The USSR took part in the six-day war in 1967 as well. This war was mainly started between a dispute between Syria and Israel. After an Israeli tractor ploughed Syrian land and was opened fire on to, the Israelis’ air force bombed the Syrian guns and shot down six Syrian fighter planes sent to attack them. The USSR, being a close ally of the Arabs and Syria in particular, stepped in when Israel threatened to attack Damascus if the attacks on Israel were to continue. The Russians informed, or more like misinformed Egypt and Syria that the Israeli armed forces were massing on the Syrian border, ready to invade in one week. This turned out not to be true, but even still, Nasser was prepared for war and had the support of eight Arab nations behind him. The Arabs were confident of the military aid that they were going to receive from Russia and they weren’t wrong as they were supplied with vast supplies of the latest weapons in order to fight against Israel. This was exactly what the USSR had wanted. Perhaps Russia was either truly misinformed about the attack or purposely lied to Syria so as to trigger off a war and prove to the USA that Russia indeed had a greater influence in the Arab world, or even maybe so as for them to gain an upper hand in the Cold War.
In 1973 in Yom Kippur, the Russians played a great part in the war because they were the main providers of military equipment for the Arabs. The Russians supplied the Arabs with arms and professional mercenaries who would train the Arabs to become professional soldiers and fight in the war. In response to this, the USA provided Israel with vast amounts of the latest weapons and armed equipment. In response to the USA’s actions, the Russians airlifted stocks of weapons for Syria and Egypt to help them attack Israel. When the Russians via their satellite photographs saw the Israelis being able to cross the Suez Canal and encircle the Egyptian 3rd Army, they sent a direct message to Sadat advising him to agree to ceasefire. When this ceasefire was broken and the Russians suggested sending airborne troops to help Egypt, the USA decided to put its armed forces on nuclear alert and therefore, the suggestion was dropped as was the nuclear alert. This illustrates clearly how heavily involved the USSR was in the three wars.
Nasser’s personality also had a great impact on the Arab world and contributed a lot to the first two wars (1956 and 1967). However, he did not play any part in the third and most important war, as he had passed away. It is clear that the part Nasser played in causing the wars was much less important than the part the Russians played.
Although the Suez-Crisis also played a large part in the contribution to the wars (it started the Suez-Sinai war), it was only in the 1956 war and it had no involvement at all in the other two wars which is why I don’t think its the most important factor and therefore it is less significant to the part the USSR played in the wars.
Arab nationalism wasn’t as important as the other factors because this was just the unity of the Arab nations, acting like one, even though it existed throughout all 3 wars. Although the UAR was intended to be the ‘foundation stone’ for an eventual union of all the Arab states- it didn’t succeed. Throughout all three wars the Arabs weren’t properly united, pacts would always be broken and remade again. The only time when I believe that Arab nationalism was in fact being carried out was in the 1967 war when eight of the Arab nations joined forces and fought Israel together. However, apart from that they had many disputes and quarrels between each other and they wouldn’t all agree on the same thing. Therefore, Arab nationalism was a less important cause than the Russian foreign policy.
Another factor was oil. It was not as important as it only contributed in the 1956 war when the Arab countries stopped supplying Britain with oil in order to blackmail them to leave Egypt. It played no part in the 1967 war the 1973 war. It was more a more a result of the wars than an actual cause thus, I don’t consider the ‘oil weapon’ to be as important as the Russian foreign policy.
The USA had always been the main ally of Israel and its foreign policy contributed to the tension between the Arabs and Israelis. The USA gave Israel $65 million to improve the country and although it had a great influence on the build-up of Israel it is not as important as the Russian foreign policy as it wasn’t militarily but rather only politically involved in the 1956 and the 1967 wars where it refused to support the invasion and called for immediate ceasefire and did not offer any military help. However, in the 1973 war, it contributed just as much, if not more than Russia and supplied Israel with the latest weapons to fight the Arabs. Because of the lack of military support compared to the Russian foreign policy in the first two wars, I don’t think it was as important.
In conclusion, after looking at all the factors that caused the 3 wars and comparing them with each other, I personally believe that the strongest factor which caused the 3 wars was the Russian foreign policy because it was the only factor that was involved in and contributed to all 3 wars.
c) Why were the Israelis able to win all their wars? (12 marks)
From 1956 to 1973, three wars took place between the Arabs and Israelis in which the Israelis won all of them, even though the Arabs seemed to have a better chance at winning than the Israelis. Looking back at the way each of the three wars was fought and how each country responded to the others actions, we can see that there were a lot of mistakes made, especially by the Arabs.
In 1956, during the Suez-Sinai war, it is obvious that the main reason as to why Israel won was because their allies were much more in numbers and strength. Britain and France, being such strong allies wanted to reopen the Suez Canal, decrease Nasser’s powers in the Arab world, reopen the Gulf of Aqaba, destroy the Fedayeen (the Palestinian group carrying out attacks against Israelis) and weaken and destroy Nasser. Therefore, in order to achieve all these aims, Britain and France teamed up with Israel in secret and decided on a military invasion on Egypt. France also agreed to provide Israel with arms and all the military equipment needed for the invasion. Thus, the Israelis were able to win the war with the help of two of the world’s superpowers.
On October 29th, Egypt was attacked by Israel, Britain and France. All of Sinai was occupied by Israel and the British and French troops refused to leave Egypt and continued their attacks on it, claiming that they were protecting lies when Egypt refused to withdraw from the Suez Canal. Though the Arabs were not so much to blame for this war because they were taken by surprise, if Nasser didn’t only seem to have the desire to unite Arab nations under his leadership, maybe then the Egyptians would have been capable and more prepared to fight the war. However, since Nasser didn’t concentrate on strengthening the Arab world to enable them to fight wars and liberate Palestine, the Arabs were defeated and Israel, who had the aid of the world’s most powerful countries: the USA, Britain and France were victorious.
