May 15 was rapidly approaching, the day chosen for the British armed forces to vacate Palestine. Many thought, along with the British troops departure, went Israel’s only hope of survival; for 5 Arab nations were prepared to attack the defenseless state. On the other hand, there were those who refused to go down without a fight. Among them the few brave souls willing to risk everything to ensure our survival; to ensure there would never be another Holocaust. These heroic men created the first Israeli Air Force, an asset that played an essential role in the War of 1948. The five attacking Arab nations were about to be taken by surprise, as the fledgling state began to take flight.
On May 15th, 5 Arab nations, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt,
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President Truman felt by imposing an arms embargo, he would minimize bloodshed in Palestine, threatening those who violated the embargo with denaturalization. As a result, any arms to be used by Israel had to be either smuggled, or obtained illegally. While America tried to stay neutral, Britain clearly showed that they favored the side of the Palestinians. Robert A. Lovett, an American Secretary of State requested that the British not send weapons to the Arab nations, but his request was declined and they sent additional weapons to Transjordan and Iraq, thereby strengthening Israel’s need for additional weaponry. Ben Gurion knew that without a stronger military, he and his homeland would be utterly demolished. He established a group of international volunteers, given the acronym MACHAL from the words, “Mitnadvay Chutz La’aretz”, which means, “from countries outside of the land”. The IAF began with 70% of their fighters being overseas volunteers, from 16 different countries. But Ben-Gurion turned to America, in search of an underground method to obtain both American military supplies and American Dollars.
Al Schwimmer and Hyman Shechtman were in charge of recruiting volunteers from North America for the IAF. They were responsible for identifying former World War II veterans, for both the air and ground crew of the air force. Schwimmer and Shechtman searched through illegally obtained American Air Force records for pilots with Jewish sounding names, and called old
To start, Carter says outright what his vision for America was: “...but America does want to be the world's peacemaker.” Furthermore, Carter continues with his vision for America’s peace-seeking foreign policy. He does this by talking about SALT, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks: “The purpose of SALT, then as now, is not to gain a unilateral advantage for either nation, but to protect the security of both nations, to reverse the costly and dangerous momentum of the nuclear arms race, to preserve a stable balance of nuclear forces, and to demonstrate to a concerned world that we are determined to help preserve the peace.” By speaking about the importance of the SALT, Carter effectively laid out what his plan was to secure peace amongst nuclear-armed nations. However, at the same time, President Carter made sure to lay out what America wanted to achieve in the immediate short-term regarding foreign policy: “Our firm commitment to Israel's survival and security is rooted in our deepest convictions and in our knowledge of the strategic importance to our own Nation of a stable Middle East.” As written before, it was strategically important to the United States that they maintain the sovereignty of Israel. Specifically, after failing to intervene in China during the uprising of the KMT, it
On May 15, 1948, the United States became the first country to recognize Israel as an independent state. Many advisors of President Truman’s had advised not to, and that creating a land for the Jews would pit the Arab nations against us. He went ahead anyway, because he didn’t want to lose the American-Jew vote; and in doing so, accepted the idea of the U.N.’s Partition Plan. However, he quickly lost much of the control over the policy-making process. ( Miller Center, 2016 ) 1
Since his presidency did not begin with Israel becoming a state, his focus was greatly adjusted and at first there was a noticeable decline in aid and care for Israel’s wellbeing. Israel was also rather vulnerable during this time, due to the fact that there more Jewish refugees entering Israel from surrounding Arab states. President Eisenhower convincingly proved that America had the ability to influence Israel in a good way, although his presidency ended with the Middle East still in a state of war. During Eisenhower’s administration, there were two successful incidents of U.S. management of Israel and in both circumstances, Eisenhower avoided the political compulsions of America’s attachment to Israel and instead forced the Israelis to act upon principle. Unfortunately, his presidency was the last to give Israel undivided focus, for the ones to follow were absorbed in other affairs and did not provide the same constructive support.
