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A War between Muslims and
Jews
By the beginning of the twentieth century,
conflicts between Arab Muslims and Jews
were characterized by terrorism and violence.
Toward the end of the First World War, the
Ottoman Empire disintegrated and Palestine,
until then an Ottoman Arab territory, was
placed under the administration of Great
Britain. Failing to bring peace to a land
ravaged by violence, Great Britain finally
turned the problem over to the UN in 1947.
The UN proposed that Palestine be partitioned
into two independent states so that the
Jews could have a homeland. This was the
first Jewish state in 19 centuries.
Arabs in Palestine and the surrounding
countries sought to change this situation,
and in 1948 a bloody war broke out between
them and Israel. Israel, which proclaimed
its independence that same year, then violated
the UN plan by occupying a large portion
of Palestine. All that was left for the
Palestinians was the west part of the Jordan
River (the West Bank) and some land surrounding
Gaza city (the Gaza Strip).
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(Left) The
Wailing Wall came under the
Jewish control after the 1967
War, when East Jerusalem was
invaded by Israel.
(Right) Israel’s Haganah
moved toward Jerusalem in
1948.
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During June 1967, Israel carried out a
massive invasion. Egypt, Syria, and Jordan
had been making preparations to attack Israel
for months when, in a sudden counter-attack,
Israel launched the war on the morning of
June 5. Israel jets flew over the Mediterranean
Sea for a while and then suddenly turned
toward Egypt. Egypt, which had prepared
for an Israeli air attack from the east
instead of from the north, was caught off
guard and saw the majority of its air force
destroyed before the pilots could get their
planes in the air. Within 5 days, the Israeli
army defeated the Arab armies one after
another. Within 6 days, Israel roughly tripled
its size. The invaded, and now occupied
lands included the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
the Golan Heights (part of Syria), and Egypt's
giant Sinai Peninsula.
Israel also occupied East Jerusalem. After
the 1948 war, Jerusalem had been divided
into East and West Jerusalem. West Jerusalem,
the modern part of the city, and it was
held by Israel; East Jerusalem, the Old
City and location of many religious shrines,
was held by Jordan. After the 1967 War,
Israel controlled both parts of Jerusalem,
and the Wailing Wall, which has become Israel's
national symbol, came under Jewish control
for the first time in 19 centuries.
Nasser, who strengthened his army with
Soviet weapons, denied the ceasefire that
ended the Six Days War in in March 1969,
in order to regain the land to Egypt, which
were lost in April 1968. He also initiated
a months-long mild "war of attrition." Attacks
on Israeli targets were finally ended by
heavy Israeli artillery bombardment of and
air attacks on the cities along the Suez
Canal. This development caused Egypt to
sign another ceasefire agreement with Israel.
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| Israeli
soldiers in Hebron on the third
day of the 1967 Six Day War
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During the Yom Kippur feast of 6 October
1973, Egyptian and Syrian armies launched
a sudden attack against Israel. Crossing
the Suez Canal, the Egyptian army entered
the Israeli-occupied Sinai Peninsula and
started to cross the Bar-Lev Line, a supposed
"impassable" border established after the
1967 War. Meanwhile, Syria moved forward
on the Golan Heights. The Israeli army was
taken completely by surprise. Soldiers attending
Yom Kippur services in synagogues were sent
headlong to the various fronts. Israeli
radio, meanwhile, broke its traditional
Yom Kippur silence and sounded the alarm.
At the expense of considerable loss of
life, the Israel Defense Forces (Zahal)
stopped the Arab forces on 9 October with
their conventional forces. Soon, the Syrian
army's progress on Golan Heights was also
ended. Meanwhile Egypt, by now having a
stronger army and reinforced by its strategic
position, engaged in a long and bloody tank
battle. According to the general opinon,
Washington's rapid arms support to Israel
that began on the second day of the war
enabled Israel to win.
On 26 October, Israel began to drive the
Arabs out of the territories that they had
recently recaptured. Meanwhile, the threat
of Israel being driven into sea was over.
Yet this was not a victory for Israel, for
in just a few days the two Arab armies had
inflicted a severe toll on the nation: 2,700
dead in a small country with a population
of little more than 3 million.
Following this psychological shock, the
Israeli government took a step back. Israel
agreed to return the Sinai Peninsula to
Egypt, and in 1979 Egypt and Israel signed
the Camp David Peace Agreement. Yet, this
agreement and all subsequent ones have failed
to bring peace to the region. The conflict
between the Arabs and the Israelis continues,
albeit with short intervals of peace.
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