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A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

by Mark Tessler

  1. People / Organizations:

    • Ezra - Hebrew Leader in/around 500 B.C.E.

    • Moses Maimonides - Jewish Statesman and Philosopher

    • Moses Mandelssohn - German Jewish Intellectual

    • Nachman Krochmal - Jewish Intellectual

    • Isaac Bar Levinsohn - Jewish Intellectual

    • Judah Leib Gordon - Jewish Poet

    • Abraham Mapu - Jewish Novelist

    • Peretz Smolenskin - Jewish Intellectual

    • Yehudah Alkalai - Modern Zionist Contributor

    • Zvi Hirsch Kalischer - Modern Zionist Contributor

    • Moses Hess - Modern Zionist Contributor

    • Eliezer Ben Yehudah - Modern Zionist Contributor

    • Leo Pinsker - Modern Zionist Contributor

    • Theodor Herzl - Jewish Journalist

    • Max Nordau - Modern Zionist Contributor

    • Asher Ginsberg - Modern Zionist Contributor

    • Chaim Weizmann - President of Israel

    • David Ben Gurion

    • David Blumenfeld

    • Yosef Sprinzak

    • Yitzhak Ben-Zvi

    • Rifaa Rafi al-Tahtawi - Egyptian Intellectual (pg. 104-105)

    • Jamal al-Din al-Afghani - Muslim Political Leader (pg. 113)

    • Moshe Smilansky - Zion Separationist (pg. 137)

    • Yehoshua Barzilay - Zion Separationist (pg. 137)

    • Avraham Ludivpol - Zion Separationist (pg. 137)

    • Ze'ev Vladimir Jabotinsky - Founder of the Revisionist Zionist Party (pg. 137)

    • Arthur Ruppin - Head of the Zionist Organization's Palestine Office (pg. 138)

    • Nachman Syrkin - Rusian Jewish Leader (pg. 198)

    • Dov Ber Borochov - Russian Jewish Leader (pg. 198)

    • Emir Faycal

    • Musa Kazim al-Husayni - President of the Palestinian Arab Executive

    • Jamal al-Husayni

    • Yehoshua Porath - Israeli Writer and Researcher

    • Michel Aflaq - Baath Party Leader (pg. 358)

    • Salah al-Din al-Bitah - Baath Party Leader (pg. 358)

    • General Salah Jadid - Baath Party Leader (pg. 365)

    • Nureddin al-Atassi - Baath Party Leader (pg. 365)

    • George Habash - PFLP (pg. 376)

    • Mahmoud Riad - Egyptian Foreign Minister (pg. 383)

    • Abba Eban - Israeli Foreign Minister

    • Yehoshafat Harkabi - Director of Israeli Military Intelligence

    • Gunnar Jarring

    • Ryuichi Hirokawa -Japanese Journalist/photographer (pg. 592)

  2. Quotes:

    • "Solidarity is the political cement that binds a community, giving it a national consciousness and making it capable of collective poltical action." - Author (pg. 113)

    • "Characterized by what is often called 'constructive ambiguity', the British Diplomat's [Lord Caradon] formulation [of the UNSC Resolution 242] was purposefully vague and deliberately employed language that would permit both Israelis and Arabs to interpret the resolution in a manner consistent with their own requirements." - Author (pg. 418). The background of this resolution was in regards to the diplomatic efforts of Israel and the Arabs states after the June War of 1967 to come to a peace resolution whereby land would be offered as a concession for peace.

  3. General Notes:

    • "the kingdom of the Jews split in two after Solomon's death (Son of David). You then had the Kingdom of Judea and the Kingdom of Israel in the North, "which was the larger and more populous of the two competing states" (pg. 10)

    • "The Babylonian conquest of Judah brought to an end the first Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine and closed a critical chapter in the history of the Jewish people." (pg. 11)

    • "Jewish law is divided into the Torah and the Talmud. The former contains the five books of the Pentateuch. The Talmud contains the oral law of the Jews. It is composed of two parts, the Mishnah and the Gemara, the former being the first codification of the Jewish law since the bible and the latter being commentaries and interpretations of the Mishnah" (pg. 14)

    • "The law of the Jews contains countless prescriptions dealing with matters of social, economic, and even political significance. Examples are the requirement that agricultural land lie fallow for one full year after six of cultivation, and the prohibition of lending at interest to a fellow Jew." (pg. 15)

    • Zionism - the Jewish belief that God would, in the future, bring about an ingathering of the exiles and restore the children of Israel to the Promise Land (pg. 16)

    • "Abba Hillel Silver shows the relationship between social and political instability on the one hand and the intensity of Messianic speculation on the other. The effect of this activity incentivized migration to Palestine between the eleventh and fourteenth century, which in turn raises the demand for housing, goods and services, and exports as more people are assumed to be producing in a given locality." (pg. 18)

    • "At the dawn of the modern age, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, only 5,000 or so of the estimated 2.5 million Jews in the world reside in Palestine. Palestine's population contained about 25,000 Christians and several thousand Druze, with the rest of its inhabitants being Sunni Muslims." (pg. 20)

    • "The French Revolution produced legislation removing many of the restrictions that had long been placed on Jewish life." (pg. 25)

    • Haskala - the 'Jewish Enlightenment'. A movement of intellectual and cultural development in the mid eighteen hundreds (pg. 26)

    • Maskilim - Orthodox Jewish sect of Judaism.

