Luke Horsley
Preliminary Modern History
Mr. Powell
Historical Investigation
“To what extent was the First Arab-Israeli War (1948-49) a political conflict?”
WORD COUNT: 1388
In order to assess to what extent the First Arab-Israeli war was a political conflict, a working definition of ‘political conflict’ is needed. In this essay, the phrase ‘political conflict ’ refers to conflict motivated or influenced by a nation’s government or by the power, interests and security of a state.
BACKGROUND:
Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor on January 30, 1930 marked the beginning of a 15 year period of intense, violent and institutionalised persecution of the Jewish people across almost all of mainland Europe. This
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The First Arab-Israeli War (1947-48) was ultimately a conflict of power and politics. It did however have a religious, historical and cultural backdrop which entrenched an atmosphere of enmity between the Jews and the Arabs.
The ‘Partition Solution’ created the first point of conflict between the Jews and Palestinian Arabs. The disputation of who owned territory in the former British Mandate of Palestine came about as the Palestinians did not believe the Jews should have been given territory by the UN based on the religious and historical ties the Jews had to the land (Gill, 2017). The partitioning resulted in a large displacement of Palestinian Arabs and violent skirmishes between the Arabs and the Jews (Office of the Historian, accessed 2017). Natasha Gill, professor in conflict studies, said this in light of recent negotiations between the Jews and Arabs. “The fact that the Palestinians have refused to recognize the moral right of the Jews to a state in Palestine is a source of conflict, even though the Palestinians may be ready to accept Israel 's de facto right to exist today (Gill, 2017).”
Initially, the conflict was relatively small scale and included acts of terror, small-arms firefights and attacks on villages. For example, on the 9th April, 1948, a month before the Israeli declaration of independence, Jewish forces attacked the Palestinian village of Deir
The whole crowd was excited and very proud. A song called “Hatikvah” was sung by many. The official creation of the state of Israel was declared by David Ben-Gurion. David Ben-Gurion was the prime minister at the time.War had broken out, and on May 13, danger struck Israel. An air attack was ordered on Tel Aviv. Many surrounding groups attacked Israel. These groups destroyed Jewish cities and defense forces. All of these events happened very close after independence was declared. The attack was most likely planned to provoke Israel right after they were excited to get their own homeland. It was a brutal attack to intimidate and show them how they did not approve of their presence. That year, in 1948, the “Arab-Israeli War” started. The Palestinian area was invaded by five other Arab countries practically immediately after Israel was announced. Some other countries included Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. Around 30 million people attack Israel (The New York Times Upfront). An extraordinary amount of Palestinian Arabs were deported to other places. This was due to the war going on. Part of the motive for this war was that Jerusalem, an very religious area located in Israel, would be managed by the UN. Some Palestinian Arabs were angry and therefore war broke out. Fortunately, most of the fighting stopped in 1949. The bordering nations accepted armistice lines. The armistice lines lasted until 1967.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the one of the world’s oldest conflicts, and it is still an ongoing problem in the world. Zionists and Arabs: two groups with conflicting beliefs who both claim Israel as their own. In wake of the Holocaust the U.N decided to gift the Jews a homeland for the lives lost in the genocide. In 1947, the U.N Partition divided the land of Israel (Historic Palestine) into two separate states: Arab and Jewish. Since then, the state of Israel has been the center of conflict between the Arabs and the Zionists. As time passed the Zionists gained more land from winning the Six-Day War, and consequently the Palestinians had to live as refugees in other Arab countries. Additionally, more than 75% of the land belonged to
The Arab/Israeli conflict is a conflict between the Arabs and the Jews over a small piece of land known as the holy land which is an area in the Middle East of the Arab world. The Arabs call the land Palestine, the Jews call it Israel but both religions have strong religious links with the land. There is conflict between the two religions because they both believe that the land belongs to them.
