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How the Israeli-Arab Wars Have Affected Israeli Foreign and Domestic Policy The Arab Israeli conflict has gone on for many years. There have been many wars, terrorist attacks and peace treaties between Israel and the Arab countries. Through war and Treaties Israel has gained and lost a lot of land. There have been 4 major wars between Israel and the Arab countries, as well as terrorist attacks. The reason for many of these attacks includes land, claim of the country and anti-Semitism. 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 and 1949. It was a civil war between the Palestinian Jews and the Arabs. The Jewish military group, Haganah dominated in the war and came out victorious. In 1948 The United Nations declared Israel a free state. The next of the wars was the Suez Sinai War. This war began October 29, 1956 after Syria, Egypt and Jordan announced that they would join forces under Egypt's commander in chief.
Israel came out victorious in that war as well and captured The Sinai Peninsula which belonged to Egypt and The Gaza Strip which belonged to Jordan. Israel wasnt aloud to use the Suez Canal which belonged to Egypt. The next war was the Six Day War which ended the ten years of peace between the countries. The Six Day War started June 5 th 1967, when Israel bombed Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian and Iraqi airfields destroying more than four hundred airplanes.
By June 8 th Israel had stopped fighting with Egypt, Jordan and Iraq and started fighting with the Syrians. Syria had shelled northern Israel, but Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria and the West Bank from Jordan. The war was over June 10 th when the United Nations negotiated a cease-fire between the countries. The Yom Kippur War started October 6 th 1973. It is called the Yom Kippur War because it started on Yom Kippur the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. It was led by Egypt and Syria attacking Israeli solders.
Israel was caught off guard because it was the holiday. The war destroyed many things. The Arabs lost approximate 2000 tanks and 500 airplanes. Israel lost over 800 tanks and 100 airplanes. The war cost over 7 billion American dollars in material losses. It was a major loss to all the countries involved.
In 1979 the Arab Israeli conflict took a turn for the good when Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty at Camp David. The treaty was a trade that Israel would Give Egypt the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt would have peace with Israel. In 1994 Yitzhak Rabin Prime Minister of Israel and Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization signed a peace treaty that Israel gave the Palestine Liberation Organization the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and Israel got peace, but after the treaty was signed there were still many terrorist attacks on Israel and November 4 th 1995 Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by an Israel man who saw that the peace treaty wasnt working and didnt believe in trading land that Israel fought for in many wars for peace that wasnt working. In the fifty three years following the establishment of an Israeli homeland on May 14, 1948 in Palestine, two words can be used to best summarize the region: volatile and unstable. The distrust and genuine hatred between the Israelis and the Palestinians and Arab community has created a recent history marked with thousands of skirmishes, hundreds of minor conflicts, countless terrorist actions, and four major wars. The 1990 's offered a ray of hope in Palestinian/Israeli relations.
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) leader, Yasser Arafat, began to publicly assume a less radical stance than was the previous norm. Arafat and the PLO denounced terrorist acts around the world and under the influence of the Clinton administration entered into a less hostile stance towards Israel. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ahud Barak, both from Israel's more liberal parties, agreed to open negotiations with the PLO. These striking moves and new actions toward peace were a first in the history of the State of Israel. With the combination of both sides being willing to make previously unheard of concessions along with a Clinton Administration that was actively focusing on a Middle East Peace Agreement, a stage was being set the stage for a monumental peace accord. Greatly helping the situation was the fact the mid to late 1990 's marked an era of relative peace and stability throughout the entire Middle East region.
In the years following the 1991 Gulf War the major radical figure of the region, Saddam Hussein, was greatly weakened and therefore his influence on the region was reduced. More moderate leaders, such as the late King Hussein of Jordan, stepped to the forefront as the public face of a new, more peaceful, less radical Middle East. Hussein's Jordan and Israel signed a historic peace accord between the two countries in 1995. It was during this era, that a feasible possibility of peace between Israel and the Palestinians could be wrought. Despite the great hope for peace, the 2000 Camp David Accords were unsuccessful at bringing a lasting peace. Following the failed Camp David accord, then Israeli opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, made an ill-advised September 28 th visit to the Temple Mount or Haram al-Sharif, a holy shrine for both Muslims and Jews.
