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Themes and key eventsBuild up of tension in Palestine, 1919-48

The Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate, 1917 and 1923 Causes of Jewish immigration in the 1920s and 30s The effects of Jewish immigration - the reaction of Palestinians – Haiffa riot 1921 and Wailing

Wall incident 1929 followed by Hebron massacre; The Arab Revolt (1936-9) Clashes between Jews and Palestinians. The Peel Commission (1937) – partition proposed; rejected by Arabs McDonald Report and White Paper (1939) – proposed a unified independent state under Arab

control – rejected by Jews; limited Jewish immigration and became British policy during WWII. The Impact of the Second World War – the Holocaust and world reaction Jewish terrorist activities against Britain –

The assassination of British Commissioner for Egypt, Lord Moyne (1944); Irgun, Stern Gang – King David Hotel Bombing (1946); SS Exodus incident – Jewish refugee ship forced to dock not in Israel but in Germany

(July 1947); Sergeants’ Affair (1947)

The creation of Israel and the war of 1948-9 The British announcement of their withdrawal and hand over to the UN (December 1947) UN partition plan and UN resolution agreeing to the creation of a Jewish state; Arab opposition and the outbreak of fighting between Jews and Arabs leading to Deir Yassin

(April 1948) British withdrawal and the proclamation of the state of Isreal– 14th May 1948 First Arab-Israeli War (1948-9)

Why Israel appeared weak; The first phase and the truce; The Second phase and truce; The third phase Reasons for the Israeli victory Results of the 1948-49 war for Israel and the Arab states Results of the 1948-9 war for Palestinians – al-Nakba

Jewish immigration and the Law of Return (1950) Nation building in Israel International Support for Israel.

The Suez Crisis, 1956 The Arab states and Israel after 1948 (attitude and actions, 1948-56). The Officers’ Club Coup (1952); Gamal Nasser comes to power in Egypt (1954) What were Nasser’s goals? Aswan Dam project; Soviet assistance (1955); withdrawal of

western aid (1956) Nasser nationalization of the Suez canal (26th July 1956) Why did Israel, Britain and France agree to attack Egypt? Sevres agreement of 24th October 1956 Invasion – 29th October 1956 UN action and the attitudes of the Superpowers. Anglo-French withdrawal. Israeli gains. Effects of Suez-Sinai war on the Arab states Increased superpower involvement after Suez

Tension and Conflict, 1956-1973 General background to the Six Day War of 1967 Immediate causes of the Six Day War of 1967

Samu incident of November 1966 7th April 1967 Dogfight over the Golan Heights 13th May USSR inform Nasser of Israeli military build up at frontier with Syria 16th May, Nasser orders the removal of the UN peace keepers from Sinai Late May – Straits of Tiran and Gulf of Aqaba blockaded by Egypt

Events of Six Day War 5th-10th June. Why did Israel win? What did Israel win? UN Resolution 242 CONSEQUENCES OF THE SIX DAY WAR – section needed – good material in the

textbook The Khartoum Declaration Palestinian resistance

Fatah and the Israeli attack on Karameh (March 1968) The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Airplane Hijacking of

September 1970

Build up of tension in Palestine, 1919-4 The Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate

o British made contradictory promises to Arabs and Jews during the WW1 (e.g. MacMahon Letter + Balfour Declaration).

o Arabs desired to free themselves from Ottoman (Turkish) rule, hence were prepared to fight with the British against the Turks in the Middle East.

o In return the British were prepared to promise to support the creation of an independent Arabia.

o But the desire by the British government to also win over Jewish support for the war effort resulted in a promise (Balfour Declaration) to support the idea of a ‘homeland’ for Jews in Palestine.

o Such seemingly conflicting promises created a foundation for future problems. Three key developments show this conflict:

o 1915, MacMahon-Hussein correspondence – promised support to the Arabs to create an independent Arabia

o 1916, Sykes-Picot Agreement – May 16th - Anglo-French agreement to divide the ex-Turkish territories of the Middle East between the British and the French, with the British controlling the south and access to Suez and Iraqi oil fields. (Post-script, After sweeping across Syria and Iraq in 2014, Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced, “This blessed advance will not stop until we hit the last nail in the coffin of the Sykes-Picot conspiracy.”)

o 1917, Balfour Declaration – 2nd November - seemed to be a promise to the British Zionist movement to support the idea of a Jewish ‘national homeland’ for the Jews in Palestine after the war.

Balfour was partly prompted by British hope that Jews might support the allied goals either by insurrection against the German government, or by prompting continued support for the war effort in Russia or greater support for an outright victory in America.

Balfour was also prompited by strategic considerations after the war – Britain’s desire to protect its imperial wind pipe – Suez - and to create a land bridge between the Mediterranean and Iraq. The hope was that by proposing a solution to the ‘Jewish question’ Britain would secure the mandate for Palestine after WWI. This is indeed what happened.

o Under the post-war treaties (Treaty of Sevres, 1920) the former Turkish territories were sub-divided amongst the British and French to be governed as League of Nations ‘Mandates’: Syria and Lebanon to France; Palestine, Trans-Jordan, Iraq to Britain. Thus, Britain had its military occupation of Palestine since 1916 legitimised.

o The class A mandate was confirmed in 1922 and came into force in 1923, stated that Britain will hold responsibility for holding the territory under ‘such political, administrative, and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home… and the development of self-governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion.’

o The British now had the difficult task of trying to govern Palestine which became seen by ‘Zionists’ as the natural homeland for Jews, but also by the Palestinian Arabs as their home.

o Under the first British civilian governor in the region, Herbert Samuel, both communities were encouraged to form their own institutions. But from the outset, Arab Palestinians were unhappy with the arrangement.

o In 1923. In accordance with Class A mandate requirements, Legislative Council elections were held in Mandatory Palestine in February and March 1923. The Arabs boycotted it because they objected to the distribution of the chairs - they received 43% of the chairs (10 out of 23) when they occupied 88% of the territory. (Jews were to

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receive 2 and the other 11 chairs were to be occupied by appointees and the High Commissioner).

o As a result the elections were annulled and an advisery council was appointed instead. Palestine was the only mandate to be governed between the wars without a legislative council.

o Zionist Commission – formed after the Balfour declaration – evolved into the Palestine Zionist Executive in 1920 and became the Jewish Agency in 1928-9.

• It established the institutional basis for a future Israeli state – including political parties, the general labour federation and the underground defense organization (the Haganah).

• These institutions constituted a proto-state which made the transition to full statehood in 1948 easier.

• The British encouraged Palestinian Arabs to mobilize but the Arab Executive in 1920 was a feeble vehicle for their aspirations.

• The British recognized the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem – the Muslim cleric in charge of the Al-Aqsa mosque – who became therefore the de facto leader of Arab nationalist aspirations.

• Mohammed al-Husseini (of the same clan as the Sharif of Mecca) was appointed by the British and between 1921 and 1936 he was trusted by the British; during the course of the 1936 Arab revolt, al-Husseini would be outlawed and during WWII would become involved with the Nazis, fleeing to Germany in 1941 and helping to establish an SS Muslim regiment that helped to commit atrocities against Jews in Croatia.

Causes of Jewish immigrationo Causes – Jewish immigration was built on movements from before 1914. o Persecution of Jews in parts of Europe (especially Russia) in the period 1880-1914 and

the Zionist movement had led to Jewish immigration and the formation of settlements (e.g. Tel Aviv) by 1914.

o After 1918 Jewish migrants were tempted by the stability which the British mandate over Palestine seemed to offer.

o This was coupled with the impact of the Balfour Declaration which seemed to support moves towards an independent Jewish homeland. Economic forces also persuaded many Jews to migrate – the idea of a better life in Palestine was attractive to some.

o Restrictions on immigration into the USA between the wars meant that Palestine was one of the few options for Jews who wished to migrate from Eastern Europe and Russia.

o Later the impact of Nazi persecution had an effect between 1933 and 1939 – anti-semitism became a fact of life in Germany after 1933 but was institutionalized in the 1935 Nuremberg Laws which made marriage between Germans and Jews illegal and effectively stripped Jews of their rights.

o Kristallnacht, of 9 November 1938, where Jewish businesses and synagogues were attacked and set on fire marked a major turning point and led to mass emigration from Germany and Austria.

The effects of Jewish immigration… o By 1929 there were 160,000 Jews in Palestine (alongside 1 million Arabs) o By 1936 the Jewish population was 370 thousand. o By 1939 Jews numbered some 450,000 making up almost 1/3rd of the total

population.o Produced Jewish settlements in Palestine, these ranged from large towns (e.g. Tel Aviv)

to communal farms (called ‘Kibbutz’). o Widespread economic development occurred as Jews invested in, and worked on, the

land.

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o Jews bought up significant areas of land to farm (Jews invested $250million in Palestine between 1919-39).

o Jewish organisations developed to help the Jewish people, e.g. the Jewish Agency was the most significant Jewish body which existed to act as a sort of government for the Jews; and during the mid-1930s was under the leadership of David Ben Gurion.

o a militia force, the Haganah, was formed to protect Jewish settlements.o But this also produced tensions between the Jewish settlers and the Palestinian Arab

population and this led to clashes.

The reaction of Palestinians. o Clashes were numerous, e.g. Jaffa, 1921; Wailing Wall Incident and Hebron Massacre,

1929. o 1921 rioting in Tel Aviv following attack on Jews in town of Haifa (Jaffa); leaving 200

Jews and 120 Arabs dead or wounded;o Dozens of deaths occurred each year, and sometimes many more when larger scale

clashes happened. Clashes intensified during the period of the Arab Revolt, 1936-39 (see below).

o In the 1920s there was continuous tension over the city of Jerusalem’s holy places.o Arab leaders claimed that Jews intended to take over some of the Arab (Muslim Holy

Places) – particularly the Al-Aqsa mosque (3rd holiest Muslim site)o Disturbances erupted in response to benches being set up in front of the Waling Wall

resulted in 133 Jewish deaths and 116 Arab deaths (the latter caused by British police trying to protect the Jews).

o It was followed by the massacre of most of the Jewish residents of Hebron;

Arab Revolt, 1936-39 o This was a response to the growing concern and sense of injustice over the increasing

Jewish influence in Palestine. o The British were seen by the Arabs as favouring the Jews and doing little to prevent

immigration or growing Jewish settlement. o The British were also regarded as acting in a harsh manner towards Arabs.o A general strike began on 15 April 1936 and there was violence against both the British

forces and Jews. o Fighting between the Arabs and the British, and between Jews and Arabs took the lives

of hundreds of Arabs and Jews as well as dozens of British soldiers and police. o Meanwhile, British troops such as Orde Wingate, trained Jewish militia to defend

themselves (Secret Night Squads).o The long term effect – was for the British began to seriously consider their place as the

governors of Palestine. Plans were developed to prepare for a form of self-government for both Jews and Arabs in Palestine.

