Arab-Israeli Conflicts

Lebanon Civil war not included

General Information

• Jews have land for 3000 years (then forced out)

• Palestinians (Christians at first, now Muslims) = 135 CE (Christianity becomes a religion)

• Arabs (Palestine) = 7th century CE

• All want land so they can access their holy land (where each religion began)

• ⅔ of the world’s oil supply = wealth

Ottomans (1200s - 1900s)

• Ruled by Turkish Sunnis

• Side w/ Germany in WW1 to gain more land but lose

  • Empire broken apart

  • 9 new countries created

Balfour Declaration

• Great Britain in charge of Palestine issue

• Support jewish homeland but all people must be treated fairly no matter what religion

• During WW1

Causes of 1948 War (1st)

• Instability in Mandate

  • Zionist’s unhappy

    • Want unlimited Jewish immigration,

    • White paper: limited immigration and nullified Balfour Declaration

  • Yishuv’s Campaign Against the British in Palestine

    • Campaign of terror against British

  • Palestinians upset (Arab revolt expelled leaders)

• UN votes to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine

  • UNSCOP sends people to Palestine to investigate the area

  • Sympathy b/c of the holocaust

  • All Islamic countries vote against it

  • Arabs barely involved in talks

• Arab resistance to statehood (Civil war→Arab nations involved)

Effects of 1948 war

• Israel wins b/c of US support

• Resolution 181 Abandoned

• Palestinians leave Israel and go to…

  • Egypt - Gaza Strip

  • Jordan - West Bank

• Tensions with surrounding nations (trade boycott)

• Israel established

2nd - Suez Crisis (1956) Causes

• President Nasser (Egypt) seizes Suez Canal = $

• Nasser gets aid from Soviets

• A secret agreement was reached between Israel, France, and the UK

• Baghdad Pact

2nd - Suez Crisis (1956) Effects

• Canal now under Egyptian control

• IDF was recognized as the strongest army in the Middle East

• Nasser, a hero of the Arab world for standing up to B and F who controlled the region for so long and gained control of the Canal

• Arab states were more anti-western and more willing to seek Soviet aid

3rd - 6 Day War (1967) Causes

• Increased amount of tension on Israel's border with Jordan and Syria (raids)

• Newly formed PLO

• Radical gov. in Syraia

• Soviet intervention

  • closing of the Titran Straits (vital to Israel's shipping)

• US support of Israel

3rd - 6 Day War (1967) Effects

• Israel gained the occupied territories

  • The west bank, Jerusalem, Gaza strip, Sinai peninsula, part of golan heights

• Shame brought to Egypt and set back for Nasser

4th - Arab-Israeli Conflict (1973) Yom Kippur War

• President Nasser plan Egyptian and Syrian attack on Yom Kippur (Holiday)

• Yom Kippur = Holiest Jewish holiday = Day of Atonement

• 1st time Israel is caught by surprise - lose territory from 6 Day War

• Prime Minister Gola Meir - Israel counter attack and regain land

• “Oct 1973 War”/“Yom Kippur War”

• Truce - they stop fighting, but no peace agreements

• Oil prices rise

4th - Yom Kippur War (1973) Causes

• Sadat wanted to ease military tensions with Israel

• Wanted SInai back to use it to build back economy

• Suez Crisis showed that Israel was not invincible

4th - Yom Kippur War (1973) Effects

• Restored Egypts credibility as a military power

• Sadat was hailed as the “Hero of the Crossing”; able to use his new popularity to introduce new economic changes

• Broughty Israel to the negotiating table

• Arabs felt he had abandoned the Arab cause by doing this (Meeting and leaving them out of the treaty)

• Increased the moral of all Arabs

  • Arab oil producing countries announced a 5% cutback every month until Israel withdrew from the occupied territories 

Wars under Nasser

• 1948 war

• Suez Crisis

• Six day war

Wars under Sadat

• Yom Kippur

Intifada

• Palestinians fighting against Israeli rule - civil disobedience

• Civil disobedience - Refusal to follow an unfair law

• PLO - Palestinian Liberation Organization (1964)

  • Yasser Arafat - Palestinian State only (no Israel / only muslims)

  • Guerrilla attacks, boycotts, demonstrations, attacking Israeli soldiers (1970s-90s)

Camp David Accords (1978)

• Egypt recognizes Israel as a country (1st signed agreement between Israel and an Arab country)

• Israel returns Sinai Peninsula to Egypt

• World - happy

• Arabs - angry

• President Sadat (Egypt) assassinated by Muslim extremist

• Next president - Hosni Mubarak (Egypt) keeps peace

• Israeli settlements on West Bank and Gaza Strip

2nd Antifada (2000)

• Moat violent time in Israeli history

• Palestinian youths (rocks and slingshots) attack Israelis

• Israeli troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

• PLO Leader Arafat died in 2004 - Abbas new leader

• Only happens in the West Bank

Israeli-Lebanon Peace Deal

• PLO = main base in Lebanon

• Israel attacks Lebanon

• Outcome - Lebanon recognizes Israel as a country

Resolution 242

• calls for the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the 1967 conflict

• respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force