Arab-Israeli Conflict

The Arab-Israeli Conflict was fought between Israel and the neighbouring Arab states, beginning with the 1948 war. It was also part of the wider Cold War conflict. There were wars in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973. Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979, which ended the major interstate conflict but not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

• Local actors - Israel (Jews/Israelis) and Palestine (Palestinians).
• Arab states - Egypt, Syria, Jordan.
• Superpowers - the USA, USSR, Britain, and France.
• The United Nations.

• Colonialism and decolonisation.
• Security and strategic interests.
• Territorial sovereignty.
• Nationalism.
• Religion.
• Economic interests.

Jewish nationalism (Zionism) grew out of centuries of Christian prejudice and anti-Semitism. British support during WW1 for a Jewish homeland (Balfour-type support) was meant to win American Jewish support, but conflicted with British commitments to the Arabs. Under Hitler, the Jewish population of Palestine rose from 164,000 to 370,000 between 1930 and 1936.

Arab nationalism is the belief that the Arabs form a single political community. It developed in response to modernisation and European ideas. British wartime pledges to Arab leaders were vague, creating contradictory commitments. The Arab Revolt ran from 1936 to 1939; Hadj Amin al-Husayni called a general strike in 1936 that lasted six months, followed by three years of uprising.

• Jewish land purchases were made by wealthy city merchants who did not live on the land and sold it at inflated prices.
• Jews did not hire Arabs to work the land.
• Around 30% of Palestinian farmers became landless.

Jerusalem and Palestine are sacred to Jews through Biblical history and the Temple Mount, and to Arabs through the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Both the Zionist and the Palestinian movements used religion to mobilise support, heightening tensions.

• Britain's commitment to the Jews ended in 1939; after WW2 Britain stayed pro-Arab to secure the oil fields crucial to post-war reconstruction.
• Jewish terror attacks on the British included blowing up their Jerusalem headquarters.
• Britain, war-weary, could not deploy the 100,000 troops needed, so it brought the Palestine issue to the UN in February 1947.

• UN General Assembly resolution of 29 November 1947.
• Palestine was to be partitioned into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under international control.
• The Jews, under one-third of the population, received 56% of the land.
• The Arabs rejected the plan.
• Superpower support for Israel's formation legitimised Jewish determination; the Soviets saw the socialist-leaning Zionist movement as a potential Middle East ally.

Israel was proclaimed on 14 May 1948. The next day the armies of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria invaded, turning a civil war into an international war. Arab leaders were driven by popular pressure and territorial ambitions, and by inter-Arab rivalry - both Jordan and Egypt sought to lead the Arab world.

Result: Israel defeated the Arab armies and extended its frontiers beyond the UN partition line, taking about 78% of Palestine and control of half of Jerusalem, which was supposed to be international.

The UN Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO) was established with military observers to supervise the ceasefire and truce. It provided contact between states that had no diplomatic relations, but declined as the armistice regime broke down.

Israel went to war with Egypt over the Suez Canal, which was strategically and economically pivotal. The crisis was a clash between Arab nationalism and the colonial powers that wanted to keep their influence.

• Border tensions followed the 1949 armistice, as Palestinians crossed the line.
• Egypt refused to recognise or trade with Israel and barred ships trading with Israel from the Suez Canal.
• A Cold War dimension lay behind it.

The Six-Day War (1967) and the Yom Kippur War (1973) are key events. Israel's occupation of Arab territories shifted the focus of the conflict to an Israeli-Palestinian one.