Title: Arab-Israeli Wars
1Arab-Israeli Wars
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2ID SIG
- Camp David Accords, Golan Heights, Israel,
Nasser, OPEC, PLO, preemptive strike, Sadat,
Sharon, Sinai, Six Day War, Suez Canal, unity of
command, Yom Kippur War, War of Israeli
Independence
3Importance of the Middle East during the Cold War
- Colonial legacies
- Oil reserves
- Islamic, Jewish, Christian religious roots
- Location on the southern flank of the Soviet
Union - Soviet and American client states
- Presence of advanced weapons
- Suez Canal as a vital link between the Red and
Mediterranean Seas
4Creation of Israel
- Jews had long hoped to establish an independent
state in Palestine based on the covenant between
Yahweh and Abraham (Genesis 177-8) - Arabs rejected this desire with equal passion
- After the European anti-Semitism of the 1930s and
the Holocaust of World War II, Jews increasingly
began migrating to Palestine
5Creation of Israel
- Following World War I and the dismantling of the
Ottoman Empire, the League of Nations mandate
gave Great Britain control of Palestine - After World War II, the British concluded they
could no longer control the escalating violence
between Arabs and Jews and turned the problem
over to the United Nations - In November 1947, the UN voted to partition
Palestine
6Creation of Israel
- British forces withdrew and on May 14, 1948 the
Jews proclaimed the establishment of the state of
Israel - The next day the Arabs attacked
David Ben-Guiron, first prime minister of Israel,
declares Israels independence
7War of Israeli Independence (1948)
- At first the Egyptian air force struck Tel Aviv
- Soon after that forces from Egypt, Transjordan,
Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia all
attacked - Most analysts felt the more numerous and better
equipped Arabs would overwhelm the Israelis easily
8War of Israeli Independence (1948)
- Instead the Israelis fought with great courage
and skill - The Arabs on the other hand frittered away their
numerical advantage with uncoordinated attacks - The war turned into a series of disorganized
clashes among small units - After four weeks of fighting, both sides accepted
a UN-sponsored ceasefire
9Abdel Nasser
- In spite of the ceasefire, tensions remained high
- They increased after 1954 when General Abdel
Nasser, a bold Arab nationalist, gained control
of the Egyptian government - Nasser first tried to acquire weapons from the
West but when that failed he turned to the Soviet
Union - The USSR began indirectly supplying Egypt with
weapons through Czechoslovakia - France became upset with Egypts providing
weapons to insurgents in Algeria so France began
supplying Israel
10Suez Canal (1956)
- On July 27, 1956, Nasser unexpectedly
nationalized the Suez Canal Zone, hoping to end
the British presence there - The British and the French decided to intervene
militarily and Israel joined them in attacking
Egypt
Between 1859 and 1869, the British constructed
the Suez Canal. In 1882 the British army occupied
Egypt to ensure the safety of the canal which was
crucial to British communications with India
11Suez Canal (1956)
- On Oct 28 Israel called up its reserves and then
conducted a daring airborne landing deep inside
the Sinai east of Milta Pass - At the same time a small force of Israeli
infantry and tanks drove across the desert and
linked up with the paratroopers on Oct 30
12Suez Canal (1956)
- In the north the Israelis bypassed the strong
Egyptian defenses at Abu Agelia and attacked them
from the rear - In the south the Israelis attacked Sharm
el-Sheikh, the strategic point at the mouth of
the Gulf of Aquaba - On Oct 31, British and French bombers began
attacking Egyptian airfields and destroyed most
of the Egyptian air force
13Suez Canal (1956)
- Nasser began fearing his forces would be cut off
in the Sinai and ordered a withdraw - The Israelis continued to advance and halted
about 15 km east of the Suez Canal - The British and French landed one and a half
infantry divisions near the northern mouth of the
canal on Nov 6 and started advancing down the
canal
14Suez Canal (1956)
- Soon after they began moving, the British and
French accepted a UN ceasefire - It was a decisive Israeli, French, and British
victory - Nonetheless, the US, and then the USSR, began
demanding the Israelis relinquish the captured
Egyptian territory - Both the US and Russia were concerned about the
explosiveness of the situation - One Soviet diplomat wrote President Eisenhower,
If this war is not curbed, it can develop into
a third world war.
15Suez Canal (1956)
- In the face of this international pressure,
Israel had no choice but to withdraw - The intervention also cost the British and the
French much of their influence in the region - Eisenhower announced the Eisenhower Doctrine
saying, The existing vacuum in the Middle East
must be filled by the United States before it is
filled by Russia.