The Peel Commission and report (1937)o 1937 Peel Commission was appointed to investigate the cause of unrest in the Mandate

and its Report admitted for the first time that the Mandate had become unworkable. It’s solution was to partition the territory to create two separate states.

o The Jewish people accepted the Report with mixed feelings as an opportunity for sovereignty.

o The Arabs opposed the partition plan and condemned it unanimously, as it would give the Jews the "best land in all of Palestine... including 82% of all citrus production in the country, Arab and Jewish". Citrus was Palestine's most valuable crop and principal export.

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o The Report also noted the absence of cultivable land on the Arab side which would necessitate the execution of large-scale plans for irrigation, water-storage, and development in Trans-Jordan, Beersheba and the Jordan Valley.

o Reactions – Arabs rejected the proposals outright. They argued that the creation of what would effectively be a Jewish State as a betrayal the McMahon-Hussein correspondence.

o The Arab Higher Committee also lobbying, hundreds of delegates from across the Arab world (i.e. well beyond Palestine itself) convened at the Bloudan Conference in Syria on 8 September 1937 and wholly rejected both the partition and the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

o The Jewish leadership accepted partition with mixed feelings as an opportunity for sovereignty. o In a letter to his son in October 1937, David Ben-Gurion wrote that ‘a Jewish state

must be established immediately, even if it is only in part of the country. The rest will follow in the course of time. A Jewish state will come.’

o The Jewish Agency declared that it already it had already created a complete administrative apparatus amounting to "a Government existing side by side with the Mandatory Government.”

MacDonald Report/White Paper (1939)o The MacDonald Report was effectively a response to the continued violence in Palestine

and the failure of Peel to find a workable compromise, but it was also a response to the prospects of WWII where once again British strategic considerations came to the fore.

o At this point, access to Arab oil became a paramount concern.o The McDonald report rejected the proposals of the Peel Commission and proposed a

single state solution following a British withdrawal (this was supposed to give equal rights to Jews and Arabs, who would be the majority),

o The report also recommended further controls to limit Jewish immigration to a maximum of 10,000 per year for five years; restrictions on the amount and location of land Jews could buy were also imposed from 1939.

o By 1939 the British troops numbered over 20,000 in an attempt to maintain order.

Reactions - o For Jews, the 1939 White Paper represented the deepest act of betrayal at

the time of their greatest peril. o A Jewish general strike was called on 18th May.o After the outbreak of war in September 1939, the head of the Jewish Agency for

Palestine David Ben-Gurion declared: 'We will fight the White Paper as if there is no war, and fight the war as if there is no White Paper.'

o The Jews able to escape the death camps of the Holocaust had nowhere to go.

The Impact of the Second World Waro The war brought about three significant developments:

The Holocaust – rumored to be taking place by 1941 and later confirmed; The development of influence of USA and USSR who emerged from the war as

Superpowers; More radical Zionism - at the Biltmore Conference in May 1942, Zionist

Organizations called for the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth, thus claiming all of Palestine – a view that was already implicit in Jewish response to the Peel Partition in 1937.

o In addition, the Holocaust created three key outcomes: A large wave of Jewish migrants to Palestine, A surge in sympathy in the West (particularly the USA) for the creation of a Jewish

homeland; Growth in Jewish terrorist activity against British control of Palestine;

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International criticism of Britain’s handling of immigration into Palestine.

Jewish terrorist activities. o After 1940 there was a growth in extremist Zionist circles of the belief that Britain was

the principle barrier to the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. o The policies of the late-1930s were interpreted as shutting off the prospect of Britain

pushing for a separate Jewish state. o British restrictions on Jewish immigration were tightly imposed from 1940, with some

migrants being forcibly turned away and even forced to return to areas influenced by the Nazi regime (in 1947 a ship, the ‘Exodus’, carrying Holocaust survivors, was turned back to Germany).

o Tough British reprisals against Jews led to more moderate groups to turn against the British from 1946, with even David Ben Gurion (Head of the Jewish Agency and de facto leader of the Yishuv) approving Haganah action against British troops.

o The 1946 Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry recommended ending ban on Jewish land purchases in Palestine and establishing a Jewish State.

o Recommended the immediate admission of 100,000 Jews to Palestine from Europe but Britain refused.

o Radical terrorist groups were formed (e.g. Irgun and the Stern Gang) which conducted operations against British soldiers and police. Irgun was led by later Israeli Prime Minister in the 1970s, Menachem Begin.

o They targeted British infrastructure – Police stations, offices, oil pipes, railways, bridges, airfields, radio stations and telephone lines (POOR BART).

o The British Minster of State in Egypt, Lord Moyne, was assassinated in 1944.o Operation Agatha - A British raid on underground insurgents involving 10,000

trooops, raiding buildings, confiscating weaponry and arresting 2,700 Jews.o The most dramatic was the 1946 July 22nd King David Hotel bombing in Jerusalem

resulting in 88 deaths. o The Sergeants’ Affair of July 1947: Irgun kidnapped 2 British intelligence officers

(Clifford Martin and Mervyn Paice) and threatened to kill them if the British carried out death sentences on three Irgun militants were carried out. The death sentences were carried out and the two officers were hung from eucalyptus trees with booby traps attached to them. The Sergeants’ Affair resulted in the officers’ deaths, reprisals by British soldiers on Jews resulting in five deaths. The killings sparked riots in Britain too.

o Later the same year, September 29th 1947, the militant Zionist groups Irgun and Lehi blew up Central Police HQ in Haifa, killing 10 and injuring 54.

o There were two principal consequences of this terrorist activity: Terrorism was a factor in persuading the British government to seek to withdraw

from Palestine after the war; In February 1947 the British Foreign Secretary announced to the commons that he was going to seek UN help. Britain was facing ‘strategic over-stretch’, having to station 100,000 soldiers in an area smaller than Wales in order to keep the peace. Between 1945 and 1948, Britain suffered 338 fatalities as a result of Jewish insurgency.

Jewish fighters gained more experience in military-style operations, which was to be helpful in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9.

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The Peel Commission Report, 1937This map shows the Peel Proposals – that were never carried out. It gave the majority of the fertile land to the Jews and the infertile Negev desert to the Arabs. Irrigation for the area south of the Lake of Galilee depended upon water from that

The creation of Israel and the War of 1948-9

The British announcement of their withdrawal and hand over to the UNo In 1947 the British asked the UN to take back the Mandate for Palestine – Britain was

preparing to withdraw. o British Motives

Britain was finding it very difficult to police Palestine (100,000 police and troops were being used by 1947);

the impact of the Jewish terrorist activities (there was public concern in the UK that British troops were being killed without a decent political reason) – 388 British troops killed in Palestine between 1945-48;

Britain was criticized for its handling of the Jewish refugee problem after WWII though it was trying to keep the peace between two communities.

the economic and military strain of fighting the Second World War meant Britain had to cut back somewhere;

the British Labour government was committed to reducing the scale of Britain’s overseas commitments and to increasing its spending on welfare in the UK.

o International support for an independent state of Israel From 1945 the US government was a major voice in calling for the creation of the

state of Israel. In 1946 President Truman demanded the immediate entry of 100,000 Jews as

migrants into Israel. In 1947 the USA and the USSR had both agreed to the creation of the state of Israel,

and in 1948 were among the first states to recognise the newly formed Israel.

UN Partition Plan, 1947 o September 1947, UNSCOP recommended the partition of Palestine into separate

Jewish and Arab states, though with economic unity, shared currency and railways, roads, postal, telephen and telegraphic services. Jerusalem and Bethlehem would be under international control.

o Jews accepted the plan reluctantly; the land given to the Jews in the South was a desert – the Negev (it would have gone to the Arabs under the Peel proposals); 400,000 Arabs would be living in Jewish territories and already owned 80% of the

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The British announcement of their withdrawal and hand over to the UN (December 1947) UN partition plan and UN resolution agreeing to the creation of a Jewish state; Arab opposition and the outbreak of fighting between Jews and Arabs leading to Deir Yassin

(April 1948) British withdrawal and the proclamation of the state of Isreal– 14th May 1948 First Arab-Israeli War (1948-9)

Why Israel appeared weak; The first phase and the truce; The Second phase and truce; The third phase Reasons for the Israeli victory Results of the 1948-49 war for Israel and the Arab states Results of the 1948-9 war for Palestinians – al-Nakba

Jewish immigration and the Law of Return (1950) Nation building in Israel International Support for Israel.

The Peel Commission Report, 1937This map shows the Peel Proposals – that were never carried out. It gave the majority of the fertile land to the Jews and the infertile Negev desert to the Arabs. Irrigation for the area south of the Lake of Galilee depended upon water from that

land there. Extremist groups were already looking to see how the rest of Palestine could be brought under Jewish control.

o Even moderates, like David Ben Gurion expressed doubts - There can be no stable and strong Jewish state so long as it has a Jewish majority of only 60% - suggesting that from the outset, a new Jewish State would work to reduce the Arab population under its control.

o Arabs completely rejected the plan – it gave over half of Palestine to the Jewish state despite the Jews forming only 1/3rd of the population and owning about 7% of the land – yet they were also given the most fertile parts of Palestine to the north and on the coast.

o The United Nations drew up proposals for a divided Palestine known as UN Resolution 181 – both the USA and the USSR brought pressure on smaller nations to vote in favour; and it was passed on 29th November 1974 by 33 to 13 with 10 abstentions.

o But this was rejected by the Arabs who claimed that the Jews would have every advantage from the proposals (e.g. the Jews would have the best farm land).

o The General Assembly of the UN voted to approve the partition plan. o The date for British withdrawal was set for 14th May 1948.

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UN Partition Plan

Compared with the Peel Commission Report, this plan would have given Jews a larger share of the land (56% of Palestine) – including the Negev desert but would have given them less of the fertile Zone. It still denied them the lands around Jerusalem.

Arabs rejected the plan immediately and completely.

