Arab Israeli Conflicts
Arab Israeli ConflictsSince the United Nations partition of Palestine in 1947 and the
establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948, there have been four
major Arab-Israeli wars (1947-49, 1956, 1967, and 1973) and numerous
intermittent battles. Although Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979,
hostility between Israel and the rest of its Arab neighbors, complicated by the
demands of Palestinian Arabs, continued into the 1980s.
THE FIRST PALESTINE WAR (1947-49)
The first war began as a civil conflict between Palestinian Jews and
Arabs following the United Nations recommendation of Nov. 29, 1947, to
partition Palestine, then still under British mandate, into an Arab state and a
Jewish state. Fighting quickly spread as Arab guerrillas attacked Jewish
settlements and communication links to prevent implementation of the UN
plan.
Jewish forces prevented seizure of most settlements, but Arab
guerrillas, supported by the Transjordanian Arab Legion under the command
of British officers, besieged Jerusalem. By April, Haganah, the principal
Jewish military group, seized the offensive, scoring victories against the Arab
Liberation Army in northern Palestine, Jaffa, and Jerusalem. British military
forces withdrew to Haifa; although officially neutral, some commanders
assisted one side or the other.
After the British had departed and the state of Israel had been
established on May 15, 1948, under the guidance of David Bemgurion, the
Palestine Arab forces and foreign volunteers were joined by regular armies of
Transjordan (now the kingdom of Jordan), Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria, with
token support from Saudi Arabia. Efforts by the UN to halt the fighting were
unsuccessful until June 11, when a 4-week truce was declared. When the
Arab states refused to renew the truce, ten more days of fighting erupted. In
that time Israel greatly extended the area under its control and broke the siege
of Jerusalem. Fighting on a smaller scale continued during the second UN
truce beginning in mid-July, and Israel acquired more territory, especially in
Galilee and the Negev. By January 1949, when the last battles ended, Israel
had extended its
frontiers by about 5,000 sq km (1,930 sq mi) beyond the 15,500 sq km
(4,983 sq mi) allocated to the Jewish state in the UN partition resolution. It
had also secured its independence. During 1949, armistice agreements were
signed under UN auspices between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and
Lebanon. The armistice frontiers were unofficial boundaries until 1967.
SUEZ-SINAI WAR (1956)
Border conflicts between Israel and the Arabs continued despite
provisions in the 1949 armistice agreements for peace negotiations.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs who had left Israeli-held territory
during the first war concentrated in refugee camps along Israel’s frontiers and
became a major source of friction when they infiltrated back to their homes
or attacked Israeli border settlements. A major tension point was the
Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip, which was used by Arab guerrillas for raids
into southern Israel. Egypt’s blockade of Israeli shipping in the Suez Canal
and Gulf of Aqaba intensified the hostilities.
These escalating tensions converged with the Suez crisis caused
by the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egyptian president Gamal Nasser.
Great Britain and France...
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