47 The Arab–Israeli conflict

The dispute between the Jewish state of Israel, the Palestinians and other Arab peoples has proved to be one of the most intractable and longest-lasting conflicts in modern history. It is also a conflict that has had powerful impacts beyond the Middle East, whether on the price of oil or on the growth of global terrorism.

Jewish settlement in Palestine—then part of the Turkish Ottoman empire—began in the early years of the 20th century. The settlers were inspired by the ideals of Zionism, a movement founded in the late 19th century by Theodor Herzl who held that the Jewish people—scattered around the world for millennia—should create a Jewish state in their biblical homeland.

The creation of Israel A major impetus to the Zionist cause came in 1917, when the British foreign secretary, A. J. Balfour, declared that his government would “view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” Balfour’s aim was to drum up support from Britain’s Jewish population for the British cause in the First World War, then underway. After the defeat of Turkey in 1918, the old Ottoman empire was broken up, and Palestine became a League of Nations mandate, administered by Britain.

Jewish settlement in Palestine increased in the 1920s, leading to violent confrontations with the Arab people who already lived there. Not only were the latter concerned about losing their land, they were also influenced by the new spirit of Arab nationalism. In the First World War the Arabs had aided the Allies by mounting a revolt against the Turks, and had expected to achieve independence as a reward. Instead, much of the former Ottoman empire had been divided between the British and the French.

Violence continued in the 1930s, and plans to partition Palestine between Jews and Arabs were shelved following the outbreak of the Second World War. The experience of the Holocaust prompted many surviving European Jews to seek refuge in Palestine, but the British maintained their prewar policy of restricting immigration. Within Palestine, Zionist guerrilla groups such as Irgun and the Stern Gang conducted a violent campaign against British forces, leading Britain to announce in 1947 that it would hand over its mandate to the United Nations, the successor to the League of Nations. The UN voted for the partition of Palestine between Jews and Arabs, but this only served to intensify the fighting between the two sides. On May 14, 1948, the day before the British mandate was due to end, the Jews in Palestine proclaimed the state of Israel.

“We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own homes.”

Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, in his book The Jewish State, 1896

The Arab–Israeli Wars Israel’s Arab neighbors—Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon—immediately attacked the infant state. Fighting was fierce, but after a ceasefire was agreed in 1949, Israel found itself in possession of more territory than had been allocated it by the UN—around 80 percent of the land area of Palestine. The creation of Israel had a terrible human cost: violence against Arab civilians by Jewish extremists forced some 500,000 Palestinian Arabs to flee the country in what has come to be known as thenakba(Arabic for “catastrophe”), leaving only 200,000 behind. These refugees were housed in camps in Gaza and the West Bank, hoping that they would soon be able to return. Their cause became the cause of Pan-Arab nationalism, a movement that grew stronger and stronger across the region, especially after the Second Arab–Israeli War—the Suez Crisis of 1956.

The Suez Crisis

In July 1956 President Nasser of Egypt, an ardent Arab nationalist, seized the Suez Canal, jointly owned by British and French interests. Britain and France came to a secret agreement with Israel, by which the latter would invade Egyptian Sinai on the pretext of stopping cross-border raids, and Britain and France would intervene, ostensibly to protect the canal. The campaign started in October, and sparked widespread international condemnation. The USA was particularly incensed, applying considerable financial pressure on Britain and arranging for the UN to demand immediate withdrawal of the Anglo-French force. This duly came about in December. It was the end of Britain’s pretension to imperial power—and a triumph for Nasser, who became the hero of the Arab world.

The Third Arab–Israeli War took place in June 1967. Alarmed by Egypt’s movement of troops into Sinai, and its demand for the withdrawal of the UN force installed there during the Suez Crisis, Israel mounted a pre-emptive attack on its neighbors. In six days, Israeli forces seized Sinai from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria and the West Bank from Jordan. Israel determined to hold on to these captured territories, on the grounds that they gave it more defendable borders, but this only served to create more Arab refugees and more bitterness.

The Fourth Arab–Israeli War came in 1973, during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, when Egypt and Syria launched an attack against Israel on two fronts. Fierce fighting ensued, and the USA went onto heightened nuclear alert when it believed that the USSR was about to commit forces in support of Egypt and Syria. However, a ceasefire was agreed, leaving Israel still in possession of the “Occupied Territories.” To punish the West’s perceived support of Israel, the Arab oil-producing nations imposed a steep hike in the price of oil, leading to a severe global economic recession. The USA, realizing how close to the brink the world had come, put pressure on Israel and Egypt to make peace, resulting in the 1978 Camp David Agreement, by which Israel returned Sinai and Egypt recognized Israel’s right to exist.

That was by no means the end of the conflict. In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon in order to crush the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which continued to mount attacks against Israel. Israel’s complicity in the massacre of Palestinian civilians in Lebanon did nothing to dull Arab hostility, nor did its policy of building Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories, in defiance of the UN. While Palestinians erupted in an intifada (uprising) in the Occupied Territories, PLO leader Yasser Arafat began to look for a diplomatic solution—although this was opposed by extreme Islamist Palestinian groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, supported by Syria and Iran. More moderate political opinion in Israel also favored negotiation, and in 1993 Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin came to an agreement with Arafat for Palestinian self-rule in the Occupied Territories, and a gradual Israeli withdrawal. Elements in Israel were deeply opposed, and Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist.

“Israel has swallowed a serpent.”

Palestinian saying, referring to the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank

Since then, progress toward a lasting peace in the region has been thwarted by a number of factors. Israel has failed to withdraw from the West Bank, and continues to build settlements there, while Hamas and Hezbollah continue to mount attacks on civilians in Israel itself—often leading to fierce military responses by Israel. All this serves to whip up hatred of Israel—and of the USA, seen as Israel’s chief sponsor—across the Middle East, fueling the murderous ambitions of groups such as al-Qaeda.

the condensed idea

A major threat to international peace and security