Any reference to conflict turns history into a reservoir of blame. In the presence of conflict, narratives differ and multiply to delegitimize the opponent and to justify one’s own action. Narratives shape social knowledge. The Israeli Palestinian conflict, both Jews and Muslims, view the importance of holding the territories through religious, ideological, and security lenses, based on belief that Palestine was given by divine providence and that the land belongs to either the Israelis or Palestinian’s ancestral home. Understanding these perspectives is required for understanding Palestinians’ and especially Israel’s strategy and role in entering the Oslo peace process. Despite
This Israeli-Palestinian conflict stems from both groups dissension over land, by the Jews and by the Palestinians, who seek self-determination.Various acts done by the Israelis have resulted in a lack of trust amongst themselves and the Palestinians. This lack negatively affects the prospects of a peaceful settlement.
Israeli forces defeated the Palestinian militias and Arab armies in a vicious conflict that turned 700,000 Palestinian civilians into refugees. The UN
Since the UN partition of Israel and Palestine in 1947, Israel has been placed in many instances of conflict between the Jewish migrants to the region and the Palestinian natives. Several conflicts resulted in open, declared war, such as the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948-1949, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. In addition, Israel has been involved in the occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of the Gaza Strip. After the last open war, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank has been marked by the military governorate, taking political and institutional control of the region that is ethnically and religiously different than the population that resides in the Jewish state of Israel.
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
In 1948, Zionist forces, due to their military pre-eminence, gained control over the territory which the UN designated to the Jews in the failed partition plan. On 14 May 1948, they declared Israeli independence and established the Israeli state (Fawcett, 2005; 221). The US recognised Israel quickly as a state and soon after that the Soviet Union did the same. The Arab League, formed out of six Arab states, did not recognise Israel as a state, because they felt the land belonged to the Arabic state of Palestine, not to the Jews. Subsequently, the six Arab forces (Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria) attacked the Israeli military. The Lebanese, Syrian, Iraq and Saudi Arabian forces did not produce many offensive operations, but they managed to block the Israeli’s march. The ‘real’ fighting came from the Egyptian and Jordan forces. In the beginning, the Arabs had an advantage of weapons and air-power, whilst Israel had problems with their strategy. However, after a few months Israel was provided with war supplies from Czechoslavakia. This included both weapons for using on the mainland and aircrafts. Due to these supplies,
A majority of the Arab population in the territory that became Israel, around 700,000 people, became refugees.# During the first stages of war, many civilians temporarily evacuated from zones of combat with plans to return once fighting had stopped. However, during the early summer of 1948 Palestinian Arabs began fleeing in mass numbers, leaving behind their homes, businesses, and land. The Haganah saw the Arab flight as an opportunity to advance, and began encouraging the evacuation of towns and cities. In April 1948 the Haganah authorized a plan known as Plan D.# The campaign “provided for the conquest and permanent occupation, or leveling, of the Arab villages and towns.”# The field officers of the Haganah interpreted Plan D as giving them the power to expunge the Palestinian Arabs living in the area of the Jewish state as well as the Arabs living inside territory given to the Arab state. Plan D not only intensified
The reason for many of these attacks include land, claim of the country and anti-semitisem. Israel which is only 8,000 square miles is on the Mediterranean sea which is very good for its ports which are good for shipping and trade. The first of the wars involving the Arabs and the Israelis was the First Palestinian War which took place between 1947
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
After more than 50 years of war, terrorism, peace negotiation and human suffering, Israel and Palestine remain as far from a peaceful settlement as ever. The entire Middle Eastern region remains a cauldron waiting to reach the boiling point, a potent mixture of religious extremism, (Jewish, Christian and Islamic), mixed with oil and munitions.
The 1948 War was a war purely provoked by means of conflict between the Arab world and the state of Israel and can be is the start of the conflict and tension to follow, the 1948 war was essentially built on the foundation of the Arab states attacking Israel in an attempt to crush her existence and although there was no superpower influence in this war there was a small superpower involvement in the middle east at this stage which can be seen in the Partition plan of 1947, a document created by the UN which both the USSR and the USA were involved in creating. The UN partition plan of 1947, also known as Resolution 181 was essentially what sparked the tension, and later conflict between the Arab states and what is now Israel as what it tried to