Israel Wars

The History of the conflict in the Middle East is long and well documented. To many biased observers the history of the Arab/Israeli conflict is very one sided, with one government, or one people causing the continued wars between the neighboring states. But, as any social scientist will state, all international conflicts have more than one side, and usually are the result of escalating events surrounding, in this case religion and land. Thus, using this theory as a basis, we must assume that the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors is more complicated than a partial observer would see. This paper will examine the basic factors of Arab involvement and conflict with Israel and the involvement of the United States.

In 1948, David Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv read the Declaration of the Establishment of he State of Israel. The Arab states saw this as a creation of a Western State, backed by the British Empire, and thus an imperialistic entity in the Arab homeland. Considering the past 20 years of the Middle East was in continual conflict with imperial powers, the Arabs were naturally weary and afraid of any new imperialistic powers developing in the Middle East. In September 1947, the League of Arab States decided to resist b

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The latter included the formal proclamation of the entire city of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital (1980), the annexation of the Golan Heights (1981), the invasion of southern Lebanon (1982), and the continued expansion of Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. 29, 1947, to partition Palestine, then still under British rule, into an Arab state and a Jewish state. The basis for Arab rejection was opposition to Egypt's separate peace with Israel. But Arab nations were irritated at their loss and between 1967 and 1973, Arab leaders repeatedly warned that they would not accept continued Israeli occupation of the lands lost in 1967.

The political phase of the 1973 war ended with disengagement agreements accepted by Israel, Egypt, and Syria after negotiations in 1974 and 1975 by U.

Believing that there would be a war, Israeli Premier Levi Eshkol, Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan, and Army Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin approved preemptive Israeli strikes at Egyptian, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq airfields on June 5, 1967. By 1967 the Arab states of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan became impatient and tensions grew when Egyptian forces were gathered in Sinai. By accepting this agreement, for the first time Egypt recognized the State of Israel. In the other Arab states, there was shock and dismay. Although there is no definitive proof, one can assume that Arab nations felt the need to quickly react to the situation, in almost a type of fear that powers outside their Arab influence, such as the United States were quickly impeding on their territory, by using Israel as a means of their aggression.

Thus brought about the cause of the Yom Kippur War. Since then, there have been four major Arab-Israeli wars (1947-49, 1956, 1967, and 1973) and numerous smaller battles. The United States needed allies against USSR aggression, Arab nations like Egypt were being supplied by the USSR which in the eyes of the Americans put them in direct confrontation and so the US would side with Israeli interest in Middle East affairs. Taking away more land from the Palestinians who before inhabited that land.

Approximate Word count = 2690
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)

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