FREE ESSAY ON ARAB ISRAELI CONFLICT

ARAB ISRAELI CONFLICT

Arab-Israeli Conflicts
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, 1956,
1967, and 1973). Today, I have been asked to speak about the first three, to leave the
most recent one for another speaker to cover in great depth at another time. 
The First Palestine War (1947)
The first war began as a civil conflict between Palestine 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. Quickly, fighting spread as the
Arabs attacked the Jewish settlements to prevent the implementation of the UN's plan.
Jewish forces prevented seizure of most settlements, but Arab guerrillas did takeover
Jerusalem. By April, Haganah, the principal Jewish military group, took offence, scoring
victories against the Arab Liberation Army in Northern Palestine, Jaffa, and Jerusalem.
British military forces withdrew to Haifa; although officially neutral, some commanders
took sides.
After the British had departed, and the state of Israel had been established under the
premiership of David Ben-Gurion, the Palestine Arab forces and foreign volunteers were
joined by regular army's of Transjordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria, with slight support
from Saudi Arabia. UN efforts to stop the fighting were unsuccessful until June 11, when
a four week truce was declared. When the Arab states refused to renew the truce, ten more
days of fighting began. In that time Israel greatly extended the area under its control
and broke the siege in Jerusalem. Fighting on a smaller scale continued during the second
UN truce beginning in July, and Israel then acquired territory in the Galilee and the
Negec. By January 1949, when the last battles had ended, Israel had extended its
frontiers by 1,930 sq. mi. beyond the 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.
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 Israeli's frontiers and became major sources of friction when they began to
infiltrate 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 the Gulf
of Aqaba intensified hostilities.
The 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 so 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 Oct. 29, 1956, after an announcement that the armies of
Egypt, Syria, and Jordan were to be integrated under the Egyptian commander and 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 Nov. 5, giving the allies control of the northern part 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 that it receive security guarantees against further Egyptian attack. After
several additional UN resolutions calling for withdrawal and after pressure from the
United States, Israel's troops left in March 1957.
Six-Day War (1967)
Relations between Israel and Egypt remained fairly stable in the following decade. The
Suez Canal remained closed to Israeli ships, the Arab boycott of Israel was maintained,
and the periodic border clashes occurred between Israel, Syria, and Jordan. However, the
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 ships. 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 help. Israeli and Egyptian leaders visited the
United States, but President Johnson's attempts to persuade Western powers to guarantee
free passage through the Gulf had failed. 
Believing that war was now unavoidable, 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 destroyed most of the Arab Air Force, destroying over 400 planes and only
losing 26 of its own. Israel also swept into Sinai, reaching the Suez Canal and occupying
most of the peninsula in less than four days.
King Hussein of Jordan rejected an offer of neutrality and opened fire on Israeli forces
in Jerusalem on June 5. Following that attack, a lightning fast Israeli campaign placed
all of Arab Jerusalem and the Jordanian West Bank in Israeli hands by June 8. As the war
ended on the Jordanian and Egyptian fronts, Israel opened attack on Syria in the North.
In a little more than two days of fierce fighting, Syrian forces were driven from Golan
Heights, from which Jewish settlements had previously shelled across the border. The
Six-Day War ended on June 10 when the UN negotiated cease-fire agreements on all fronts.
The Six-Day War increased the area under Israel's control. Though the occupation of
Sinai, Gaza, Arab Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Golan Heights, Israel Shortened its land
frontiers with Egypt and Jordan, removed the most heavily populated Jewish areas from
direct Arab artillery range, and temporarily increased its strategic advantages.
After delivering this speech in Pleasantville High School, one question that I can almost
guarantee will be asked is How do you know all of this? The reason for this is because
the probably will not understand how someone not from that area, an Italian, could be an
expert on this subject.
Bibliography
WORKS CITED
Cleveland, William L, A History of the Modern Middle East.
Boulder Co.: Westview, 1994.
Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. 
R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., 1983.