The result was a further deterioration of the two communities, and what many interpret as a deliberate attempt by Israel as an attempt to remove Arab populations from within Jewish held areas, as well as securing the territories

Arab Opposition and the outbreak of violence between Jews and Arabs, 1947-48. o It was clear that once the British had decided to pull out of Palestine that the

situation was suddenly much more open. o Jewish and Arab groups realised that without British soldiers and police any future

struggle for the region would be between themselves. o Both sides now began to increase their actions to try to gain the advantage. Best

placed to do this were the Jews with their militia groups (Irgun, Haganah) already established and armed.

o Both sides expanded their military strength – Arabs importing 10,000 rifles from neighbouring Arab states;

o Jews introduced conscription to the Haganah and ordered weapons from Czechoslovakia.

o From mid-1947 the scale of clashes between Arabs and Jews increased greatly – most notable was the ‘Battle for the Jerusalem Roads’ in which the Jews hoped to secure the route from Jaffa to Jerusalem which would also cut the Arab-held territory in two.

o Atrocities were committed by both sides in this struggle, most notably at Deir Yassin (April 1948), a village which was devastated in an Irgun raid in which most of the inhabitants were massacred.

o By May 1948 300,000 Arabs had fled from Palestine into neighboring Arab states (Was this one aim of the Jewish actions in 1947-48?).

The British withdrawal and the proclamation of the State of Israel, May 14th 1948o The withdrawal of Britain from Palestine produced the Jewish declaration of

independence. o David Ben Gurion became the first Prime Minister of the newly declared Israel. Ben

Gurion had been chairman of the Jewish Agency previously. o The Arabs rejected the notion of a separate state of Israel.

First Arab-Israeli War, 1948 – The War of Israeli Independence

o Why Israel appeared weak Immediately the state of Israel was declared the neighbouring Arab states

(members of the Arab League) invaded to support the Palestinian Arabs in their attempt to overthrow the Jewish state.

Arabs outnumbered Jews, and Israel was surrounded by hostile Arab states who immediately mounted invasion on all sides.

The key states to invade Israel were Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

o The First phase – May-June 1948 May-June 1948: Arabs pushed deep into Israel. Clashes took place between the two sides. The Israelis fought desperately, seemingly against the odds and managed to

hold off many Arabs attacks. A ceasefire was negotiated by the UN in late-June.

o TRUCE - July-Sept 1948: The Jews were able to bring in more equipment previously ordered from Czechoslovakia.

The Second phase – July 1948 The Haganah was able push back the Arabs in many places.

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A second ceasefire was brokered in late-July. o TRUCE - Proposals put forward for a partitioned Palestine guaranteeing Arab rights

and the return of the Palestinians who had fled. Israelis rejected this; and Folke Bernadotte – the UN representative who put

forward the plan was assassinated by members of the Stern Gang.

The third Phase October 1948-July 1949o Israelis had the upper hand pushing back the exhausted Arabs. The only Arab

force which fought with distinction was Jordan’s Arab Legion which held onto the ‘old city’ of Jerusalem. The Egyptians pushed back to Gaza and the Sinai, the Syrians pushed back to the Golan Heights.

Reasons for Israeli victoryArab weaknesses: Palestinian and Arab forces were not as effective as might be thought (lack of united

action and did not send full armies); Arab armies came from outside Palestine and lacked resolution once the going

became tough. The Arabs were un-coordinated and tended to act in their own self-interest, signing

separate truces when it suited them (e.g. Jordan once it held the West Bank);

Israeli strengths: Israel controlled the central rail network within Palestine and were able to co-

ordinate its armies carefully. Israelis had more experienced army and soldiers, having trained and fought with or

against the British the Israelis became better armed as the war unfolded (especially after the June 1948

ceasefire), they could import weapons from abroad partly paid for by contributions of money from Jews abroad, especially in the USA;

Israel able to recruit more quickly and effectively - the Jews were fighting for their homeland and their existence.

Results of the 1948-9 war for Israel and the Arab states.o The survival of the new state of Israel which could begin to build itself after 1948; o West Jerusalem was captured and immediately proclaimed the capital of the new state

of Israel, which would not become easier to defend thanks to the occupation of territories that would have belonged to Palestinians. Israel also now gained a larger portion of the fertile territories.

o Whereas the UN Partition Plan had allotted 56% of Palestine to Israel (despite it constituting only 30% of the population who owned only 6% of the land), Israel now occupied 80% of the territory.

o Egypt still held Gaza, Jordan held the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Syria held the Golan Heights);

o Arab states signed a series of separate truces with Israel in 1949; o Arab states refused to recognize the state of Israel, instead they vowed to destroy it; o Israel emerged as a nation on high alert for another Arab attack (Israel was born out of

a war and this shaped the nature of the state) or simply from the Palestinian refugees who desired to attack Israel (‘Fedayeen’ fighters); although Egypt controlled the Gaza strip, it did nothing to stop such attacks.

Results of the 1948-9 war for Palestinians – al-Nakba o Flood of Palestinian refugees out of Palestine – in 1947-48 the significant majority (about

700,000) of Palestinian Arabs fled from Palestine into neighboring Arab states. 10

o The fighting between Arabs and Jews from mid-1947 through to early 1949 produced the circumstance for a mass movement of Arab refugees who feared the consequences of being caught either by Jewish forces as they expanded their control, or simply feared the effect of the war.o The mass migration of Palestinian refugees into neighbouring Arab states (800,000

Palestinians) o Israel refused Palestinians fleeing the conflict a right of return to their lands; o Israel claimed that such people represented a security threat to the state of Israel and

had left of their own free accord or because they were told to by Arab states fighting the war.

o Eye witnesses suggest that Israel had deliberately spread panic among the Arab populations within the Jewish state, using jeeps with loud speakers to broadcast ‘horror sounds’, sirens and Arabic voices calling on people to ‘run for your lives’.

o About 100,000 middle-class Palestinians – who had left before the 1948-9 war set up new lives elsewhere in the Middle East (e.g. Kuwait, Caro, Damascus or emigrated to the USA).

o The vast majority became refugees in neighboring states where they were not offered citizenship – according to the Arab League, so that they wouldn’t lose their right to return. This meant that they struggled to travel and to find work; and instead occupied 54 vast tented camps – including 4 in Jordan, 19 on the West Bank; 15 in Lebanon; 8 in Gaza and 9 in Syria.

o The United Nations Relief Work Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian Refugees was set up in 1949 to provide basic services like water and sanitation, health care and education.

o Life in Gaza was the toughest – a small strip of land 45 km long and 8 km wide contained 20,000 at the outset but were joined by 190,000 resulting in crowding, water shortages, sanitation issues and the collapse of the local economy.

o Refugee camps inside the Gaza strip and the West Bank became a breeding ground for insurrectionary groups known as the ‘Fedayeen’); Between 1950 and 1953, 153 Israelis died and 202 injured as a result of their missions.

o Israel always retaliated fiercely – e.g. attacking Qibya in the West Bank, killing 69 villagers and destroying 45 houses, a a reprisal for the death of three Israelis

Jewish immigration and the Law of Return (1950)o By contrast with the mass movement of Palestinians out of Israel, the new state received a

mass influx of Jews from Europe, North Africa and beyond.o Israeli grew swiftly after 1948 – in six years the population of Israel more than

doubled from 770,000 to 1.7million by 1954 (largely through immigration encouraged by the ‘Law of Return.

o The majority of Jews arriving in Israel in the 1920s and 1930s had been Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern and Central Europe, many of whom arrived in the 1930s to escape anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria.

o The Jews who arrived after WWII were often traumatised survivors of the the Holocaust or of mass violence and expulsion from Arab and North African states following the 1948-9 war.

o For example, 120,000 Jews were air lifted from Iraq in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, 1950-1. In Operation Magic Carpet, 1949-50 US and British aircraft airlifted 47,000 Yeminite to Israel following violence against the community in the Yemen in 1949.

o Many of the Jews who arrived in the period 1948-9 were Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews with different customs, dress and views on religion.

Nation building in Israel o Religion was raised in profile – since it was the one thing that Jews from all backgrounds

had in common.o Students were all taught Hebrew;

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o Communal farms called Kibbutzim were established for poor settlers;o Ancient and recent Jewish history was taught in schools;o Above all, every one over the age of 18 claiming Jewish Citizenship – male and female –

had to serve a period of conscription in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF); and up to the age of 55 most recruits are expected to train for one month a year.

o 35% of the national budget was spent on the IDF.o Other measures included the trial and execution of Adolf Eichmann, in 1961, abducted

by Mossad from Argentina and brought to Jerusalem for a television trial.o By 1950 over 200 Arabic place names were changed to Hebrew names.

International Support for Israelo Political support was supplemented by financial support, both official and unofficial. The

US government gave the new state of Israel $65million of aid in the period 1948-51, but millions more was donated by private companies, individuals, and Jewish organisations with the United States.

o The US government turned a blind-eye to military equipment sold from the USA to Israel after 1948, although it did not yet support direct military assistance to Israel (this was to come later in the 1960s).

o Some countries did agree to sell Israel weapons, especially the French, who sold large numbers of military aircraft for the new Israeli Air Force in the 1950s

The Suez Crisis of 195612

Post 1949 Summary

Following the ceasefires that were arranged separately with each of the five Arab nations that had invaded Palestinian territory, Israel occupied 80%s of the land (some 24% more than it had been allocated in the original plan, and 50% of the territory allocated to Palestinians).

Israeli territory now included East Jerusalem, which contained the valuable religious sites of the Temple Mount and much of the fertile area west and south of the Sea of Galilee.

This made the new state of Israel easier to defend. Nonetheless, Syria still occupied the Golan Heights, Jordan the West Bank and Egypt the Gaza strip.

Those zones became areas from which Fedayeen launched attacks on Israel between 1950 and 1956.

The Arab states and Israel after 1948 (attitude and actions, 1948-56). The Arab states refused to recognize the existence of the state of Israel, instead seeing it

as a state which had to be ‘wiped off the map’. The Arab league boycotted all trade with Israel and Egypt searched all ships entering the

Suez Canal and began to make access to the Gulf of Aqaba difficult by 1951. The Arabs argued that the Palestinian refugee problem had been created by Israel’s

aggressive actions in 1947-48 which was deliberately designed to ‘ethnically cleanse’ Israel of as many Arabs as possible.

Some Palestinians tried to hit back at Israel from their refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza – these were known as ‘Fedayeen’.

A deep suspicion of the West developed in the Arab states; the West was seen as being supportive of Israel – this allowed closer ties to be made with the Soviet Union (USSR) in the 1950s.

The humiliating defeat for the Arabs in the war of 1948-49 produced a crisis in the Arab world.

In response to the disaster of the 1948-9 war, new nationalist movements emerged in the 1950s, most notably in Syria and Egypt. There were two military coups in Syria – one in 1949; the other in 1951. In Iran the Shah was deposed by Mossadeq in 1951, only to be returned to power by the US in 1953. King Abdullah of Jordan is assassinated and replaced by his grandson, King Hussein.

In Egypt, The Free Officers’ Committee deposed the corrupt playboy and ally of the British, King Farouk in 1952. In 1954 one of its members, Colonel Gamal Nasser became supreme leader.

