Partition Plan

5 Pages 1173 Words

In November 1947 the UN partition plan was established dividing the Mandate of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state and for establishing Jerusalem separately as an international city under UN administration. Violence between Arab and Jewish communities erupted almost immediately and continued when the Jews planned to declare a separate state. On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed. but Israel did not become peaceful for the following day, armies from neighboring Arab nations entered the former Mandate of Palestine to engage Israeli military forces. Israel amazingly was able to hold off the nations and in 1949, under UN auspices, four armistice agreements were negotiated and signed at Rhodes, Greece, between Israel and its neighbors Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The War of Independence resulted in a 50% increase in Israeli territory, including western Jerusalem but no general peace settlement was achieved. On May 30, Jordan and Egypt signed a mutual defense treaty. In response to these events, Israeli forces struck targets in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria on June 5. After 6 days of fighting, by the time all parties had accepted the cease-fire called for by UN, Israel controlled the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the formerly Jordanian-controlled West Bank of the Jordan River, including East Jerusalem. In the 1969-70 War of Attrition, Israeli planes made deep strikes into Egypt in retaliation for repeated Egyptian shelling of Israeli positions along the Suez Canal. In early 1969, fighting broke out between Egypt and Israel along the Suez Canal and were ended when the US became involved. On October 6, 1973,Yom Kippur, Syrian and Egyptian forces attacked Israeli positions in Golan and along the Suez Canal. Initially, Syria and Egypt made significant advances against Israeli forces, but Israel pushed the Syrians back beyond the 1967 cease-fire lines, and recrossed the Suez Canal to take a salient on ...