The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Detailed Analysis Of The 1967 War

Choose one of the following research essay topics:

1) Choose one of the Arab-Israeli Wars (1948, 1956, 1967, War of Attrition, 1973) and analyze the specific factors that triggered the war; the goals of the adversaries; their strategies; the role of third parties external to the conflict (US, USSR, UK, France, etc.); the outcome; and the consequences for the conflicting parties, for the conflict, and for regional and/or global stability.

2) Analyze the role of religion in shaping the Arab-Israeli conflict, either within Palestine or Israel; what role has religion played in identity formation? How have leaders on both sides sought to define the conflict in religious terms? And how has religion as a paradigm for understanding the conflict evolved over time?

3) Choose one of the following (historical or current) non-state armed actors in the Conflict: the Palestine Liberation Organization; Hamas; Hezbollah; The Irgun Zva’i Leumi (“the Irgun”); or Etze”l (“the Stern Gang”); discuss the impetus behind the group’s formation; its leadership, membership, aims, and strategy; its major operations and historical role; and its impact on the conflict.

Factors That Led to the War

The Arab-Israeli conflict is referred to the military conflicts, political tension and dispute that has taken place between Israel and a number of Arab countries. The root of the mentioned conflict is attributed to the rise of Arab Nationalism and Zionism towards the end of the ninetieth century. Along with that, another reason behind the conflict includes the dispute that arose from the conflicting claim of land. The Arab-Israeli conflict that had initiated in the ninetieth century is continuing till date. Over the years several reasons behind the mentioned conflicts has been emerged. This essay will include detailed discussion about the Arab Israeli war 1967 popularly known as the six-day war or the third Arab-Israeli war. The mentioned war was fought between 5^th June to 10^th June 1967 and took place between Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Syria and Jordan.   The relationship between Israel and it neighbors had deteriorated after the occurrence of the 1^st Arab-Israeli war. I this essay, detailed analysis of the factors that are responsible for the war, the goal of the advisories ad their strategies, the role of the third party in the conflict will be discussed. Along with this the outcome of the event and the consequences’ of the same for the conflicting parties and the regional as well as global stability will also be discussed in this essay.

In this essay, the analysis of factors that triggered the war in the year 1967 has been discussed. According to Vatikiotis (2016) after the first Arab-Israeli war in the year 1948, the relationship between Israel and its neighbors had deteriorated to a great extent. In the year 1956, Israel invaded the Egyptian Sinai in order to reopen the strait of Tiran which was blocked to Israeli shipping since the year 1950. Along with that since the year 1963, there was a issue about the exploitation of the water of Kineret and Jordan river. Repeated conflict had led to military classes which was initiated by Syria resulted in increment of Palestinian terror attacks against Israel encouraged by Arab states, particularly Syria. In the conflict that took place in the year 1956, Israel was compelled to withdraw. However, the nation owned a guarantee that the strait of Tiran would remain open. The conflict heightened when the United Nations Emergency Force was deployed along the border without any demilitarization agreement. The immediate cause of the war includes a series of step taken by Arabs that include the Syrian-Egyptian military pact which was later joined by Iraq as well as Jordan. As a result of this pact expulsion of the UN Emergency forces took from the Sinai Peninsula and the concentration of the Egyptian forces established there. On May 1967, despite the reiteration of Israel that closure of the Strait of Tiran even after the agreement that took place in the year 1956 would result in initiation of war, the then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had announced that the strait would be closed to Israeli vessels . This denial of the agreement had initiated the beginning of the 6 day war in the year 1967. This incident was followed by movement of the forces of Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia towards the border of Israel. In order to prevent this, Israel mobilized its reserved forces and launched a diplomatic campaign in order to win international support in order to end the Egyptian blockade of Israeli shipping through the straits of Tiran. When all these measure failed and Arab threatened Israel to wipe the nation out, the war initiated with an Israeli pre-emptive aerial strike took place on 5^th June 1967.