Why did Nasser upset the West? Nasser wanted to free Egypt from its unnecessary British occupation; Nasser wanted to improve conditions for Egyptian people and began building the

Aswan Hydro-electric damn to provide greater irrigation for agriculture and electric power for Egyptians.

Although Britain and the USA had agreed to help fund the Aswan Dan hydro-electric project, they refused to supply weaponry which they believed would be used against Israel.

Nasser began drawing closer to the USSR in 1955 and was purchasing Soviet made weapons and even had Soviet advisors in Egypt to assist in military training.

When Israel carried out a raid against Fedayeen in the Gaza strip in August 1955, that left 72 Egyptian soldiers dead, Nasser decided to make the deal with the Soviets public in order to deter Israeli aggression. In addition, in 1955 he gave official recognition of China.

It is possible that David Ben Gurion planned to provoke Nasser in this way to show his weakness and to reduce American support for Israel’s enemy. The ploy worked.

The West was extremely worried by Nasser’s relationship with the Soviets and withdrew a previous offer of financial support for the Aswan Dam – in retaliation Nasser seized the Suez Canal in July 1956.

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The Arab states and Israel after 1948 (attitude and actions, 1948-56).

Why did Nasser upset the West? The nationalization of the Suez canal (26th July 1956) Why did Israel, Britain and France agree to attack Egypt? Sevres agreement of 24th October 1956 Invasion, 29th October 1956 UN action and the attitudes of the Superpowers. Anglo-French withdrawal. Israeli gains. Effects of Suez on the Arab states

Nationalisation of the Suez Canal announced on 26th July 1956 He declared the tolls for its use would pay for the Aswan Dam project and other

industrial and social developments, which were being introduced to make Egypt a more modern, progressive state.

He also declared a total blockade of the Gulf of Aqaba, which was taken as an act of war by Israel.

Why did Israel, Britain and France agree to attack Egypt? - Negotiations to find a solution to the crisis were unsuccessful as Egypt and the USSR

rejected any compromise deals over shared ownership of the canal. The British and French were deeply worried by the possible wider impact of Nasser’s

actions (Britain was concerned about restrictions on trade, oil supplies from the Arabian Gulf, its routes to its colonial territories in the Gulf and Far East;

France was worried about encouragement being given to anti-French rebels in Algeria). Anthony Eden, the British Prime Minister, also regarded Nasser as a dangerous leader

who had to be stopped, much like Hitler had had to be stopped. Israel wanted to remove the ‘Fedayeen’ bases in Gaza and the Sinai Desert;

o to end Egypt’s blockade of the Gulf of Aqaba which was preventing ships getting through the Red Sea to Israel;

o and perhaps to secure a ‘buffer-zone’ against Egypt in the form of the Sinai.

The Sevres Agreement – 24th October 1956 Sevres Agreement – in response David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan, the head of the

IDF, flew to France and in an isolated house outside Sevres met the French ad British prime ministers; over the next three days a deal was struck to attack Egypt –with France and Britain launching an invasion pretending to keep the peace.

Invasion – 29th October, 1956 On the 29th October 1956, Israel invaded deep into the Sinai. But when the British and French launched their ground operations the process became

bogged down. Nasser ordered ships to be sunk in the Suez Canal to create a blockade to prevent the

British moving their troops along the Canal. Troop landings by the British and French failed to press forward to seize the Canal. An

international outcry against the invasion of Egypt then occurred – a UN resolution calling for ceasefire was overwhelmingly passed.

Britain and France were isolated. The invasion had to be called off and came to an end on 7th November.

UN action and the attitudes of the Superpowerso It was clear that Britain and France were declining powers in the world – the USA and

the USSR now exerted much more influence. Threats from both the USA and USSR removed any political strength held by Britain and France (the USSR threatened to intervene militarily to support Egypt;

o the USA threatened to withdraw financial loans (the value of the pound fell sharply); o President Eisenhower also threatened to stop oil supplies to Britain and France. o The USA swiftly proposed a UN resolution demanding a ceasefire.

it was passed by 64-5 in the General Assembly, despite Britain and France vetoing it (they were Permanent Members of the Security Council of the UN).

Such international condemnation of the Israeli, British and French action undermined the ability of those three states to continue their operations.

Later, in 1957, the UN oversaw the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai and the establishment of a UN buffer zone between Israel and Egypt.

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Anglo-French Withdrawalo The international outcry against the invasion of Egypt, the UN resolution for a

ceasefire, the reaction and threats of the superpowers, and the inability to press forward into the Canal zone with troops were all reasons why the British and French had to withdraw.

o The episode was a serious humiliation for Britain and France.o Eden resigned as Prime Minister over the affair.

Israeli gains.o Israel emerged from the Suez-Sinai War in a stronger position. o It had shown that it had a good military capability. o Although it had to withdraw from Sinai in 1957, a UN controlled buffer-zone was

put in place on the border of Israel and Egypt. o This gave some added security to Israel as it prevented the ‘Fedayeen’ operating

from the Sinai. o The Gulf of Aqaba had been re-opened and shipping could operate to the

southern Israeli port of Eilat (this was important because Egypt now closed the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping).

Effect of the Suez-Sinai War on the Arab states. o Nasser was seen as a hero and became the natural champion of the Arab states;

Nasser brokered a deal with Syria known as the United Arab Republic with Nasser as its first president in 1958 – a first step towards the creation of a United Arab State. But the experiment did not last – it broke down in 1961 when Syria withdrew.

o anti-Israeli tensions mounted in the Arab world and the desire to hit back at Israel intensified;

o Nasser became a victim of his own success – whenever Israel fought back against Fedayeen on Jordanian or Lebanese or Syrian territory Nasser would be blamed for not doing more.

o Arab states now regarded Britain and France as firm allies of Israel and did not trust them.

Increased Superpower involvement: the Middle East increasingly became an arena for the Cold War to be played out

between the superpowers - By rejecting British and French aggression, America hoped to retain its credibility in

the region, but the Soviet Union drew closer to other Arab countries selling weapons,

In the short term at least, the USSR gained an ally in the south, and the potential to use Egypt’s air strips and harbours.

As a result, the Cold War was extended to the Middle East and Eisenhower declared that the USA would help any country prepared to help any state under threat from another – i.e. the USSR. This became known as the ‘Eisenhower’ doctrine.

America feared that the Middle East would become a zone of satellite states but it was over-reacting because the unlike the states of Western Europe, there was no Soviet occupying force.

Both superpowers had been responsible for supplying arms and funds between 1947 and 1956 and to that extent, increased tensions in the region.

Understand the geography of the region- Explain two ways in which the state of Israel by 1949 was different from the Jewish

state proposed in the Partition Plan of 1947.15

Explain the importance of: the Straits of Tiran to Israel; the Suez Canal to Britain; the Aswan Dam to Egypt.

What did USSR gain from Suez?

Tension and Conflict 1956-1973

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General background to the Six Day War of 1967 Immediate causes of the Six Day War of 1967

Samu incident of November 1966 Dogfight over the Golan Heights, April 6th 1967 13th May USSR inform Nasser of Israeli military build up 16th May, Nasser orders the removal of the UN peace keepers from Sinai Late May – Straits of Tiran and Gulf of Aqaba blockaded by Egypt

Events of Six Day War 5th-10th June. Why did Israel win? What did Israel win? UN Resolution 242 The Khartoum Declaration Palestinian resistance

Fatah and the Israeli attack on Karameh (March 1968) The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Airplane Hijacking of

September 1970 Black September (Jordanian civil war of (1970-71) The Munich Olympics Massacre (1972) The impact of Terrorism – reprisals and operation ‘wrath of God’

Background to Yom Kippur – the War of attrition (1969-70) Israel’s dilemma The death of Nasser (1970) and the succession of Sadat Arab attack on Israel during Yom Kippur (1973) – 4th Arab-Israeli war Why did Israel Survive? The Israeli fightback Why did Israel agree to a ceasefire? The significance of the 1967 and 1973 wars

General background to the Six Day War of 1967• For 10 years after Suez, UN Emergency Force remained in Egypt and kept a relative

peace between Egypt and Israel;• Border clashes nonetheless continued;• Israel continued to buy arms from US, UK, France and West Germany.• At Nasser’s invitation, Arab leaders met in Cairo in 1964 and set up the Palestinian

Liberation Organisation (PLO) with the aim of removing Israel from the map.• The Arab summit also resolved to divert the waters of the River Jordan, which would

deprive Israel of 2/3rds of her water – an action which Israel resisted with air strikes and artillery fire.

• Fatah (a guerrilla arm of the PLO) carried out several raids from 1965 and planted bombs in Israeli government buildings and planted mines on Israeli roads.

• 1 January 1965 Fatah laid explosives to destroy the canal that took water from the Sea of Galilee to Israeli farms in the South-West. The mission failed, but Arafat became famous as a result of Israeli publicity.

• The PLO had bases in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon; Lebanon and Jordan tried to restrict their actions; but Syria encouraged them. The only state from which Israel was not attacked was Egypt – because of UN peace-keeping forces there.

• Syria accused Nasser of doing nothing to help Fatah or the PLO; fearing a loss of prestige, Nasser signed a defence alliance with Syria in 1966.

• The Samu incident on 13th November 1966, involving an Israeli attack of 600 soldiers, 60 military vehicles and 11 tanks on a Palestinian settlement inside Jordan (as retaliation for a previous incident) led to widespread criticism of King Hussein of Jordan who tried to divert attention from his own inability to protect Palestinians by accusing Nasser of cowardice.

• The Dogfight over the Golan Heights of April 7th 1967 – in retaliation for Syrian attack on an Israeli farmer inside the Demilitarized Zone next to the sea of Galilee, Israel sent airplanes to hit Syrian villages on the Golan Heights. When the Syrians sent planes up to defend them, the Israelis shot down six Syrian Jets.

Immediate causes to the Six Day War of 1967

o On 13th May USSR informed Nasser that Israel was massing its troops on the Syrian border and was about to attack Syria – this was untrue but no one knows whether it was merely a mistake a or a deliberate lie.

o In 16th May 1967 Nasser ordered the UN forces to leave the buffer zone in the Sinai; o Nasser increased the aggressive tone of his speeches against Israel; o late-May 1967 the Egyptians blockaded the Straits of Tiran and Gulf of Aqaba (as they

had in 1956) – this was taken as a declaration of war by Israel; o 1st June the Israeli PM Eshkol (replaced ben Gurion in 1963) re-appointed Moshe Dayan

as Defence Minister (as in 1956) – he argued strongly for a pre-emptive strike against the Arab forces.

o 3-4 June Arab forces mobilized along Israel’s border. o Decision taken in Israel to launch pre-emptive strike – perhaps Israel was looking for an

excuse to take the Golan Heights and increase its territory. The US had agreed to Israeli action to re-open the straits of Tiran but did not know about other aims the Israeli’s might have.

o 5th June 1967 Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against the Arabs. The first move was an all-out air assault on the air forces of the neighboring Arab

states. The most important strike was against Egypt which lost over 90% of its air force

within 6 hours. By the end of the day the Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi air forces had been

almost completely destroyed. With this ‘air supremacy’ established the Israeli ground operations could now begin.

