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Since the 1948 War of Independence, Israel has had to fight four wars with its Arab neighbors. The Arab nations have repeatedly expressed their objective of destroying Israel. Israel believes that its very survival is dependent on its ability to defend itself.
In 1956 Israel, France and Britain went to war against Egypt. Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal and closed it to Israeli and Western European trade. The Israelis were also concerned about Egypt's growing military purchases from the Russians and about raids on Israel by Egyptian units. During the war, Israel captured the Sinai desert, but eventually withdrew in response to U.S. pressure and returned the territory it had gained to Egypt. The borders remained quiet for a number of years and then in 1967 the Middle East changed once again.
In June 1967, after Egypt blockaded Israeli shipping lanes in the Red Sea, expelled UN peacekeeping troops from the border of the Sinai and built up its own troops in the area, and after Syria massed large numbers of troops on the Golan Heights, Israel launched preemptive strikes against Egypt. Syria and Jordan joined Egypt in the fight. The war lasted only six days. Jordan dropped out after three days, Egypt after four and Syria after six. Israel captured territories which had served as staging areas for rocket or terrorist attacks on Israeli civilian populations: the Sinai and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria and the West Bank from Jordan including East Jerusalem.
As a result of the war, Israel's political and military situation changed dramatically. It now had a much stronger bargaining position. Israel maintained that Jerusalem would remain a unified city and Eastern Jerusalem would not be returned to Jordan, but return of the other territories was open to negotiation. But reason did not prevail. The Arab nations met in Khartoum, Sudan and declared: No peace, no negotiations, no recognition. Instead, Israel was subjected to constant attacks along the Jordan Valley and from the Suez Canal. This was known as the war of attrition.
In 1973, onYom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan attacked Israel. After initial Arab military successes, the Israelis managed to push back the attack. The U.S. convinced Israel to witP~draw from the territories it had taken. For many Israelis the 1973 war reinforced the strategic importance of buffer zones occupied in 1967. Syrian troops were stopped 10 miles from the Israeli town of Tiberias. The heartland of Israel would have been overrun had it not been for the buffer zones of the West Bank, the Golan Heights and the Sinai.
In 1979, after intensive negotiations conducted by the U.S., Israel and Egypt signed the Camp David accords. A peace treaty was concluded and Israel returned the Sinai desert to the Egyptians. President Sadat of Egypt became the first Arab leader to visit the Jewish state and in a sign of the new relations between the two countries, he addressed the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.
In 1982, Israel, concerned about growing PLO units operating from Lebanon and attacking Israeli settlements in the north, launched an attack on the PLO in Lebanon. In addition to PLO fighting units, the Syrian army, which had firmly established itself in Lebanon, was Israel's principal opposition. According to Chaim Herzog, author of a definitive history of Israel's wars, the Syrian forces, well supplied with modern Soviet equipment, fought very effectively. Nevertheless, the Israeli army prevailed in the battles and could have advanced to Damascus. The fact that it did not indicates that Syria's claim of fear about Israel's expansionist motives is not supported by evidence. After a costly struggle that drew Israel into the increasingly com-plicated Lebanese civil war and generated domestic opposition to its involvement in Lebanon, Israel withdrew in June 1985. However, Israel maintains a military presence in a section of southern Lebanon which serves as a buffer zone and prevents widespread terrorist incursions into Israel from the north.
Lipstadt, Deborah. Windows on Nationalism: The Middle East, Israel & Syria. Los Angeles: Occidental College, 1990. (pp. 27-28)
HISTORY-SOCIAL SCIENCE CONTENT STANDARDS
10.10 Students analyze instances of nation-building in the contemporary world in at least two of the following regions or countries: the Middle East, Africa, Mexico and other parts of Latin America, and China.
For additional information see the California Department of Education web site at: http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf
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