Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Nostalgia Central
    • Home
    • Blog
      • Lists
      • Playlists
    • Television
      • TV by Decade
        • TV – 1950s
        • TV – 1960s
        • TV – 1970s
        • TV – 1980s
        • TV – 1990s
      • Comedy
      • Drama
      • Kids TV
      • Variety
      • News & Sport
      • Advertisements
    • Music
      • Music by Decade
        • Music – 1950s
        • Music – 1960s
        • Music – 1970s
        • Music – 1980s
        • Music – 1990s
      • Artists – A to K
        • Artists – A
        • Artists – B
        • Artists – C
        • Artists – D
        • Artists – E
        • Artists – F
        • Artists – G
        • Artists – H
        • Artists – I
        • Artists – J
        • Artists – K
      • Artists – L to Z
        • Artists – L
        • Artists – M
        • Artists – N
        • Artists – O
        • Artists – P
        • Artists – Q
        • Artists – R
        • Artists – S
        • Artists – T
        • Artists – U
        • Artists – V
        • Artists – W
        • Artists – X
        • Artists – Y
        • Artists – Z
      • Artists – 0 to 9
      • Genres
      • Music on Film & TV
      • One-Hit Wonders
      • Online Radio
    • Movies
      • Movies by Decade
        • Movies – 1950s
        • Movies – 1960s
        • Movies – 1970s
        • Movies – 1980s
        • Movies – 1990s
      • Movies – 0 to 9
      • Movies – A to K
        • Movies – A
        • Movies – B
        • Movies – C
        • Movies – D
        • Movies – E
        • Movies – F
        • Movies – G
        • Movies – H
        • Movies – I
        • Movies – J
        • Movies – K
      • Movies – L to Z
        • Movies – L
        • Movies – M
        • Movies – N
        • Movies – O
        • Movies – P
        • Movies – Q
        • Movies – R
        • Movies – S
        • Movies – T
        • Movies – U
        • Movies – V
        • Movies – W
        • Movies – X
        • Movies – Y
        • Movies – Z
    • Pop Culture
      • Fads
      • Toys & Games
      • Fashion
      • Decor
      • Food & Drink
      • People
      • Technology
      • Transport
    • Social History
      • 1950s Year by Year
      • 1960s Year by Year
      • 1970s Year by Year
      • 1980s Year by Year
      • 1990s Year by Year
      • Events
    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Decades»Events
    Events 7 Mins Read

    Arab – Israeli Wars

    Share
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email

    Series of wars and territorial conflicts between Israel and various Arab states in the Middle East since the founding of the state of Israel in May 1948.

    These include the war of 1948 – 1949, the 1956 Suez War between Israel and Egypt, the Six-Day War of 1967, in which Israel captured territory from Syria and Jordan,  the October War of 1973 and the 1982 – 1985 war between Israel and Lebanon.

    In the times between the wars, tension has remained high in the area and has resulted in skirmishes and terrorist activity taking place on both sides.

    israelwar_000

    1st Arab – Israeli War (15 May 1948 – 24 March 1949)

    As soon as the independent state of Israel was proclaimed on 14 May 1948, it was invaded by combined Arab forces and full-scale war broke out, which ended finally with Israeli victory and a series of armistices.

    Israel retained the western part of Jerusalem, Galilee, and the Negev, and went on to annex territory until it controlled 75% of what had been Palestine under British mandate.

    The Arab states subsequently imposed an economic boycott on Israel and continued to make raids across the border, which eventually prompted an Israeli attack on the Egyptian garrison in the Gaza Strip in February 1955.

    The war also produced a flood of Arab refugees from Israel and the war areas.

    2nd Arab – Israeli War (29 October – 4 November 1956)

    After Egypt had taken control of the Suez Canal and blockaded the Straits of Tiran, Israel, with British and French support, invaded and captured Sinai and the Gaza Strip, but finally withdrew its forces under heavy US pressure after the entry of a United Nations (UN) force in 1957.