Goals and Strategies of the Adversaries

In this paragraph the analysis of the goal of the Adversaries of the Arab-Israeli war 1967 has been performed. The chief participants of the war include Israel in one hand and various states of Arab including Syria, Egypt and Jordan on the other hand. The goal of the States of Arab includes not letting the Israel ships use the strait of Tiran. In order to destroy the nation, prior to the initiation of the war, the Arab states had launched several attacks conducted against Israel. Thus the chief goal of the adversaries in this war was to eliminate Israel from the map of the world.  According to researchers, the government of Arab waned to invade Israel and form a Palestinian state (Oren 2017). The adversaries had never hide their intention and with the participation and was in constant preparation of the war in order to destroy the state of Israel. Even 9 days before the war of 1967 broke out, there government of Arab declared that Arab is ready to fight and their basic aim is to destroy the state of Israel from the Core.  Two days before the war, the PLO founder as well as the leader, Ahmed Shukieri declared that “Whoever survives will stay in Palestine, but in my opinion, no one will remain alive.” This constant demonstration of aggressiveness had made it clear to Isaiah that Arab will invade the nation within a very short period.

When it comes to Israel, the war they initiated the war for two reasons. The primary goal of the Israeli government is to gain back the permission of using the strait of Tiran for shipping purpose. Not only this, another goal of the Israelis is to stop the periodic attacks that took place at different parts of Israel by the steps of Arab (Crosbie 2015). Prior to the war, Syrian-backed Palestinian guerillas had begun staging attacks across the Israeli border, provoking reprisal raids from the Israel Defense Forces.  Besides that the constant demonstration of aggression shown by the government of Arab as well as Syria and Jordan made the m aware of the fact that if the war is not initiated by the nation Arab will definitely attack with massive force within near future and a mass slaughter like the one Egypt carried out in Yemen and later on in Biafra might take place.

In this paragraph, the strategy taken by the adversaries to fight the six day war has been discussed. As been discussed earlier, in spite of the fact that the war was initiated by Israel, the war was fought by the nation as a preventive measure to stop Arab along with Syria and Jordan to invade  Israel. The continuous threat from the state of Arab made it clear that the nation can invade Israel at any point of time. In order to prevent this from happening, on June 5^th, 1967, Israel Air Force lunched a preemptive attack against the Egyptian Air force, which was considered to be one of the most powerful air force at that time.  The sudden attack strategy constructed by the Israeli Air force, proved to be highly helpful for the nation and hence Israel successfully gained the total air superiority. In the six days that followed, Israeli air power, tanks, and airborne troops attacked a numerically superior foe across multiple fronts, decimating the armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan, and ending in a bitter peace on Israeli terms. According to researchers, I military terms, the Israeli armed forces campaign and strategy has got place in the text book to demonstrate skillful use of limited force against a superior enemy (Harms and Ferry 2017). The strategy of the Israeli air force is to conduct a sudden attack on the Egyptian air bases. On June 5^th afternoon, the 183 IAF aircrafts that includes ud Aviation Vautour IIs, Dassault Mirage IIIs, Dassault Mystere IVs and Dassault Super Mysteres, launched a massed attack on 11 Egyptian air bases, equipped with some of the latest Soviet planes. Within an Hour more than 200 Egyptian air crafts got destroyed. Most of them even did not got the time to take of. After the 1^st attack, the Israeli air force quickly refilled and returned to attack the Egyptian airfield and in the second time more than 100 Egyptian planes got destroyed. Jordan and Syrian air power attempted to counterattack Israel. However, the response came in a lightening speed. The Air bases of the two mentioned countries were attacked and destroyed.

