Wars and Peace (1948-1993)
MVZ248 Week 4


1948
Arab neighbors
Neutral ‘Allies’
Survival = memories of Holocaust

1956
Hostile Arabs
End of European Imperial ambitions
Searching for both strength and stability
Israeli strategy of self-interest and recognition
Arms race
Diplomatic, economic (US use of Murray = grand strategy)
Immigration

1967
Greater Israel
Israeli Invincibility
Internal/External variables (Murray)
New borders
Nuclear Deterrent

1973
Intelligence Failure
Political Failure
Military disaster/success
Conclusion of conventional ‘wars’ against Arab neighbors

1982
Lebanon War
Aggression + National Security
Regional Imbalance
Israel loses ‘moral high ground’

Terrorism = Intifada 1970s-1993
Constructivism
Peace Process ‘perpetual’
PLO
Actors change
Attacks and Reprisals

Peace Process
MUST fit within the National Security concerns of Israel
Green Line + Territories + Terrorism
Long standing inclusion of US as mediator
1988 Schultz Peace Initiative
1991 Madrid
Hubris

Creating Nat.Security
Defensible borders
“Green lines” de facto border from 1947 to 1967.
Blue line (Lebanon) Purple line (Syria)
1979 Peace Treaty recognized the 1906 Ottoman/British demarcation (Egypt) Gardus, Yehuda; Shmueli,
Avshalom, eds. (1978–79). The Land of the Negev (English title)
Creating Defenses
Conventional and Nuclear
Deploying interests
Diplomatic, Economic and Military. Throughout the world.

Defensible borders
Sinai
Golan
West Bank and E.Jerusalem

Creating defense: Ben Gurion and Begin



Interests
Growth of economy
Exports
Technological development
Universities

Proxy and Power Projection
Israel proxy for U.S. against Arab states and Soviet Union
Fights in Egypt and Lebanon and Syria
Munich (1973)
Iraq (1981)
Lebanon (1982)

Peace
No formal recognition since 1948
1978 (Egypt)
1979 (Camp David)
1991 (Madrid) and bi-lateral leading to Oslo
1993 (Oslo)

Long road
Baby steps
1948-1979 ‘state of hostilities’ with Arab neighbors (no longer with Egypt)
1991 Madrid = Oslo Accords = 1994 Peace Treaty with Jordan
Two-state/ ‘road map’
Leaps backwards
‘Occupation’ = Intifada
Assassinations (Arab and Israeli)

US and Israeli bond
In the words of William Quandt:
The bond between the United States and Israel is unquestionably strengthened because of the
presumed congruence of values between the two nations. Americans can identify with Israel’s
national style—the commitment to western-style democracy, the ideals of individualism and
freedom—in a way that has no parallel on the Arab side. Neither the ideal of well-ordered Muslim
community nor that of a modernizing autocracy evokes much sympathy among Americans. Consequently, a
predisposition no doubt exists in American political culture that works to the advantage of the
Israelis.
William B. Quandt, Decade of Decision: American Policy Toward the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1967–1976
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), p. 16.