    • Hasidism - an ultraorthodox movement to retain historic Judaic traditions (pg. 34)

    • "The Alliance Israelite Universelle (AIU) opened its first school in Tetouan, Morocco in 1862" (pg. 29)

    • "The assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 led Tsar Alexander III, his successor, to bring a halt to the gradual reforms that had been taking place in Tsarist Russia" (pg. 39). Jews "tended tp regard these developments as aberrations" and began to further develop and promulgate the modern Zionist movement (pg. 39)

    • May Laws of 1882 - a Russian piece of legislation that aimed to narrow the territory in which Jews could live (pg. 40) [May Laws Are Instituted in Russia | CIE (israeled.org)]

    • "Between 1881 and the end of the century, about 450,000 Russian Jews reached the United States, in contrast to only 250,000 who had done so between 1800 and 1880. By the end of WWI, that number had almost tripled." (pg. 42)

    • The Biluim Manifesto - it set forth the case for Jewish immigration into the Holy Land of Palestine (pg. 43)

    • Cultural vs. Political Zionism (pg. 50)

      • Political - Led by Theodor Herzl, "it was the Jewish people, not individual Jews, that should assimilate into a new and secular world order."

      • Cultural - Led by Ahad Ha'am/Asher Ginsberg, "insisted that the Jewish State should not seek to be a state like any other but should commit to the articulation and projection of its own special character."

    • The Jewish Problem - "How can we secure for Jews, wherever they may live, the same rights and opportunities enjoyed by non-Jews? How can we secure for the world the full contribution which Jews can make, if unhampered by artificial limitations? The problem has two aspects: That of the individual Jew, and that of Jews collectively. [The Jewish Problem: How To Solve It by Louis D. Brandeis — Louis D. Brandeis School of Law Library (louisville.edu)]

    • The Jewish Colonial Trust - the first bank of the Zionist Organization (pg. 53)

    • Stein Iron Works in Jaffa & Atid Oil Factory in Haifa (pg. 67)

    • Jewish Aliyah

      • First Migration (1881-1903)

      • Second Migration (1904-1913) (pg. 61)

        • "Conquest of Labor" and its policies of wages and employment (pg. 66). "One of these policies was the provision of subsidies for Jewish Labor" (pg. 66). Because the Arabs had occupied and worked the land before the large scale migration of Jews in between 1881 and up until the start of WWI, they were often more practiced and skillful in cultivating and farming land (a trade, for which, Jews felt to be lower skilled labor). Arabs often were willing to work for lesser wages than Jews, and in positions not often sought ought by Jews in Palestine.

      • Third Migration (1919-1923) (pg. 185)

        • "The members of the third Aliyah cam principally from Russia and Poland and were responding to both a push and pull; they were alienated by the Bolsheviks seizure of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and they were encouraged to make their way to Palestine by the Balfour Declaration" (pg. 185)

        • The Jewish Defense Force was established in 1920 (pg. 186)

        • "Education was another important arena for institutional development during this time period. By 1934, there were 300 schools in this system [Histadrut]. It was also able to provide specialized as well as general secondary education. Finally, institutions of higher education were established" (pg. 187)

        • "Among the industries established in the 1920's were the Silicate Brick Factory, the Atlit Salt Works, the Grand Moulins Flour Mill, the Shemen Edible Oils Factory, and the Nesher Cement Works." (pg. 189)

        • "The amount invested between 1919 and 1936 was in the area of $350M-$400M." (pg. 18) (see details on pg. 190). "The most important industrial export was chemical product derived from the Dead Sea".

      • Fourth Migration (1924-131)

      • Fifth Migration (1932-1939) (pg. 208)

    • "A signal event in the formation of the Islamic community was Muhammad's move to the city Yathrib. This is known to Muslims at the hijra, the flight or migration, and it is the event from which the Islamic calendar is dated." (pg. 79)

    • "Islamic law, composed of the Quran and Sunna, is known as Sharia." (pg. 89)

    • The Fatimid, Abbasid, and Umayyad Houses of Islam (pg. 83)

      • "Each one of the three principle dynasties of the classical Arab world thus controlled a portion of what had previously been a unified empire." (pg. 91)

      • "Prior to their decline [in the eleventh century], the Fatimids controlled all of North Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Sicily, Syria and western Arabia." (pg. 92)

      • "by the end of the century, not only was the Islamic world divided, but the most powerful of these, the Fatimids, had been dismembered." (pg. 92)

    • Al-Azhar Mosque University - the oldest university in the world and the center of Islamic higher learning (pg. 91)

    • Mujtahid - an authoritative interpreter of the law (pg. 93)

    • Ulama - interpreters of Sharia Law.

      • "the Ulama increasingly adopted a posture of hostility towards the secular sciences, which they feared might challenge both the central position of religion and their own privileged status." (pg. 93)

    • Taqlid - the call to reject innovation and independent inquiry and instead to 'imitate' the doctrines of one's predecessors (pg. 93)

    • Tanzimat - political reforms within the Ottoman Empire (pg. 99)

    • "The French invasion of Egypt [in 1798] was the first direct military confrontation between Arabs and Europeans since the days of the Crusades. Napoleon's occupation of Egypt lasted only three years, but it provided a stimulus for the emergence of a modernist movement…making Egypt the center of a political and cultural renaissance." (pg. 98) "The founder of this modernist movement was Muhammed Ali, who seized control and made himself governor of Egypt in 1805 [7 years after the French Invasion]. Modernization was sought in many fields, including military affairs, government, agriculture, and industry" (see details on pg. 98) "As a result of Napoleon's conquest of Egypt, the Arabs recognized that their weaknesses made them highly vulnerable to foreign domination" - often described as Defensive Modernization (pg. 101)

      • "Indicative of the kinds of development projects implemented under Said and Ismail [successor's of Muhammed Ali] was construction of the Cairo-Alexandria railroad, which began in 1851 and was completed in 1857. To develop a modern network of transportation and communication, the Egyptian government constructed more than 900 miles of railroads, 5,000 miles of telegraph, 430 bridges, and the harbor of Alexandria. In addition, it reclaimed over a million acres of land, largely by constructing 8,000 miles of irrigation canals, and built numerous factories and textile mills. The number of government primary schools grew from 185 to 4,685 during Ismail's reign [1863-1879]. Yet another accomplishment was the rapid expansion of Egypt's exports, especially during Ismail's early years when the country benefited from a demand for cotton created by the American Civil War. The most massive project of the period was the construction of the Suez Canal, which restored Egypt to a central position in trade between Europe and the Far East. " (pg. 102-103) see notes on pg. 856.