The Palestinians were so outraged they called for the Second Intifida, or uprising, the first taking place in 1987. Since the visit hostilities have ignited and both sides have taken an increasingly hard-line approach when dealing with the other. With the 2001 election of Arial Sharon, an Israeli hardliner known as "The Butcher" to Palestinians, Israel has assumed the most extreme approach of hard-line tactics when dealing with the Palestinians. The Palestinians have in turn stepped up terrorist actions and promised increased bloodshed when dealing with Israel. Since the beginning of the conflict, over 400 people have been killed. The question that needs to be asked is: With the increasing presence of hardliners on both sides combined with the failed attempt at peace, can the worst relations between The Palestinians and the Israelis be yet to come?
In 1979, then President, Jimmy Carter, brokered a peace settlement ending long-standing hostilities between Israel and Egypt. Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin and Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat signed the historic agreement. However, many argue that the Egyptian President merely signed the accord to gain U. S.
Dollars and loans for the faltering Egyptian economy. The Arab world was outraged by this perceived sellout of Egypt, and on October 6, 1981, Sadat died at the hands of Arab assassins. 1987 was the year of the first Intifida, or uprising, of the Palestinians in Israel. Convinced that Israeli rule was intolerable, the young Palestinians became radicalized. The terror of Intifida lasted for months and the violence and suffering was widespread and devastating. The next attempt at Middle East Peace began in Oslo, Norway in 1993.
At the Oslo Accord Israel and The Palestinians agreed to mutual recognition and transfer of control of occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to Palestinian control. The transfer was to take place over a five-year period, and during that period the peace talks were to continue. The Oslo Accord was a breakthrough attempt at peace and marked the dawning of a ray of hope in relations between the two. The Oslo Accord was followed by a proposal known as the Wye River Accord. Under the terms of the Wye River Accord, Israel would continue to turn over occupied territory to the Palestinians and release hundreds of Palestinian political prisoners. The Palestinians in turn were to make certain security guarantees to Israel; mainly involving terrorist acts again Israeli civilians and property.
The talks led to a renewed hope that a lasting firm peace could be finally wrought. The summer of 2000 was to be the final and the long lasting peace settlement between Israel and The PLO. The Second Camp David Accord, as it was referred to by some in the media, was a fifteen-day attempt at a lasting peace. Then Israeli Prime Minister, Ahud Barak, PLO Leader, Yasser Arafat, and President Clinton set to forge an agreement in the peaceful Maryland Mountains. The settlement was to be monumental because of the concessions being made by the Israeli's were previously unheard of in any negotiation process. Some of the issues to be settled would be the illegal Israeli settlements on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would be removed and the land returned to Palestinian control.
Also to be settled was the issue of what would be done with Jewish settlers in these regions. Furthermore, discussions of how and where to draw the borders between the two states and how many Palestinian refugees would be allowed to return were discussed and at least rumored to be settled upon. So with both sides, particularly the Barak led Israel, willing to make concessions previously unheard of, what caused the Camp David Accord to end with no agreement being signed? As the editorial in the July 26, 2000 Chicago-Tribune (This time, No Camp David, Accords, editorial) read, "So it should come as no surprise that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat failed to agree on how to share the Holy City. With that, all the other substantial agreements they had reportedly accomplished at Camp David came to naught. " Standing on the cusp of a peace settlement that could have marked an end to violence, bloodshed and suffering, the two parties walked away from the process split on how to divide the holy city of Jerusalem. The Holy City shares great importance in both Islamic and Hebrew religion and the thought of sharing, dividing or compromising it was simply too much for either side.
The failing of the accord caused a serious lack of faith amongst both populations. The Palestinians saw Israel as tyrannical and unwilling to compromise. Israeli's population viewed the concessions offered as more than a show of good faith towards the...
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Research essay sample on Israeli Prime Minister Arab Israeli Conflict
