Arab–Israeli relations
The dynamic between the Arab world and the State of Israel has largely been marked by overt hostility, owing to the latter's conflict with the Palestinian Arabs. Israel has fought several wars with many Arab countries, and most members of the Arab League do not recognize Israeli sovereignty. Although social and political strife continues to dominate the general atmosphere between the two sides, no Arab country has engaged in a direct military conflict with Israel since the 1973 Arab–Israeli War. Israel has since made peace with a number of Arab countries, beginning with Egypt in 1979, Palestine in 1993, and Jordan in 1994. In 2020, four Arab countries—Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Sudan—recognized Israel and normalized diplomatic relationships with it by signing the Abraham Accords. However, in spite of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people, recognised Israel in 1993, violence between Israelis and Palestinians has persisted at a considerable scale and a final settlement has not yet been reached in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. Nevertheless, the PLO and all of the Arab countries that have signed peace treaties or normalization agreements have accordingly withdrawn from the Arab League boycott of Israel. More recently, a de facto Arab–Israeli alliance has emerged as a counterweight against Iran and the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance; Iran's political and military activities throughout the region, namely as part of a proxy conflict with Saudi Arabia since 1979 and another one with Israel since 1985, have negatively impacted the country's relationship with the Arab League.History
Arab–Jewish conflict in Mandatory Palestine
The increased migration of Jews to Ottoman Palestine began in the late 19th century and occurred in several waves. The Ottomans were largely tolerant of Jews. By 1888, there were just under 24,000 Jews living in Palestine, compared to nearly 550,000 Arabs. The mastermind of political Zionism became Theodor Herzl, who published his book The Jewish State in 1896. Due to widespread discrimination against Jews, Herzl said there was a need for a homeland for the Jewish people, and in the book he suggested Argentina and Palestine, respectively, as possible locations for a Jewish state. Herzl, on the advice of other Zionists, chose Palestine and offered to help the Ottoman Sultan pay Ottoman national debts in return for land in Palestine, but the Sultan refused. After the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I, Palestine was administered by the British as the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, and with the Balfour Declaration, Britain agreed to the eventual establishment of a "national home" for the Jewish people. The Zionists intensified their settlement activities and there was increased violence from the Arab population, e.g., in the Jaffa riots. With the Jewish Agency for Israel, founded in 1929, a quasi-governmental organization was formed to coordinate settlement activity, while the Arabs in Palestine remained less organized. After Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Jewish migration continued to increase and by 1945 there were over 500,000 Jews living in Palestine. The Arab leader Amin al-Husseini had close contacts with the Nazi regime and between 1936 and 1939 there was an Arab revolt in Palestine against Jewish immigrants and the British. After the end of World War II, many Holocaust survivors came to Palestine and the British prepared to withdraw from Palestine as their position in the region had become untenable. As a result, riots broke out between Jews and the Arab population. The United Nations adopted a partition plan for Palestine on November 29, 1947, which would have given the Arabs 42% of the land area of Palestine and established an international zone in Jerusalem. The partition plan was rejected by the Arab states and the Arabs in Palestine, while the Jews accepted it.1948 Arab–Israeli War
After the partition plan was announced, fighting broke out between Arab militias and Jewish military organizations. David Ben-Gurion finally announced Israel's declaration of independence on May 14, 1948. In response, a coalition of the Arab states of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq attacked the newly formed state. Despite the numerical superiority of the Arabs, they lost large areas to the Israelis such as the important port city of Haifa and by the end of the war Israel controlled 78% of the area of Palestine included in the original partition plan. The War ended with the 1949 Armistice Agreement, the conquered territories remained with Israel and the West Bank was occupied by Jordan and the Gaza Strip by Egypt. The war led to the expulsion of up to 700,000 Arabs from Israel and the conquered territories, who remained as refugees in neighboring Arab countries, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In Israel, however, an Arab minority continued to exist thereafter and was granted civic rights. In the Arab countries, the defeat by Israel was perceived as a disaster and was called Nakba. A wave of anti-Semitism swept the Arab world and most Jews in Arab countries were forced to flee to Israel. In the following years, there were repeated Arab attacks on Israeli territory for the purpose of sabotage. Hundreds of Israelis were killed in the process.1956 Arab–Israeli War