      • Bankers and Pashas: International Finance and Economic Imperialism in Egypt, by David Landers

      • The United States and the Arab World, by William Polk

    • Jamal al-Din al-Afghani believed Islam, through unity and solidarity, held the key to achieving political and intellectual objectives to resist European expansionism. (pg. 113) Al-Afghani in effect transformed Islam into an ideology of nationalism (pg. 114)

    • "The emergence of these newspapers and political associations [Palestinian Patriotic Party, Ottoman Patriotic Society, Economic and Commercial Company, al-Quds, al-Asmai, al-Karmil, and al-Najjah] demonstrates that Palestine was not unaffected by the currents of change sweeping over the Arab world. One fear was of economic competition and increasing Jewish influence in commercial activities. Another was resentment that Jewish immigrants retained their foreign citizenship instead of becoming Ottoman subjects. [Lastly,] there were fears that Zionism would undermine the character of Palestine." (pg. 130)

    • "anti-Zionism was limited prior to 1908; but, it increased rapidly after the Young Turk Revolution and had reached serious proportions by the eve of WWI" (pg. 133)

    • Data Resources:

    • The Husayn-McMahon Correspondence (pg. 146) [The Hussein-McMahon Correspondence (July 1915-August 1916) (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)]

    • May 16, 1916 - The Sykes-Picot Agreement - called for Britain and France to divide much of the Arab Middle East into zones of influence after the war (pg. 147) [The Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)] [The Avalon Project : The Sykes-Picot Agreement : 1916 (yale.edu)] [Sykes-Picot Agreement | Facts, The Agreement, Policy & Posterity (schoolhistory.co.uk)]

    • The League Covenant of 1922 [Mandate for Palestine - League of Nations (12 August 1922) (ecf.org.il)] [Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Volume XIII - Office of the Historian]

    • November 2, 1917 - The Balfour Declaration [Text of the Balfour Declaration (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)]

    • "The issue which followed Jewish immigration as a source of conflict in Palestine was the purchase of land by the Zionist Organization." (pg. 173)

      • Number of Jewish immigrants on pg. 170.

      • "Later purchases tended to be the larger estates of wealthy Arab landowning families, many of whom did not live in Palestine, and some of whom were branches of extended families prominently associated with the Palestinian Arab national movement." (pg. 174) "it is clear that a substantial number of peasants were being displaced by this and other land transfers." (pg. 177)

    • "The world of Zionism, both in Palestine and abroad, was extremely heterogenous so far as ideology is concerned, [which was] reflected in the many political parties that structured participation in the Yishuv's internal institutions." (pg. 198)

    • The political parties and institutions are discussed in detail on pages 195-208.

    • "Although the proportion of Jews among Palestine's population rose steadily during the years of the British mandate, the Arabs remained the overwhelming majority." (pg. 210)

    • "Britain's investment in the economy of Palestine increased substantially with the approach of WWII" (pg. 215)

    • Jewish Organizations (pg. 195-210) (pg. 371)

      • Palestine Land Development Company (PLDC)

      • Jewish National Fund (JNF)

      • Jewish Colonial Association (JCA)

      • The Jewish Colonial Trust

      • Revisionists

      • Liberal Party

      • Rafi

      • Mapai

      • Israel Workers' List

      • Herut Party

      • Labor Party - more liberal

      • Knesset

      • Likud Party - more conservative

      • Peace Now Party/Movement (1977) (pg. 540) - ultra liberal

      • Tehiya Party (pg. 645)

      • Morasha Party (pg. 645)

      • Kach Party (pg. 645)

    • Arab Organizations (pg. 219 - ) "two kinds of developments characterized the national movement in the years that followed [1930's]. First, there was an increase in the number of political parties. Second, a broader range of political opinion was encompassed by the new organizations." (228) It's also important to note that, during the early 1930's, the region of Palestine was facing economic problems (pg. 230), which intensified the Palestinian Arab fears of the Yishuv and attributed to levels of unemployment and landlessness within the region.

      • Muslim-Christian Association - "its political platform [was] firm opposition to Zionist immigration" (pg. 219)

      • Literary Society

      • Arab Club

      • Al-Nadi al-Arabi

      • Palestinian Arab Society

      • Palestinian Arab Party - a more militant group (pg. 229)

      • Istiqlal Party - a more militant group (pg. 229)

      • Palestinian Arab Executive (pg. 222) - "this was the structure through which" (pg. 223)

      • Supreme Muslim Council

        • The Husanyi family and the Nashashibis family were the two dominant, and rival, families during the 1920's that competed for regional influence (pg. 224)

      • Youth Congress (pg. 228) - a more militant group

      • Independence Party (pg. 228)

      • National Bloc (pg. 228)

      • National Defense Party (pg. 229)

      • Higher Arab Committee (pg. 231)

      • PLO

      • Fatah - the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (pg. 373)

      • Palestine Liberation Front (pg. 376)

      • Vengeance Youth (pg. 376)

      • Heroes of the Return

      • Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

    • Palestinian Royal Commission (pg. 232) - formed to identify causes leading to Arab revolts in Palestine during the 1930's.