President Eisenhower was upset by the Israeli,
French, and British actions surrounding the Suez
Crisis
16The Six Day War (1967)
- A fragile peace lasted until May 1967 when the
Soviet Union informed Nasser (incorrectly as it
turned out) that Israel was massing forces for a
strike against Syria - Nasser responded to this report by mobilizing his
reserves and moving troops into the Sinai - He also pressured the UN to withdraw its
peacekeeping forces from the Sinai and soon
occupied Sharm el-Sheikh
Nasser and Soviet premier Khrushchev
17The Six Day War (1967)
- With Sharm el-Sheikh in his control, Nasser cut
off Israeli shipping through the Gulf of Aquaba - To correct previous problems, the Arabs tried to
establish unity of command under Egyptian control - In reality there was no true unity of command of
the diverse forces
King Hussein of Jordan and Nasser signing a
mutual defense treaty
18The Six Day War (1967)
- Israel realized the serious situation, mobilized
its reserves, and launched a preemptive air
strike on June 5 - The strike hit eleven Egyptian airfields and in a
matter of hours destroyed most of the Egyptian
air force - Then Israel turned its attention to the other
Arab countries - By the evening of the second day of the strike,
Israel had destroyed over 400 Arab aircraft and
lost only 26 of its own
19The Six Day War (1967)
- Israel then used its central position to defeat
first the Egyptians and the Jordanians, and then
the Syrians - Israel attacked through the Sinai and reached the
Suez Canal, captured Jerusalem, and seized the
Golan Heights - On June 10 a UN ceasefire went into effect
20The Six Day War (1967)
- Controlling the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and
the Sinai gave Israel depth in its defense that
it had never had before - Its highly skilled and coordinated air and ground
attacks were in stark contrast to the tentative
and piecemeal Arab efforts
21The Six Day War (1967)
- However the stunning Israeli success increased
superpower involvement in the region as the US
increased its diplomatic support for Israel and
Russia began directly shipping weapons to Arab
states rather than funneling them through
Czechoslovakia - Arab frustration and tensions also gave rise to
more activity of the Palestinian Liberation
Organization which increasingly used terrorist
tactics against the Israelis
In 1969 Yasser Arafat became chairman of the PLO
executive committee
22The Yom Kippur War (1973)
- In 1970 Nasser died and Anwar Sadat became
president of Egypt - Sadat was more moderate than Nasser but that
still didnt keep him from going to war with
Israel - However, Sadats objective was not the decisive
defeat of Israel - Sadat instead sought a limited military victory
designed to gain larger political objectives
23The Yom Kippur War (1973)
- Sadat had greatly improved Egypts military in
terms of weapons and quality of soldiers - He also improved coordination with Syria and
Jordan - Sadats plan was to fight a set-piece battle in
which superior Arab numbers would wear down the
Israelis
Anwar Sadat
24The Yom Kippur War (1973)
- Egypt attacked along the entire front of the Suez
Canal on Saturday, Oct 6, both the Jewish Sabbath
as well as the holy Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) - Syria simultaneously attacked in the Golan
Heights - By Oct 9 the Egyptians had bridgeheads 10 to 12
km across the canal - There they halted, established a strong air
defense umbrella, and waited for the Israeli
counterattack
25The Yom Kippur War (1973)
- The Israelis attacked with three armored brigades
without infantry or artillery support - The Egyptians were able to defeat these with
their Russian Sagger antitank missiles
Israeli tank driving by wounded soldiers
26The Yom Kippur War (1973)
- On Oct 14 the Egyptians attacked out of their
bridgeheads - The Egyptians penetrated about 15 to 18
kilometers but diluted their effort by attacking
in six major thrusts - They also suffered from moving outside of their
protective air defense umbrella - Moreover the Israelis benefited from newly
arrived TOW antitank missiles from the US - The Egyptians lost 200 tanks
27The Yom Kippur War (1973)
- With the tide of the battle turning, Israel went
on the offensive - Brigadier General Ariel Sharon cleared a corridor
through the Egyptian defenses to the east bank of
the canal and Israeli divisions began crossing
the canal - Israel was also experiencing success in the Golan
Heights and captured Mount Hermon on the north
end of the heights but could not advance further
into Syria
28The Yom Kippur War (1973)
- As an Israeli victory became apparent, both the
US and the USSR called for a ceasefire - Russia, fearing the complete destruction of Arab
forces threatened to act unilaterally and to
send troops to enforce a ceasefire - US forces worldwide were placed on alert
- On Oct 24, the Israelis reluctantly agreed to a
ceasefire
29The Yom Kippur War (1973)
- Israel won the war but Egypt won the peace
- Sadat had had enough battlefield success to
achieve his strategic objective of destroying the
aura of Israeli invincibility - The conflict also showed the political and
economic power of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) - To punish the US for supporting Israel, OPEC shut
off the flow of oil to the US
Gas lines during the oil embargo
30The Yom Kippur War (1973)
- The superpowers realized how serious the volatile
Middle East situation had become and could not
afford to let things get worse - The Camp David Accords of 1978 normalized
relations between Egypt and Israel and resulted
in the signing of a peace treaty in 1979
The Multinational Force and Observers, of which
the US is a participant, is the peacekeeping
force that helps supervise the Israel-Egypt peace
agreement
31Continued Violence
- However the Israel-Egypt peace treaty did not
solve the longterm problem or end the violence - The PLO has increased in influence and terrorist
activity - The PLO and Hezbollah paramilitary forces became
increasingly active in Lebanon where a civil war
broke out in 1975 - In 1978, 1982, and 2006 Israel attacked Lebanon
32Beirut Bombing
- On Sept 29, 1982, US military forces were
inserted in Lebanon as part of a multinational
peacekeeping force - The Marines were first welcomed but steadily
became perceived as being pro-Israeli - The violence culminated on October 23, 1983 with
a terrorist bombing that claimed the lives of 241
service members
33Continuing Issues
- Oil
- In 2005 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
stated that Israel should be wiped out from the
map - Palestinian self government and statehood
- Terrorism
- Desert Storm and the Iraq War
34Next
- Soviet-Afghan War and the Falklands War