Monday, September 14, 2009

Study Questions Set 4, September 14, 2009

1. Why was the struggle for Jerusalem so important for the Israelis?
The struggle for Jerusalem was so important for the Israelis for two reasons. The first is that the city of Jerusalem contained the Jewish holy places. The second is that Jerusalem was invaded by the Arab Legion of King Abdullah of Transjordan, and they were the most powerful of all the Arab armies, so the Israelis believed if they could defeat this army, all of the others would collapse as well.

2. Who won and who lost in the war?
The Israelis won the war, and had successfully pushed the invading Egyptians back into Egypt. In addition, only 6000 lives had been lost, which was one percent of the Jewish population of 650,000 at the time. The Israelis also controlled 79% of Palestine, rather than the 55% allocated to the new Jewish state by the UN, which was considered a victory for the Israelis and a disaster for the Arabs. 

3. What was agreed under the armistices?
Between Egypt and Israel it was agreed that they would go back to their pre-war borders, and the Gaza area of Palestine would be under the control of the Egyptian military. Between King Abdullah of Transjordan and the Israeli government it was agreed that King Abdullah would govern the area of Palestine known as the West Bank and it would become incorporated into the Kingdom of Jordan. This area of land included the Old City of Jerusalem. The Israelis got the western part of Jerusalem. Reaching an agreement between Israel and Syria took longer but it was eventually agreed to that the Syrians would withdraw from ceasefire lines if the vacated area became a demilitarized zone (meaning Israel couldn't put weapons/troops/military there) and the benefit of this was the absence of Syrian troops on Israeli territory and a buffer zone. 

4. Why was there no peace treaty?
There was no peace treaty because there were some issues to which no solution could be agreed on. One of the issues was that of refugees. The Arabs believed that the refugees needed to be compensated by Israel or had the right to return to their homes, while the Israelis believed that the whole problem with the refugees was due to the Arab invasion of Israel and these refugees should be settled somewhere outside of Israel. Another reason that there was no peace treaty was that there was a growing anti-Israeli sentiment in the Arab nations, who were very bitter about their defeat. Israel wanted to negotiate with the Arab nations but didn't want to give up any of their land in order to do so. It is for these reasons that there was no peace treaty. 

5. Which side had the stronger military forces?
The Israelis had the stronger military forces. It didn't start out that way though - at the start of the war the Israelis only had 30,000 soldiers and their weapons were not as good as those of their Arab enemies, but by December 1948 they had about 100,000 in arms. The Arabs had about the same number of soldiers at the beginning of the war as the Israelis  but their number did not grow at the same rapid rate. The Israelis were also poorly equipped at the start of the war but they received so many supplies from Europe that they were the better armed side for the rest of the war, which is the contributing factor to their victory against the Arabs. 

6. What were the war aims of King Abdullah of Jordan?
He believed that the Palestinian Arab state wouldn't be able to survive on its own so it was his plan to incorporate it into his own kingdom. He saw himself as the leader of this Arab state. Telling Jewish leaders he would not invade territory allocated to the new Jewish state, his Arab Legion advanced to defend the Old City of Jerusalem, and they held onto it. The Arab Legion didn't invade Jewish territory to the west and expressed no interest in West Jerusalem, and they stayed neutral and didn't back the Egyptians when they invaded. The big goal was to take and control Arab Palestine without destroying the Jewish state. 

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