To address the conflict brewing in Israel, Johnson outlined five "great principles for peace" in the region (CAMERA, 2007). The conflict precluded military intervention because too much was at stake. The Soviet Union supported its Arab allies in the conflict, and the United States did not want to risk a confrontation with its arch nemesis. Johnson's approach was diplomacy. He "condemned the Egyptian blockade of the Straits of Tiran and tried to discourage a war while still supporting Israel," rather than foment the conflict by encouraging Israeli military action (United States Department of State: Office of the Historian, n.d).
King Solomon in the Proverbs declares that “For though the righteous fall seven times, they always get back up.” (New International Version, Prov. 24:16). The time of 66 to 73 AD was an era of turmoil throughout the Roman Empire. Many strains of beliefs and philosophies were being formed, widely spread, and persecuted, like that of the early Christians. Yet, at the same time, the ancient religion of the Jews was also a grand source of persecution that is often neglected to be taught. The Jewish Wars that were fought during this time resulted in a horrific amount of deaths and feuds, the destruction of the Temple, as well as the disappearance and shifting of various sects. But, it also resulted in the unification and collaboration of various
Marry Kaldor marked a difference between old and new wars in her book. She uses logical reasoning to tell her readers that new wars are quite different from the old ones. She has given an idea about the new war trends as to how the wars now occur and how the countries fight them. She is of the view that these wars are totally different from each other in all respects. Let us here look into the differences that she has marked for us to make us know that the differences are sharp and true.
With little resistance possible against the German persecution, tensions heightened between the Zionists and the British in 1940 as a direct result of the continued British opposition of securing Jewish statehood despite Zionist offers to form Jewish fighting units with the British against the Germans. Consequently, the Jewish Agency’s efforts to rescue Jews from Europe and transport them to Palestine were prevented by sinking illegal transport ships filled with refugees, resulting in the formation of several underground paramilitary groups such as the Irgun and LEHI. By building up the supply of weapons, conducting guerilla attacks on local British forces and police, and by arranging the illegal entry of refugees from Europe, Jewish fighters and Zionist leaders were able to help thousands of Holocaust survivors break the British blockade and reach Palestine between 1945 and 1948. Additionally, Bickerton and Klausner point to the success of the Yishuv in creating a situation that forced the British to take the issue to the UN and subsequent activities related to Europe’s Jewish displaced persons, as being highly influential to the formation of Israel after the Holocaust. The Yishuv, fired by shame, agony and
The Arab countries had tens of millions of inhabitants. But they did not properly mobilize for the war, and their armies were, therefore, relatively small. The Jewish yishuv on the other hand took pains to recruit a very large army. Out of a population of roughly 650,000 to 700,000, around 100,000 were recruited, which is a tremendous number. So if you compare populations, indeed it is a matter of the few against the many. But when you compare the number recruited on each side, it seems we had an advantage in numbers not only relative to the Palestinians but also relative to the Arab armies participating”
The War of 1948, also known as the War of Independence, was fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The war began May 15, 1948 when units from the armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq invaded Israel launching a war that lasted until December 1948.# The war resulted in the defeat of the Arab forces and the success of Israel as a newly established state. It is evident that the Arab forces were not successful in the first Arab-Israeli war because the Arab army lacked motivation, education, and proper equipment.# Despite the support from Arab states outside of Palestine, the Arabs were unable to gain enough strength to overcome the Israeli forces. In contrast, the Israeli army was able to succeed because they had
In 1948, Zionist forces, due to their military pre-eminence, gained control over the territory which the UN designated to the Jews in the failed partition plan. On 14 May 1948, they declared Israeli independence and established the Israeli state (Fawcett, 2005; 221). The US recognised Israel quickly as a state and soon after that the Soviet Union did the same. The Arab League, formed out of six Arab states, did not recognise Israel as a state, because they felt the land belonged to the Arabic state of Palestine, not to the Jews. Subsequently, the six Arab forces (Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria) attacked the Israeli military. The Lebanese, Syrian, Iraq and Saudi Arabian forces did not produce many offensive operations, but they managed to block the Israeli’s march. The ‘real’ fighting came from the Egyptian and Jordan forces. In the beginning, the Arabs had an advantage of weapons and air-power, whilst Israel had problems with their strategy. However, after a few months Israel was provided with war supplies from Czechoslavakia. This included both weapons for using on the mainland and aircrafts. Due to these supplies,
The Arab/Israeli conflict is a conflict between the Arabs and the Jews over a small piece of land known as the holy land which is an area in the Middle East of the Arab world. The Arabs call the land Palestine, the Jews call it Israel but both religions have strong religious links with the land. There is conflict between the two religions because they both believe that the land belongs to them.
