Arab-Israeli Wars
The Rabinnovich article titled 'Seven Wars and a Peace Treaty',gives
a
chronological background of wars made between Arabs and Israeli's after
the
birth of Israeli state. I: First War;1948-1949 The Israeli's reffered
this war
as the war of Independence.It had two distinct phases.It first begun
in 1947
after UN resolution on the partition of Palestine.The resolution was
accepted by
the 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 the
full-fledged strife that was bound to folow te evacuation of
British forces.As a
result,much of fighting was mainly over the control of
roads and the mixed
cities. After Israeli's declaration of
independence,Egypt,Lebanon,Iraq,Syria and
Jordan invaded Palestine to
help Palestinian Arabs.This war lasted eight
months.Israel Defence Forces
(IDF) a formal army,fought with 5 arab states
armies. By December 1948,it was
clear that Israel had won the war.Egyptian army
was advanced well into
Sinai.Lebanese army was pushed back to its borders and
Israelis captured
part of South Lebanon.Syrian army was forced to retreat to a
line
corresponding,to the pre 1948 international boundary.Those zones
became
demilitarized.The war ended with Jordan in control of what became
West
Bank.Iraqi army played a minor role,ts major role was pushing the
Arab League to
intervene in the war. But how could Israel succeed? It enjoyed
the benefit of
coherent leadership,whose impact was magnified by David
Ben-Gurion's ability to
integrate military and politiical elements into
comphrensive strategy.Israel was
predicted on social and political structures
of its own long before.Later in the
war,it obtained arms and turneits early
military disadvantages into
advantages.Soviet assistance to Israel was one
reflection of the international
dimension 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 had
reaffirmed.So Palestine refugee
problem was created.It was humuliating for
Arabs. 2. THE SINAI-SUEZ
CAMPAIGN WAR;OCTOBER 1956 1950's the antiagonism of the
states was expressed
in the means of politic,economics and military acts.The
Arab boycott,the
closure of Gulf of Tiran and Suez Canal to Israel shipping can
be shown as
such examples. Arabs designed a full-scale war to undo the
consequences of
1948-1949 war and destroy Israeli state.For Israel, it would be
a 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
of
Nasser,who was a pan-Arabist leader,a friend of Soviet Union,It was
the
firestarter of struggles against Israel. There were waves of raids
organized by
Palestinian groupings from Gaza Strip and West Bank against
Israel.Nasse created
a tripartite military pact among Egypt,Syria and Jordan.
Nationalization of Suez
canal and Britain's evacuation from the place
increased the influence of Egypt
over Syria and Jordan.Nasser's attack on the
remnants of of Britain and France's
colonial empires had an important effect
too.So France and Israeli alience was
formed.Briatin and France wanted to
save their position in the region.So In
Ocober 1956,in collusion with
Britain and France,Israel attacked Egypt. Iasrael
believed its was waging a
defensive war,Arabs were becoming belligerent.So she
decided to launch the
Sinai campaign,to reach Suez Canal,to destroy Egyptian
Army in the Sinai
and to capture Sharm el Sheikh,the point at the southern tip
of the Sinai
Peninsula dominating the Tiran strait.By reaching the Suez
Canal,they
would pave the way for the Britain and France to launch their own
military
operation. Although they were thwarled by USA and SU, Israel evacuated
the
Sinai and the Gaza Strip in 1957( later in return for security
arrangements
made by the Eisenhower adminitration.) Nasser turned this
military defeat into
political victory.Sinai was to be demilitarized and to
be held by a limited
Egyptian power in case of any surprise
attack.Also,UN forces were to be settled
in the Gaza Strip,along Sinai and
Sharm el-Sheikh. This war showed Israel's
impressive military capability,it
contributed to the consolidation of its
regional and international
standing.But Nasser did not take any lessons,he
started another war.He rested
on the advantage of an Egyptian and arab militay
build up,a sufficiant
measuere of Arab cooperation to permit the formation of a
single arab around
Israel and Israel's international isolation. 3. THE SIX DAYS
WAR;JUNE
5-10 1967 Soviet Union felt USA was trying to topple Syrian Baath
Party
regime and isolate Nasser,led it to the extend an unsual degree of
support to
Syria and to feed the Egyptians false information concerning
Israel plan to
attack Syria.Nasser wanted to gain prestige where he lost in
the preview was
with Israel,it was also going to take revenge.Plo was trying
establish its
presence and it playeda small role in contributing the war. The
outbreak of the
war was bit conflicting,The arabs wanted Israel to be the
agressor.So they were
escalating the problems.For example,Egypt blocaded the
Tiran
strait,remilitarized Sinai and evacuated the UN forces from here. Even
USA
government reached a conclusion that there was no political solution to
the
crisi and Israel military action was inevitable.It was an important
development
in the Israel government taking reassurance from USA. Israel
sought to achieve a
number of purposes to retain a element of surprise,to
deal with what was
percieved as the major threat namely the Egyptian military
build up in the
Sinai,to accompion that within a short period of timr and
to limit the scope of
the war. As a result,the war took six days.It was a
watershed in the history of
Arab Israeli conflict.It led the creation of
an arms race and military buildup
on an entirely different level.Another
importatnt result of the war was the
renewal of the war for Palestine.Since
1948,there was one authority in control
for Palestinian Arabs in West
Bank.Israel's posesssion of West Bank,regenerated
nationalism,PLO won its
autonomy. The unanswered porblem between Israel and
Syria emerged after
this war;it was the 'Golan Heights'.Arabs were once again
humuliated,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
the
occupied areas from the previous wars as tools for peace settlement. But
Arabs
were not favour to this,they wanted to punish Israel because it was
the
agressior and peace was a reward.They came together in August 1967
Khartoum
Summ't Conferance and decided on their wellknown three nos to
Israel. They even
went 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 to
launch a war of attrition against Israel ,
Jordan Syria and PLO was supporting
too. They were thinking that Israel was
either not capable or not interested in
launching a war on their challenge.
