Israeli - Palestinian and Arab Wars

7C Group 7Jeremiah Pua, John Calooy, Matt Ibasco, Jeremiah Lim

Israeli - Arab

Israeli - Palestine

Background• All the Israeli - Palestinian conflicts

originated in the late 19th century when the Zionists started showing up in Palestine; demanding to have their ancestral homeland back.

• Under considerable Zionist pressure, the UN recommended giving away 55% of Palestine to a Jewish state – despite the fact that this group represented only about 30% of the total population, and owned under 7% of the land.

WAR

1948 War of Independence

• Violence in the Holy Land broke out almost immediately after the UN announced partition on November 29, 1947.

• The armies of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq attacked Israel. With such a combined force attacking Israel, few would have given the new country any chance of survival.

• Though the attack on Israel was a surprise one, Israel was surprisingly well equipped at a military level.

• The country had a navy and many in her army were experienced in combat as a result of World War Two.

• Israel had also bought three B-17 bombers in America on the black market. In July 1948, these were used to bomb the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

• The Arab nations that attacked Israel faced one major problem; there was nothing to co-ordinate their attacks.

• Each essentially attacked as a separate unit rather than as a combined force. However, the Israeli Army was under one single command structure and this proved to be very important. Israeli victories came on all the war fronts.

• The Arab nations involved negotiated their own peace talks; a further sign that they were only united by their desire to attack Israel.

• Egypt signed a peace settlement in February 1949, and over the next few months Lebanon, Jordan and Syria did the same culminating in peace in July 1949. Iraq simply withdrew her forces but did not sign any peace settlement.

• The 1948 war, which the Israelis referred to as the "War of Independence", claimed 6,000 Israeli lives, but this was only 1% of the nation’s population.

• The boost the victory gave to the Israelis was huge and put into perspective the 6,000 lives lost, and although it’s enemies lost only 7,000 lives, the damage to their morale was considerably higher.

1956 Sinai War

• In 1956, three of the Twentieth Century's most dominant forces came together in a short and violent clash in the Egyptian regions known as the Suez Canal and the Sinai Peninsula. These three forces were: Nationalism, the Cold War and the Arab-Israeli Conflicts.

• As part of Egyptian President Nasser's nationalist agenda, he took control of the Suez Canal zone away from the British and French companies which owned it.

• At the same time, as part of his ongoing struggle with Israel, Egyptian forces blocked the Straits of Tiran, the narrow waterway that is Israel's only outlet to the Red Sea.

• Israel and Egypt had clashed repeatedly since their 1948 war as Egypt allowed and encouraged groups of Palestinian fighters to attack Israel from Egyptian territory.

• In response, Israeli forces constantly made cross-border raids in retaliation. Britain and France, both of whom were in the process of losing their centuries-old empires, decided on a strategy straight out of their 19th Century Imperial histories.

• This plan led to a joint invasion and occupation of the Suez Canal zone by Britain and France.

• This was meant to reassert control of this vital waterway to the British and French companies stung by Nasser's bold nationalization.

• At France's suggestion, planning was coordinated with Israel, a fact which all three nations denied for years afterwards.

• On October 29, 1956, Israeli troops invaded Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and quickly overcame opposition as they raced for Suez.

• The next day, Britain and France, following their part of the script, offered to temporarily occupy the Canal Zone and suggested a 10 mile buffer on either side which would separate the Egyptian forces from the Israelis.

• Nasser of course refused, and on October 31, Egypt was attacked and invaded by the military forces of Britain and France.

• In response to these developments, the Soviet Union, which at the time was ruthlessly suppressing an anti-Communist uprising in Hungary, threatened to intervene on Egypt's behalf.

• President Eisenhower of the United States pressured Britain, France and Israel into agreeing to a cease-fire and eventual withdrawal from Egypt. The United States, caught by surprise by the dual invasions, was more concerned with the Soviet war in Hungary and the Cold War than with Britain and France's dealings involving Suez.

• The last thing President Eisenhower wanted was a wider war over Suez. The war itself lasted for only a week, and invading forces were withdrawn within the month.