Though the Arabs lost the 1956 war against Israel, they didn’t come out of it totally beaten because for once, there was a hope for the Arab’s to finally strengthen their forces and since they were more determined than ever to fight Israel, there was a glint of anticipation for the upcoming war.
While the Arabs were strengthening their forces, Israel, enjoying a relative time of peace managed to strengthen itself by building its country and making it prosper with the help of its closer allies, the USA, Britain and France. With the hope of reopening the Gulf of Aqaba as promised by the USA, Israel was given strength and was able to fight the second war in 1967.
There were eight Arab nations ready beforehand to fight against Israel and so Israel’s chances of survival seemed remote. Since Arab nationalism had by now increased and the Arabs were more than ready to go to war against Israel, the only thing they needed was an opportunity to do so. This opportunity came when the USSR misinformed Syria that it would be attacked in one week’s time, for the first time ever, the Arabs seemed more than likely to defeat Israel.
However, this fairytale was not to be turned to reality. The Israelis, having always been tactful and clever seized and took advantage of the situation and decided to attack the Arabs by surprise. When they saw eight Arab nations preparing for war against them, they quickly reorganised their government into a ‘Government of National Unity’ in which all political parties had a place. General Moshe Dayan, the former Minister of Defence was appointed as leader and he declared that the best form of defence for the Israelis was to attack. The war was over before it had even begun. The six day war witnessed the cleverness of the Israelis, both in having attacked first and having used the best from of methods for their military attacks. After bombing all the airfields and taking control of the air, they were safe from any attacks from the air and concentrated on attacking the Arabs from land. Within the period of six days the Israelis had defeated the Arabs yet again and were now one of the most powerful countries in the world.
The main reason to why the Arabs lost the war in 1967 was because they hadn’t learnt from their mistakes. Instead of attacking beforehand when having learnt about the upcoming attacks they were soon to be faced, the Arabs plainly did nothing! History repeated itself and the Arabs were taken by surprise yet again. The Arabs had the chance to immobilise the Israelis, but did they care to do this? No. on the contrary, they decided to sit around and WAIT for the Israelis to attack THEM! Nasser’s personality can be questioned again here. Why was he selfish to not allow the Arabs to attack first? Did he really only want to have the Arabs under his influence instead of allowing them to win their wars? Was his lack of military knowledge that weak? Did he do what was expected for any president in his place to do? No. he didn’t and instead stood around and watched the Israelis attacking the Arabs first. Nasser was only a talk shop who didn’t care at all about the Arabs’ wars with Israel.
Determined not to lose hope, the Arabs were ready for another war with Israel in 1973. Again, like all the other wars, they were supplied with weapons and machinery by the USSR. The Arabs chose the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, as the day to attack. Thinking that by attacking on the holiest day of prayer in the Jewish calendar, this would increase if not guarantees their victory. Most of the soldiers were on leave, at home with their families, so the Arabs thought that Israel’s defences would be undermanned.
Although, the Israelis were caught by surprise, and the war was a victory for the Arabs on the first day, they were quick to recover and recuperate, unlike the Arabs in their previous wars. Using Israel’s tactics proved to be feeble as this tactic had been used by the Israelis in the two previous wars and so they were more than prepared for these types of surprise attacks.
Due to the fact that it was a holiday, meant that most of the soldiers were at home and quickly contacted to report for duty. Most of the villagers were also at home so the roads were empty making it easier for men and vehicles to be moved more quickly to the battlefield areas. This may have been one of the biggest blunders that the Arabs had made and should have considered this point, which they obviously didn’t.
Israel got immediate aid from the USA, who gave them $2200 million worth of the latest weapons to Israel. Israel was no longer surprised and was now even more ready for the biggest tank battle fought on land and prepared for war, even more than the Arabs which is why for the Arabs lost against Israel………AGAIN!
So, why were the Israelis able to in fact win all these three wars? Was it due to the fact that they had much better military forces and stronger military strength than the Arabs? Was it because they were backed by the world’s superpowers during all three wars? Or was it in fact because the Arab’s were simply less tactful and clever than the Israelis?
Since, the Israeli troops were highly trained men who had spent years learning the skills and tactics of real fighters, than they were obviously more likely to win when compared to the Arab fighters who were mainly used to guerrilla attacks. Both the Israelis and the Arabs wouldn’t have fought to such a level if they weren’t back up and supported by the ‘super powers’ the USA and USSR which both had a lot of influence over the two. The Yom Kippur war proved how close the two ‘super-powers’ were involved, not to help Israel and the Arabs but it was more like a personal conflict between themselves using Israel and the Arabs as their alibis.
Therefore, all the plans the Arabs had to win the wars were useless because it comes to the basic fact that Israel was backed up with the world’s most three powerful countries: America, Britain and France, whereas the Arabs were only backed up with Russia. How could the Arabs possibly win all their wars?
Almost as an important factor as the latter, was the tactics employed by the Israelis; surprise attacking the Arabs in the first two wars, and using flaws in Arabs’ tactics to their advantage in the third war.
However, it can also be said that the Israelis were able to win their wars because the Arabs just weren’t smart enough to take actions when given messages beforehand (in the 1967 war) about attacks, and thus, it led to them being to be taken by surprise and consequently led to them losing all three wars.