The Arab defeat in the first Arab-Israeli War had strengthened Arab nationalism, and in Egypt the nationalist Gamal Abdel Nasser came to power in 1952. He nationalized the Suez Canal, which had been owned by a Franco-British consortium, in July 1956. Because of the strategic importance of the Suez for international shipping, this was also a threat to Israel's national security. As a result, a British-French-Israeli military coalition occupied the Suez Canal. However, the Soviet Union and the United States opposed the occupation and threatened sanctions, so it had to be aborted and Nasser won a diplomatic victory that made him the political leader of the Arab world. Israel's position in the region remained precarious as a result. In response, Israel sought to establish close relations with the non-Arab states of the Near East, such as Turkey and Iran under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Thus, clandestine military cooperation was arranged with Turkey in 1958. The United States continued to strive for good relations with the Arab states, even though John F. Kennedy first allowed arms shipments to Israel in 1962, which made possible the later military alliance between the two states. Concerned about its security, Israel began to intensify its nuclear weapons program in the 1960s.1967 Arab–Israeli War
After the Arab states were embroiled in an internal conflict between the revolutionary states of Egypt, Syria and Iraq and the conservative monarchies of Saudi Arabia and Jordan in the early 1960s, the situation for Israel intensified again in the mid-1960s. The militant Palestine Liberation Organization was founded in 1964 with Egyptian support. In 1965, clashes between Israel and Syria intensified as the Syrians supported guerrilla attacks on Israel. Egypt escalated the situation with false accusations that Israel was massing troops on its border with the country and closed the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships. Mediation efforts by the major powers failed, and on June 5, 1967, Israel started the Six-Day War with a pre-emptive strike by the Israeli air force against Egyptian air bases to pre-empt a feared attack by Arab states. An attacking coalition of Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian troops was defeated by Israel in a triumphant military strike in a very short time. In the process, Israel was able to conquer the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula. The Israelis then offered to return the Sinai and the Golan Heights in return for a peace treaty. The Arab states rejected the offer and passed the Khartoum Resolution on September 1, 1967. The resolution proclaimed the "three no's" of the Arab states regarding Israel. Israel then began to build settlements in the conquered territories, which were illegal under international law, and denied political rights to the Palestinians in these territories. The PLO under Yasser Arafat and other militant groups began increasing terrorist attacks on Israeli targets, including airplane hijackings and the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.1973 Arab–Israeli War
Egypt was not satisfied with the territorial status quo, and from 1968 onward there was an ongoing low-intensity conflict with Israel on the Sinai border. After diplomatic negotiations failed, Egypt under Anwar Sadat launched a surprise attack on Israel on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in October 1973, starting the Yom Kippur War. Syria joined the attack and attacked the Golan Heights, and other Arab states and the Soviet Union also supported the war. During the first two days, Egyptian and Syrian forces advanced, but after that the tide of the war turned in favor of the Israelis, who first had to mobilize their forces. The attack had taken the Israelis by surprise and, after two humiliating defeats, the war was seen as the Arabs' first military victory. Because of the U.S. support for Israel, the Arab states imposed an oil boycott against the West, which led to the 1973 oil crisis. After the Israelis began advancing toward the Nile Delta, a ceasefire agreement went into effect.As a result, protracted secret negotiations ensued between the U.S., Egypt and the Israelis for a peace agreement. In 1977, Sadat visited Jerusalem and addressed the Knesset in a historic state visit by an Arab head of state. A year later, mediated by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, the Camp David Accords were concluded, in which Israel declared that it would recognize Palestinian rights and give autonomy to the Palestinian territories. The agreement formed the basis for the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, under which Egypt diplomatically recognized Israel in return for the return of the Sinai. This historic agreement, however, isolated Egypt among the other Arab states that rejected peace with Israel. Sadat was therefore later assassinated by Islamists, but his successor Husni Mubarak did not reverse the normalization of relations with Israel.