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Events of the Six Day War – for really neat infographics see http://jabelcreative.com/six-day-war.html and https://www.graphicnews.com/en/pages/35409/POLITICS-Six-Day-War-50th-anniversary

o 5th June – destruction of Arab air forces by Israeli air strikes; o 6th-7th June - Jordanian forces were expelled from East Jerusalem and the West Bank

(King Hussein of Jordan agreed a ceasefire); o 7th -9th June Egyptian forces pushed back to the Suez Canal (heavily defeated in the

Sinai Desert); o 9th – 10th June Syrian forces pushed back off the Golan Heights, Israeli troops

advancing on Damascus. o All the Arab states accepted a UN resolution for a ceasefire by 10th June 1967.

Why did Israel win?o Tactics - Israel used the surprise, ensured air supremacy and tackled one enemy at a

time;o IDF – highly trained, highly motivated; superior weaponryo Israel was able to put 300,000 trained and experienced forces in the field; the

combined forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan amounted to 180,000o Arab weaknesses – unprepared, poorly rained, poorly equipped and un-coordinated –

agreeing to truces at different points.o The Israeli air force was designed for speed and mobility – whereas Israel lost 35

planes, the Arabs lost closer to 450.

What did Israeli win?o Israel gained five new territories (Gaza, Sinai, West Bank, East Jerusalem and the

Golan Heights). It was 350% bigger than it had been; its borders were more defendable, even having physical borders (e.g. the River Jordan, the Suez canal, the Golan Heights).

o The Straits of Tiran/Gulf of Aqaba (and Port of Eilat) were therefore reopened.o But Israel now also had 1 million Palestinian Arabs inside its borders (in Gaza and the

West Bank), this was to provide a major problem in the years to come and also increased terrorist actions against Israel.

o Some Arabs states began to seek better relations with Israel, largely on the grounds that they saw Israel as a strong military power, which could not be removed by force, e.g. Jordan.

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UN Resolution 242o UN Resolution 242 – the so-called ‘land for peace’ deal. After the Six Day

War the UN laid down a resolution for the Arab states to recognize the state of Israel and not act aggressively towards it, in return the Israelis should return the territories seized in 1967 and treat fairly all Palestinians within its borders.

Voted for by both the USA and the USSR Rejected by Palestinians – resented being referred to as ‘the refugee problem’; and

‘Land for Peace’ ignored the land claims that went back to 1948-9. Israel said it was prepared to negotiate separately with Egypt, Jordan and Syria over

the territories it occupied but did not commit to fully withdrawing from them. Egypt and Jordan initially agreed but they changed their minds when the Arab states

met at a conference in Khartoum in August 1967.

The Khartoum Declaration, 1967 Arab states – including Egypt, Syria and Jordan, stated publicly that they rejected

Israel’s right to exist and declared no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations.

Nasser stated that he would abide by the Khartoum declaration until Israel pulled out of all the territories it had occupied, then he would be prepared to recognize and negotiate. There was nonetheless an implicit acceptance of Resolution 242 in this stance.

Palestinian resistance The Six Day War was a disaster for Palestinians. Those living in Gaza found themselves

under Israeli military control; Six new emergency refugee camps had to be opened up by the UN. With few exceptions these Palestinian refugees were not allowed to become citizens in

the Arab countries where they now lived. This meant that they could not vote or have passports, making travel and finding work

very difficult. The Arab argument was that if they were granted citizenship they would lose their ‘right to return’ to their own lands.

Losing faith in the ability or willingness of Arab states to defeat Israel Palestinians began to plan ways of defeating Israel themselves.

Fatah Unsurprisingly, many of the refugees joined guerrilla movements, particularly placing

their faith in Fatah under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, who continued to launch attacks directly on Israel from its bases in the Lebanon and in Jordan. Those attacks

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peaked when a Fatah mine blew up an Israeli school bus in March 1968, killing the teachers and wounding ten children (the 38th mission that year).

Israel’s response was to attack Fatah’s base in Karameh even though it meant crossing into across Jordanian territory. Israel sent 15000 troops to destroy Karameh but was met with fierce Fatah resistance supported by Jordanian troops. What was thought to have been a small operation became a 15 hour battle. Although Israel achieved its objectives, it lost 28 soldiers, 27 tanks and two aircraft and was concerned by world opinion for its excessive use of force. By contrast, Fatah’s strength grew – with 5000 new recruits joining within 2 days of the battle. Fatah carried out 2000 attacks in 1969 alone.

Yasser Arafat’s profile rose and he was made chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in 1969

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) - Airplane Hijacks However, new groups, like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

believed that terrorist action outside of Israel was key. Led by Palestinian Christian, Dr George Habash, PFLP hijacked four airplanes – British,

Swiss and American - and (after allowing passengers to disembark) blew them up at Dawson’s Field a remote desert airstrip in Jordan.

Israel carried out reprisals against Jordan which in turn led it into conflict with the Palestinian insurgents.

Black September By 1970 over half of the population of Jordan were Palestinian refugees and King

Hussein of Jordan believed that the PLO was developing aspirations to topple him from power;

King Hussein of Jordan moved to control the Palestinian bases and succeeded – over a period of 10 days – known as ‘Black September’ to Palestinians in having 2000 Palestinian troops killed and the guerrilla groups move out to Lebanon, where they set up their new headquarters in Beirut.

The Munich Olympics Massacre – September 1972 In the aftermath a more extreme group emerged which named itself after Black

September and The most notorious action of PLO terrorism was carried out when – after assassinating the Jordanian Prime Minister – the eight armed members entered the Olympic village in Munich, Germany on 5th September at 4.30 am and, after shooting dead two Israeli athletes – a further 9 were taken hostage.

German negotiators agreed to helicopter the terrorists and their hostages to a military airbase but at the airport an attempt was made by West German police to free the hostages. It was a monumental blunder. In the gun battle that followed, all 9 of the athletes and 5 of the terrorists were killed.

The Impact of Terrorism Terrorism did little to change Israeli policy. The Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir

ordered air attacks on Syria and Lebanon which killed approximately 200-500 people. She also launched Operation Wrath of God – which secretly authorized Mossad to find

and assassinate all those responsible for the Munich massacre (this is depicted in Spielberg’s film Munich which is excellent, but not for the faint hearted).

However, the terrorism and the reprisals for it ensured that world attention was refocused on the problems of Palestine. It helped to turn the perpetrators of the Olympic massacre into heroes for many Palestinians.

In 1974 Yasser Arafat was invited to address the United Nations Assembly in which he declared that he held an olive branch in one hand and a freedom fighter’s gun in the other. ‘Don’t let the olive branch fall from my hand!’ he declared. Palestine was awarded ‘observer status’ – much to the chagrin of Israel, America and the UK – but the road to Oslo 1995 was being formed.

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Background to Yom Kippur:

The War of Attrition, 1969-70• This was very bad for Egypt which was suffering economically because of:

– the loss of Sinai oil wells, – the inability of Egypt to get revenues from Suez (because it needed to be cleared

of sunken ships but Israel refused to withdraw unless given permission to use the Canal.)

– and the need to maintain almost one million troops ready to fight Israel.• March 1969 – Egypt attempted to break the diplomatic impasse and preventing Suez

becoming a permanent border, by a series of artillery attacks.– Egypt’s aim was to wear down Israeli fortifications and raise the economic costs

of Sinai occupation; but Egypt suffered more from Israeli reprisals.– Over 1.5 million Egyptians had been forced to flee their homes whilst about 1000

Israelis had been killed.• Both sides were calling superpower aid

– The USSR provided Egypt with 100 fighter planes, and SAM-3 (surface-to-air) anti-aircraft missiles to defend the Aswan Dam. 20,000 Soviet troops arrived to build 80 missile bases.

– The USA supported Israel with weapons and aid but became incraseingly concnered and called for a ceasefire.

• Nasser agreed to a ceasefire in August 1970;

Israel’s dilemma – keep the land or give it back?o Give it back – global public opinion would turn against Israel if it kept the land; it

involved harbouring 1 million Arabs within the new borders, potentially making them citizens and giving them the vote; military occupation would be expensive; land for peace

o Keep it – the land gave Israel greater security; Israel had a growing population and the extra resources could prove useful; Jerusalem has great religious importance, and the captured land meant that Israel controlled all of the historic ‘promised land’.

The Death of Nasser and the Succession of Anwar Sadat• The death of Nasser by heart attack and succession of Anwar Sadat to the presidency

of Egypt in September 1970 was an opportunity for Egypt to change tact.• Sadat tried to open negotiations with Golda Meir but got nowhere.• Realising that only the US had any leverage over Israel, Sadat’s strategy was to get US

involved in negotiations. America’s involvement in Vietnam made it reluctant to get involved.

• Having failed with America, Sadat again approached the USSR but the USSR only agreed to supply arms in return for increased Soviet influence in Egypt.

• In 1972 Sadat asked 15,000 soviet advisers to leave.• The failure of this diplomatic approach led Sadat to consider military methods once

again as a means of forcing the US into the negotiating process.• Sadat negotiated with Saudi Arabia for financial support and made an ally in Syria’s

new president – Asad (father of current president of Syria).• Both leaders recognised the need for urgency given Israeli settlement in the occupied

territories.• The result was a coordinated attack on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar – using

the tactic of surprise that had served Israel so well in the past.

Arab attack on Israel during Yom Kippur (1973) – 4th Arab-Israeli war 21

Arab decision to launch a pre-emptive strike on 6th October 1973 (the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur) caught Israel off-guard.

Syrians entered the Golan heights whilst at the same time the Egyptians crossed the Suez Canal and entered into the Sinai:

Israeli aircraft tried to fight back, but many were shot down by Soviet supplied surface-to-air missiles (SAMs);

Furthermore, the Egyptians effectively used portable anti-tank missiles against Israeli counter-attacks from land.

Soviet supplied Infra-red fighting equipment gave Arabs an advantage at night. It looked as though the Israelis might be defeated; It took the Israelis 72 hours to mobilise.

Why did Israel survive? The superiority of IDF soldiers, tanks, airplanes and equipment; American emergency supplies of 2.2 billion dollars worth of military equipment. Luck - The decision of the Syrians to push on to the river Jordan gave Israel the

breathing space needed to get organized.