    3rd Arab – Israeli War – “Six-Day War” (5 – 10 June 1967)

    In the events leading up to the war of 1967, Egypt (then the United Arab Republic) blockaded the Straits of Tiran and introduced troops into Sinai.

    sixdaywar_001

    War broke out on three fronts on 5 June 1967, and within six days Israel’s military devastated the air and ground forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan and occupied the Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, the West Bank (an area west of the Jordan River), and East Jerusalem.

    The war established Israel as the premier military power in the Middle East – largely a product of American money and French armaments. This victory earned only a limited degree of peace, although the occupied territories greatly enhanced the Israelis” feelings of security.

    4th Arab – Israeli War – “October War” or “Yom Kippur War”  (6 – 24 October 1973)

    This war was so called because the Israeli forces were taken by surprise on the Day of Atonement, a Jewish holy day.

    It started with the crossing of the Suez Canal by Egyptian forces, who made initial gains, though there was some later loss of ground by the Syrians in the north. The war had 19,000 casualties and also led to a shift in international opinion against Israel.

    yomkippurwar_002

    5th Arab – Israeli War   (6 June 1982 – February 1985)

    From 1978 the presence of Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon led to Arab raids on Israel and Israeli retaliatory incursions, and on 6 June 1982 Israel launched a full-scale invasion of Lebanon.

    The operation – code-named “Peace of Galilee” – aimed at driving the Palestine Liberation Organisation‘s (PLO) bases away from the northern border of Israel.

    By 14 June Beirut was encircled, and PLO and Syrian forces were evacuated (mainly to Syria) between 21 and 31 August.

    Shortly afterwards, when the United Nations confirmed the right of Israel to exist, PLO leader Yassir Arafat also signed documents confirming for the first time that the PLO believed the modern State of Israel, established in 1948, had the right to exist.

    The United States, however, continued to deny the right of the PLO to exist as a legitimate body.

    In February 1985 there was a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the country without any gain or losses incurred. Israel maintains a ”security zone” in South Lebanon, and supports the South Lebanese Army militia as a buffer against Palestinian guerrilla incursions.

    Background

    Arab opposition to an Israeli state began after the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which supported the idea of a Jewish national homeland. In the 1920s there were anti-Zionist riots in Palestine, which was then governed by the UK under a League of Nations mandate.

    In 1936 an Arab revolt led to a British royal commission that recommended partition. This was approved by the UN in 1947, but was rejected by the Arabs, and, though the British mandate over Palestine did not end until May 1948, intermittent fighting broke out between the official Jewish forces and various Arab factions, including the Jordan Arab league, as early as March 1948.

    The main fighting was for control of the Tel Aviv – Jerusalem road, which the Jewish forces managed to keep open at great cost. The Jewish side also gained complete control in Haifa, Jaffa, Safed, and Tiberias.

    During the Cold War period, the Arab – Israeli conflict was sharpened and given East/West overtones by Soviet adoption of the Arab cause and US support for Israel, with the series of wars serving to increase confusion over who had a claim to what territory.

    Terrorism was also practised widely, particularly by the PLO, in the period leading up to 1970, when the PLO were suppressed in Jordan by King Hussein.

    International pressure for a settlement of the conflict grew during the 1970s, and in 1978 the Camp David Agreements brought peace between Egypt and Israel, though this was denounced by other Arab countries.

    Israel withdrew from Sinai between 1979 and 1982, but no final agreement on Jerusalem and the establishment of a Palestinian state on the West Bank was reached.

    Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank continued into the 1990s in the face of a determined uprising (Intifada), but hope of a settlement emerged in September 1993 with the signing of an Israeli/PLO preliminary peace accord by the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yassir Arafat.

    In mid-1996, Benjamin Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister of Israel by a margin of just 1%. Palestinian-Israeli relations grew even more hostile, and despite the Israel-PLO accord, Netanyahu opposed the idea of Palestinian statehood.

    In 1998, US President Bill Clinton persuaded the two leaders to meet. The resulting Wye Agreement detailed the steps to be taken by the Israeli government and PNA to complete the peace process.

