The Promised Land, page 2

reply to post by dooper

1947–1948 Civil War in the Mandatory Palestine.
1948 Arab-Israeli War.The War commenced on the termination of the British Mandate on 15 May 1948.
1949 Armistice Agreements.Israel signed armistices with Egypt,Syria,Lebanon and Jordan.At this time the Gaza Strip and the West Bank were occupied by Egypt and Jordan respectively.Not Israel.

Israel and Jordan.
1966 an Israeli border patrol hit a mine killing three soldiers and injuring six others.The Israelis believed the mine had been planted by militants from Es Samu on the West Bank.At this time Jordan and Israel had been holding peace talks,Israel assured Jordan they would not attack.They lied.2 days later an Israeli force of around 3,000-4,000 soldiers backed by tanks and aircraft attacked Es Samu,a village in the Jordanian-occupied West Bank of 4,000 inhabitants,all of them Palestinian refugees whom the Israelis accused of harboring terrorists from Syria.

Of this incident US President Johnson said,

"....retaliation is not the point in this case. This 3000-man raid with tanks and planes was out of all proportion to the provocation and was aimed at the wrong target....They've wrecked a good system of tacit cooperation between Hussein and the Israelis... They've undercut Hussein. We've spent $500 million to shore him up as a stabilizing factor on Israel's longest border and vis-à-vis Syria and Iraq. Israel's attack increases the pressure on him to counterattack not only from the more radical Arab governments and from the Palestinians in Jordan but also from the Army, which is his main source of support and may now press for a chance to recoup its Sunday losses... They've set back progress toward a long term accommodation with the Arabs... They may have persuaded the Syrians that Israel didn't dare attack Soviet-protected Syria but could attack US-backed Jordan with impunity.

In response to this action,Syria started to bomb north-eastern Galilee from positions on the Golan Heights,as part of the dispute over control of the Demilitarized Zones.They,along with Jordan,signed protection treaties with Egypt.

1967 The Straits of Tiran crisis.All ideas put forward by the US and the UN were accepted by Egypt but rejected by Israel.Frustrated by the attempt to end the Middle East crisis diplomatically Israel took matters into their own hands.

1967 Six-Day War.Egypt's president Nasser had expelled the United Nations Force from the Sinai Peninsula.The peacekeeping force had been stationed there since 1957 following a British-French-Israeli invasion which was launched during the Suez Crisis.

Israel later made a pre-emptive attack.By the end of the conflict they controlled the Sinai Peninsula,the Gaza Strip,Golan Heights and the West Bank.

The Aftermath.The National Unity Government of Israel voted unanimously to return the Sinai to Egypt and the Golan Heights to Syria in return for peace agreements.The Golans would have to be demilitarized and special arrangement would be negotiated for the Straits of Tiran.The government also resolved to open negotiations with King Hussein of Jordan regarding the Eastern border.

The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 242, the "land for peace" formula,which called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 in return for the termination of all claims or states of belligerency.

Israel ignored this and has continued to do so,they also continue to oppress the Palestinian people.If this is acceptable behaviour then the dozens of military invasions that have taken place in the last few decades should not have been opposed either.For example,1990 Iraq invasion of Kuwait./2006 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia./2008 Georgia invasion of South Ossetia./1979 Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan./1980 Iraq invasion of Iran.