FREE ESSAY ON ARAB / ISRAELI CONFLICTS FROM 1960 - 1970

ARAB / ISRAELI CONFLICTS FROM 1960 - 1970

Israel's incredible victories, in just 6 days, Israeli armies conquered the West Bank,
including the Old City of Jerusalem, the Gaza strip and the Syrian Golan Heights,
defeating simultaneously the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. 
But more than that, Israel created a new reality in the Middle East - and sowed the seeds
for deep dissent within its own society. 
Today over 400,000 Israelis live on land conquered in the 1967 war. Their fate and the
fate of those lands is the stumbling block on which over 20 years of attempts to forge a
comprehensive peace between Israel and her Arab neighbours has floundered.
For some Israelis, Zionism was fulfilled with the creation of the Israeli state in 1948,
while for others it was properly extended with the gains of 1967 which all comprise part
of the Biblical Greater Israel they seek to restore.
Tension had been building throughout the first half of 1967, with Israel warning the
Arabs states to end their support for Arab guerrillas raiding Israel from neighbouring
countries. The Arabs saw war as inevitable and, despite the clear possibility of a
surprise Israeli pre-emptive strike, they were confident of victory this time.
The strike came on 5 June when Israel attacked Egyptian airfields and destroyed most of
Egypt's air force on the ground within a couple of hours. This allowed Israeli forces
speedily to capture Sinai.
They then bussed their troops back to Jerusalem and into the attack against Jordan,
occupying the West Bank and the Old City before Jordan accepted a UN demand for a
ceasefire on the evening of 7 June. Egypt accepted the following day, allowing the
Israelis to switch their attention to Syria.
The Six Day War had a profound affect on the Arab world and in its aftermath many of the
leaders held responsible for the defeat were toppled. It also led to a restructuring of
the Arab guerrilla movement and the emergence of a genuinely Palestinian resistance.
On June 5, 1967 the Israeli Army Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin launched a preemptive
strike on Arab forces, annihilating Nasser's airforce. Within six days, Israel had
conquered huge swaths of territory, seizing the vast Sinai peninsula from Egypt, the West
Bank and Old City of Jerusalem from Jordan and the strategically important Golan Heights
from Syria. So-called land for peace negotiations stem from Israel's conquests during
this Six-Day War. 
After Nasser's death in 1970, Anwar Sadat began rebuilding Arab unity and military power
with substantial Soviet support. Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Oct. 6,
1973, catching Israelis off guard as they observed their most revered holiday, Yom
Kippur. Despite initial Arab success, the Israelis soon regrouped and pushed the
assailants back. Egypt and Syria ultimately only achieved minimal territorial gains.
No matter that only the night before, President Gamal Abdel Nasser had welcomed Iraq to
the Egypto-Jordanian alliance against Israel, and proclaimed: We are so eager for battle
in order to force the enemy to awake from his dreams and meet Arab reality face to face.