Outcome and Consequences of the War

When it comes to the Arab, the intention of the nation was to invade Israel from the year 1984. The Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser signed military alliance with neighboring countries like Cairo, Damascus, Syria and Jordan in order to build a strong military base. In may 1967, when Nasser was reported that the Israelis are preparing for war, he requested Indian and Yogoslav peacekeepers to left Egyptian Israeli border. The next step that was taken by him was to close the strait of Tiran. In the same month, King Hussein of Jordan signed a defense pact with Cairo, and Amman signed a similar pact with Iraq. Along with this, other Arab states, from Algeria to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, also signaled a willingness to send troops if necessary. According to researchers, the Arabs clearly had the numerical advantage (Stremlau 2015). The ground force exceeded 500,000 troops as well as officers when the Israelis had only 264,000 officers. Not only this, more than 2900 tanks were there against 800 Israeli tank and approximately 1000 aircrafts against only 300 aircrafts of Israel.  The Arab states were in continuous preparation of invading Israel. The Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan have been properly aware that the coming warfare with the Arabs had the prospects of turning the matter of Israeli statehood into a lifestyles and loss of life struggle.  Hence as a defense, the Israeli military planners initiated preparation for the war. In 1965, the IDF commenced arrangements for a preemptive strike in opposition to their enemies. Israeli reconnaissance pinpointed destiny goals, researched the passability of roads for tanks within the Sinai Peninsula, the protective positions inside the Golan Heights, the location of enemy artillery and anti-plane batteries, command and manipulate posts, weapons warehouses and water wells (Bregman 2016). Numerous drills were practiced and finally the Israeli troops perfected the skill of attacking fortified areas, the rapid transfer of artillery fire from advance target deeps to the position of their foes and overcoming mine fields. The Tank crew had been required to keep the specified pace of motion, optimistically suppressing enemy resistance with their weapons as well as caterpillar tracks. Paratroopers were educated to disembark speedy in enemy territory, destroying enemy forces and entrenching till the appearance of the principle forces.  

According to researchers, the Israeli aviation was given a special role that includes giving “green light” to all other branches of the military (Cole 2017). In order to enhance their expertise, the Israeli pilots made morning flights over the Mediterranean sea, descending and landing at the airbase in the Negev Desert for 2 years. This practice had not only enhanced their skills but had also allowed them to develop the necessary skills for the sudden attack, but also allowed the Israeli air force to get used to the IAF’s flight route. The Israeli pilots were trained by the Air Commander Moderchai Hod to fly in complete radio silence over the sea in low aptitude allowing with executing low aptitude precision strikes against enemy airfields in Egypt as well as Syria, detailed model of which were built in the Israeli desert.

Conclusion

In the morning of 5^th December 1967, the IAF , flew their planes along the usual route over the Mediterranean. But this time, instead of turning to the Negev Desert, they turned around, and at an altitude of 30 meters, in conditions of complete radio silence, rushed to attack Egyptian airfields. Egyptian air defenses were powerless (Gerges 2018).  In the sane morning, the Israeli major general Ariel Sharon sent two tank groups in order to surround the Egyptian emplacement. An Israeli airborne battalion was landed in the area, neutralizing enemy guns, after which Israeli infantry began an assault on enemy trenches. Finally after 6 days of war, the Israel own the battle due to their effective strategy and efficiently planned moves.

In this paragraph the role of third parties in the conflict has been analyzed. The chief third parties include Syria, Jordan, the United States and Soviet Union.  The role of united state in the Arab-Israeli war 1967 was influenced by its earlier involvement in the war that took place in the year 1956 for the Suez Canal crisis. The then president of USA, Dwight Eisenhower compelled Israel to withdraw from Sharm el-Sheikh in spite of the fact that the Egypt government did not offer any concession for this (Aron 2018). However, in return of the act, President Eisenhower pledged that USA will guarantee Israel’s right of the passage in the strait o Iran. During the run up to the Six-Day War, the Americans time and again rebuffed Israeli requests for military useful resource and acclaim for an Israeli preemptive assault on Egypt. The United States, slowed down in Vietnam and facing domestic opposition to that warfare, turned into loathe to grow to be embroiled in a 2nd the front. Rather than get concerned militarily, the Americans aggressively pursued diplomatic answers and sought to cobble together an international regatta to challenge the Egyptian blockade on Israeli delivery within the Straits of Tiran, a campaign that in the long run failed. But whilst the U.S. persevered to refuse to resource Israel militarily, the American opposition to unilateral Israeli movement began to melt within the beginning of June 1967.

