The Arab-Israel Problem

By – Chauhan Sir
Introduction:
• Although the United States supported the Balfour
declaration of 1917, which favored the
establishment of a Jewish national home in
Palestine, president Franklin D. Roosevelt had
assured the Arabs in 1945 that the United States
would not intervene without consulting both the
Jews and the Arabs in the region.
• The British, who held a colonial mandate in
Palestine until may 1948, opposed both the
creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in
Palestine as well as unlimited immigration of
Jewish refugees to the region.
• Great Britain wanted to preserve good
relations with the Arabs to protect its vital political
and economic interests in Palestine.
• Throughout 1947, The United Nations special
Commission on Palestine examined the Palestinian
question and recommended the partition of
Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state.
• On November 29, 1947 The United Nations adopted
Resolution 181( also known as the Partition
resolution) that would divide Great Britain's former
Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states in
may 1948, when the British mandate was scheduled
to end.
• Under the resolution, the area of religious
significance surrounding Jerusalem would remain
under international control administered by the
United Nations.
• The Palestinian Arabs refused to recognize this
arrangement, which they regarded as favorable to
the Jews and unfair to the Arab population that
would remain in Jewish territory under the
partition.
• The United States sought a middle way by
supporting the United Nations resolution, but also
encouraging negotiations between Arabs and Jews
in the Middle East.
• Although the United States backed the resolution
181, The US Department of State recommended the
creation of a United Nations trusteeship with limits
on Jewish immigration and division of Palestine
into separate Jewish and Arab provinces but not
states.
• The state Department, concerned about the
possibility of an increasing Soviet role in the Arab
world and the potential for restriction by Arab oil
producing nations of oil supplies to the United
States, advised against US intervention on behalf of
the Jews.
• Later, as the date for British departure
from Palestine drew near, the Department of State
grew concerned about the possibility of an all-out
war in Palestine as Arab states threatened to
attack almost as soon as the US passed the
partition resolution.
• Despite the growing conflict between Palestine
Arabs and Palestine Jews and despite the
Department of states endorsements of a
trusteeship, Truman ultimately decided to
recognize the state of Israel and on May 14, 1948,
David Ben Gurion, the head of the Jewish agency,
proclaimed the establishment of the state of Israel.
• US President Harry S Truman recognized the new
nation on the same day.
The Arab-Israeli War, 1948:
• The Arab Israeli war of 1948 broke out when five
Arab nations invaded the territory in the former
Palestinian mandate immediately following the
announcement of the independence of the state
of Israel.
• In 1947, and again on May 14, 1948, The United
States had offered, de facto recognition of the
Israeli provisional government, but during the war,
The United States maintained an arms embargo
against all belligerents.
• After Israel declared its independence on May
14, 1948, the fighting which had already
started between Palestinian mercenaries and
Jewish fighters, intensified with other Arab
forces joining the Palestinian Arabs in attacking
territory in the former Palestinian mandate.
• On the eve of May 14, The Arabs launched an air
attack on Tel Aviv, which the Israelis resisted.
• This action was followed by the invasion of the
former Palestinian mandate by Arab armies from
Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt.
• Saudi Arabia sent a formation that fought under
the Egyptian command.
• British trained forces from Transjordan eventually
intervened in the conflict, but only in areas that had
been designated as part of the Arab state under the
United Nations partition plan and the corpus
separatum of Jerusalem.
• After intense early fighting, Israeli forces were able
to gain the offensive.
• Though the United Nations brokered to cease fires
during the conflict, fighting continued into 1949.
• Israel and the Arab states did not reach any formal
Armistice agreements until February.
• Under separate agreements between Israel and the
neighboring states of Egypt, Lebanon, Trans-Jordan,
and Syria, these bordering nations agreed to formal
Armistice lines.
• Israel gained some territory formally granted to
Palestinian Arabs under the United Nations
resolution in 1947.
• Egypt and Jordan retained control over the Gaza
Strip and the West Bank respectively.
• These Armistice lines held until 1967.
The Arab-Israeli Conflict of 1967:
• Until the early 1960s, The United States had
adhered to the terms of the Tripartite Declaration
of 1950, wherein the United States, United
Kingdom and France had pledged to prevent
aggression by Middle Eastern States and oppose
regional arms race.
• The United States had pressed Israel to withdraw
from the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip after Suez,
and rejected Israeli requests for all but limited
quantities of defensive weapons.
• By the time Lyndon Johnson took office, however,
US policymakers concluded that this policy was no
longer sustainable.
• Soviet arms sales to left leaning Arab states,
especially Egypt, threatened to erode Israelis
military superiority.
• Johnson's advisors worried that if the United
States did not offset this shift in the balance of
power, Israel's leaders might launch a preventive
war or develop nuclear weapons.
• Initially, the Johnson administration sought to
convince Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser
and the Soviet leadership to work towards a
regional arms control regime, but neither party
proved receptive.
• Thus in 1965, Johnson agreed to sell Israel M48A3
tanks, followed by a four Skyhawk aircraft in 1966.
• On May 13, 1967, Soviet officials informed the
Syrian and Egyptian governments that Israel had
massed troops on Syria's border.
• Though the report was false, Nasser sent large
numbers of Egyptian soldiers into the Sinai anyway.
• On May 16, Egypt demanded the United Nations
emergency force( UNEF), which had been deployed
in the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip since 1957,
to withdraw from Israel's border.
• Secretary general U Thant replied that he would
have to withdraw UNEF from all its positions,
including Sharam al Shaykh, which would put
political pressure or Nasser to close the straits of
Tiran to Israeli shipping.
• Naser remained adamant, and on May 22, after
UNEF withdrew, he announced that he would close
the straits.
