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Text: Grapefruit
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introduction
In 1445 B.C.E., Jacob built the First Temple and God's sanctuary in Jerusalem, and enshrined the Ten Commandments of Moses.
The Kingdom of Babylon didn't care what the temple sanctuary was, and after more than 800 years, it directly destroyed it and arrested the king of Judah and many Jewish nobles.
Subsequently, the Persian Empire drove out Babylon. The Persian king was more merciful and released the Jewish prisoners and helped them build the Second Temple.
(Jerusalem)
In 332 B.C., another Roman Empire came and destroyed the Second Temple, and the ruins of the Second Temple became what it is today.
The Roman Emperor also expelled the Jews from their homeland, and the Jews began a life of wandering for thousands of years, eager to establish a state of their own and return to their homeland.
However, in 30 C.E., Jerusalem became the holiest site for Christianity, and in 638 C.E., it became the holiest site for Islam, and for thousands of years thereafter, the three major sects competed over it.
(Wailing Wall)
1. The second day after the establishment of the State of Israel, the war began
By the time the Jews began to return to Jerusalem in the 19th century, it was no longer called the land of Canaan, but Palestine, and a large number of Arabs lived here.
The Jews began to buy land from the Arabs. In 1897, the Jews began a massive Zionist movement. However, little has been achieved.
In 1939, the British, who were then in charge of Palestine, issued a special decree to curb Jewish land purchases, but these decrees did not stop Jewish land purchases.
After the end of World War II, the Jews bought as much as 60% of the land, and the proportion of returned Jews reached 30% of the local area.
(Middle East)
After World War II, a new international order was established. In accordance with this order, Britain withdrew from Palestine on 15 May 1948.
The Jews seized this golden opportunity and proclaimed the official establishment of Israel on the 14th. All the Jews rejoiced in the possession of their own country, but they rejoiced too soon.
On the same day that Britain withdrew, Egypt and Transjordan launched a military attack on Israel with a coalition of more than 40,000 Arab troops.
The newly established Israel, with just over 30,000 troops, was in danger of facing more than twice as many enemy troops.
(Israel)
Israel immediately approached the United States, the global police chief, and the United States asked the United Nations on the 17th to stop the conflict, but Britain was the first to jump out and oppose it.
When the United States heard this, it was very angry and told Britain that if it objected, it would not lend you money!
Britain already owes the United States more than $30 billion because of its huge losses in World War II.
In order to curry favor with the United States, it also stopped providing arms support to the Arab coalition forces and withdrew the officers stationed in the Arab coalition forces.
(First Middle East War)
At that time, the Soviet Union also opposed the Arab coalition to attack Israel, and the Arab coalition lost the support of the P5 and agreed to the mediation of the United Nations and a temporary ceasefire.
The ceasefire gave Israel a chance to breathe, and they immediately made big moves on three fronts.
The most urgent problem was to increase the number of troops, and after more than a month of recruitment, more than 30,000 soldiers who could go directly to the battlefield and more than 40,000 Jews who could participate in combat support were added.
The second aspect is the purchase of large quantities of arms and the frenzied purchase of land, sea, and air weapons, equipment, and ammunition from Britain, the United States, France, the Czech Republic, and other countries.
(Situation map of the first Middle East war)
Finally, four major military regions were set up to defend the territory in different regions.
The Arab coalition did not dare to be idle, just because the countries were not very coordinated for their own interests, only Egypt and Iraq each increased their troops by more than 10,000 troops, and the other three countries increased their troops very little.
On 9 July, Israel launched a 10-day counteroffensive against the Arab coalition, believing that it was now two against one.
More than 1,000 square kilometers of land were seized from the Arab coalition forces in 10 days, and the United Nations once again brokered a ceasefire between the two sides.
(Arabs)
After the ceasefire between the two sides, Israel launched a resettlement program calling on global Jews to return to Israel.
Jews who had wandered for thousands of years responded to the problem, and many joined the army as soon as they returned to Israel, and by the end of September, the Israeli army had nearly 100,000 troops.
The Arab coalition was supposed to learn the lesson of the inadequate preparation that followed the first ceasefire, but the growing divisions between the countries undoubtedly gave Israel another chance.
(Israeli army in the First Middle East War)
On 15 October, Israel ignored the ceasefire agreement and launched a surprise attack on the Egyptian army, which took the northern part of Negef in six days.
After a week's rest, the Israeli army launched the Battle of Shiram again on the 28th, capturing 15 Lebanese villages in just two days, but they themselves were almost unscathed.
After the success of the second Israeli counteroffensive, a short respite was underway, and when the recuperation was in place, it attacked the Egyptian defenders.
On December 22, the Israeli army launched a surprise attack on the Egyptian army and launched the Battle of "Khoref", driving Egypt out of Palestine in one fell swoop.
(War)
Half a month later, Egypt demanded an armistice, after which other countries also demanded an armistice, and by July 1949, the first Middle East war was completely extinguished.