When it comes to the Soviet Union, it played a major role in arming the Arab states along with instigating the six-day war. According to researchers, during the 1950s soviet moved from supporting Zonitist state to the states of Arab in order to extend their influence over the Middle East (Hunt 2018). During the war, Soviet supported Arab by providing them a huge amount of weapons. soviets took on the role of armorer for both Syria and Egypt, supplying them with modern tanks, aircraft and later missiles. The Egyptian and Syrian armed forces primarily used Soviet weapons during the 1967 war and employed tactics developed by the Soviets (Jackson 2018). According to Thorpe and Ahmad (2015) Soviet Union deliberately sparked the battle in order to justify an attack against Israel's nuclear facility in Dimona. Israel's rapid and overwhelming success undermined the plan.

In this paragraph the outcome of the 6 days war has been discussed. At the end of the Six days war, Israel gained a deceived victory. The end of the war followed by Israel capturing territories that triples the size of the nation (Rubinstein 2015). That is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza strip from Egypt and the west bank from Jordan along with the Golan heights from Syria. Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1979. Today, Gaza and the West Bank make up Israel’s Palestinian Territories, under the political control of the Palestinian National Authority. The Golan Heights are still claimed by means of Syria. Israel, however, continues navy manipulate of each the Palestinian Territories and the Golan Heights. The prestige of the Arab League leaders got spoiled. The image and statue of the charismatic leader got dissimated and he died 3 years later due to cardiac arrest. In Syria the defense minister of Israel became the president in the year 2017.

The consequences of the conflict have been described in this paragraph. The victory delivered the Jewish kingdom new issues. It located itself ruling greater than a million Palestinians within the West Bank and Gaza, and the occupation fueled violent resistance. A year later, Palestinian militants commenced hijacking airliners, a part of a long campaign of terrorism towards Israeli and Western targets. Meanwhile, settlements had been set up within the West Bank and Gaza by means of Israelis who regarded them as the residents of Jewish land. Most Israelis accepted the idea of a Palestinian state, but an agreement to create one has proved maddeningly elusive. The chief of the Israeli Defense Forces during the warfare, Yitzhak Rabin, had become top minister and signed a 1994 agreement granting Palestinians restrained autonomy – and was assassinated through an Israeli opponent of the accords (Achcar and Warschawski 2015). Today, the occupation bears a headache for Israel as well as has created a rallying factor for its enemies. Israel faces a painful choice of either giving up the land it gained in 1967 or ruling millions of unwilling Arabs in the coming years. None of the American president since now has been able to bring about an effective remedy to the above mentioned issue. On his latest trip to the Middle East, Donald Trump said that his talks with overseas leaders indicated that there is now "a unprecedented possibility to carry protection and balance and peace to this area and to its human beings." The hope is that the menace posed via Iran will in the end bring Saudi Arabia, Jordan and different Arab states collectively with Israel to acquire a historic breakthrough. However, optimism has  been rewarded rarely when the year 1967 is considered (Laqueur and Schueftan 2016). The Six Day War changed into one of the maximum amazing military triumphs in latest records. Only later did Israelis find out how splendid the space can be between victory and peace.

From the above discussion it can be concluded that the 6 days war has imposed positive impact on the nation of Israel to a great extent. Firstly, the war enabled the nation to get rid of the constant attacks and threats demonstrated by the united states of Arab. Secondly, the unethical act of Egypt by Egypt that is the closure of the stats of Tiran for shipping purpose was also prevented by the war. The magnificent military skill demonstration of the nation gained place in the world history.  The nation was able to obtain more than 4 times the land it possessed before the war. This factor had definitely imposed positive impact on the financial as well as technological development of Israel. However, in later years , several issues associated with the inefficient ruling and revolution have taken place. Politicians and leaders are still in search of obtaining an optimum solution n for this issue.

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