Captain Avraham “Bren” Adan raising the Ink Flag at Umm Rashrash, a site now in Eilat, marking the end of the First Arab-Israeli War – photographed by Micha Perry (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit) and used under licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

(19) ARAB-ISRAELI WARS (1948 – PRESENT)

One of the modern world’s most intractable conflicts – if not the most intractable conflict – now coming up to a modern Eighty Years War and sadly likely to see in a modern Hundred Years War, having originated with the establishment of the state of Israel with roots going back decades before that.

Also one of the modern world’s most controversial conflicts, particularly with active war conflict ongoing in 2024 and passionate advocacy about all aspects or sides of it – but unavoidable as special mention for sheer impact and significance within the Middle East and international politics.

Historian J.M. Roberts characterized the Arab-Israeli wars among what he dubbed as the wars of Ottoman Succession – those wars fought between the various successor states of the Ottoman Empire after its collapse subsequent to the First World War.

Like most other conflicts in the second half of the twentieth century, it overlapped Cold War lines – although it has continued long past them. Ironically, the United States and the Soviet Union were aligned in supporting the establishment of Israel, although the latter soon aligned itself with Israel’s Arab adversaries.

The Arab-Israeli conflict should be distinguished from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although they obviously overlap each other. Essentially, the Arab-Israeli conflict is that between Israel and those Arab states supporting the Palestinians, particularly the four Arab-Israeli wars fought between 1948 and 1973 – the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the 1956 Suez War, the 1967 Six Day War, and the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

In all four of those wars, Israel defeated the Arab states aligned against it, albeit most resoundingly in the third.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War, also called the First Arab-Israeli War, commenced with the end of the British Mandate in Palestine and the establishment of Israel in accordance with the UN partition plan for Palestine – which prompted a coalition of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq to invade Israel. Israel won – but not as resoundingly as in the subsequent wars, particularly against Jordan and its British-commanded Arab Legion. The people who did resoundingly lose were the Palestinians, as none of the subsequent peace proposals have been as extensive as the partition plan borders.

1956 saw a rematch launched against Egypt by Israel in a sordid affair known variously as the Suez Crisis, Suez War, Second Arab-Israeli War or War of Tripartite Aggression. Israel had a little help from Britain and France – hence the title of Tripartite Aggression given to it by Egyptians – which saw a rare alignment of the United States and the Soviet Union in opposition to it. It didn’t work out too well for Britain and France – often famously being identified with the end of the British Empire – but Israel won its military victory, temporarily occupying the Sinai Peninsula (and Gaza).

The 1967 Six Day War or Third Arab-Israeli War was Israel’s most resounding victory, won in the titular six days of Israel’s pre-emptive war against a coalition primarily of Egypt, Jordan and Syria, from which Israel won the territory that has been synonymous with Arab-Israel and Israel-Palestinian conflict ever since – the West Bank and Gaza, as well as the Golan Heights, and again temporarily, Sinai.

While Israel won the 1973 Yom Kippur War or Fourth Arab-Israeli War against an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Syria, the Arab states were able to reclaim some prestige lost in 1967 – due to their initial success from the strategic surprise attacking Israel during the religious festival for which the war is named. Such was their success that the war seemed to hang in the balance – and the United States went to Defcon Two, the highest stage of nuclear readiness short of actual deployment which it has only ever reached on one other occasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Although the Arab states regained some military prowess or prestige, they also realized that they could not militarily defeat Israel on their part – such that large scale hostilities in the Arab-Israeli conflict mostly ended with the ceasefire agreements in 1973, “shifting from the large-scale, regional Arab–Israeli conflict to a more local Israeli–Palestinian conflict”.

The decisive step in this process was the peace agreement between Israel and its primary Arab adversary, Egypt, in 1979. That year also saw the Islamic revolutionary regime come to power in Iran – such that the Arab-Israeli conflict would pivot to an Iranian-Israeli conflict. Ironically, that would see a rapprochement between Israel and the Arab Gulf States, as the latter saw Iran as the more immediate threat. In the interim, during the heady days of the 1990s when Israeli-Palestinian peace seemed a genuine prospect, Jordan also signed a peace agreement with Israel.

Sadly, Israel-Palestinian peace was not to be – and Israeli-Palestinian conflict has reached new heights, replacing Israel’s former wars against Arab states with wars fought against Palestinian insurgencies or resistance.

RATING: 4 STARS****
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