History class with uncle Hortlund -part 2
Ok, here is the rest of the story. I'm going to great lengths here to avoid getting caught in any political viewpoints mind you.
Once again, the
FACTSDuring the first few months of 1949, direct negotiations were conducted under UN auspices between Israel and each of the invading countries (except Iraq which has refused to negotiate with Israel to date), resulting in armistice agreements which reflected the situation at the end of the fighting. Accordingly, the coastal plain, Galilee and the entire Negev were within Israel's sovereignty, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) came under Jordanian rule, the Gaza Strip came under Egyptian administration, and the city of Jerusalem was divided, with Jordan controlling the eastern part, including the Old City, and Israel the western sector.
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1956 -The Sinai war
After the 1949 agreement, Israeli and Israel-bound shipping was prevented from passing through the Suez Canal; Egypt blockaded the Straits of Tiran for shipping to or from Israel; incursions into Israel of paramilitary forces from neighboring Arab countries occurred with increasing frequency; and Egypt began militarizing the Sinai peninsula.
In October 1956, Egypt, Syria and Jordan signed a tripartate military alliance. Israel saw this as a direct threat to its security, and attacked Egypt. In the course of an eight-day campaign, the IDF captured the Gaza Strip and the entire Sinai peninsula, halting 10 miles east of the Suez Canal.
A United Nations decision to station a UN Emergency Force (UNEF) along the Egypt-Israel border and Egyptian assurances of free navigation in the Gulf of Eilat led Israel to agree to withdraw in stages (November 1956 - March 1957) from the areas taken a few weeks earlier.
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1967, -The six days war.
After the Sinai war, there was an escalation of Arab paramilitary-organization-raids targeting Israeli non-combatants across the Egyptian and Jordanian borders. Also, Syria began artillery bombardments from the Golan heights against Israeli agricultural settlements in northern Galilee. Egypt, Jordan and Syria begain military build-ups on the borders to Israel. Egypt moved large numbers of troops into the Sinai desert (May 1967), ordered the UN peacekeeping forces (deployed since 1957) out of the area, reimposed the blockade of the Straits of Tiran and entered into a military alliance with Jordan.
Israel perceived this as a direct threat to its security, and on the 5th of June 1967, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt in the south. This was followed by attacks from Jordan and Syria into Israel.
Relative strength, June 1967
Israel
Men: 264.000
Tanks: 800
Aircraft: 350
Arabs (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq)
Men: 410,000
Tanks: 2,200
Aircraft: 810
Losses
About 10,000 Egyptians were killed in Sinai and Gaza alone, compared with 300 Israeli casualties on that front. Egypt lost 80 percent of its Russian-supplied military equipment including 800 tanks and 300 aircraft. Jordan suffered 7,000 killed and wounded and the destruction of its entire air force and 80 percent of its armor. Syria lost about 1000 men and two-thirds of its air force.
Israel lost 700 men.
Israel won the war.
In September 1968, Egypt initiated a war of attrition, with sporadic, static actions along the banks of the Suez Canal, which escalated into full-scale, localized fighting, causing heavy casualties on both sides. Hostilities ended in 1970 when Egypt and Israel accepted a renewed cease-fire along the Suez Canal.
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1973 -Yom Kippur war
Three years of relative calm along the borders ended on Yom Kippur, when Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated surprise assault against Israel (6 October 1973), with the Egyptian army crossing the Suez Canal and Syrian troops penetrating the Golan Heights.
The forces on the Syrian front:
Israel: 2 armored brigades
Syria: 2 tank armies
Israel was outnumbered nearly 12 to 1 (there were over 1,100 Syrian tanks versus 157 Israeli tanks)
Sinai front:
Along the Suez Canal during the first two or three days of the war, 436 Israelis stood between 80.000 Egyptian troops and Israel.
In the first minute of the attack, the Egyptians launched a concentrated barrage of 10,500 shells on a handful of Israeli fortifications at the rate of 175 shells per second. Egyptian aircraft then bombed the same positions, after which the first wave of 8,000 assault infantrymen stormed across the Suez.
For some flavour, two short stories from both fronts:
An Egyptian commander later recounted how a lone Israeli tank fought off his infantry
division for more than half an hour. This solitary tank inflicted heavy casualties on his troops. After repeated assaults, they finally overcame the tank. The Egyptian commander was amazed to find that all of the crew members had all been killed with the exception of one badly wounded soldier, who had continued the fight.
A young lieutenant, a tank commander, found that his tank was the only surviving tank in his company. Instead of retreating he continued to engage the Syrian tanks. He darted in and out among the hills at night, destroying one enemy tank after another. His tank was hit and set afire. Suffering burns on his arms and face, he flung himself off of his burning tank, and together with his crew found another, immobile tank, and continued his war. By the time he was relieved (because of wounds), he had single-handedly destroyed 60 Syrian tanks.
How did the war end?
The UN forced a cease fire when Israeli tanks were advancing on both Cairo and Damascus
Israel won this war too.
Two years of difficult negotiations between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Syria resulted in disengagement agreements, according to which Israel withdrew from parts of the territories captured during the war.
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1982 -Lebanon
The international boundary line between Israel and Lebanon has never been challenged by either side. However, when the PLO redeployed itself in southern Lebanon after being expelled from Jordan (1970) and perpetrated repeated attacks against the towns and villages of northern Israel (Galilee), the Israel Defense Forces crossed the border into Lebanon (1982).
In the operation, IDF removed the bulk of the PLO's organizational and military infrastructure from the area. Since then, Israel maintained a small security zone in southern Lebanon adjacent to its northern border "to safeguard its population in Galilee against continued attacks by hostile elements."
