The Arab-Israeli Conflict - Case Study Example

Arab and Israel Conflict: Chapter (2) Introduction The Arab–Israeli conflict refers to the political tensions and open hostilities between the two nations in the Middle East which spans roughly to one century and it has been recognised as one of the longest conflicts in modern history. A reflective exploration of the Arab–Israeli conflict suggests that the Arab nations initiated four important wars against Israel which include the War of Independence in 1948, the Sinai War of 1956, the Six Day War in 1967, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Significantly, the Arab–Israeli conflict started as a political and nationalist clash over competing territorial ambitions after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and it involves the foundation of the Zionist movement and the ensuing formation of the modern State of Israel. The first conflict between the two nations, known as the first Arab-Israeli War, started on May 15, 1948, when five Arab armies invaded the one-day- old Jewish state. This war is generally divided into two phases: the first began on November 30, 1947 and ended on May 14, 1948, with the termination of the British Mandate and the second phase started on May 15, 1948 and ended on July 20, 1949, with the signing of the last of the Armistice Agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Significantly, the War of Independence in 1948 was the most destructive wars that the two nations ever fought and it only marked the beginning of the Arab-Israeli conflict. “By the time the fighting was over, Israel, albeit at the exorbitant human cost of 1 percent of its population, had survived the Arab attempt to destroy it at birth and had asserted its control over wider territories than those assigned to it by the UN Partition Resolution.” (Karsh 2008, P. 6). It is essential to realise that the 1948 war was more than a war about national self-determination in the light of concept of the formation of a Jewish homeland and the displacement of the Palestinians. This chapter makes a reflective exploration of the War of Independence in 1948, outlining the balance of forces which shaped the British Mandate of Palestine between Palestinians, Arabs, and the increasing number of immigrant Jews, in order to comprehend the various aspects of the conflict such as the two-state solution provided by the United Nation. An Overview of the 1948 War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, which was fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbours, has been known in different names, and the Israelis call it as the War of Independence or War of Liberation while the Arabs name it as the Catastrophe. The Palestine War has been the most important Middle-Eastern armed confrontation since the destruction of the Ottoman Empire and this war is generally divided into two. The first phase started on the day after the adoption of the Partition Resolution and ended with the termination of the British Mandate on 14 May 1948. The United Nations made an important decision to partition Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state on Nov. 29, 1947, and the war broke out following the withdrawal of the British force from the region. “It was essentially a civil war, conducted under the watchful eye of the British Mandatory authorities, in which the Palestinian Arab community, assisted by a sizable pan-Arab irregular force, sought to prevent its Jewish counterpart from laying the foundation of statehood in line with the UN resolution.” (Karsh 2008, P. 8). The second phase f the war started a few hours after the proclamation of the State of Israel and involved a concerted attack by the armed forces of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, as well as Saudi. On the whole, the Palestine War of 1948 lasted for less than twenty months and it came to an end July 1949 with the final armistice agreement signed between Israel and Syria. However, those twenty months were crucial as the political landscape of the Middle East was transformed during this period. According to Rogan and Shlaim, the year 1948 may be realised as a crucial moment for the region as a whole and it was in this year that Arab Palestine was destroyed and the new state of Israel established. Similarly, other important countries of the region such as Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon suffered outright defeat, and Iraq held its lines, while Transjordan won at best a pyrrhic victory. “Arab public opinion, unprepared for defeat, let alone a defeat of this magnitude, lost faith in its politicians… The Arab-Israeli wars, the Cold War in the Middle East, the rise of the Palestinian armed struggle and the politics of peace making in all of their complexity are a direct consequence of the Palestine War.” (Rogan and Shlaim 2001, P. 1). A reflective exploration of the war in 1948 confirms that the Palestine War is important for the fact that it was the first challenge faced by the newly independent states of the Middle East. That is to say, the Middle East was slowly emerging from the colonial rule in 1948 and the various states of the region found it highly challenging to face the demands of the war. Although Israel was the newest state in the region when it declared independence on 15 May 1948, it is also significant to note that its neighbours were hardly much older in 1948. “In the Arab world, the nationalist leaders who oversaw the transition to independence fell at their first hurdle when they failed to live up to their rhetoric and save Palestine from the Zionist threat. This failure provoked a crisis of legitimacy in nearly all the Arab states.” (Rogan and Shlaim 2001, P. 2). Therefore, it is essential to realize that the war of 1948 was crucial to the existence of every newly-independent state in the Middle East. It is essential to realize the 1948 Arab–Israeli War as the most violent and destructive wars fought between the two sides and several nations took part in this crucial war. The United Nations made an important decision to partition Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state on Nov. 29, 1947, and the war broke out following the withdrawal of the British force from the region. “Mounting violence leads to the first Arab-Israeli war in early 1948, when the British withdraw from the region. Jewish forces hold their ground and declare Israeli statehood on May 14, 1948. Neighbouring Arab nations, including Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and then-Transjordan, lend support to the Palestinians. The Egyptians are the last to seek an end to hostilities; an armistice is reached in January 1949.” (The Arab-Israeli conflict, 1947-present). Therefore, various nations such as Israel, Palestine, and other neighbouring Arab nations, including Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt etc took part in the war of 1947. In fact, the fighting had started long before long before the actual date of the war between local Jews and local Arabs who were supported by volunteers from neighbouring states such as Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt. Most essentially, it was the bloodiest of the seven wars that the Israelis had fought in the region against the Arab nations. The Israel troop consisted