Israel Was The Main Cause Of The Six-Day War

On May 15 1948, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq, and Egypt moved their armies into Palestine causing a full-scale, Middle Eastern war. Over the next year, there were a series of campaigns and truces,

The Yom Kippur War happened in October 1973, which involved the Arabs and the Israelis, as well as two superpowers, the USA and the USSR. At the end of the war, the Israelis had won. However, the Israeli government and people were shocked by how the Arabs did. The Yom Kippur War has led to a number of effects on the Arab-Israeli relations, which can be classified as two aspects, short term and long term.

The superpowers, namely the USSR and US were in engaged in a war by proxy, which is very easy to identify if you analyze the conflicts in the Middle East from 1948 until, and including, the Yom Kippur War of 1978. The superpowers would employ tactics such as supplying their various ‘allies’ in the Middle East with weapons and finances which would afford them the ability to engage in the many conflicts that took place in that period such as the Suez Crisis, Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War. All of this was done without either superpower’s putting their own men on the ground to fight, for fear of an all out war between each other. However much the superpowers might have fuelled the conflicts with supplying the Arabs and Israelis with weapons and finances, they were not the cause for the conflicts as they are much deeper rooted. Israel and the Arab states have always seen tension as per their culture and religious differences, and the growing nationalism of the Arab states and Zionism in Israel, which amounted to extreme actions such as the three major conflicts during the time period 1956-1978.

The 1948 War set the stage for long-term conflict in the Middle East, because even after Israel defeated Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, the surrounding Arab

In addition, I will examine the current state of political and human rights in Israeli occupied West Bank and analyze how they are approaching a level of apartheid. Finally, I will summarize the effects of these social tensions between Israel and Palestinians in the terms of how potential open conflict could reignite.

A popular and most recent debate has been whether Israel should exist as a state. Currently, Israel is the only country in the world that has a relatively extensive Jewish population. More recently, Israel has been combatting against Palestinian soldiers in Gaza to prevent attacks on Israel coming from the Palestinian Government. This war has gone on for quite some time now; for years, actually. But how did this conflict develop? It certainly didn’t happen overnight.

“The problem is, simply put, a dispute over real estate” (Gelvin 3). This conflict has resulted in major wars during the period of time following World War II. The 1948-1949 Arab Israeli war began when Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded Palestine. The second war that occurred, was the 1956 Suez Canal War, at the end of this war Israel agreed to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza strip

The war for the independence of Israel was not a war as much as it was a hostile takeover of Palestine by any means necessary. Two infamous Jewish forces, the Irgun and the Haganah, often used terror tactics to achieve their goals and both focusing their energies on reprisals against Arabs and the British. Their tactics killed hundreds of innocent civilians in the name of a Jewish state and the Haganah even attacked their own people, framing the Palestinians, in order to generate support and sympathy for the their cause, but these acts appealed to some who “believed that any action taken in the cause of the creation of a Jewish state was justified.” There were unquestionably consequences to these actions as well as violent reactions to a Jewish state from other Middle Eastern states. When Israel finally declared independence, “the armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, and Iraq invaded Israel” and began the first war between the Arabs and now Israelis. Although the Arab Legion lost the war against Israel, in part to the support Israel received from the United States, it set a precedent for Arab-Israeli relations which have been tense every since and there still has yet to be reconciliation between the Israelis and Palestinians, who continue to be oppressed and persecuted.

(History of Zionism Web). “The success of Zionism has meant that the percentage of the world's Jewish population who live in Israel has steadily grown over the years and today 40% of the world's Jews live in Israel. There is no other example in human history of a nation being reestablished after such a long period of existence as a diaspora.”(History of Zionism) That diaspora was cause by anti-Semitism and persecution, but the Jews managed to still thrive. Even with the creation of their own state there are still problems among them. “The 1967 war between Israel and the Arab states (the "Six-Day War") marked a major turning point in the history of both Israel and of Zionism. Israeli forces captured the eastern half of Jerusalem, including the holiest of Jewish religious sites, the Western Wall of the ancient Temple.” (History of Zionism Web) The Palestinians and the Jews fought for power over the state. The Zionist pursued and gain most land in Israel. They were not going to let their promised land go. They took power over the Gaza strip, Golan Heights and West Bank. In 1968 the “Jerusalem Program” was established as the start of modern

"Stick a label on it; Israel and Palestine." The Economist 14 Nov. 2015: 49(US). Religion

The Arab nations were trying to eliminate Israel and take away the shame they felt after they were defeated a few years earlier when they fought Israel. The countries against Israel united together and planned out the war thinking it would be a piece of cake. Moreover, Israel fended off the countries and won the war in six days hence the name the Six-Day War. General Mordechai Hod, who was a commanding general for the Israeli Air Force, said about the Six-Day War, “The dangers of Israel’s extermination was hardly present before the Six-Day War” (Dodd and Mead Co). The Six-Day War increased the number of terrorist attacks that Israel has now, this is because many countries are not fans of Israel and are upset about the way they lost the war. The countries that fought Israel used a billion dollars worth of supplies during the war, causing serious debt. The Six-Day War changed the events that happened in Israel and the ones that are still occurring in Israel. Israel gained some respect because of how they won the war against all the countries facing them in the Six-Day War. Furthermore, Israel gained respect from some of the countries. Even though Israel had a small population they put up a tough fight. Israel showed resilience during the Six-Day War, and since the war they have been able to protect their

The War of 1948, also known as the War of Independence, was fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The war began May 15, 1948 when units from the armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq invaded Israel launching a war that lasted until December 1948.# The war resulted in the defeat of the Arab forces and the success of Israel as a newly established state. It is evident that the Arab forces were not successful in the first Arab-Israeli war because the Arab army lacked motivation, education, and proper equipment.# Despite the support from Arab states outside of Palestine, the Arabs were unable to gain enough strength to overcome the Israeli forces. In contrast, the Israeli army was able to succeed because they had

The conflict between Israel and Palestine is just one of the many facets that have shaped modern day politics in the Middle East. It is a conflict rooted in generations of violence, discrimination and prejudice that is complicated by a history older than any of the modern day superpowers. Ever since the creation of the state of Israel by the 1947 UN partition of Palestine

During the time of 1948 and 1956 there were two major events that happened with regards to the Middle East crisis. The 1st major event that happened was the War of Liberation. The 2nd was the Suez crises. The War of Liberation was fought between the Arab states surrounding Palestine and newly formed Israel. While some countries like the US had officially recognised the State of Israel, which had caused the Arabs to become anti west, Jordan, Syria and Egypt immediately

the conflict in the middle east between 1948-1973 was not purely fuelled by the interest and concerns of the superpowers but rather of a series of conflictual incidents, aswell as the main wars that took place from the years from 1948-1967 such as the: 1948 War, The Six Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur war of 1973. But although the conflict was not fuelled by the superpowers, the influence of the superpowers and the reach of the superpowers into the Middle East was evident in the years both prior and following 1978. But even despite the influence and interests of the superpowers between and including 1948-1967 being undeniably evident, the extent of this influence cannot be said to have “fuelled the conflict”.