Arab-Israeli conflicts
Among the most intractable conflicts to emerge
in the 20th century are those that developed
with the expansion of Zionism (a modern Jewish
movement and political ideology) and the estab-
lishment of the nation-state of israel. Israel’s arab
neighbors took offense at the displacement from
palestine of more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs
during fighting between Zionist settlers and Arabs
in 1947–49 and came to view Israel as a menac-
ing tool of Western expansion in their region.
Israelis, meanwhile, viewed their new nation as
a necessary haven for world Jewry threatened by
anti-semitism and saw their new Arab neighbors
as unreasonably hostile enemies continuously
plotting their destruction. The term Arab-Israeli
conflict thus does not distinguish between the
specific problem of Palestinian displacement and
all of its consequences for the Palestinians them-
selves on the one hand, and the wars and conflicts
between Israel and its many Arab neighbors on
the other.
Tensions have rarely abated, and formal con-
flict has broken out between Israel and neighbor-
ing Arab states several times. In 1948–49, egypt,
Transjordan (now Jordan), lebanon, syria, and
iraq invaded the newly declared Israel, hoping
to eliminate the new state, but they were repelled
by the vastly better equipped and trained Israeli
military. In 1956, Israel joined Britain and France
in an invasion of Egypt after that nation national-
ized the Suez Canal. However, the Soviet Union
and the United States forced the alliance to retreat
from its invasion, humiliating Israel and bolster-
ing Egypt.
Furthermore, in 1967, after receiving faulty
intelligence reports of an imminent Israeli inva-
sion, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria allied in a mutual
defense pact, preparing for any potential invasion
by Israel with an Egyptian-led blockade of Israeli
shipping at the Strait of Tiran. Israel responded by
invading the countries, beginning on June 5 and
ending on June 11, 1967. The result was a deci-
sive defeat of the Arab armies, the occupation by
Israel of the West Bank, the Sinai, the Gaza Strip,
and the Golan Heights, and the displacement of at
least 300,000 more Palestinians and 80,000 Syrian
residents of the Golan.
Israel’s occupation of such large areas of Arab
territory provoked Egypt and Syria to invade in
1973, and the resulting October War, the cease-fire
of which was sponsored by the United States and
the Soviet Union, demonstrated the tremendous
involvement of the cold war superpowers in the
Arab-Israeli conflict. Although peace was eventu-
ally brokered between Israel and Egypt in 1977,
resulting in a return of the Sinai, tensions did not
abate. Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and its
continued occupation of Palestinian land guar-
anteed further hostilities. From 1987 until 1993,
the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, erupted,
escalating the tensions between Israel and the mil-
lions of Arabs living under its rule as well as those
living in neighboring nations. Although an Ameri-
can-sponsored peace plan gained some ground in
the mid-1990s, the year 2000 prompted a new
intifada from a frustrated, oppressed Palestinian
population. Over the years, the conflicts have
also fanned the flames of Islamic radicalism in the
Middle East, as seen first with the rise of the mUs-
lim brotherhood (1940s), then the Lebanese Shii
militia hizbUllah (1980s), the Palestinian militant
organizations hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad
(1980s), and in the 1990s al-qaida. At the dawn
of the new century, Arab-Israeli conflicts appear
far from over. Indeed, the American-sponsored
“war on terror” that began in 2001 has further
pushed Arab-Israeli conflicts to the forefront of
world attention.
See also araFat, yasir; Jihad movements; JUda-
ism and islam; palestine liberation organization;
terrorism.
Nancy StockdaleFurther reading: Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin, eds.,
The Israel-Arab Reader (New York: Penguin, 2001); Avi
Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (New
York: Norton, 2001); Charles D. Smith, Palestine and theK 56 Arab-Israeli conflicts