    Arafat continued negotiations with Netanyahu’s successor, Ehud Barak, at the Camp David Summit in July 2000. Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state in 73% of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip.

    The Palestinian percentage of sovereignty would extend to 91% (94% excluding Jerusalem) over a ten to twenty-five year period.

    In exchange for the withheld areas of the West Bank where the main Israeli settlement blocks were situated, Barak offered the equivalent area in the Israeli Negev desert.

    Arafat rejected Barak’s offer and refused to make an immediate counter-offer, saying to President Clinton, “the Arab leader who would surrender Jerusalem is not born yet”.

    Following the election of Ariel Sharon in February 2002, the peace process took a steep downfall, and Sharon ordered Arafat to be confined to his Mukata’a headquarters in Ramallah, following an attack in the Israeli city of Hadera.

    Related Posts

    • Moon Landing (1969)
      Moon Landing (1969)
      It seemed the whole world had stopped. Then, clear as crystal, came those immortal words . . . "That's one…
    • Space Race, The
      Space Race, The
      In the 1950's and 1960's, the USA and the Soviet Union raced each other to be first into space. The…
    • Fall of Saigon (1975)
      Fall of Saigon (1975)
      The war in Vietnam ended abruptly on 30 April 1975.  Saigon surrendered almost without a struggle as North Vietnamese tanks…
    • Woodstock
      Woodstock
      It remains the defining assembly of rock music - an unprecedented gathering of at least 300,000 young, long-haired, raggedy clad…
    • Berlin Wall
      Berlin Wall
      In 1945, at the end of WWII, Germany was divided into a Soviet Zone in the East, and British, French…
    • Civil Rights Movement
      Civil Rights Movement
      In December 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, a black woman named Rosa Parks insisted on sitting in the front of a bus. The…
    • Wollongong Mutilation Slaying (1966)
      Wollongong Mutilation Slaying (1966)
      On 29 January 1966, a  57-year-old cleaner was brutally slain as she worked alone in the Piccadilly Arcade in Wollongong, NSW…
    • Martin Luther King Speech (28 August 1963)
      Martin Luther King Speech (28 August 1963)
      "There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the coloured citizen is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds…

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleAltamont (1969)
    Next Article Bay of Pigs

    Comments are closed.

    Follow us
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    You May Also Like
    • Careful, He Might Hear You (1983)
      Set in Sydney (Australia) during the turbulent years of the […]
    • Out of the Clouds (1955)
      Directed by Basil Dearden, and taking place over the course of […]
    • Spencer’s Pilots
      1 9 7 6 (USA) 10 x 50 minute episodes This barnstorming CBS […]
    • Little Willie John
      Born William Edward John in Camden, Arkansas, on 15 November […]
    • Knack, The
      The Knack exemplified American New Wave – a short haired, […]
    • That Touch Of Mink (1962)
      Doris Day is Cathy Timberlake, the proper young lady living off […]
    Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons

    OUR LATEST FACEBOOK POSTS

    edition.cnn.com/2023/01/30/entertainment/cindy-williams-dead/index.html

    More sad news 😢
    ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    'Laverne & Shirley' star Cindy Williams dead at 75 | CNN

    edition.cnn.com

    Cindy Williams, the dynamic actress known best for playing the bubbly Shirley Feeney on the beloved sitcom "Laverne & Shirley," has died, according to a statement from her family, provided to CNN by a...
    1 day ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 1
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64442824 ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    Television frontman Tom Verlaine dies at 73

    www.bbc.co.uk

    His band rose to fame in the 1970s New York punk scene, scoring UK hits including Marquee Moon.
    3 days ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 0
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64418847 ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    Mr Blobby costume sells for more than £62,000 on eBay

    www.bbc.co.uk

    The character, made famous by BBC show Noel's House Party, had been in storage since the 1990s.
    4 days ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 0
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    Put some beefiness into your mid-week menu with these recipe ideas published in a Birds Eye advertisement from the Radio Times on 30 September 1965.

