Essay on 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 Israeli advance towards the canal is a fake to show the world that Egypt in danger of being overthrown by the Israelis. The British and French then dissimulate as peacekeepers, trying to diffuse then tension between Egypt and Israel. They offer Nasser an ultimatum: “Israel and Egypt are to cease fighting or the two Western powers will intervene”. On the 31st of October this ultimatum expires and France and Britain attack, bombing Alexandria and sending in thousands of troops. Russia then threatens Britain and France with Nuclear weapons. At this point it looks as though the world is on the brink of another World War.

The administrations hoped by resolving the issues between the two that the rest of the Arab states would resolve their conflicts and support the United States. Nasser was sent to support the needs of Egypt and the Arab states and return the land taken by Israel and get them to stop creating settlements in return for peace. Before the peace treaty could be discussed further, Britain and France aided Israel in an attack on Egypt taking the Sinai

Most important agreement was between US and Israel then between Israel and Egypt (Telhamy 630).

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,

Introduction: Fighting and finishing Israel is of most importance to maintain our position in the Arab world. The republic of Jordan after the six-day war against Israel had lost a lot of territory including the west bank, which was a big chunk of land, which Jordan had. According to new testaments Jordan’s King Hussein made it clear to Prime Minister Golda Meir that he must do so as to preserve his position in the Arab world, and asked Israel not to attack Jordan.

In 1978, during Jimmy Carter’s administration, he was trying to fix the war between egypt and israel. The war broke out in 1948 and it wasn’t going well. The Us offered the defacto recognition of israel provisional goverment , during the war united states couldnt do anything because the stayed in arms embargo. The un sparked a conflict with the jewish, arab groups within palestine. In the first three wars israel always defeated the egyptians

On October 6, 1973 Egyptian and Syrian forces launched an attack on Israel to regain land won by Israel during a previous war. Knowing that military forces would be preoccupied with their holy holiday, the two armies attacked Israel. Other Arab nations contributed to the fighting or the supplying of weapons in a later time. Israel asked The United States for help numerous times but the Nixon administration was hesitant to offer immediate aid. Many factors had to be considered before The US could come to a decision. With the Cold War still being fought during this time the US wanted to negotiate a peaceful end with the Soviet Union, who was backing the Egyptians with military supplies. The Soviets agreed to a negotiation but the Egyptians did not, which seemed to

In the fall of 1978, Carter invited Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egypt’s president Anwar Sabat to discuss with Carter at Camp David. Between September 5th and September 19th, 1978, Carter shuttled between Israeli and Egyptian delegations, hammering out the terms of peace. Consequently, Begin and Sabat reached a historic agreement: Israel would withdraw from the entire Sinai Peninsula, and the U.S. would establish monitoring posts to ensure that neither side attacked the other; Israel and Egypt would recognize each others governments and sign a peace treaty; and Israel pledged to negotiate with the Palestinians for peace.

Sadat became a militant leader who threatened Israel between1970-73. He was responsible for the war on Israel which began in October 1973 and ended in a stalemate. The weak financial situation in Egypt at the time precipitated riots. The failure of his military initiative resulted in a change in tactics and Sadat became a voice for political negotiation. It was in this context that the ‘Statement to the Knesset’ took place. His visit to Israel was unprecedented for an Egyptian. The purpose of the speech is for Sadat, perhaps following his own personal intuition and instincts, or his conscience, to go to Israel to broker a peace settlement, in order to save further massive Israeli and Arab bloodletting from occurring. The speech shares the underlying theme of justice and unity; he expresses these themes through the use of rhetorical questions and religious allusions.

“The Soviet-Egyptian arms deal of September 1955 seemed doubly troubling because it signaled new departures both in Soviet assertiveness in the region and in an Arab state’s receptivity to Soviet aid.” (Hahn 151)

The six-day war can go down in history as one of the worst wars between Israel and one or more Arab countries. The six-day war heavily impacted Israel and the participating Arab countries in many ways. Israeli and Arab relations have never been good, even before Israel was declared an independent state in 1948. The six-day war should not be considered a new war based on its impact, rather it should be considered as a continuation of a constant war between Israel and its surrounding Arab neighbors. A factor that has always played a major part in instigating a conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors is the refusal and rejection of the Arab leadership to indentify Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. The war began with all surrounding Arab countries lining up along each border ready to try and wipe Israel out using air attacks, as well as ground attacks. The Six Day War concluded with an evident victory in favor of the Israelis, which to some is surprising due to the overwhelming force of the three militaries, which were ganging up on one small country. The casualty numbers ended up in favor of the Israeli’s who only lost somewhere near 700 people with 2,500 injured, while, Egypt lost 15,000 people and had 5,600 taken as prisoners, Jordan lost close to 6,000 people and Syria suffered somewhere close to 1,000 casualties (Knesset). The Arab attackers lost close to 1 billion dollars worth of aircrafts, tanks and heavy machinery in total between all three countries

The Egyptian Syrian attack that took place on Yon Kippur is a hugely significant event in the history of the Arab Israeli conflict. Often referred to as ‘the trauma’, the attack revealed a number of key issues with regards to Israeli defence and intelligence that ultimately resulted in a severe lack of preparation. Israel was unprepared for a plethora of interlinking issues that resulted in a series of fatal mistakes with regard to intelligence and military preparedness. With regards intelligence, an entrenched and overconfident conviction in ‘the Concept’ blinded the Israeli’s to the concrete evidence and forewarnings of the Egyptian Syrian mobilization. The ingenuity of the Egyptian’s was also crucial to Israeli unpreparedness, especially the deployment of the almost certain double agent - Ashraf Marwan.

The Yom Kippur War of 1973, was a very controversial event that took many countries by surprise. Beginning on the day of Yom Kippur, a day of fasting for the Muslims, the Israelis were taken by surprise as the Egyptians and Syrians backed by the Russians started attacking them from both the west and the northeast (Loyola). This caused a dilemma for the United States, because they were afraid that if they tried to help the Israelis they would end up in a war with Russia. Though it only lasted for twenty-four days, it was a very eye opening situation for the Israelis.