• This provoked Israel to launch an offensive to
protect its interest in the straits of Tiran.
• Meanwhile, Jordan joined the Arab coalition,
heightened the pressure for an Israeli strike.
• Though Johnson continued to caution Israel against
preemption, a number of president's advisors had
concluded that US interests would be best served
by Israel "going it alone".
• Between June 5 and June 10, Israel defeated Egypt,
Jordan, and Syria and occupied the Sinai Peninsula,
The Gaza Strip, The West Bank, eastern Jerusalem,
and the Golan Heights.
Post War Scenario:
• At the end of August 1967, Arab leaders met in
Khartoum in response to the war, to discuss the
Arab position towards Israel.
• They reached a consensus that there should be no
recognition, no peace, and no negotiations with
the state of Israel, popularly known as "three
no's".
• In 1969, Egypt initiated the war of Attrition, with
the goal of exhausting Israel into surrendering the
Sinai Peninsula.
• The war ended following Gamal Abdel Nasser's
death in 1970.
• When the Anwar Sadat that took over, he tried
to forge positive relations with the US, hoping
that they would put pressure on Israel to return
the land, by expelling 15,000 Russians advisors
from Egypt.
• On 6 October 1973, Syria and Egypt staged a
surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest
day of the Jewish calendar.
• The Israeli military were caught off guard and
unprepared, and took about 3 days to fully
mobilize.
• This helped other Arab states to send troops to
reinforce the Egyptians and Syrians.
• In addition, these Arab countries agreed to enforce
an oil embargo on industrial nations, including the
US, Japan and western European countries.
• These OPEC countries increased the price of oil
fourfold, and used it as a political weapon to gain
support against Israel.
• The Yom Kippur war accommodated in direct
confrontation between the US and the Soviet
Union.
• When Israel had turned the tide of war, The USSR
threatened military intervention.
• The United States, wary of nuclear war, secured a
ceasefire on 25th October 1973.
Israel Peace Treaties with Arab Powers:
• Finally, following an intervention of the US
administration, after a series of negotiations at
Camp David, two framework agreements were
signed at the White House, the second of these
frameworks led directly to the 1979 Egypt- Israel
peace treaty.
• Under its terms, the Sinai Peninsula are returned
to Egyptian hands, and the Gaza Strip remained
under Israeli control, to be included in a future
Palestinian state.
• The agreement also provided for the free
passage of Israeli ships through the Suez canal
and recognition of the straits of Tiran and the Gulf
of Aqaba as international waterways.
• In October 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace
agreement, which stipulated mutual cooperation,
an end of hostilities, the fixing of the Israel Jordan
border, and a resolution of other issues.
• After the March 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon,
Israel had occupied some territory of Lebanon,
therefore in March 1983, Israel and Lebanon signed
a ceasefire agreement.
• By 1985, Israeli forces withdrew to a 15 kilometer
wide southern strip of Lebanon, following which
the conflict continued on lower scale, with
relatively low casualties on both sides.
• In 1993 and 1996, Israel launched major
operations against the Shiite militia of Hezbollah,
which had become an emergent threat.
• In May 2000, the newly elected government of
Ehud Barak authorized a withdrawal from
southern Lebanon, fulfilling an election promise to
do so well ahead of a declarative deadline.
Israel-Palestine Relations:
• The 1970s were marked by a large number
of major, international terrorist attacks, including
the Lod airport massacre and the Munich
Olympics massacre in 1972, and the Entebbe
hostage taking in 1976, with over 100 Jewish
hostages of different nationalities kidnapped and
held in Uganda.
• In December 1987, the First Intifada begun.
• The first intifada was a mass Palestinian uprising
against Israeli rule in the Palestinian territories.
• The rebellion began in the Jabalia refugee camp
and quickly spread throughout Gaza and the West
Bank.
• Palestinian actions ranged from civil disobedience
to violence.
• In addition to general strikes, boycotts on Israeli
products, graffiti and barricades, Palestinian
demonstrations that included stone throwing by
youths against the Israeli forces brought the
intifada international attention.
• Israeli army's heavy handed response to the
demonstrations, with live ammunition, beatings
an mass arrests, brought international
condemnation.
• The Palestinian liberation organization( PLO),
which until then had never been recognized as
the leaders of the Palestinian people by Israel,
was invited to peace negotiations the following
year, after it recognized Israel and renounced
terrorism.
• In mid 1993, Israeli and Palestinian
representatives engaged in peace talks in Oslo,
Norway.
• As a result, in September 1993, Israel and the PLO
signed the Oslo accords.
• Under the provisions of the accord,
Israel recognized the PLO as the
legitimate representative of the Palestinian people
while the PLO recognized the right of the state of
Israel to exist and renounced terrorism, violence
and its desire for destruction of Israel.
• The Oslo second agreement was signed in 1995
and detailed the division of the West bank into
areas A,B and C.
• Area A was land under full Palestinian civilian
control.
• In area A, Palestinians were also responsible
for internal security.
• The Oslo agreements remain important
documents in Israeli Palestinian relations.
• By the year 2000, the Second Intifada began which
forced Israel to rethink its relationship and
policies towards the Palestinians.
• Following a series of suicide bombings and
attacks, the Israeli army launched operation
defensive shield.
• It was the largest military operation conducted by
Israeli since the Six Day War of 1967.
• As violence between the Israeli army and
Palestinian militants intensified, Israel expanded
its security apparatus around the West Bank by
retaking many parts of land in area A.
• Israel established a complicated system of
roadblocks and checkpoints around major
Palestinian areas to deter violence and protect
Israeli settlements.
• However, since 2008, the Israeli forces have slowly
transferred authority to Palestinian security
forces.