After the increased shelling and
ambushes,Israel decided to change its
attitude;it was relying on its air
force.Besides Israel launched commando
raids on Egypt . Egypt collobrated with
Soviet ground to air missile and
planes were deployed in Egypt. Finally US
Secratary of state W. Rogers
come with a plan that resulted with a cease fire
agreement. In August
1970,they were pozitive to have a ceasefire,because both
sides suffered alot
. Throught this period PLO got permission from King Hussein
to turn Jordan
territory into a base of operation against Israel. It was also
backed by many
Arabs states. 5. THE OCTOBER WAR (OCTOBER 5- 22 1973) This war is
also called
th Ramadan War by Egyptians,and Yum Kipur War by Israelis. Th
detante period
was going on between the super powers,and this period was in
favor of Israel
establishing good relations.Sadat came to power after the death
of Nasser and
his plan was posing a limited war against Israel in cooperation
with
Syria.This was consisted of the crossing of the Suez Canal and control of
its
western bank and Syria to open a front in Golan Heights.In order to
their
plan,Egypt launched a surprise attact,ghypt crossed Sinai.so this time
Israel
crossed The Suez Canal before Egypt,then pushed a counterattack on
Syria in Glan
Heights.Egypt wanted to continiue the war but Syria wanted
to take passive
stance.By the way,Soviet was supporting Egypt.But in the end
of the war the was
no no conclusion.Israel gained some more territory,it
advanced its position no
more than 60 miles to Cairo.But Egypt Forces were in
control of the most of the
west bank of Suez Canal.But Israel had several
problems too;decline of
government,high economic and financial costs of war
and most importantly
increase of the the Arab world's internatonal effects.
6. THE ARAB ISRAELI
SETTLEMENT After the October war,Egypt started asking
itself could and should
Egypt continue participating in this Arab-Israeli
conflict.Because it was
imporeristed and became depent on other rich Arab
states. In November 1973,The
Algiers summit,introduced two conditions for
a political settlement with
Israel.These were the returning of all the
territories captured in 1967 and
restoring of legitmate rights of the
Palestinians. Egypt was willing to
gofurther to regain Sinai.Both Egypt and
Syria signed disengagement agreements
with Israel. By 1977,Sadat felt that
PLO and Syria were following an
obstructionist cause that would prevent Egypt
to get back Sinai,so he went to
Jerusalem and conducted bilateral
relations with Israel.In return,Begin came to
Egypt,Ismailia.America was
trying to mediate for more beneficial peace
settlements.In 1978,president
Carter invited both leaders to Camp David .Israel
agreed that Palestinians
had legitmate national rights.Camp Davidproduced two
more agreements.One was
dealing with a Israeli Egyptian peace treaty and the
second was specifying a
five years period of autonomy for Palestians of the West
Bank and Gaza
with local representatives. They could not brind any solution
to
Palestinian question but showed that political process could bring
them
improvements.This was the first Arab-Israeli peace agreement. 7. THE WAR
IN
LEBANON JUNE 1982-SEPTEMBER 1982 This war was the first war between
Israelis and
Palestinians after the war of 1948-1949. Israel aimed to
destory PLO military
infrastructura nd their presence in Southern Lebanon,to
eliminate their capacity
to shell northern Israel.It also aimed to help
Lebanese State (radical maronite
christians) to establish an effective
centarlized government,to improve its
posture in the next phase of
Arab-Israeli settlement processby destroying the
PLO's autonomous
territorial base in Lebanon forming a normal relations with a
second Arab
state. So in June 1982,Israel invaded Beirut.PLO had to retreat to
other arab
states.Israel took control of Southern Lebanon.In the mean time,
Bashir
Jumayyil (the leadet which Israel favored) was assasinated.Then his
brother
came to power,but he was not as pro-Israel as he thought,so this
was
infavorable for Israel. As a result ,in may 1983, an agreement wa signed
between
Israel and Lebanon arranging Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in
return of
normalization and for security arrangements in Lebanon. Israel
declared that the
foreign forces should leave Lebanon but Syria was not
evacuating and also
preassuring the new established Lebanese state,also was
rejecting the agreement.
As a result war in Lebanon unfolded in two
stages from September 1982 to June
1985; and from June 1985 to the end of
the decade. During the first stage the
Lebanese problem became a regional
issue; so Arab -Israeli coflict was in fact
suspended. The new Israeli
government in 1985 led by Labor party was supported
by US in its
neghotiations with Jordan.In the same time PLO started taking a
stand in
Jordan so the negotiations failed After this ;Intifada started because
of the
fact that PLO' headquarter had to move from Lebanon these people
mobilized
the Wests Bankers and Gazzans. Syrian- Israeli was a bit
reduced;but
Syria still had the Soviet support.Till the end of 1980's
relations continued
with an expecation of a new war.