Greater Israel (1967)
MVZ247 Week 4
Fantasy becomes Reality
Relations with U.S.
Friendly --committed (neutral to Ally)
Relations with Arabs
Confrontational (enemies)
Fulfillment of fantasy
Biblical
The US
Early 1960s U.S. wanted to establish a regional arms limitation agreement in the
Middle East.
Limited success
$80 million worth of armaments in 1960 secret agreement
Israel received M48 Patton tanks in 1965 and A-4E Skyhawk aircraft in 1968
Bard (1991). The Water’s Edge and Beyond: defining the limits to domestic influence on U.S. Middle East policy.
US
Deepened over time.
Gradual cooperation.
Not linear, rather series of tendentious bargaining situations
“....situations with different strategic and political components in each”
Alan DowtyBen-Zvi
(2004) LBJ and the Politics of Arm Sales to Israel: in the shadow of the hawk, p.vii. Routledge
The US
Intense involvement in the region on issues of both economic and political affairs
Contrasted with hands-off attitude of pre-war years
Assumption of Superpower status and responsibility
Three sectors of importance (roots of U.S. interest in region)
Soviet Threat
Birth of Israel
Petroleum
The US
Truman Administration began the Tripartite Declaration (1950)
Prevention of Arms Race
Territorial status quo determined by 1949 Armistice Agreements
At first US did not sell military weapons, equipment, tech.
Cold War realities
U.S. sold tanks and jets to Jordan to counter Soviet influence
U.S. sold Hawk missile system to Israel (1962) delivered by 1967
Evidence
Telegram stating willingness to sell Hawk missile system to Israel
USSR agreed to weapon sales to Iraq and UAR
GOI request for short-range purely defensive ground to air interceptor missiles.
US “obliged to respond sympathetically”
US “deeply troubled by dangers...undesirable proliferation of sophisticated weapons in
NE...”
Rusk--
FRUSA, 1961-1963: Near East, 1962-1963, V.XVIII. DC: GPO, 2000
Evidence
Telegrams
“Sale of weapons to Jordan in exchange of guarantee not to attack Israel (via WB) and
not allowed to buy from USSR or move beyond Jordan River.
US will let GOI decide which weapons they want.
US promises GOI that it will get weapons from Germany, if not other European
countries, and if not them, the United States”
--National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1964-66, DEF 12-5 JORDAN. Secret; Immediate; Exdis.
Received on March 10 passed to WH and DOD
The US
U.S. policy changed markedly after the Six-Day War of 1967.
Perception that many Arab states (notably Egypt) drifted into Soviet sphere of
influence.
President Johnson approved sale of fighter jets (F-4 Phantom II)
Strong Congressional support (notable for future)
Precedent for U.S. support for Israel’s qualitative military edge over its neighbors.
Arab neighbors
Fear and revenge
Humiliation over 1956 military defeat (Egypt) and 1948 wars (Jordan and Syria).
No public recognition of Israel (UN Res.242) = no official normalization of relations
Refugees + military buildups = border clash
Plans and Plots
Egypt and Jordan
Egypt and Syria
Israeli Foreign Policy Towards Arab Neighbors
Not official
Only have foreign policy if nations are equally recognized
Policy of Deterrence
Qualitative Military Edge
Judiciously rapid response to provocation
Borders (disputed)
Escalation
Borders and Water
Samu (Jordan); Tawafiq (Syria aka UAR); Johnston Plan/Headwater Diversion
Egyptian blockade (Straits of Tiran)
Syrian incidents (cross-border/guerrilla attacks)
PLO
Diversionary theory of war (political leaders use f.p. to calm domestic situations)
Escalation-Arabs
Sinai, Gaza, Galilee
1956 aftermath DMZ; cross-border raids over cultivation ‘rights’
1960 Rotem Crisis (mobilization of Egyptian forces to undefended Israeli border)
Untrue intelligence made UAR prepare for war
Egypt took away belief that deter Israel with mobilization.
Most serious challenge to Israel’s doctrine of deterrence in the years between the Suez
Crisis and the Six Day War.
Gen. Haim Laskov (CoIDFGS) ‘most dramatic event of his tenure’
Escalation-Arabs
Egyptian President Nassar at the UNGA in September 1960 called for return of
situation in Palestine before “error” (annulling Israel’s existence).
In 1964, “We swear to God that we shall not rest until we restore Arab nation to
Palestine….no room for Britain in our country…no room for Israel within the Arab
nation”
In 1965 he stated, “We shall not enter Palestine with its soil covered in sand, we shall
enter it with its soil saturated in blood”
Howard Sachar (1976, 2007) A History of Israel from the Rise of Zionism to Our Time, pp. 615-16.
Escalation-Israel
1964 Israel drawing water from the Jordan in accordance with Johnston Plan
Water taken reduces water reaching Hashemite territory
Arab League claimed such water diversion leads to dangers of Arab existence, so plan
to deprive Israel of 35% of National Water Carrier capacity. Began construction of
Headwater Diversion Plan
IDF attacked the diversion works in Syria in March, May, and August 1965
Perpetuating prolonged border violence
Koboril and Glantz (1998) Central Eurasian Water Crisis, pp. 129-131.
Escalation-Israel
IDF operations
Syria
1966-1967 tensions and cross-border attacks reprisals
Jordan
Fatah +Samu (West Bank) = 1 day military engagement with Jordan
Israeli political responses to Arab world
Egypt (Nassar) and Syria (Baathist)
Provocations End-Game
Border incidents multiplied and numerous Arab leaders, both political and military
called for end of Israeli attacks.
Israel followed policy of deterrence
April 1967 ‘cultivation rights’ (DMZ) but response is IAF bomb Syria
Egypt trying to seize central position in Arab world
Re-militarized the Sinai
Soviet Union actively backed military needs of Arab states
Soviet Union tells Israeli Ambassador actions cause escalation
Six-Day War
Arab nations vs. Israel
Israel wins
2x size of Israel
Arabs living in Gaza (Egypt) and in West Bank (Jordan)
Ancestral (biblical) home in Judea and Samaria along with unified Jerusalem
UN Res. cease-fire.
Land of Israel
Eretz Yisrael
Hebrew Bible notes specific mentions
Borders ?
Historical (biblical)
Religious (law) applied in territory and not in others