In Tel Aviv, Israel's largest city, the reaction was much the same - and with better
reason. Only days before, new Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, the dashing, one-eyed Hero of
Sinai, had said the time was not ripe to strike at the Arab forces ominously gathering
around the Jewish homeland. In stunning pre-dawn air strikes across the face of the Arab
world, Israeli jets all but eliminated Arab airpower - and with it any chance of an Arab
victory. In a few astonishing hours of incredibly accurate bombing and strafing, Israel
erased an expensive decade of Russian military aid to the Arab world.
Ice-Cream Trucks. Tel Aviv's residents got the news only 30 minutes after the first
air-raid siren, as Radio Kol Israel interrupted its regular broadcast to announce that
heavy fighting had begun against Egyptian armored and aerial forces which moved against
Israel. Lively Jewish folk tunes, rousing Israeli pioneer songs and stirring military
marches, including the theme song from The Bridge on the River Kwai, filled the air waves
until Defense Minister Dayan came on. 
Only three-fourths of Israel's reserves were mobilized when war began. The buses used to
deliver the reservists to their units in the field were often reserves too: laundry
trucks, ice-cream trucks, even taxis and private cars drafted along with Israel's men and
women. Israeli tanks, each manned by a single regular of Israel's 50,000-man standing
army, waited in convenient tank parks for the two or three reservists required to
complete each crew. Israeli Intelligence had tracked the Arab enemy to the last desert
dune. The system worked so well that Israel was able to field a fighting force of 235,000
men within 48 hours.
Lovelier Windows. Mortar and artillery shells rumbled down from the heights of Arab
Jerusalem to splatter the Israeli sector of the divided city. Longer-range guns reached
across Israel's narrow waist to hit the outskirts of Tel Aviv, and Syrian guns opened up
on northern Israeli towns from the hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee. 
No part of the city was spared. Wrote Chagall from France: I am not worried about the
windows, only about the safety of Israel. Let Israel be safe and I will make you lovelier
windows. Two armored columns snaked out and around the Old City of Jerusalem. The
southern column swept south, moving inexorably from hill to hill despite stubborn
Jordanian Arab League resistance, until the Old City was encircled. 
Next night Israeli commandos prepared a dawn attack into the Old City itself. 
Curious Footnote. Unaware of the extent of Egypt's air losses, Hussein could not believe
that the Israeli air force alone could so blacken the sky on his own Jordanian front.
Thus it was partially understandable that for a while, at least, he backed up Nasser's
claim that the U.S. and British planes had joined in Israel's attack. 
Nasser almost surely knew better. The Russian ambassador in Cairo went to Nasser and
bluntly told him so. With nothing more to lose, Nasser continued his big lie, triggering
the breaking off of diplomatic relations by seven Arab nations with the U.S. and touching
off demonstrations against U.S. and British embassies all over the Arab world. 
Just how Nasser pressured Hussein into backing his phony air-attack ploy will surely
become one of history's more curious footnotes. Israel monitored and tape-recorded a
radio conversation between Nasser and Hussein on the second day of the war, and released
the dialogue two days later. 
Later, Hussein admitted that the vast umbrella over Jordan had been entirely Israeli.
Nasser, however, stuck to his story to the end, insisting that three times as many planes
as Israel possessed had engaged the Arab forces.


  
    