of 35,000-45,000 soldiers, while the troops from the Arab countries were about 42,000-54,000 soldiers. Therefore, the 1948 Arab–Israeli War was the most destructive war among the various wars belonging to the Arab–Israeli conflict. The war which was fought in four phases came to an end on February 24, 1949, when the Israel troop and Egypt signed an armistice agreement that was followed by similar agreements with Lebanon on March 23, 1949, with Jordan on April 3, 1949 and with Syria on July 20, 1949. Thus, the 1948 Arab–Israeli War ended without great lose to the Israeli side which was established as a sovereign state in 1948. In a profound analysis of the Arab-Zionist contacts and negotiations between 1918 and 1948, it becomes lucid that the seeds of the modern Arab-Israeli conflict were primarily sown between the start of British rule in Palestine in December 1917 and Israeli independence in May 1948. There was an increasing Jewish immigration and settlement and recurring outbreaks of Arab violence during the first half of the British Mandate. There arose a general strike and large-scale Arab revolt against the British Mandate and Zionism in 1936 which spread to all parts of Palestine. Although the British summoned Arab and Zionist leaders to London several times during the 1920s and 1930s, all attempts at dialogue ultimately failed. Although there was optimism about the ultimate Jewish-Arab reconciliation expressed for public relations, the leading figures of both the sides concluded that the Zionist and Palestinian goals in Palestine were simply incompatible. “Once the British decided in 1947 to turn the question of Palestine over to the United Nations, the struggle for Palestine shifted to two arenas: world capitals and the United Nations, where the Jewish Agency unleashed a vigorous lobbying campaign; and the battlefields inside and along the frontiers of Palestine, where both the parties tried to create facts on the ground. The few high-level attempts at reconciliation at the eleventh hour proved too little, too late.” (Eisenberg and Caplan 1998, P. 14). To realise the British Mandate and the first partition of Palestine, it is fundamental to comprehend the history of the region during the first war between the two sides. There was severe pressure on the British government and the League of Nations exerted by the Palestinian Arabs following the First World War. “The Arabs called upon Britain to cancel the Balfour Declaration and the establishment of a national home for the Jews in Palestine. The Palestinian Arabs used arms to prove their intentions. Forgotten Palestine became a subject of hot debate between the British, the Jews and the Palestinian Arabs.” (Gad 1991, P. 107). In response to the demands of the situation in the region, Britain divided the Palestine among the various groups, giving over 77 percent to the Emir Abdullah and it granted independence to Transjordan (later known as Jordan) in 1946. The real meaning of the division of Palestine is that in the greater part of Palestine – the area east of the Jordan River – the right of the Palestinian Arabs to self-determination was realized. “The Jews’ right to self-determination in the remaining 23 percent of Palestine was not to be granted so readily. Arab militants, through terror and intimidation, opposed the fulfilment of Jewish national aspirations in any part of Palestine whatsoever.” (Gad 1991, P. 109). A profound exploration of the Israel-Palestine question raises an important debate about 1948 and the British policy is often severely criticised. As Ilan Pappé suggests, the first bone of contention in the debate about 1948 concerns the British policy in Palestine between 29 November 1947 and 14 May 1948. According to him, the Zionist historiography, which reflects the suspicions of Zionist leaders of the period, puts forward crucial charges of intimidating plots that are alleged to have been hatched against the Jews during the last period of British rule in Palestine. “The central charge is that Britain armed and secretly encouraged her Arab allies, and especially her client, King Abdullah of Jordan, to invade Palestine upon expiry of the British Mandate and do battle with the Jewish state as it came into the world.” (Pappé 1999, P. 156). According to Ilan Pappé, the Zionist charge that the British foreign secretary Bevin deliberately instigated hostilities in Palestine and gave encouragement and arms to the Arabs to crush the infant Jewish state is almost the exact opposite of the historical truth as it emerges from the British, Arab, and Israeli documents. Another myth, fostered by official and semi-official accounts of the 1948 war, is that the Israeli victory in the war was achieved in the face of insurmountable military odds. It is often maintained that the Israeli force was too small in comparison with the great force of the Arabs and Israel is pictured as a little Jewish David confronting a giant Arab Goliath. (Pappé 1999, P. 157). The war is portrayed as a desperate, costly and heroic struggle for survival and the ultimate victory of Israel is treated as nothing short of a miracle. As Ilan Pappé asserts, the heroism of the Jewish fighters is not in question, and there is no question concerning the heavy price that the Jews paid for their ultimate victory in the war. (Pappé 1999, P. 157). It is important to realise that altogether 6,000 Jews were dead in the battle, which include 4,000 soldiers and 2,000 civilians, and about 1 percent of the entire Jewish population was destroyed in the war. It is also factual that the Yishuv numbered merely 650,000 people in the land at the time of the war, in comparison with 1.2 million Palestinian Arabs and nearly 40 million Arabs in the surrounding states. However, “the Yishuv also enjoyed a number of advantages that are commonly down-played by the old historians.” (Pappé 1999, P. 157). Thus, Ilan Pappé maintains that the Israelis were better prepared, better mobilised, and better organised when the struggle for Palestine reached its crucial stage than its Arab opponents. Therefore, it is important to recognise that the Palestinian forces, both the Israeli side and the Arab side, were prepared for the war of 1948 which was crucial in the entire process of Arab-Israeli conflict. Conclusion The War of Independence in 1948 has been the most destructive of the wars that the two parties of Arab-Israeli conflict undertook and it did not mark the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, although the war came to an end with the 1949 Armistice Agreements. Significantly, the 1948 war was more than a war about national self-determination in the light of concept of the formation of a Jewish homeland and the displacement of the Palestinians. The interference of various parties, both within and outside, was influential in the overall development of the war. Also, the British Mandate of Palestine between Palestinians, Arabs, and the increasing number of immigrant Jews was based on the balance of forces, although there have been various criticisms regarding this. The ultimate result of the war has been in favour of the Jewish determination for homeland and the Arab-Israeli conflict reached a new level by the end of the War of Independence in 1948. 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