    • "Communal violence had erupted in August of 1929." (pg. 235) The Palestinian Arabs and Jews both found the area known as Temple Mount to be a sacred and holy place. "The Supreme Muslim Council, under al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni, goaded the Jews by suggesting that it might use the stones of the Wailing Wall to construct a highway" (pg. 235)

    • August 23, 1929 - an Arab mob armed with knives and clubs moved through the city and attacked Jews at random (pg. 235) "by the time order had finally been restored, 133 Jews had been killed and 339 wounded, almost all by Arabs. Casualties on the Arab side included 116 killed and 232 wounded, most by British security forces." (pg. 236)

    • "the six-year period between 1933 and the outbreak of WWII was characterized by steadily mounting unrest and disorder in Palestine." (pg. 238) "the Arab Revolt amplified in the spring of 1936. The Arabs were more fearful and angry, especially in the wake of the large scale Jewish immigration that had taken place in 1934 and 1935." (pg. 239)

    • The Shaw Commission - charged with determining the cause of Arab-Jew disturbances in Palestine (pg. 236)

      • "concluded that Arab feelings were the result of a 'landless and discontented' class being created by the expansion of the Yishuv, and it recommended that limitations be placed on Jewish immigration and land purchases." (pg. 236)

    • The Hope-Simpson Commission - charged with finding remedies to the issues discovered by the Shaw Commission.

    • The Peel Commission (pg. 241) [Text of the Peel Commission Report (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)]

    • The MacDonald White Paper [British White Paper of 1939 on Palestine (MacDonald White Paper) (ecf.org.il)]

    • "During the course of the war, 136,000 Palestinian Jews volunteered for service with Britain." (pg. 249)

    • November, 1944 - Jewish extremists murder Lord Moyne in Cairo (pg. 250)

    • Biltmore Program - "Zionist policy was reformulated and the objective of creating a Jewish state over the whole of Palestine was declared. The conference [1942] placed emphasis not on Zionism's vision of a progressive national community, but rather on the desperate plight of the Jews in Europe and the urgent need for a country of refuge. The tragic truth was that only 40% of European Jewry survived the Holocaust." (pg. 251)

    • UN Special Committee on Palestine proposal (pg. 258-260) [A/RES/181(II) of 29 November 1947 (un.org)]

    • May 14, 1948 - Israel gains its independence (pg. 263)

    • May 15, 1948 - Israel gets attacked by neighboring military forces [Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Syria] (pg. 263)

    • "Although the Partition Resolution had called for Jerusalem to be an international enclave, the city was divided into a Jewish-controlled western sector and an Arab-controlled Eastern sector at the conclusion of the fighting." (pg. 274)

    • April 9, 1948 - Irgun and Stern Israeli Forces entered the village of Deir Yassin (about 5 miles west of Jerusalem) and massacred 254 defenseless civilians, including about 100 women and children (pg. 291)

    • April, 1950 - Jordan annexes West Bank (pg. 276)

    • "Equally tragic [to the Palestinian disaster] was the dispersion of much of the Arab population in Palestine" (pg. 279)

      • "most Palestinians left their homes and villages on short notice, and most assumed that their dislocation would be temporary. They usually took few of their possessions [assuming they would, at some point, return to their homes]. Yet they were consistently prevented from returning to their communities of origin by deliberate Israeli policy [stating security concerns]. It wasn’t uncommon for Israeli forces to destroy abandoned villages. Relief effort were initially handled by Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. By 1952, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA's) three-year budget had grown to $250M." (pg. 280) "Roughly 75,000 Palestinians [between November of 1947 and March or April of 1948] became refugees, and most of this number were middle and upper-class families who constituted a large part of the country's Arab elite [civil servants, land owners, businessmen, doctors and lawyers]." (pg. 303)

    • Claims and counter claims purported by Jews and Arabs over the post-1948 UN Partition Resolution and the refugee problem. (pg. 289-306)

    • Two Other Issues of the Post-1948 Resolution (pg. 315)

      • Jerusalem (East / West)

        • 3rd holiest city for Muslims (after Mecca and Medina).

        • The Holiest city for Jews

        • One of the Holiest places for Christians

        • "The Jordanian government did make some investments in Jerusalem, principally in road construction and the expansion of tourist facilities. Tourism was a major source of foreign currency. The influx of tourist dollars, especially in the 1960's, enabled certain sections of Jerusalem's population to prosper, which in turn gave rise to a boom in private housing construction and to the growth of new suburbs. However, east Jerusalem didn't experience the kind of dynamic growth that marked the Israeli half of the city (see page 322, paragraph 2)" (pg. 324)

      • Waterways

        • "By 1962, approximately 80 companies had been placed on the blacklist and had been prohibited from doing any form of business in the Arab world" (pg. 330)

        • "although the Arab boycott was a nuisance to Israel, it had little significant impact on economic or political life of the Jewish state. The country developed rapidly in the years after 1948 (see details on pg. 331, paragraph 2 and 3)" (pg. 331). "The one area where restrictions imposed by the Arabs played a central role in the Arab-Israeli conflict was the status and use of two key waterways - the Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba" (pg. 331)

    • January 26, 1952 - Riots break out in Cairo - "Black Saturday" (pg. 337)

      • "The Wafd government fell in the wake of the Black Saturday riots, and on July 23, 1952 a group of young army officers seized power and Farouq (Wafd Leader) was forced to abdicate. Between 1952 and 1954, Egypt was governed by the Free Officer Corp - a military group that had led the coup. The most prominent member of the Free Officers Corp was Major General Muhammad Naguib, who became president of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) that was established to govern the country." (pg. 337) Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser was a prominent member of the RCC as well.

