Arab - Israeli Wars

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Since

the United Nations partition of PALESTINE in 1947 and

the establishment of the modern state of ISRAEL in 1948,

there have been four major Arab-Israeli wars (1947-49,

1956, 1967, and 1973) and numerous intermittent battles.

Although Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979,

hostility between Israel and the rest of its Arab neighbors,

complicated by the demands of Palestinian Arabs, continued

into the 1980s. THE FIRST PALESTINE WAR (1947-49)

The first war began as a civil conflict between Palestinian

Jews and Arabs following the United Nations

recommendation of Nov. 29, 1947, to partition Palestine,

then still under British mandate, into an Arab state and a

Jewish state. Fighting quickly spread as Arab guerrillas

attacked Jewish settlements and communication links to

prevent implementation of the UN plan. Jewish forces

prevented seizure of most settlements, but Arab guerrillas,

supported by the Transjordanian Arab Legion under the

command of British officers, besieged Jerusalem. By April,

Haganah, the principal Jewish military group, seized the

offensive, scoring victories against the Arab Liberation Army

in northern Palestine, Jaffa, and Jerusalem. British military

forces withdrew to Haifa; although officially neutral, some

commanders assisted one side or the other. After the British

had departed and the state of Israel had been established on

May 15, 1948, under the premiership of David

BEN-GURION, the Palestine Arab forces and foreign

volunteers were joined by regular armies of Transjordan

(now the kingdom of JORDAN), IRAQ, LEBANON, and

SYRIA, with token support from SAUDI ARABIA. Efforts

by the UN to halt the fighting were unsuccessful until June

11, when a 4-week truce was declared. When the Arab

states refused to renew the truce, ten more days of fighting

erupted. In that time Israel greatly extended the area under

its control and broke the siege of Jerusalem. Fighting on a

smaller scale continued during the second UN truce

beginning in mid-July, and Israel acquired more territory,

especially in Galilee and the Negev. By January 1949, when

the last battles ended, Israel had extended its frontiers by

about 5,000 sq km (1,930 sq mi) beyond the 15,500 sq km

(4,983 sq mi) allocated to the Jewish state in the UN

partition resolution. It had also secured its independence.

During 1949, armistice agreements were signed under UN

auspices between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and

Lebanon. The armistice frontiers were unofficial boundaries

until 1967. SUEZ-SINAI WAR (1956) Border conflicts

between Israel and the Arabs continued despite provisions in

the 1949 armistice agreements for peace negotiations.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs who had left

Israeli-held territory during the first war concentrated in

refugee camps along Israel's frontiers and became a major

source of friction when they infiltrated back to their homes or

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