Israeli Fight back By October 10th Israeli troops were pushing into Syria and threatening Damascus. During a massive tank battle in the Sinai the Israelis destroyed 260 Egyptian tanks at a

loss of only 20. Egyptian forces were pushed back to the canal, and by 15th October, supplies from USA

began to arrive. By 19th October, Israel defence force had built a mobile bridge and Israeli troops

flooded across the canal. By 23rd October the Egyptian Army was surrounded and had only 4 days of food, water

and medical supplies left. Sadat called on the UN for a ceasefire; Ceasefire was agreed on 24th October 1973.

Why did Israel agree to a Ceasefire? The USSR told the USA that unless there was peace they would send troops to help

Egypt. The USA went on nuclear alert and the USSR backed down; However, the Saudi’s declared an oil embargo against Israel and all states who

continued to support her, placing pressure on the US economy while it was struggling to cope with the costs of the Vietnam War.

Under US pressure, Israel backed down.o US intervention in Yom Kippur and its decision to stop Israel occupying Cairo was

prompted in part by the decision by Arab nations to stop exports of oil to any nation helping Israel – Libya (19th) and then Saudi Arabia and other Arab oil producing states on 19-20th October.

The significance of the 1967 and 1973 wars The 1967 Six Day War changed everything – because it placed pressure on Arab states

to make peace with Israel who now held vital resources – particularly those belonging to Egypt.

The UN Resolution 242 proposing land in return for peace and recognition became the basis for all future negotations.

The 1973 Yom Kippur brought the USA to the realization that it had to get involved in a peace process in the Middle East since it could not afford to be without Arab oil. The

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result of the first oil shock was to push gas prices in the USA high; another oil shock following the Iranian revolution in 1979 had a similar effect.

Key questionsSee the textbook, page 66, which contains an excellent set of questions on this topic.

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Diplomacy, Peace Then Wider War, 1973-83

The Significance of the Oil Crisiso The use of the ‘oil weapon’ in 1973 marked a fundamental shift in the nature of the

Middle East conflict because America recognised that it would suffer for its support for Israel.o In response to US supply of weaponry to Israel on 15th October, OPEC (The

Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) raised the price of oil by 70%o 17th October it began an oil embargo against anyone helping Israel – i.e. the US.o The US economy was already suffering from inflation because of the devaluation

of the dollar to pay for the Vietnam war.o The impact upon the US was severe.o The price of oil in the US quadrupled in 1974;o Shortages led to rationing, to strikes and to violence in the US.o Speed limits of 55 mph were imposed to conserve demand.o Western Europe began switching from pro-Israel to more pro-Arab policies.o This change strained the Western alliance. The US, which imported only 12% of its oil

from the Middle East (compared with 80% for the Europeans and over 90% for Japan), remained staunchly committed to Israel.

o The percentage of U.S. oil which comes from the nations bordering the Persian Gulf remained steady over the decades, with a figure of a little more than 10% in 2008.

o The upshot of all of this was that the US could not afford to ignore conflict in the Middle East and needed to win friends.

Henry Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy, 1974• In the years following the 1973 war, the US Secretary of State and National Security

Adviser Henry Kissinger embarked upon several rounds of ‘shuttle diplomacy’ aimed at moving, step by step, towards a political settlement.

• Israel received further assurance of US diplomatic and financial support and Egypt saw the return of some territory, including restoration of the canal and important oilfields.

• Israel remained in control of most of the Sinai peninsula, but UN troops were sent to Egypt to preserve the ceasefire.

• Egypt began to receive US aid.• The result was the the re-opening of the Suez Canal, June 5th, 1975 – exactly 8 years

after its close during the Six Day war.

Sadat/Begin Exchange Visits (1977)

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The significance of the oil crisis Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy The reopening of the Suez canal, 1975 Sadat and Begin Exchange visits 1977 Camp David Accords 1978 Treaty of Washington, 1979 Other Key events 1979-1981 War in Lebanon, 1982 The Coastal Road Massacre/Operation Latini (March 1978), and the

road to war Israeli invasion, 6th June 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres, 1982 Operation Peace for Galilee The impact of Israel’s war in the Lebanon

• Egypt still suffered economically from the Six Day War – in early 1977 there were food riots involving thousands of citizens in Cairo.

• President Jimmy Carter offered aid to Egypt if it could make peace with Israel.• Sadat visited Israel in November 1977 – a dramatic initiative aimed at dismantling the

psychological barriers that had solidified since the Khartoum conference.• In December Menachem Begin visited Egypt and gave a speech to the Egyptian

Assembly in which he made no mention of the Palestinians nor any promises about the return of territory.

• Nonetheless, the meetings had two effects – it showed that Sadat was prepared to prioritise Egyptian interests over that of the ‘Arab league’; another was that President Carter stepped in and invited both Its main effect though was to prioritize Egypt’s interests over those of the ‘Arab league’.

• 1978 President Jimmy Carter mediated a separate Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement at Camp David, between the Sadat and the Prime Minister of Israel – Menachem Begin it was formally signed in March 1979.

Camp David Accords• Negotiations were based on the Resolution 242 as a framework.• Carter envisaged the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank and Gaza in

return for Palestinian recognition of Israel’s right to secure and recognise its boundaries.

• The Accords called for:– a formal peace treaty to be signed between Israel and Egypt within 3 months.– Establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries– Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula in stages, to be completed within

three years– Further meetings to resolve the Palestinian question. The meeting would include

Jordan and a representative of the Palestinian people– a five-year transitional period of Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza.

This transitional period would include the introduction of Palestinian self-government.

– an end to Israeli settlements in the West Bank.• But did not settle the question of East Jerusalem, did not mention Palestinians living in

refugee camps outside the West Bank and Gaza;• No mention was made of Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights.

Camp David Agreements (1978)- Sadat, Begin and Carter motiveso Anwar Sadat –

Egypt was facing bankruptcy and recognised it could not win a war with Israel.

Sadat’s stock was high after the Yom Kippur War: he could afford to take the risk of peacemaking with Israel;

Four wars against Israel had yielded nothing in terms of territory and had been costly. Peace with Israel would allow economic recovery.

Egypt was receiving financial help from the US instead of from the USSR.

o Menachem Begin: Begin knew that peace would be popular and entrench Begin’s newly created

Likud Party in the political system Pragmatism: Israel was trading territory for security, and in particular, Begin

wanted to turn his attention to the PLO behind Lebanese borders so needed to be sure of peace in the south.

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The surrender of the Sinai was a major concession but the area was less strategically important than the Golan Heights and less historically significant than the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Yom Kippur had taught Israel that it was not invulnerable to Arab attack and therefore could not defeat its Arab enemies outright and decided to use its capital in terms of land to win a permanent peace;

o Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, was genuinely committed to achieving peace in the Middle East. Following the Yom Kippur War in 1973 the United States was more engaged in

peacemaking. Yom Kippur had shown how easily the Middle East could become a flashpojnt

for an East-West confrontation. The Arabs’ skilful use of the oil weapon in Yom Kippur War of 1973 had

concentrated minds in Washington. Disengagement carried too high a price for Western economies. In January

1979, the overthrow of the Pro-American Shah brought a second Oil Shock in the same decade.

The Treaty of Washington, 1979 o In March 1979 Sadat and Begin signed a peace treaty enshrining what they had

agreed at Camp David. Withdrawal of Israeli forces from Sinai, Egypt to recover all of Sinai within three years, Free passage of Israeli shipping through the Suez canal and the Straits of

Tiran; Both states agreed to recognise ‘each other’s right to live in peace within

their secure and recognised boundaries.’ Egypt became the first Arab state to recognise Israel’s right to exist. N.B.

Camp David was the first watershed in Arab-Israeli relations. However, it left the Palestinian question unresolved.

Other key events, 1979-81

For Jimmy Carter, other issues took priority in 1979 when a revolution took place in Iran in which 52 American diplomats were taken hostage.

On Christmas Day 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanista Jimmy Carter lost the 1980 Presidential Election to Republican and Cold Warrior, Ronald

Reagan. Egypt became isolated from the rest of the Arab world and in 1981, Sadat paid the

ultimate price for making peace with Israel. During the annual victory parade held to celebrate Egypt’s crossing of the Suez Canal at the start of Yom Kippur, he was assassinated by Egyptian Islamic militants.

Egypt’s peace with Israel, however, survived. For Begin, the signing of the 1979 peace accords with Egypt was both the beginning

and the end of a land-for-peace accord He refused to commit to any recognition of Palestinian self-determination in the West

Bank and Gaza – territory that he referred to only by its biblical names of Judea and Samaria.

Begin imposed his own circumscribed notion of what a settlement of the Palestinians would look like and preceded with the construction of Jewish settlements in their midst.

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The key reason for Begin’s willingness to come to terms with Egypt to secure peace in the South was that he wanted to turn his attention to Israel’s northern neighbour, the Lebanon, which, since Black September, had been the location of the PLO’s main bases.

War in Lebanon, 1982

Why did PLO end up in Lebanon and what were its effects?

o In the aftermath of Jordanian Civil War, many Palestinians arrived in Lebanon, among them Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

The PLO boosted life for the 300,000 refugees living in Lebnaon. They used money donated by other Arab states to create schools, health clinics, repair roads nadprovie electricity;

But the arrival of so many Sunni muslims, upset an already delicate ethnic balance in the Lebnon which consisted of Maronite Christians, Lebanese Sunnis (who looked to other Arab states for support) and Shi’a muslims who looked to Iran.

The Maronite christians (about 40% of the population) in particular felt threatened and a milita group known as the Phalange began fighitng the PLO who were joined by Lebanese Muslism (55% of population) and Druze (5%).

Beginning with street fighting in Beirut between Christian Phalangists and Palestinian militiamen, it became a civil war which drew in support from neighbouring countries; Israel suppplied the Christians with weapony, whilst Syrian forces also supplied forces to support the Christians, but despite their efforts by late 1976 the PLO still controlled much of southern Lebanon.

In his speeh to the UN in 1974, Arafat declared that he would be willing to negotatiate with the Israelis but hardliners refused to believe his sincerity whilst many in the PLO itself rejected Araf’s new appraoch.

The Coastal Road Massacre and the road to war 11th March, 1978 – in an attempt to disrupt the peace negotations in Camp David, 13

PLO militants tried to take tourists from a luxury hotel in Tel Aviv as hostages, but ended up in a fire fight with Israeli police that resulted in the deaths of 38 Israelli civilians, including 13 chidlren and a further 71 injured. 9 of the PLO activists were also killed.