    • July, 1954 - The "Lavon Affair" altered the tone of relations between Israel and Egypt, which, at the time, was seeking weapons and aid from the U.S. (pg. 342). Israel's aim was to create uncertainty in Washington about aiding Egypt and to convince the British that their presence in Cairo was still needed. [The Lavon Affair: How a false-flag operation led to war and the Israeli bomb (sagepub.com)]

    • February 28, 1955 - Israel carries out a retaliatory strike in the Gaza Strip (pg. 345), "eleven days after Ben Gurion had replaced Lavon as Minister of Defense". "The Israeli raid on Gaza brought to a definitive end of whatever remained as a possibility for a rapprochement between Nasser's government and the leaders of the Jewish state." (pg. 345)

      • "Israel argued that only major retaliatory strikes would have deterrent value, and this strategy of retaliatory deterrence was in fact largely successful in the case of Jordan" (pg. 346)

      • "Israel undertook to increase its supply of arms from abroad during this period and developed a particularly close relationship of political and military cooperation with France…France's motivation for a military partnership lay in its anger over Egypt's active support for independence movements in Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco." (pg. 346)

    • October 29, 1956 - Sinai-Suez War (pg. 349)

    • February 2, 1957 - "The UN General Assembly called upon Israel to remove its forces from the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip and stipulated that the withdrawal of Israeli troops behind the 1949 armistice lines was a prerequisite for UN attention to other Arab-Israeli issues." (pg. 353)

      • "the call for unconditional Israeli withdrawal was put forward forcefully by the Soviet Union. The USSR had emerged as a strong ally of the Nasser regime." (pg. 353)

    • February 11, 1957 - the President Eisenhower delivers, in an aide-memoire, to Israel a statement of their official position in the issue [Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Arab-Israeli Dispute, 1957, Volume XVII - Office of the Historian] (pg. 354)

    • "The decade between 1957 and 1967 saw Syria emerge as an important element in the Arab-Israeli equation. Under the influence of the Baath Party, Damascus had, since 1955, pursued a foreign policy that aligned it with both Egypt and the Soviet Union - led by founders Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitah" (pg. 357-358)

    • "In 1958, the Baathist secured Nasser's agreement to a merger between Syria and Egypt - the new political entity was called the United Arab Republic, which was ruled by the National Union (the political entity led by Nasser)." (pg. 358)

    • "Alawis and Druze are both Muslim sects, being offshoots of Shiite Islam" (pg. 364)

    • February, 1966 - Syrian Baath Party coup (pg. 365)

    • November, 1966 - Damascus and Cairo signed a mutual defense pact. (pg. 367)

    • Israeli Economy in 1955-1964 (pg. 368, paragraph 3)

      • National income rose 120%

      • GNP increased 11-12%

      • Inflated wages

      • Costs of foodstuff increased 15%

      • Labor shortage, particularly skilled labor

      • "Despite the country's growing population, the supply of workers was not expanding rapidly enough to meet demand. Indeed, the labor force had grown by only 40% between 1955 and 1964, well under the rate at which the economy had expanded." (pg. 369) Israeli Society, by S.N. Eisenstadt (pg. 71-142)

    • PLO (pg. 374) (pg. 422)

      • Created/led by Ahmed Shuqayri in 1964, and 422 Palestinians from 10 Arab countries (pg. 374)

      • Palestine National Charter [The Original Palestine National Charter (1964) (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)] - this was their "covenant" (pg. 374)

      • General Principles of Fundamental Law - this was their "constitution" (pg. 374)

      • Palestine National Council - parliament of the Palestinian people.

      • The New PLO (pg. 422-444)

        • "Particularly significant was Khaled al-Hassan's success early in 1968 in persuading the monarch of Saudi Arabia to levy a "liberation tax" on the Palestinians working in his kingdom. This levy soon brought50 to 60 million riyals a year to the guerilla movements." (pg. 424)

        • The Battle of Karameh (a word meaning, in Arabic, honor) (pg. 425) - was a decisive battle that led to a great number of guerilla volunteers in Palestine and Jordan.

        • More grass-root attempts were leveraged by local guerilla forces (Fatah, etc.) to increase their appeal and esteem in the community - The General Union of Palestinian Workers, General Union of Palestinian Students, and the General Union of Palestinian Women (see Palestinians in the Arab World: Institution Building and the Search for State, by Laurie Brand). "the period from 1968 to 1970 witnessed a significant expansion of activities that helped to mobilize the Palestinian population and which gave substance to the guerilla's claim that their movement was one of true emancipations" (pg. 427)

        • The Fifth PNC saw the greatest push towards a new PLO (pg. 429, paragraph 2)

        • The Palestine Armed Struggle Command (PASC) - a unified military structure between the various guerilla organizations (pg. 429)

        • The major policy-making bodies were the PNC and the Executive Committee.

    • Israeli "Static Defense Measures" in an effort to reduce propensity and ferocity of retaliatory strikes against Jordan and Syria in 1966-1967 (pg. 380)

    • April 7, 1967 - conflict, and exchange of fire, over the cultivation of disputed lands in the Israeli-Syrian demilitarized zone led to a major engagement between Jerusalem and Damascus (pg. 382)

    • May 16, 1967 - Egyptian authorities declare state of emergency and order UNEF forces on the Sinai to withdrawal (pg. 387-399)

      • These pages analyze the intentions and interpretations of Israel and Egypt in regards to Egypt's arraying of forces on the Israeli border and closing of the Strait of Tiran.