The Middle East has long been home to very deep-rooted conflict. For too long, the citizens of the Middle East have lived in the central of death and fear. The animosity between few, takes the hope of hundreds. The Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict is most notably the largest issue preventing peace in the Middle East, but it is by no means the only issue. The issue of bankrolling and foreign aid are also issues preventing peace; because the U.S provides so much funding and foreign aid to certain countries, it is in some sense encouraging them to continue acting the way they act now and not change for the better of the region. It is also making the U.S look biased and can potentially cause issues for America in the long run, if they haven’t already. There is also the conflict of the Persian Gulf; the importance of these “new” resources and how it could affect the world economy and also the balancing of powers in the Persian Gulf; The U.S and the Middle Eastern nations will need to work to together to bring about security and stability into the Persian Gulf and hopefully it can overflow to the Middle East as well.
In his book, A History of Modern Palestine, Ilan Pappe attempts to add to the discussion of the struggle between Jews and their counterparts over the idea of Israeli state. Using documents that have been released by the Israeli secret service that one of his graduate students had found, Pappe attempts to paint a “new history of the conflict” in the Middle East. His books adds a new element to the argument. The documents, released in the late 1980s, but the US, UN, and Israeli government show that the state of Israel was not completely innocent in the 1940s conflict. While history usually is written by the victors, Pappe, known for being critical of Israel and it policies, writes an alternate history. The questions becomes, does he do the
The Israel-Palestine Conflict The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a part of the greater Arab-Israeli long-running conflict in the Middle East. The main point of this conflict is the existence of the state of Israel and its relations with Arab states and with the Palestinian population in the area. The idea and concept of Israel was born in the mid 19th century. Jews of Europe and America wanted a place for their homeland, where they could go and be with others of the same race and religion. Palestine was chosen because of its religious routs from The Bible as the “promised land” from God, and the motherland of Jews fled, known as the Diaspora.
Hamas, a democratically elected organization, has been waging a war for independence from Israel since its founding in 1987. This fighting has intensified steadily after its successful election in January 2006. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization, therefore Gaza, their ruling territory, has been nearly completely cut off from the most basic supplies. Death, disease and famine are rampant in this city of 1.4 million people. Hamas has been helping the poor, giving them money, food and medical supplies, while bolstering community support for their organization. "Approximately 90 percent of its (Hamas’) work is in social, welfare, cultural, and educational activities," writes the Israeli scholar Reuven Paz. Born of displaced mothers and dead fathers, many of the members of Hamas have had their lives ruined by the Israeli occupation of their homeland. It is not difficult for Hamas to recruit new members, as there are many violently affected by the occupation. However, Hamas, with all its support in Gaza and abroad, is severely lacking in weapons compared to the Israeli army, and has resorted to firing rockets across the border. Many have condemned these attacks, and Israel often retaliates, sometimes with extreme force. Why do they then continue? Is it because they remember their loved ones, killed in their homes from Israeli soldiers and airstrikes? Or maybe because they have grown up without reliable access to drinking water, while they watch Israeli settlers