In a speech to the knesset, Begin blamed Yasser Arafat. Israel’s response was Operation Litani – on 15th March 1978, 26,000 troops invaded

lebanon; resutling in 1100 Palestinian and lebanese deaths, including 75 in a mosque hit by an airstrike. Most of the deaths were civilian as Arafat had already ordered PLO fighters to move north.

With Soviet help, the PLO acquired heavy weaponry, including long-range artillery, rocket lanunchers and anti-aircraft missiles – now any IDF attack on the PLO in the south Lebanon, would be repaid by rocket attacks on Israeli farming settlements in Galilee.

The UN organised a truce – but Israel used the time to prepare for war.27

Operation Peace for Galileeo Using the attempted murder of the Israeli ambassador to London as a pretext (it was

unrelated), Israel launched Operation Peace for Galilee, on 6th June, involving 70,000 troops, 800 tanks and 350 fighter jets.

o 300,000 Lebanese lost their homes; 12,000 killed; 40,000 wounded; Beirut was surrounded and placed in a state of siege for 2 months;

o The intervention of the USA, France and Italy led to an evacuation of 11,500 Palestinian fighters from Beirut by ship; most went to Tunisia where Yasser Arafat set up the new PLO headquarters.

o The Israeli Defence Minister, Ariel Sharon, was not satisfied and announced that 2000 PLO terrorists remained in the camps; after Israeli forces surrounded and bombed Sabra and Shatila, Phalangists carried out a massacre resulting in 3,500 civilians killed – sometimes after brutal torture.

The impact of Israel’s War in the Lebanono On 16 December 1982, the United Nations General Assembly condemned the massacre

and declared it to be an act of genocide.o In 1983, a commission chaired by Seán MacBride, the assistant to the UN Secretary

General and President of United Nations General Assembly at the time, concluded that Israel, as the camp's occupying power, bore responsibility for the violence. The commission also concluded that the massacre was a form of genocide. Ariel Sharon was forced to resign as Defence Minister.

o The Israeli invasion removed PLO presence from Southern Lebanon and the Syrian military was weakened by combat losses, especially in the air.

o But the larger Israeli objectives of resolving the conflict in Lebanon in its favour had failed. The removal of the PLO also paved the way for the rise of other militant groups, particularly Hezbollah, funded directly funded by Iran.

o Postscript: Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said in a videotape, released on the eve of the 2004 U.S. presidential elections, that he was inspired to attack the buildings of the United States by the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, in which towers and buildings in Beirut were destroyed in the siege of the capital

Key questionsThere is a series of superb questions/exercises on p. 81 of the Brash textbook and these are to be strongly recommended to embed the learning from this section.

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The attempts to find a lasting peace, 1987-2012

Revolt Life in the occupied territories

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Revolto Life in the occupied territorieso The First Palestinian Intifada, 1987-1993o Israel’s responseo Consequences of the First Intifada

Attempts to Achieve Peaceo The Impact of Arafat’s Speech of 1988o Changing Superpower Policies in the middle

East The End of the Cold War The Impact of the Gulf War

Arafat, Rabin and the Oslo Peace Accordso Oslo Io Oslo IIo Reactionso The failure of the Oslo Peace Accordso Netanyahu’s Opposition to Oslo

The Second Intifada, 2000-05o Ariel Sharon’s response to the Second intifada

An attempt to restart the talks: the Roadmap for Peace, 2003

o The Impact of the Second Intifadao Road Blocks – the failure of the Roadmap for

peace

o Conditions in refugee camps were harsh – crowded and unhygienic; Palestinians had to work in Israel where they were limited to unskilled jobs, paying Israeli taxes but without being able to vote.

o PLO suspects experienced beatings, random detentions without trial.o Meanwhile Jewish settlers moved in to the West Bank – 35,000 by 1984; and

64,000 by 1988.o The settlement of Jews in the occupied territories was designed to create

immovable ‘facts on the ground’ that would make any restoration of the status quo ante bellum impossible.

The first Intifada of 1987 - 1993o It is an Arabic word literally meaning, as a noun, "tremor", "shivering", "shuddering".

It is derived from an Arabic term nafada meaning "to shake", "shake off", "get rid of", as a dog might shrug off water, or as one might shake off sleep, or dirt from one's sandals

o It was triggered in December 1987 when an Israeli market trader in Gaza was stabbed to death. The following day an IDF van smashed into two vans carrying Palestinians workers, killing four and wounding seven. There was rioting at the funerals. When another Palestinian was killed 3 days later marching started and within 2 weeks the rioting had spread from Gaza to the West Bank. The Intifada lasted 5 years.

o The Intifada was recognized as an occasion where the Palestinians acted cohesively and independently of their leadership or assistance of neighboring Arab states.

o As the Intifada continued it became more cohesive – from rioting in streets, mass demonstrations, anti-Israeli graffiti – throwing stones and petrol bombs at IDF troops and flying the Palestinian flag - it became a general strike in which Palestinians refused to buy Israeli goods, refused to work in Israel or to pay taxes, carry identification.

o A leadership emerged known as the United National Leadership of the Uprising (UNLU).

o The UNLU distributed leaflets, told people where to go and what to do, about upcoming strikes and boycotts and set up underground schools, medical care and food supplies.

o Scale of Intifada – during the first 6 months of 1988 alone, the IDF reported over 42,000 acts of hostility – compared with an average of 3000/year previously.

Israel’s response: Iron First Policy Reservists were called up and security was increased; Schools were closed and curfews and censorship introduced; Thousands of arrests; ringleaders detained and their homes bulldozed; Arms and fingers of child stone-throwers were broken; Hostile crowds were dispersed with tear gas, rubber bullets and, sometimes, live

ammunition.

Impact of the first intifada

On Palestinians 12000 were killed by Israelis (25% under 16 y.o.); 120,000 wounded (including 27,000

children); 882 Palestinians accused of helping Israel were killed by other Palestinians; Ordnary life became difficult – schools closed; water supplies restricted; curfews;

houses bulldozed.

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Economies destroyed as business collapsed; agriculture destroyed; trade fell by 80% and unemployment rose to 50%;

Many Palestinians nonetheless felt empowered.

On Israel 160 died (100 were civilians) Israel’s economy suffered because of the strikes, boycotts, increased security needs,

and closed borders; Increased extremism among zionists within Israel. Israel’s international reputation suffered greatly – even Americans who had supported

Israel in the past began to question Israeli tactics. Another problem was that in July 1988 King Hussein renounced Jordan’s claims to the

West Bank, severing its residual administrative and financial ties, leaving Israel to face up to the problems it had helped create

After 5 years of this, Israel began to consider an alternative to the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

The obstacles were severe - making those territories part of Israel would not remove the threat of violence and yet handing those territories over to the Palestinians would be bitterly resisted by the Israelis who had settled in those territories, many of whom believed that the land had been promised to them by God.

PLO

The Intifada was a turning point for Yasser Arafat o It had come as a surprise for the PLO, now based in far away Tunis. o Arafat’s leadership was threatened by the emergence of the UNLU (though largely

loyal to the PLO) but also by the emergence of more radical terrorist organisations including Hamas (operating largely out of Gaza) and Islamic Jihad (operating largely out of the West Bank).

o Arafat proposed that the PLO adopted a new, moderate position as a way of regaining control of the situation:

o In 1988 at a meeting of the Palestine National Council in Algiers in mid-November, Arafat won a majority for the historic decision to recognise Israel's legitimacy; to accept all the relevant UN resolutions going back to 29 November 1947; and to adopt the principle of a two-state solution in which Palestine would have Jerusalem for its capital.

o In 1988, at the USA’s insistence, Arafat made a speech to the United Nations in which he renounced terrorism, called for Israel to remove itself from the occupied territories and join negotiations. He was, in effect, finally accepting UN resolution 242.

o This is in stark contrast to his previous position – which he stated in 1970 as follows: ‘Our basic aim is to liberate the land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River. We are not concerned with what took place in June 1967 or in eliminating the consequences of the June war. The Palestinian revolution's basic concern is the uprooting of the Zionist entity from our land and liberating it.’

The Impact of Arafat’s Speecho Arafat’s speech was completely groundbreaking for at least three reasons – 1. PLO

was prepared to recognize the legitimacy of Israel; 2. It was prepared to adopt a two state solutin that had been resisted by Palestinians since 1917 (but particularly from 1937 and 1947); 3. it renounced violence and sought peace with Israel.

o However, the impact of Arafat’s speech would be muted by three things:o Israel regarded the PLO as a terrorist organisation and did not accept Arafat’s

two-state proposal.31

o Arafat’s peace initiatives were completely rejected by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which clung to original Arab goals of removing Israel altogether.

o The end of the Cold War and the First Gulf War of 1991.

The End of the Cold War The USSR’s over-commitment in Afghanistan is one of the reasons for the collapse of

the Soviet Economy and its retraction of control from Eastern Europe, until it finally dissolved itself in 1991.

The PLO lost its main source of finance and arms, weakening Arafat’s bargaining power; 200,000 Jews migrated from the former Soviet Union to Israel and were being settled

on the West Bank. There were now fewer jobs for Palestinians among Israeli employers. However, the USA no longer had to fear Soviet rivalry for influence in the Middle East –

it was now the only real source of external funding and aid and therefore its influence among Arab states increased – meaning that it was less reliant on Israel as an ally.

This meant that the USA could bring more pressure on Yitzak Rabin to open negotiations with the PLO.

The Gulf War The other great development in this period was the Gulf War which further decimated

Yasser Arafat’s bargaining position. When Iraq invaded the small oil producing Arab state of Kuwait, the USA improved its

reputation among Arab nations by leading an international alliance that included Arab states Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria against Saddam Hussein’s occupying forces.

Israel’s reputation also improved. Saddam Hussein fired missiles on Israel, hoping that Israel would retaliate and split the US-led coalition; but despite destroying over 4000 Israeli homes, Israel showed remarkable restraint and did not retaliate – no doubt because it was doing what it was told by the USA.

In contrast, Yasser Arafat’s reputation was severely damaged by the Gulf War because in contrast to the other Arab states, he supported Saddam Hussein because the latter had always supported the PLO. As a result, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt withdrew their funding from the PLO and, after the war, 200,000 Palestinians were expelled from Kuwait.

Why these developments made negotiations more likelyBoth the ending of the Cold War and the Gulf War had a negative impact on Yasser Arafat’s bargaining position, but ironically it made a deal more likely because he would have to reduce his demands in relation to issues like Jerusalem. Similarly, the arrival of 200,000 Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, meant that Israel needed American finance support more than ever. Meanwhile, America too came under pressure from its new found Arab allies who accused it of double standards – willing to remove the illegal occupying force from Kuwait, but not it seemed, from Gaza and the West Bank.

