Palestine

• Arab-Israeli Conflict


  Conflict between two peoples over one land
• Jewish migration to Ottoman Empire to escape persecution


  Late 19th century
• Balfour Declaration by British government in support of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine


  1917
• UN vote to partition land in British mandate of Palestine into two states - one Jewish, one Arab


  1947
• Middle East


  • One of the most volatile and violent subsystems of the international political systems since the end of WWII
  • Postwar history punctuated by an unusually high number of full-scale, inter-state wars
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict


  • One of the most profound and protracted conflicts of the 20th century
  • Principal precipitant of wars in the Middle East
• Zionist movement


  Conceived the idea of building a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine
• The Zionist project met with bitter opposition from the Arab population of Palestine
• Balfour Declaration


  Public statement by British government in 1917 announcing support for establishment of "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine
• Holocaust


  Systematic genocide of European Jews during WWII, resulting in around 6 million deaths
• The situation in Palestine became increasingly difficult for the UK to maintain after WWII, as they struggled to reconcile the competing interests of Arabs and Jews
• Attacks and assassinations


  • Attack on King David Hotel
  • Assassination of Count Bernadotte
• Jewish Resistance Movement


  Alliance of Zionist paramilitary organizations Haganah, Irgun and Lehi in British Mandate of Palestine
• 1948 Arab-Israeli War


  1. Climax of conflict between Jewish and Palestinian national movements

  2. Jews proclaimed establishment of independent state of Israel

  3. Arab states intervened, resulting in defeat for Arabs and disaster for Palestinians
• Nakba


  Mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during 1948 Arab-Israeli war
• Neither Palestinians nor neighbouring Arab countries accepted the founding of modern Israel
• Armistice agreement in 1949 saw new de facto borders that gave Israel more territory than it was awarded under the UN partition plan
• Exodus of Palestinians


  About 700,000 Palestinians expelled or fled, around 85% of Arab population in territory captured by Israel
• Principles of Israeli grand strategy

  • Limit length of wars
  • Take fight to enemy territory quickly
  • Consider defence in depth
  • Employ escalation of dominance and cumulative deterrence
  • Maintain overwhelming military supremacy
  • Respond to provocations with disproportionate force
• Jabotinsky: '"Zionist colonisation must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population. Which means that it can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population – behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot breach"'
• Masada Complex


  Siege of the Zealots in 74 AD
• The conflict shifted from local/intercommunal level to inter-state level after 1948, further complicated by Israel's capture of West Bank, Golan Heights and Sinai in 1967
• Divergent views on root cause of conflict


  • Arabs - dispossession and dispersal of Palestinians
  • Israelis - Arab rejection of Israel's right to exist
• Arab states were united rhetorically in opposing Israel, but deeply divided operationally on how to deal with Israel
• Suez Affair - Britain, France and Israel intervened when Nasser nationalised Suez


  1956
• The 1956 Suez War saw Britain, France and Israel join forces against Egypt
• The Suez Affair 1956, also known as the Tripartite Aggression, was the tragicomic death knell of the attempt to maintain imperial order through military intervention once characterized as "Gunboat Diplomacy"
• When Nasser nationalized Suez, Britain and France in collusion with the Israelis intervened. Nasser declared a people's war, under US pressure France/UK were humiliated into a withdrawal. British PM Anthony Eden resigned in disgrace
• The 1956 Suez War was the result of a war plot. Britain, France and Israel deliberately, carefully and secretly planned their joint attack on Egypt
• Great Power involvement in the Middle East

  • It is not a unique feature but the intensity, pervasiveness and profound impact of this involvement is what distinguishes the Middle East
  • No other part of the Third World has been so thoroughly and ceaselessly caught up in Great Power rivalries
  • No other sub-system of the international political system has been as penetrated as the Middle East
• Complexity and endemic instability of the Middle East


  The Arab-Israeli conflict, inter-Arab relations, and Great Power involvement interact in complex and curious ways
• The Six-Day War in 1967 was a brief but bloody conflict fought between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Israel seized the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights
• The War of Attrition from 1969-1970 was a direct result of the problems created for the Arab world by the Six-Day War. Israel became attached to the new territorial status quo and was confident of her ability to maintain this indefinitely
• The Yom Kippur War in 1973 can be traced to three factors: the failure of international initiatives to resolve the Arab-Israeli dispute, the emergence of an Arab coalition willing to fight Israel, and the steady flow of arms from superpowers to their regional clients
• Israeli intelligence failed to see the Yom Kippur War coming in 1973 because it was wedded to the concept that the Arabs would not go to war because they would lose
• On 14 March 1978, Israel launched Operation Litani, after the Coastal Road Massacre, to push Palestinian militant groups, particularly the PLO, out of southern Lebanon
• The 1982 Lebanon war was the result of the unresolved dispute between Israel and the Arabs. It was Israel's invasion of Lebanon in June 1982 which started the war and provoked the clash with the PLO and Syrian forces
• One of the lingering consequences of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon was the creation of Hezbollah, which is a proxy for Iran
• The First Intifada was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation lasting from December 1987 to 1993. The Second Intifada, also called Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a period of intensified Israeli-Palestinian violence from 2000 to 2005
• An armed conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups has been taking place chiefly in and around the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023, beginning with a surprise attack by Hamas on southern Israel