In this war, Israel has to fight, and if it does not fight, the newly established country will inevitably be destroyed.
The Arab countries also have to fight, why do you have 30% of the Jews who occupy more than 50% of the land, not to mention, the European countries that persecuted your Jews want to establish a state and go to Europe to find a place.
What makes the Arab countries even more angry is that the establishment of Israel has vividly divided a whole Palestine into three pieces.
(Strait of Tiran)
After the first Middle East war, more than 60,000 Palestinians became homeless refugees, which laid the groundwork for several subsequent Middle East wars.
2. Snatching freedom of navigation
After the establishment of the State of Israel, Egypt controlled the Suez Canal and the Strait of Tiran, and access to the sea became a major headache for Israel.
The Suez Canal is an inland river in Egypt, but it is an international route, and when Britain withdrew from Egypt, the army left, but the people who managed Suez did not.
In 1956, Egypt nationalized the Anglo-French-controlled Suez Company, and told all British and French staff to get out.
(War)
Britain and France immediately demanded that the United Nations advocate the implementation of international management of Suez, but this international management was actually controlled only by Britain and France, and the Security Council vetoed it.
Britain and France could not swallow this breath and discussed taking military action to regain control, but the two countries had very limited troops in the Middle East and did not dare to brazenly increase troops in this region.
The two countries immediately thought of Israel, which already had 100,000 soldiers, and Israel was overjoyed when it heard that it was just in time to grab an outlet to the sea.
(Situation map of the Second Middle East War)
Although Egypt had 150,000 troops, only more than 30,000 troops were stationed in the Sinai Peninsula, and such a large number of troops could completely stop the British and French stragglers in the Middle East.
But as soon as Israel joined, it became a dozen or three, and Egypt would certainly not be able to bear it.
On October 29, the four countries went to war without declaring it.
When the war between the four countries was in full swing, the Soviet Union just withdrew from Hungary and immediately threatened Britain, France and Israel with force, and demanded that the United States intervene together.
(Suez Canal)
Britain and France immediately sought support from the United States, while Israel turned to the United Nations to show that it was willing to cease fire unconditionally.
At that time, the United States was a little annoyed that if it did not agree to the Soviet Union, the Arab world would inevitably turn to the Soviet Union; if it did not agree to Britain and France, NATO's common defense would become a dead letter, and the morale of NATO would be disheartened.
The Americans are indeed powerful enough to immediately negotiate a solution that has the best of both worlds.
The demand for an immediate ceasefire between Britain and France in their own camp means that the Soviet Union did not directly attack the British and French troops and Europe and Egypt proper, and this does not constitute the initiation of a joint defense procedure.
(War)
With regard to the Soviet Union's demands, the United States spoke to him left and right, saying that the United States had entered the first level of combat readiness and that the Soviet Union could not attack Britain and France.
China, for its part, explicitly opposed Britain, France, and Israel, and gave Egypt 20 million Swiss francs in gratuitous support.
The British and French saw that they could not gain anything and were forced to withdraw their troops from Egypt. Britain and France stole chickens and rice, and only Israel grabbed freedom of navigation in the Strait of Tiran.
In the second Middle East war, Israel helped Britain and France fight to reap the benefits, and the goal was achieved, but a series of events that occurred later made Israel more and more uneasy.
(Situation of countries participating in the Second Middle East War)
3. The wrestling field of the United States and the Soviet Union
First, the Arab countries formed a unified Arab Emirates state, which put Israel in a situation of being caught between the north and the south, and then the Arab League supported the PLO, which attacked Israel every three or five times.
In 1966, rumors were rife in the Soviet Union, Egypt, and Syria that Israel was gathering a large army and preparing to attack Syria.
Israel asked the Soviet Union to come to the scene to verify that Israel was not massing troops, but the Soviet Union did not agree, and Egypt subsequently closed the Strait of Tiran.
To gain access to the sea, Israel can only wage war again. It's just that now the UAE has its back to the Soviet Union, and with Israel's size, it is obviously impossible to compete.
(War)
Naturally, Israel will not sit idly by and immediately enlist the support of the United States and Europe.
The third Middle East war is on the verge of breaking out, this time the United States and the Soviet Union are wrestling behind the scenes, and Israel must adopt a surprise attack and blitzkrieg strategy if it wants to win.
On June 5, 1967, Israel broke with the norm. At around 9 a.m., a surprise air attack was launched on the three Ethiopian-Syrian countries.
About 30 minutes later, Israeli ground forces took the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights in three directions.
(Third Middle East War)
On the 7th, Israel captured Jerusalem and the West Bank, and on the 8th, the Israeli army successfully captured the Sinai Peninsula. The battle for the Golan Heights was fierce, and it was not won until the 23rd.
This time, the three countries of Egypt and Syria overestimated the friendship of the Soviet Union, believing that the Soviet Union would support them as vigorously as they did last time.
After the fighting began, the Soviet Union told the United States that it would not get involved, and hoped that the United States would urge Israel to cease fire as soon as possible.