    Put some "beefiness into your mid-week menu" with these recipe ideas published in a Birds Eye advertisement from the "Radio Times" on 30 September 1965. ... See MoreSee Less

    1 week ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 3
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 1

    Comment on Facebook

    They were awful. An overpowering savoury flavour that lingered in your mouth for hours. Heaven knows what unmentionable parts of a bull went into making them 😳

    More sad news 😪

    ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    US rock legend David Crosby dies aged 81

    www.bbc.co.uk

    Crosby, who co-founded both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash, had been ill for some time.
    2 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 0
    • Shares: 1
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    This is what they promised us when I was a kid. What happened? 

All I have is 700 channels of rubbish on the TV in High Def, TikTok, Facebook and a phone I can take photographs with . . .

    This is what they promised us when I was a kid. What happened?

    All I have is 700 channels of rubbish on the TV in High Def, TikTok, Facebook and a phone I can take photographs with . . .
    ... See MoreSee Less

    2 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 54
    • Shares: 22
    • Comments: 7

    Comment on Facebook

    I thought we would have moving pavements by now when I was a kid 😂

    Totally agree!!!

    The new Tesla, 4.6 next century.

    We got transvestite story hour instead

    We appear to be going backwards

    There's actually a very good David Graeber essay on this very topic: thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit

    The Jetsons strike again.

    View more comments

    Renowned Australian singer Renee Geyer is dead at 69 following complications from hip surgery. Such a fabulous voice. RIP😢

https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-l-to-z/artists-r/renee-geyer/

    Renowned Australian singer Renee Geyer is dead at 69 following complications from hip surgery. Such a fabulous voice. RIP😢

    nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-l-to-z/artists-r/renee-geyer/
    ... See MoreSee Less

    2 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 0
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 1

    Comment on Facebook

    That is so sad to hear 😥 rest in peace 🙏 🕊 xx

    Gina Lollobrigida: Italian screen star dies at 95
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64292026

    Gina Lollobrigida: Italian screen star dies at 95
    www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64292026
    ... See MoreSee Less

    2 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 4
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 1

    Comment on Facebook

    😍😍😍😍

    Vale Jeff Beck. Dead at 78. 😢

    ... See MoreSee Less

    Link thumbnail

    Jeff Beck: British guitar legend dies aged 78

    www.bbc.co.uk

    One of rock's most influential guitarists, he was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice.
    3 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 1
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 0

    Comment on Facebook

    Hi everyone. Were in the process of moving www.nostalgiacentral.com to new dedicated servers to better cope with the volumes of traffic. Please ignore any SSL security errors you may receive when visiting the site over the next 24 hours while the move completes.

    Hi everyone. We're in the process of moving www.nostalgiacentral.com to new dedicated servers to better cope with the volumes of traffic. Please ignore any SSL security errors you may receive when visiting the site over the next 24 hours while the move completes. ... See MoreSee Less

    3 weeks ago
    View on Facebook
    · Share
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
    View Comments
    • Likes: 5
    • Shares: 0
    • Comments: 2

    Comment on Facebook

    Ironically, this post has jumped off the page at me. You'll probably get most traffic today because everyone will want to see what they might be missing!

    Martin Platt

    Load more
    Please note


    Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 1999 and contains some words and references which reflect the attitudes of those times and which may be considered culturally sensitive, offensive or inappropriate today.
    Popular Tags
    1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 1976 Action Figures Amicus Arcade games Australia Beach movies Beatles Blaxploitation Board games Britpop Canada Crime Disney Doo-Wop Elvis Presley Girl groups Glam Goth Hammer Heavy Metal Irwin Allen Labels Merseybeat Mod revival Motown New Romantic New Wave NWOBHM Oi! One-hit wonders Power Pop Pub rock Punk Radio Scotland Ska Soul music Sport Surf music
    Search Nostalgia Central
    Copyright © 1998, 2023 Nostalgia Central
    • About Nostalgia Central
    • Contact
    • FAQ

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.