Attempts to achieve peace between Israel and the PLOo In 1991 face-to-face negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation

Organisation (PLO) took place in secret in Madrid (the Madrid Conference) but failed due to opposition from extremists on both sides.

o The meeting was nevertheless an important step towards peace. o Breakthrough – September 1993 - Following extended talks between the PLO

and Israel in neutral Norway, Yasser Arafat, leader of the PLO, and Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s new Prime Minister, exchanged letters.

o Arafat reiterated his rejection of terrorism, called for an end to the Intifada and acknowledged ‘the right of Israel to exist in peace and security.’

o For his part, Rabin recognised the PLO as the legitimate ‘representative of the Palestinian people.’

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o In September 1993 the two men met at the White House in Washington and engaged in a historic handshake, with Bill Clinton playing the role of Jesus.

Key Terms – o Over the next five years – the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza followed by

phased withdrawal from parts of the West Bank.o Authority would be transferred to a Palestinian National Authority (PNA) – run at first

by the PLO but then democratically elected by Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank.

o Within those five years, negotiations would take place to resolve the problem of Palestinian refugees in other countries, Israeli settlers in Palestine and who controlled Jerusalem.

o They would resume discussions to achieve a permanent peace treaty at the end of the five year period.

Oslo Accords 1995 In 1995 a second Israeli-Palestinian agreement was signed known as the Oslo II Accord.

Oslo Accords of 1993 had been vague about which parts of the West Bank would come under PNA control. This was not settled by dividing the West Bank into three parts.

The details are illustrated in the following map.

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Area A would be under complete PNA control; it amounted to about 3 % of the West Bank. No Israelis were allowed to enter this area. The PNA would be responsible for preventing terrorist attacks on Israel from this area.

Area B would be jointly controlled – amounting to be about 25% of the West Bank. There were no Israeli settlements in this area and the Israeli forces would be gradually withdrawn once security issues had been resolved.

Area C was the rest of the West Bank- controlled completely by Israel. Here there were 110,000 Jewish settlers. Parts of this area would be gradually transferred to Palestinian control.

Reactions

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Moderate Palestinians were disappointed that so much of the West Bank would remain in Israeli hands;

Area C also controlled most of the West Bank’s natural resources, and movement between Areas A and B would be difficult.

Hardliners on the Israeli side saw Rabin as a traitor and two months after the signing of Oslo II, on November 4th 1995, he was assassinated by extremist Yigal Amir.

The failure of the Oslo AccordsThings began well – Arafat returned from Tunisia and became president in 1996.The slow process of Israeli withdrawal began;

From Israel’s perspective: Arafat could not or would not stop terrorist attacks on Israel; he did not disarm the

People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); and was unable to disarm Hamas or Islamic Jihad; so from the Israeli perspective, Arafat did not fulfill his side of the bargain.

Israel set up road blocks and prevented contact between Gaza and the West Bank; it also continued building and expanding Jewish settlements in area C;

Arafat was the cause of economic deprivation because of his corruption.

From the Palestinian point of view: Oslo only gave Palestinian complete control over 3% of the West Bank; Movement between Palestinian villages and towns was difficult because of Israeli

roadblocks which hampered economic development; The growth of Israeli settlements in Area C meant it would be unlikely that Palestine would

ever get full control over the rest of the West Bank. Economic reconstruction stalled because Arafat was reluctant to give outsiders authority.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s oppositionAfter Rabin’s assassination, his deputy, Shimon Peres called an election but lost it to the hardliner Netanyahu (leader of the right wing Likud party, founded by Menachem Begin) because a Hamas suicide bombing had just killed 32 Israelis.Netanyahu demanded evidence of Palestinian good will before he would make any concessions, and meanwhile began settling more Jews in Area C. By 2000 the goodwill that had been generated in 1993 had already evaporated by time Netanyahu ‘retired’ after a wave of personal scandals and corruption scandals in 1999. (He would later return to politics, winning the 2009, 2013 and 2015 elections.)

The Second Intifada, 2000-05When the new leader of Likud, Ariel Sharon – the man held by the UN as indirectly responsible for the massacres of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila in 1982 – visited the Temple Mount in 2000, thousands of Palestinians protested ; the protest were met with tear gas and rubber bullets and fighting quickly turned into a Second Intifada – more violent and brutal than the first. This time suicide bombing became a key feature of the behavior which was led by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Many Palestinians had been inspired by the events of 9/11. Islamic Jihad was funded by Iran. A competition developed between different groups – such as the PFLP, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades to outdo one another.

Israel’s response Ariel Sharon was elected prime minister in 2001 on a promise of ‘security and peace’ but

the violence continued, culminating in the ‘Black March’ of 2002 when suicide bombings, shootings ad knife attacks killed 111 Israeli civilians and injured a further 560.

Sharon ordered Operation Defensive Shield – which involved reoccupation of the six largest Palestinian cities in the West Bank, the imposition of curfews and mass arrests and violent suppression resulting in 500 Palestinian fatalities and 1500 injured.

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Arafat’s own presidential compound in Ramallah was bombed; Arafat had to be airlifted to France to receive medical treatment in October 2004.

In June 2002 – Sharon ordered the construction of a massive ‘security fence’ or ‘separation wall’ to keep Palestinian terrorists out of Israel. It reduced the number of suicide bombings immediately. It grew to 708 km in length; most of it consists of a 60 metre ‘exclusion zone’ (a bit like the Berlin Wall), complete with barbed wires, fortifications and guard posts. Where Jews and Palestinians live in close proximity the barrier can be as much as 8 metres high.

An attempt to restart the talks: the Roadmap for peace In 2003 the USA, Russia, the UN and the European Union all supported a new proposal

called the ‘Roadmap for Peace’.

The Roadmap Phase 1 – Palestinians to end violence and hand over weapons; Israel to freeze all

settlement building and pull out from any built since 2000. Phase 2 – Conference to establish a democratic and sovereign Palestinian state Phase 3 – discussions to be held about Jerusalem’s status and the Palestinians right to

return

The results Sharon refused to negotiate with Arafat so the latter reluctantly agreed to appoint

Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian Prime Minister and spokesman. The two met with US President George W. Bush and agreed a roadmap that was immediately rejected by Arafat. However, 18 months later Arafat had died and Abbas had replaced him as president.

Talks were resumed and, with the promise of $50 million worth of aid, militant Palestinians agreed to a ceasefire. Israeli troops were withdrawn from Palestinian cities and prisoners were exchanged. By February 2005 the Intifada was over.

In February 2005 the Knesset agreed that Israel would pull out of the Gaza Strip – the ‘disengagement plan’ and it was put into action. By September 2005 Israel finally pulled out of the Gaza strip, with its 8000 Jewish settlers relocated and compensated.

The impact of the Second Intifada On Palestinians – 5000 deaths; thousands more injured and arrested; Economic collapse - by 2005 60% of Palestinians were living in poverty Homelessness due to IDF destruction; Internal travel extremely difficult because of road blocks; 12% separated from their own

farmland; Operation Defensive Shield involved the los of paperwork and computers;

On Israelis 1,063 deaths (731 civilian), 8,800 wounded; Economic damage – collapse of tourism; by 2005 10% unemployment and 30% in poverty; Psychological damage of suicide bombing; Negative publicity.

Why did the Roadmap fail? Sharon lost support within Likud and founded a new party called Kadima or ‘forward’. Sharon suffered a massive stroke in January 2006; and hardliners refused to consider

withdrawing from the West Bank, where 400,000 Jewish settlers now lived and refused to surrender even a part of Jerusalem.

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More important: Hamas won control of the Palestinian Assembly elections in 2006 – and refused to attend the Roadmap talks; rockets were fired into Israel (over 1000, in the first half of 2006).

USA, Russia, European Union and the UN all imposed sanctions to stop foreign aid to the PNA because all saw Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

In June 2007 Hamas expelled all Fatah members from Gaza following an attempt by Fatah to seize control.

The Gaza War, 2008-9 Failure of talks initiated by Egypt in Summer 2008; 20,000 armed Hamas members in Gaza; Qassam rocket attacks (largely ineffective ‘home made’ rockets); Failure of Israeli attack on Hezbollah in the Lebanon in July 2006; Election of Barak Obama in November 2008 – a less hawkish presence in the White House

– meant that if Israel was going to take action it should do it before President Bush was replaced in January.

Key events Began with operation ‘cast lead’ when IDF airstrikes in Gaza hit 100 pre-planned targets. A second wave of attakcs a half hour later included Hamas HQ, Government offices and 24

police stations. 225 Palestinians died and Hamas responded with rocket attakcs. 3 January – Israeli ground invasion of Gaza designed to destroy tunnels nad rocket making

equipment.

Impact 4000 homes, 600 factories, 24 mosques, 8 hospitals, roads, bridges and UNRWA facilities

were destroyed. 1000 Palestinians killed; 1/3rd of these were children (in part because of Hamas human-

shield tactics). Only 13 Israelis were killed; but Israel was slaughtered in the media for using unnecessary

force and even illegal weapons like white phosphorous. Hamas soon resumed rocket attacks.

Motives of key playersYitzak Rabin – left winger – believed that Israel was in a position of strength and therefore able to negotiate in the mid-1990s.

Benjamin Netanyahu – hardliner, right wing Likud leader – promoted settlements in the West Bank in order to keep the support of ultra right-wing parties – but at the same time tried to avoid alienating the USA. His successor at the head of Likud.

Ariel Sharon - made more genuine progress towards peace, responsible for the ‘Separation Wall’ which did succeed in reducing violence even if it made more difficult for Palestinians. His sincerity is suggested by the fact that, once he lost the support of Likud he built another party. Sharon’s death in 2006 is one of the reasons for the failure of the roadmap.

PLO – founding charter of 1964 stated that it existed to remove the Zionist foe from Palestine; it claimed that the basis for the Zionist entity – the Balfour declaration etc. – were fraud. By the 1988 Arafat led the PLO into a historic renunciation of violence, but his sincerity has been questioned by Israel. Part of what drove Arafat was a desire to remain in charge.

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Hamas – like the PLO of 1964 – regarded the whole of Palestine as belonging to the Palestinians and all of Israel’s claims to be based on fraud. It regarded the PLO as corrupt, rejected Oslo and the Roadmap negotiations; adopted suicide bombing strategies as well as rocket attacks.

Hezbollah – also committed to the destruction of the state of Israel – funded in part by Iran, it is Shia Muslim.

USA – since it voted for Israel’s creation it generally supported Israel but has had to walk a tightrope between supporting and defending Israel but without alienating Israel’s Arab foes. US policy heavily depends on the president. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were very committed to a the peace process; George W. Bush, on the other hand, more closely allied himself with Israel.

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