    • May 18, 1967 - Iraq and Kuwait announce mobilization of forces (pg. 394)

    • May 23, 1967 - Saudi Arabia announces mobilization of forces (pg. 394)

    • May 24, 1967 - Jordan mobilizes (pg. 394)

    • May 28, 1967 - Sudan mobilizes (pg. 394)

    • June 5, 1967 - Israel carries out strike against Arab neighbors (pg. 397)

    • June 10, 1967 - cease fire arrangements are made (pg. 397)

      • "another territory that came under Israeli control as a result of the June War is the West Bank…which is 2,100 square miles in size" (pg. 401)

    • Topography of Sinai

      • "the southern half of the peninsula is composed of rugged granite mountains that are nearly impassable by modern military vehicles. The central region, though more hilly than mountainous, offers only two axes that can be readily traversed." (pg. 399)

    • June 19, 1967 - President LBJ deliver speech outlining 5 general principles for peace in the Middle East (pg. 407) []

    • The Khartoum Conference - the kings, presidents, and representatives of the Arab states assembled in Sudan to issue a resolution regarding the return of Israeli-occupied territory and diplomatic relations with the Jewish State. Out of this conference came the famous 3 No's (no peace with Israel, no recognition of the Jewish State, and no negotiation.) (pg. 409) [4th Arab League Summit in Khartoum - Three No's Resolution (1967) (ecf.org.il)]

    • The United Nations Security Council was at the forefront of achieving a peace resolution between Israel and the Arab states (pg. 414) "in late October [of 1967], a new outbreak of hostilities in the Gulf of Suez introduced an element of urgency." (pg. 415)

    • October 12, 1967 - Egypt sinks an Israeli destroyer Eilat (pg. 415)

    • October 24, 1967 - Israel responds with artillery and blowing up 2 oil refineries in Suez (pg. 415)

    • November 22, 1967 - United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 is unanimously (pg. 419)

    • March 1969 - Nasser announced his 'War of Attrition' against Jerusalem (pg. 445)

    • "Nasser made a secret trip to Moscow to appeal for assistance. In February [of 1970], approximately 1,500 Soviet personnel arrived in Egypt." (pg. 446)

    • The Big Four Talks - Russia, U.S., France, and Great Britain met to discuss the situation in the Middle East (pg. 447)

    • The Rogers Plan (named after, then, Secretary of State William Rogers) (pg. 447)

      • Rogers, William. “The Rogers Plan.” Washington, DC. 29 Oct. 1969. Rpt. in The Search for Peace in the Middle East, Documents and Statements 1967-1979. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1979. 292.

    • November 9, 1969 - The Cairo Agreement (pg. 455) [Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) - Cairo agreement between Lebanon and PLO, 9 November 1969 - UNARMS]

    • May 12, 1970 - IDF crossed the border and destroyed 19 guerilla bases and killed about a hundred commandos (pg. 455)

    • As a result of the June War, there was a large scale migration of Jordanians from the West Bank to the Eastern part of the country. (pg. 458) "[There was] an estimated 300,000-400,000 Palestinians moving from the former territory [the West Bank] to the latter [East Bank] between 1950 and 1967.Consequently, while the East Bank contained only 44 percent of the total Jordanian population in 1950, this number increased to about 53 percent in 1961, and was over 56 percent on the eve of the June War [in 1967]" (pg. 458)

    • There was a divergence in beliefs between the PLO, which was operating significantly out of Jordan, and the Jordanian Government, which, during 1960-1970, was run by King Hussein (pg. 456-464). Black September [Black-September-Jordan.pdf (cia.gov)]

    • "During the course of the 1970's, the central focus of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict gradually shifted to the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories that had been administered by Israel since the June War of 1967, but which, in the early 1970's, were inhabited by approximately 700,000 and 360,000 Palestinians, respectively." (pg. 465)

      • The Problem of the Post-June War: What does Israel do with these occupied territories given their dueling demand for security (which would mean retaining the occupied territories) versus peace (possibly giving Gaza and West Bank to the Palestinians in exchange for some guarantee of peace in the future)? How does the PLO influence any of these decisions (the Arab call for self-determination and statehood)? How does the U.S.-Israeli relationship influence diplomacy and the creation of an accord (what are the explicit and implicit motives of the U.S. in achieving peace and resolution in the Middle East during the start of the Cold War with Russia backing parts of the Middle East?) How does all of these positions and parts fit into the development of various courses of actions for Israel? What is the time versus space allotment (meaning, how long, reasonably, could the Israelis continue to hold these occupied territories until an effective level of opposition - Jordanian or otherwise - appeared versus trading these territories "today" as a means of reaching peace in the region, but while possibly diminishing their authority and credibility of a Jewish state within the region)? "Most Zionist leaders saw no reason to do anything other than wait for the Arabs to accept the consequences of their defeat in the June War and signal their readiness to trade unconditional peace for meaningful territorial concessions" (pg. 474)

        • Annex these territories, and CAN NOT give equal and fair rights to the Palestinians residing in these areas.

          • There was reasonable debate about this not being the most appropriate course of action. "Yehoshua Arieli sternly warned against debasing the Israeli democracy quoting from Abraham Lincoln 'a democratic government cannot remain for a long time half democratic and half oppressive'" (pg. 471)

        • Annex these territories, and CAN give equal and fair rights to the Palestinians residing in these areas

        • The Allon Plan (pg. 501)

    • October 6, 1973 - Egypt and Syria launched coordinated attacks on Israeli positions in the Sinai Peninsula, known as the Yom Kippur War. (pg. 475)

    • The PLO, between 1971 and 1974, had changed their character and strategic thinking from that of 1967-1970. (pg. 483-499).

    • November 20, 1977 - Anwar Sadat's speech to the Knesset. (pg. 509) [Anwar Sadat, Speech to the Israeli Knesset, November 20, 1977 (mtholyoke.edu)]

    • September 5 - 17, 1978 - Camp David Summit with President Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Begin (pg. 511)

      • Two issues were not solved at this point: 1.) what to do with the Gaza Strip and West Bank (occupied territories), and, 2.) the removal of, and withdrawal, airfields and fortifications in the Sinai Peninsula.