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Kosovo
Kosovo U.S. Involvement in Kosovo War has been waged in the Balkans for thousands of
years. Yugoslavia has been divided, reunited, divided again, undergone wars and been
through depressions. Each country within the Yugoslavia region has experienced hardships
due to a failing economy, poor leadership, and civil wars. In the past few years, a major
upheaval in the political structure and the disputes concerning land between the
different religions and ethnicity's has caused a civil war. The country and ethnic group
of this recent dispute is Serbia and Kosovo. The Albanian Kosovars want their
independence from Serbia, while the Serbs consider Kosovo the location in which their
cultural and ethnic identity is placed. The United States became involved in the Balkan
conflict in the end of 1998 (Kosovo 1). U.S. involvement in Kosovo is making matters
worse for the innocent people of Kosovo. Kosovo, a small area in the center of the former
Yugoslavia, is playing an important role in the Balkan conflict. In the summer of 1998,
the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) decided to launch a guerilla warfare attack on Serbia in
attempts to liberate themselves and gain their cultural rites. The President of Serbia,
Slobodan Milosevic, is refusing to allow Kosovo to break away from Serbia without a
fight. Kosovo is a site of great emotional significance to the Serbs; it is the site of a
historic defeat by the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century. From this defeat, Kosovo
became the cradle of Serbia's cultural and ethnic identity. Milosevic began an ethnic
cleansing campaign in which he killed thousands of ethnic Albanians. NATO forces, as well
as the United States, began stepping in in the winter of 1998. The United States made a
cease-fire contract with Milosevic, which ended in the early months of 1999 (1). The
United States believes that it is benefiting Kosovo by intervening. Many diplomats are
saying that U.S. involvement in Kosovo is helping the Albanians because it is stopping
the ethnic cleansing by Milosevic. Another argument for U.S. involvement is that the air
strikes against the Serbs will dampen their spirits and attacks against the Albanians. A
third argument for U.S. involvement is that it will stop from drawing in other
surrounding countries into the war. (1) The first argument for U.S. intervention is
easily refuted. The U.S. diplomats believe that the U.S. is benefiting the situation in
Kosovo by intervening. The US's main goal in Kosovo is to stop the ethnic cleansing
conducted by Milosevic. The manner in which the U.S. is trying to resolve this conflict
is wrong. The U.S. began bombing villages and towns in which ethnic Albanians live. This
drove out the Albanians and forced them to immigrate to other countries. It seems that
the United States believes that ethnic cleansing is wrong, but bombing innocent people is
acceptable (Landlay 1). The Serbs are using the NATO air raids as a way to kill the
ethnic Albanians. The Albanians are being used as shields as the NATO forces bomb the
Serbs. On one occasion, in the city of Kamena Glava, five hundred Albanian men were
killed (Atrocity5). The Serbs are using NATO forces against what they are fighting for.
U.S. involvement in Kosovo would be more welcomed if they weren't killing innocent people
and instead, helping them come to a peaceful resolution between the two areas. However,
the air strikes against Serbia are believed to be Clinton's goal for protecting U.S.
investors and exporters. Although the humanitarian tragedies of Kosovo are in the
foremost eye of the public, U.S. economic interests are in foremost eye of the government
(Landlay 2). The second argument for U.S. intervention can also be refuted. Air strikes
are proven to be ineffective in winning a war. This fact has been proven many times in
other wars such as World War II and Vietnam. On the contrary, however, air strikes often
stiffen the will to resist, as was the case in World War II with the German citizens. The
Serbs, as history has predicted, have intensified their aggressions against the Kosovar
Albanians. This has caused even more Albanians to flee from Kosovo. The Serbs spirits are
far from becoming damp. If, once again, history prevails, Serbia, the country with the
most passion, and the most at stake, will defeat the United States and NATO, the stronger
power. This was shown in history through the American Civil War and Vietnam. Serbia is
fighting in defense of its sovereign territory, which involves the highest stakes for
which a nation can fight for. If Serbia loses Kosovo, it will also be losing its cultural
and national identity. The Serbs are showing no signs of defeat, nor signs of lost faith,
lost perseverance, or lost hope. The air strikes are only putting more conviction in the
Serb fighting and increasing aggression against the people the air strikes were intended
to help, the Albanians (Layne 5). The third argument for U.S. involvement in Kosovo has
little validity. The major reason for the U.S. to become involved in Kosovo was so that
other surrounding countries would not become involved in the conflict and it would not
escalate. However, in the past couple of weeks, the opposite has happened. Russia has
become involved, allying with the Serbs, and China has done the same. Russia gave the
United States an ultimatum stating that if the U.S. sends in ground troops, then a
nuclear war will be waged. The other countries surrounding Kosovo and Serbia, such as
Macedonia and Albania, are also being dragged into the middle of the conflict due to the
massive amounts of Albanians escaping from Kosovo. These surrounding countries are not
prepared to become involved due to there economic as well as social state at this time.
There are other countries that are starting to become involved as well, such as Canada
and England. U.S. involvement has not prevented other countries from becoming involved,
but rather encouraged or lead in outside involvement (Brown 2). Many people are
questioning the reasons for U.S. and NATO involvement in Kosovo. It seems as if they are
only intervening for their own benefits. Many more people have died in the past due to
conflicts in the Balkan region, and neither force stepped in to help resolve it. A common
theory is that NATO will greatly benefit from Kosovo if it becomes detached from Serbia.
NATO will benefit from this because Kosovo is in a prime area in which a base for NATO
forces would allow them to keep tabs on the area. To the Serbs, U.S. involvement is seen
strictly as a way for president Clinton to make his time in office memorable militarily
as well as historically, and help to cover up his sex and money scandals (Thompson, 1).
The Kosovo conflict is growing with each day. New information is being given and
different countries are becoming involved. The countries that are involved need to finish
what they have already started. Nobody knows what the future will hold for the people of
Kosovo. In the upcoming weeks and months, many decisions will be made, and history will
be written.