

After the increased shelling andambushes,Israel decided to change its attitude;it was relying on its airforce.Besides Israel launched commando raids on Egypt . Egypt collobrated withSoviet ground to air missile and planes were deployed in Egypt. Finally USSecratary of state W. Rogers come with a plan that resulted with a cease fireagreement.

In August 1970,they were pozitive to have a ceasefire,because bothsides suffered alot . Throught this period PLO got permission from King Husseinto turn Jordan territory into a base of operation against Israel. It was alsobacked by many Arabs states. 5. THE OCTOBER WAR (OCTOBER 5- 22 1973) This war isalso called th Ramadan War by Egyptians,and Yum Kipur War by Israelis. Thdetante period was going on between the super powers,and this period was infavor of Israel establishing good relations.

Sadat came to power after the deathof Nasser and his plan was posing a limited war against Israel in cooperationwith Syria.This was consisted of the crossing of the Suez Canal and control ofits western bank and Syria to open a front in Golan Heights.In order to theirplan,Egypt launched a surprise attact,ghypt crossed Sinai.

so this time Israelcrossed The Suez Canal before Egypt,then pushed a counterattack on Syria in GlanHeights.Egypt wanted to continiue the war but Syria wanted to take passivestance.By the way,Soviet was supporting Egypt.But in the end of the war the wasno no conclusion.

Israel gained some more territory,it advanced its position nomore than 60 miles to Cairo.But Egypt Forces were in control of the most of thewest bank of Suez Canal.But Israel had several problems too;decline ofgovernment,high economic and financial costs of war and most importantlyincrease of the the Arab world’s internatonal effects. 6. THE ARAB ISRAELISETTLEMENT After the October war,Egypt started asking itself could and shouldEgypt continue participating in this Arab-Israeli conflict.

Because it wasimporeristed and became depent on other rich Arab states. In November 1973,TheAlgiers summit,introduced two conditions for a political settlement withIsrael.These were the returning of all the territories captured in 1967 andrestoring of legitmate rights of the Palestinians.

Egypt was willing togofurther to regain Sinai.Both Egypt and Syria signed disengagement agreementswith Israel. By 1977,Sadat felt that PLO and Syria were following anobstructionist cause that would prevent Egypt to get back Sinai,so he went toJerusalem and conducted bilateral relations with Israel.In return,Begin came toEgypt,Ismailia.America was trying to mediate for more beneficial peacesettlements.In 1978,president Carter invited both leaders to Camp David .

Israelagreed that Palestinians had legitmate national rights.Camp Davidproduced twomore agreements.One was dealing with a Israeli Egyptian peace treaty and thesecond was specifying a five years period of autonomy for Palestians of the WestBank and Gaza with local representatives.

They could not brind any solution toPalestinian question but showed that political process could bring themimprovements.This was the first Arab-Israeli peace agreement. 7. THE WAR INLEBANON JUNE 1982-SEPTEMBER 1982 This war was the first war between Israelis andPalestinians after the war of 1948-1949. Israel aimed to destory PLO militaryinfrastructura nd their presence in Southern Lebanon,to eliminate their capacityto shell northern Israel.It also aimed to help Lebanese State (radical maronitechristians) to establish an effective centarlized government,to improve itsposture in the next phase of Arab-Israeli settlement processby destroying thePLO’s autonomous territorial base in Lebanon forming a normal relations with asecond Arab state.

So in June 1982,Israel invaded Beirut.PLO had to retreat toother arab states.Israel took control of Southern Lebanon.In the mean time,Bashir Jumayyil (the leadet which Israel favored) was assasinated.Then hisbrother came to power,but he was not as pro-Israel as he thought,so this wasinfavorable for Israel.

As a result ,in may 1983, an agreement wa signed betweenIsrael and Lebanon arranging Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in return ofnormalization and for security arrangements in Lebanon. Israel declared that theforeign forces should leave Lebanon but Syria was not evacuating and alsopreassuring the new established Lebanese state,also was rejecting the agreement.As a result war in Lebanon unfolded in two stages from September 1982 to June1985; and from June 1985 to the end of the decade. During the first stage theLebanese problem became a regional issue; so Arab -Israeli coflict was in factsuspended.

The new Israeli government in 1985 led by Labor party was supportedby US in its neghotiations with Jordan.In the same time PLO started taking astand in Jordan so the negotiations failed After this ;Intifada started becauseof the fact that PLO’ headquarter had to move from Lebanon these peoplemobilized the Wests Bankers and Gazzans. Syrian- Israeli was a bit reduced;butSyria still had the Soviet support.Till the end of 1980’s relations continuedwith an expecation of a new war.

No Comments

Add your comment

x

Hi!
I'm Alfred!

We can help in obtaining an essay which suits your individual requirements. What do you think?

Check it out