The United States is not a fool, and since Israel has already made a successful surprise attack, how can it not let the bullets fly for a little longer?
(Developments of the Third Middle East War)
After the Third Middle East War was fought, Israel won a complete victory, annihilating and capturing more than 60,000 soldiers from the three countries of Egypt and Syria at the cost of less than 1,000 people.
At the same time, more than 65,000 square kilometres of territory have been seized, leaving more than one million Palestinians displaced and homeless.
Egypt and Syria have lost people and land, and they feel very aggrieved, and they are riveting their efforts to find an opportunity to regain the lost land.
What the two countries did not know was that the attitude of the Soviet Union towards them had changed, and they thought that Big Brother would continue to draw the sword to help.
(Indiscriminate bombing by Israeli forces)
On 6 October 1973, the Presidents of Egypt and Syria personally launched attacks on Israel in the Suez Canal and the Golan Heights, respectively.
The Syrian president commanded more than 140,000 troops, led by more than 400 planes and more than 1,000 tanks, and marched to the Golan Heights with a vigorous force.
Three days later, more than 100 Israeli planes were knocked out, more than 500 tanks were destroyed, and about 70 percent of the Golan Heights were regained in one fell swoop.
The Egyptian president commanded nearly 100,000 troops, led by more than 400 planes and more than 1,000 tanks, to cross the Suez Canal and launch a fierce assault on Israel's Barev Line.
Three days later, more than 300 Israeli planes were knocked out, more than 800 tanks were destroyed, and in one fell swoop they advanced about 15 kilometers to the west bank of the Suez Canal.
Since Israel was very weak at the beginning and suffered a big defeat, the president had to personally direct the counterattack.
(Fourth Middle East War)
In the Golan Heights, General Dayan used aircraft and artillery to first regain air superiority, and then the ground forces opened a breakthrough, and the paratroopers successfully attacked Mount Hermon.
General Dayan's counterattack was very successful, shooting down more than a hundred and fifty Syrian aircraft and destroying more than a thousand tanks.
In the Sinai Peninsula, General Sharon used almost the same tactics as General Dayan, successfully attacking the Egyptian mainland and cutting off the Egyptian army's chain of command and logistical supply lines.
General Sharon achieved an even better record than General Dayan, shooting down more than 250 Syrian planes and destroying more than 1,200 tanks.
(Soldier)
Egypt and Syria, seeing that they had turned their victory into defeat, quickly incited other Arab countries to join the fighting, and within a few days, almost all Arab countries sent troops to the war.
Seeing that the situation was getting more and more serious, the United States and the Soviet Union had to urgently intervene to mediate. Finally, a ceasefire was held on October 26, and the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union in the Middle East came to an end for the time being.
After four wars in the Middle East, Israel has established a certain prestige and goodwill in the international community, but the fifth fighting war they soon launched has completely defeated all of them.
(Israel bombs Beirut)
Fourth, Israel has completely lost all international goodwill
Since the establishment of the PLO, Israel has been harassing all the time, and as long as no major incident occurs, Israel still chooses to tolerate and calm down.
On June 3, 1982, the PLO retaliated in Britain for the assassination of the Israeli ambassador, which was ultimately unsuccessful but once again angered Israel.
Three days later, the Israeli army launched a three-pronged attack on Lebanon, where the PLO was based.
(both sides)
The Israeli Air Force began with a burst of indiscriminate bombardment of PLO bases, followed by ground forces moving into Lebanon from the east and south.
Lebanon is a sovereign State, and such Israeli actions are a blatant aggression, and the international community is full of opposition and condemnation.
Seeing that Israel was in a very unfavorable situation, the United States immediately tried to mediate in the international community.
After five days of fighting, a ceasefire was agreed, but two days later, Israel advanced its ground forces into the Lebanese capital, followed by more than two months of indiscriminate bombardment.
(Withdrawal)
It was not until August that the United States, France and Italy again mediated, the PLO withdrew from the Lebanese capital, and the Israeli army withdrew the following month.
In the Fifth Middle East War, although Israel inflicted heavy losses on the PLO, it was an invasion of Lebanon, which led to the outbreak of civil war in Lebanon for many years.
Not only has the international community condemned Israel, but a large-scale anti-war movement has erupted in Israel, and Israel's national image has plummeted in the international community.
Throughout the five Middle East wars, Israel has to survive, the Palestinians have to survive, and with the great powers interfering in them, this war has to be fought and will continue to be fought.
After five wars, there is actually no winner in the entire Middle East, and the Arab countries are naturally losing money, and Israel has won on the surface, but in fact it has made itself almost eternal peace in the future.
(Migration)
Resources
The number of casualties in this round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict exceeds 10,000, and the article reviews the five Middle East wars. [OL].2023.10.13.
Phoenix TV.Big News, Big History|The Abyss of War in the Middle East. [OL].2023.10.13.
"Shi Hai Looks Back" Five Middle East Wars, Palestine and Israel Fall into a "Cycle of Tragedy". [OL].2023.10.11.