• As a result, Egypt now firmly aligned herself with the Soviet Union, which armed Egypt and other Arab nations for the continuing struggle against Israel.

• Israel lost 189 soldiers, 899 wounded and 4 taken prisoner

• Egypt lost 1650 soldiers, 4900 wounded and 6185 taken prisoner

• France lost 10 soldiers and 33 wounded

• U. K. lost 16 soldiers and 96 wounded

1973 Yom Kippur War

• In 1971, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat raised the possibility of signing an agreement with Israel, provided that all the occupied territories were returned by the Israelis.

• No progress toward peace was made, however, so, the following year, Sadat said war was inevitable and he was prepared to sacrifice one million soldiers in the showdown with Israel. His threat did not materialize that year.

• Simultaneously, the Egyptian leader carried on a diplomatic offensive among European and African states to win support for his cause. He appealed to the Soviets to bring pressure on the United States and to provide Egypt with more offensive weapons to cross the Suez Canal.

• The Soviet Union was more interested in maintaining the appearance of detente with the United States than in confrontation in the Middle East; therefore, it rejected Sadat's demands. Sadat's response was to abruptly expel approximately 20,000 Soviet advisers from Egypt.

• On October 6, 1973 — Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar; Egypt and Syria opened a coordinated surprise attack against Israel. The equivalent of the total forces of NATO in Europe were mobilized on Israel's borders.

• On the Golan Heights approximately 180 Israeli tanks faced an onslaught of 1,400 Syrian tanks. Along the Suez Canal, 436 Israeli defenders were attacked by 80,000 Egyptians.

• At least nine Arab states, including four non-Middle Eastern nations, actively aided the Egyptian-Syrian war effort.

• Besides serving as financial underwriters, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait committed men to battle.

• A Saudi brigade of approximately 3,000 troops was dispatched to Syria, where it participated in fighting along the approaches to Damascus.

• Also, violating Paris's ban on the transfer of French-made weapons, Libya sent Mirage fighters to Egypt

• From 1971-1973, Libyan President Muammar Qaddafi gave Cairo more than $1 billion in aid to rearm Egypt and to pay the Soviets for weapons delivered.

• Other North African countries responded to Arab and Soviet calls to aid the front line states. Algeria sent three aircraft squadrons of fighters and bombers, an armored brigade and 150 tanks.

• Approximately 1000-2000 Tunisian soldiers were positioned in the Nile Delta. Sudan stationed 3500 troops in southern Egypt, and Morocco sent three brigades to the front lines, including 2500 men to Syria.

• The least enthusiastic participant in the October fighting was probably Jordan's King Hussein, who apparently had been kept uninformed of Egyptian and Syrian war plans. But Hussein did send two of his best units namely the 40th and 60th Armored Brigades to Syria.Three Jordanian artillery batteries also participated in the assault, carried out by nearly 100 tanks.

• Thrown onto the defensive during the first two days of fighting, Israel mobilized its reserves and eventually repulsed the invaders and carried the war deep into Syria and Egypt.

• The Arab states were swiftly resupplied by sea and air from the Soviet Union, which rejected U.S. efforts to work toward an immediate cease fire.

• As a result, the United States belatedly began its own airlift to Israel. Two weeks later, Egypt was saved from a disastrous defeat by the U. N. Security Council, which had failed to act while the tide was in the Arabs' favor.

• On October 22, the Security Council adopted Resolution 338 calling for "all parties to the present fighting to cease all firing and terminate all military activity immediately." The vote came on the day that Israeli forces cut off and isolated the Egyptian Third Army and were in a position to destroy it.

• Despite the Israel Defense Forces' ultimate success on the battlefield, the war was considered a diplomatic and military failure

• Israel Lost 2688 soldiers and 7250 wounded

• Arab Nations Lost 15,000 soldiers and 35,000 wounded

Weapons

Mauser K-98

Lee Enfield

Uzi

Bren Gun

Thompson

M2 Browning

Desert Eagle

M51 Super Sherman

Centurion

M113 APC

F-15 Strike Eagle

F-4 Phantom II

F-16 Fighting Falcon

UH-60 Black Hawk

Apache