Conflict In The Middle East Essay

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Conflict In the Middle East

Since 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,

especially with Palestinian Arabs, has continued because of the lack of co-operation by

the Arabs.

The first war began as a civil conflict between Palestinian Jews and Arabs

following the United Nations recommendation of November 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 premiership of David Ben-Gurion, 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 1, when a 4-week truce was

declared. When the Arab states refused to renew the truce, ten more days 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 has extended its frontiers by

about 5,000 sq. km (1930 sq mi.) beyond the 15,500 sq. km (4983 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.

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 strenuously objected to Nasser’s policies, and a joint military campaign was

planned against Egypt with the understanding that Israel would take the initiative by

seizing the Sinai Peninsula. The war began on October 29, 1956, after an announcement

that the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan were to be integrated under the Egyptian

commander in chief. Israel’s Operation Kadesh, commanded by Moshe Dayan, lasted

less than a week; its forces reached the eastern bank of the Suez Canal in about 100 hours

, seizing the Gaza Strip and nearly all the Sinai Peninsula. The Sinai operations were

supplemented by an Anglo-French invasion of Egypt on November 5, giving the allies

control of the northern sector of the Suez Canal.

The war was halted by a UN General Assembly resolution calling for an

immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of all occupying forces from Egyptian territory.

The General Assembly also established a United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) to

replace the allied troops on the Egyptian side of the borders in Suez, Sinai, and Gaza. By

December 22 the last British and French Troops had left Egypt, Israel, however, delayed

withdrawal, insisting than it receives security guarantees against further Egyptian attack.

After several additional UN resolutions calling for withdrawal and after pressure from the

United States, Israel’s forces left in March 1957.

Relations between Israel and Egypt remained fairly stable in the following

decade. The Suez Canal remained closed to Israeli shipping, the Arab boycott of Israel

was maintained, and periodic clashes occurred between Israel, Syria, and Jordan.

However, UNEF prevented direct military encounters between Egypt and Israel.

By 1967 the Arab confrontation states-Egypt, Syria, and Jordan-became

impatient with the status quo, the propaganda war with Israel escalated, and border

incidents increased dangerously. Tensions culminated in May when Egyptian forces

were massed in Sinai, and Cairo ordered the UNEF to leave Sinai and Gaza. President

Nasser also announced that the Gulf of Aqaba would be closed again to Israeli shipping.

At the end of May, Egypt and Jordan signed a new defense pact placing Jordan’s armed

forces under Egyptian command. Efforts to de-escalate the crisis were of no availability

Israeli and Egyptian leaders visited the United States, but President Lyndon Johnson’s

attempts tp persuade Western powers to guarantee free passage through the Gulf failed.

Believing that war was inevitable, Israeli Premier Levi Eshkol, Minister of

Defense Moshe Dayan, and Army Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin approved preemptive

Israeli strikes at Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, and Iraqi airfields on June 5, 1967. By the

evening of June 6, Israel had...

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