Conflict In the Middle East 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- 49, 1956, 1967, and 1973) and numerous
intermittent battles. Although Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979,
hostility between Israel and the rest of its Arab neighbors, especially with
Palestinian Arabs, has continued because of the lack of co-operation by the
Arabs. The first war began as a civil conflict between Palestinian Jews and
Arabs following the United Nations recommendation of November 29, 1947, to
partition Palestine, then still under British mandate, into an Arab state and a
Jewish state. Fighting quickly spread as Arab guerrillas attacked Jewish
settlements and communication links to prevent implementation of the UN plan.
Jewish forces prevented seizure of most settlements, but Arab guerrillas,
supported by the Transjordanian Arab Legion under the command of British
officers, besieged Jerusalem. By April, Haganah, the principal Jewish military
group, seized the offensive, scoring victories against the Arab Liberation Army
in northern Palestine, Jaffa, and Jerusalem. British military forces withdrew to
Haifa; although officially neutral, some commanders assisted one side or the
other. After the British had departed and the state of Israel had been
established on May 15, 1948, under the premiership of David Ben-Gurion, the
Palestine Arab forces and foreign volunteers were joined by regular armies of
Transjordan (now the kingdom of Jordan), Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria, with token
support from Saudi Arabia.
Efforts by the UN to halt the fighting were unsuccessful until June 1,
when a 4-week truce was declared. When the Arab states refused to renew the
truce, ten more days fighting erupted. In that time Israel greatly extended the
area under its control and broke the siege of Jerusalem. Fighting on a smaller
scale continued during the second UN truce beginning in mid-July, and Israel
acquired more territory, especially in Galilee and the Negev. By January 1949,
when the last battles ended, Israel has extended its frontiers by about 5,000
sq. km (1930 sq mi.) beyond the 15,500 sq. km (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. 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
Israel’s frontiers and became a major source of friction when they infiltrated
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 Gulf of Aqaba intensified the hostilities. These 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 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 October 29, 1956, after an announcement that the armies of
Egypt, Syria, and Jordan were to be integrated under the Egyptian commander in
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 November 5, giving the
allies control of the northern sector 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.