      • "the Israeli's agreed to relinquish their military bases upon receiving assurances that the U.S. would help to pay for new ones. This would require about $3 Billion in congressional loans" (pg. 511)

      • Two documents followed this summit (pg. 512):

        • Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel

        • A Framework for Peace in the Middle East

        • "Whereas the latter is precise, presenting a detailed formula for resolving bilateral issues and arriving at a peace treaty between the two countries, the former is no more than a general blueprint, characterized by broad guidelines, deferred decisions, and language amenable to differing interpretations." (pg. 514)

      • Begin's 18-Point Interpretation of the Camp David Accord (pg. 519)

    • October 1978 - Matityahu Drobles publishes The Master Plan for the Development of Settlement in Judea and Samaria. [Settlements/Mattityahu Drobless plan/Settlements by Israel in the illegally occupied Arab territories - Letter from CEIRPP Acting Chairman - Question of Palestine (un.org)]. "The Drobles Plan called for raising the number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank to 100,000 by 1983." (pg. 523) "By the end of 1977, there were more than 5,00 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, and the numbers rose to 7,500, 10,000, and 12,500 in the following three years, respectively, with the actual number of settlements more than doubling by the end of 1980." (pg. 520) "By the end of 1981, the number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank exceeded 16,000; and by the end of 182 the number stood at 21,000." (pg. 548) "At this time [in 1982] there were a total of 103 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, 70% of which had been built since the Likud came to power in 1977 [1977 Knesset Election]." (pg. 548)

      • Territorial Maximalism 

      • "To encourage the movement of Jewish settlers into the West Bank, Begin and Sharon poured huge amounts of resources into a new strategy that placed emphasis on practical rather than ideological incentives. To attract individuals, the government therefore began to construct new communities within commuting distance of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and offered housing in these communities at artificially low prices." (pg. 547) "Expenditures related to this settlement activity, including investments in infrastructure, administrative expenses, and the cost of tax exemptions for companies and individuals doing business in the West Bank, consumed roughly 8% of the total government budget." (pg. 548) See A History, by H. M. Sachar (pg. 155).

      • Economic Literature on the West Bank (authors notes on pg. 911)

        • [A-Palestinian-Agenda-for-the-West-Bank-and-Gaza_text.pdf (aei.org)] - Chapter 6 discusses Housing.

        • The West Bank: History, Politics, Society, and Economy, by Don Peretz

        • Benefits and Burdens: A Report on West Bank and Gaza Strip Economies since 1967, by Brian Van Arkadie

        • The Economic Consequences of Occupation, by Sarah Graham-Brown

        • Economics of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Arab Territories, by Ibrahim Oweiss

        • The West Bank: The Socio-Economic Structure, by Jamil Hilal

        • The West Bank Data Project: A Survey, by Meron Benvenisti - 1987 Report

    • In June of 1981, Israel was facing some economic pressures regarding inflation, government spending, and external debt (pg. 543)

      • "to improve its political fortunes, Likud adopted a new set of economic policies." (pg. 543)

    • March 26, 1979 - formal peace treaty is signed by Israel and Egypt (pg. 513)

    • The Venice Declaration (pg. 535)

    • Israel, in 1982, made a new push towards combating Arab Nationalism through two newly created bodies of government: the Civil Administration (headed by Menachem Milson) and the Military Government (headed by BG Yosef Lunz) (pg. 549)

      • "Encouraged by Sharon, and with a mandate to implement Milson's plan for undermining PLO influence in the occupied territories, the Military Government and Civil Administration took steps to silence Palestinian voices articulating nationalistic sentiments." (pg. 549)

        • Military Order 854 sought to close certain universities.

        • Censorship of newspapers (pg. 550)

        • Attempt to create new leadership structures in the WB (pg. 551)

        • Annexation of Golan Heights (pg. 558)

    • October 6, 1981 - President Anwar Sadat was assassinated (pg. 554)

    • Human Rights Issue in the West Bank and Gaza.

    • June 6, 1982 - Israel sends thousands of IDF across the Lebanese border. (pg. 570)

      • The Battle of Beirut: Why Israel Invaded Lebanon, by Michael Jansen

      • Reflections on the Economic Cost of the Lebanon War, by Haim Barkai

      • "Israel's serious economic problems were evident in a number of domains. The government had massive expenditures related, in part, to the cost of its operation in Lebanon. Inflation was approaching 400 percent by the summer of 1983." (see paragraph 3, pg. 639)

    • September 16, 1982 - Phalange Militiamen massacre hundreds of civilians in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila (pg. 590)

      • Ryuichi Hirokawa - journalist/photographer.

    • September 1, 1982 - President Reagan introduced a new peace initiative - 'Reagan Plan'. (pg. 600)

      • "Deliberately departing from the principle of constructive ambiguity, the Reagan initiative made specific recommendations about the way in which Israeli and Palestinian rights might be reconciled. This was in contrast to the UN Resolution 242 and the Camp David Accords." (pg. 601)

      • "The Reagan Plan differed from previous initiatives in that it did not merely articulate the principles that should guide negotiations, but instead presented substantive suggestions in response to final status questions." (pg. 603) "it is the firm view of the United States that self-government by the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza in association with Jordan offers the best chance for durable, just and lasting peace." - Reagan (pg. 603)

      • September 8, 1982 - The Fez Plan was the PLO's response to the Reagan Plan (pg. 608) [12th Arab League Summit in Fez - Plan for Palestinian Independence (1982) (ecf.org.il)]

        • The PLO rejected Reagans Plans stating "Reagan's Plan, in style and context, doesn't respect the established national rights of the Palestinian people since it denies the right of return and self-determination and the setting up of the independent Palestinian state and also the PLO." (pg. 616)

      • "The USSR opposed the American initiative in part because it neglected the interests of Syria, the Soviet Union's most important client state in the Arab world." (pg. 619)

    • February 11, 1985 - Aden-Algiers Agreement (pg. 654) [The PLO and the Jordan Option - MERIP]

      • "King Hussein and Yasir Arafat had agreed on a joint approach to resolve the Palestine-Israel conflict is bound to sharpen the strategy debate underway within the Palestinian national movement. As the first substantive follow-up to the 17th Palestine National Council (PNC) meeting of November 1984, the accord endorsed the principle of exchanging territory for peace, the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people within the framework of a Palestinian state and a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation, and a comprehensive settlement under the umbrella of an international conference at which the Palestinians would be represented in a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation." (pg. 1 of article)

    • During the early 1980's, the PLO and Jordan made serious effort to create a combined campaign to push for Palestinian rights (pg. 656 - 676)

    • Palestinian Intifada (pg. 677)

      • "Demonstrations began in December of 1987, and in the weeks and months that followed there were protests and civil disobedience on a scale that exceeded anything seen in the territories since the beginning of the occupation in 1967." (pg. 679)

      • "Agriculture in the West Bank and Gaza was also severely affected, with the amount of irrigated West Bank land declining by 30% between 1967 and 1987." (pg. 681)

      • Sources of the Coming Intifada:

        • U.S. closes the PLO information office in D.C. (pg. 684)

        • December 8, 1987 - IDF tank crashed into a line of cars and vans killing 4 Palestinians. (pg. 679)

        • Ariel Sharon, then Israeli's minister of industry and trade, moved into an apartment in the Muslim quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem (pg. 682)

      • "the PLO was too fragmented and distant, and the Arab states had lost interest. Europe and the Soviet Union had lacked leverage and the U.S. was too committed to Israel to comprehend the Palestinian situation." (pg. 686)

      • The Unified National Leadership of the Uprising (UNLU) (pg. 691) - the main political body of the Intifada.

        • "Composed of individuals identified with Fatah, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front, the Palestine Communist Party, and Islamic Jihad, it incorporated both the various factions that had reunited at the Eighteenth PNC and representatives of the Islamic movement that remained outside the umbrella of the PLO." (pg. 691)

        • "According to an analysis prepared by the Palestinian Center for the Study of Non-Violence in Jerusalem, [a] report lists these categories of protest activity, among which are strikes (19.6%); expressions of solidarity (10.4%); demonstrations and marches (8.5%); prayer and fasting (6.7%); and flag raising (4.9%)." (pg. 693)

      • "the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic organizations had gained strength in the occupied territories over the course of the 1980's." (pg. 694)

        • "eight or more factions affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood were active in Gaza. The largest of these was al-Mujaama (the community)." (pg. 695)

        • Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya ("Hamas") was another Islamic organization (pg. 696)

      • Peace Process

        • June, 1988 - Bassam Abu Sharif prepared a peace document for the PLO (pg. 722)

        • Husayni Document (by Faycal Husayni) (pg. 722)

          • A detailed plan for the establishment of the Palestinian state

        • November 9, 1988 - Yasir Arafat announces 'Declaration of Independence for the State of Palestine' at the 19th PNC session. (pg. 723)

        • Shultz Plan

        • Yitzhak Shamir's Plan for the West Bank and Gaza (pg. 729)

        • President Mubarak's 10-Point Plan (pg. 732)

        • Secretary of State James Baker's '5-Point Framework' (pg. 734)

        • The 'Declaration of Principles' in August of 1993 (pg. 757)

          • September 13, 1993 - Declaration of Principles is signed (pg. 760)

        • The May 4th Agreement (pg. 763) - established a Palestinian Authority to administer Gaza and Jericho.

          • May 4, 1994 - the PLO and Israel sign an agreement in which there would be a transition in the administration of two Palestinian areas. (pg. 763)

          • "this was the first of 5 major agreements signed between May 1994 and September 1999 that were addressed to implementation of the Oslo Accord" (pg. 763)

        • August 29, 1995 - Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities (pg. 764)

        • September 28, 1995 - Oslo Interim Agreement is signed by Arafat and Rabin (pg. 764)

      • Human Rights

    • August 2, 1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait (pg. 738)

  4. Further Readings:

    • The Guide For the Perplexed, by Moses Maimonides

    • The Origins of Zionism, by David Vital

    • Application of Mathematical Proofs to Metaphysics, by Moses Mandelssohn

    • The Immortality of the Soul, by Moses Mandelssohn

    • Learning in Israel, by Isaac Bar Levinsohn

    • Guide to the Perplexed of Our Time, by Nachman Krochmal

    • Love of Zion, by Abraham Mapu

    • Rome and Jerusalem, by Moses Hess

    • Government, Jews, Peasants, and Land in Post-Emancipation Russia: Two specters: Peasant violence and Jewish exploitation, by Hans Rogger

    • Movements of Resistance, by Lev Grinberg [Grinberg.indd (oapen.org)]

    • The Jewish State and the Jewish Problem, by Asher Ginsberg

    • The Hidden Question, by Yitzhak Epstein [Yitzhak-Epstein.pdf (balfourproject.org)]

    • In Search of Arab Unity, by Yehoshua Porath

    • The Palestinian Exodus from Galilee in 1948 (Beirut: Institute for Palestinian Studies), by Nafez Nazzal *this is a social survey (see pg. 282)

    • The Case for Israel, by Gervasi

    • The Question of Palestine, by Edward Said

    • Israeli Society, by S.N. Eisenstadt

    • The Khartoum Conference and Egyptian Policy after the 1967 War: A Reexamination, by Yoram Meital [The Khartoum Conference and Egyptian Policy after the 1967 War: A Reexamination on JSTOR]

    • Road to War, by Walter Laqueur

    • Nasser: A Political Biography, by Robert Stephens

    • Palestinians in the Arab World: Institution Building and the Search for State, by Laurie Brand

    • US-Soviet Negotiations of 1969 and the Rogers Plan, by David Korn [US-Soviet Negotiations of 1969 and the Rogers Plan on JSTOR]

    • Development Challenges and Population Dynamics in a Changing Arab World, [Cairo_Declaration_English.pdf (unfpa.org)]

    • The Arab Human Development Report (2005): Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World, [rbas_ahdr2005_en.pdf (undp.org)]

A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Text

©2025 by Binseel's Notes.

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