Yom Kippur War: History Leading Up To

Front 1

SLIDE 1
- Roman empire expelled Jews from Jerusalem in 135 CE and renamed the territory Palestine
- Ruled by several Arab empires and became part of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire in 1516
- Zionism arose in late 19th century and aimed at restoring the land of Israel to the Jews
- Jews began migrating to Palestine
- Secular movement but had religious and cultural ties with Jerusalem and ancient Israel

Back 1

SLIDE 1 (continued)
- Great Britain captures Palestine from the Ottoman empire during WWI
- 1917 British promised the Zionists a Jewish National Home in the Balfour Declaration
- Because of this thew were assigned a mandate over Palestine from the League of Nations
- Jews immigrated into Palestine meeting lots of Arab resistance during 1920s and 1930s

Front 2

SLIDE 1 (continued)
- The Great Revolt of 1936-1939 led by Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini killed hundreds of Jews
- Zionists established self defense organizations and carried out reprisal attacks on Arabs from 1936 on
- Arabs pressured British to limit Jewish immigration after proposals to divide the area had been rejected by Palestinian arabs in 1937
Jewish refugees had nowhere to flee from countries controlled by Nazi Germany

Back 2

SLIDE 1 (continued)
- Jews organized illegal immigration to Palestine
- Zionist leadership organized illegal demanded an independent state in Palestine to gain control of immigration and radical zionist groups from attacking British institutions in Palestine
- protests and violence from both sides along with international pressure, Great Britain returned mandate to the UN who hoped to solve the conflict with a partition plan
- Plan proposed a division of the area in seven parts. The Jewish state would have 56% and Arabs have 43%, with economic union between both states
- obviously the plan failed and violence continued

Front 3

- May 14, 1948 marks declaration of the state of Israel
- Arab troops began invading the area making advances and conquering parts of the territory allotted for the Jews
- Arabs had better weaponry and more troops
- Zionists and Arabs came to an agreement to cease-fire
- During this time Zionists organized and rained their new army, the Israeli Defense Forces.
- Better organization, intelligence and motivation led to the victory of the Jews War of Independence

Back 3

- Armistice agreements in 1949, Israel controlled 78% of area between the Jordan River and the Medditerranean Sea
- Jordan conquered West Bank and East Jerusalem; Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip
- Palestinian Arabs were expelled from Israel as well as Jewish communities in Arab control
- Jewish refugees fled to Israel, Europe, and the US while Arab countries refused to house Palestinian Arab refugees because they maintained the idea that they had the right to return to Israel
- Israel rejected the Palestinian right of return as it would lead to an Arab majority in Israel

Front 4

- Conflict persisted as Arab countries refused to accept the existence of Israel threatening a war of destruction
- May 1967 conflict escalated as Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran for Israeli shipping, sent home UN peace keeping force stationed in Sinai, and sent threatening statements to Israel
- Arabs formed a defense union with Syria, Jordan, and Iraq and stationed troops along Israeli border
- Diplomatic efforts failed and Israel attacked June 1967
- 6 day war conquered the Gaza strip and Sinai desert from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan

Back 4

SLIDE 2
- Israel was willing to return most of the territories in exchange for peace, but Arab countries refused to negotiate peace and repeated their foal of destroying Israel at conference in Khartoum Arab consensus: no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it

- Anwar el-Sadat became president of Egypt in 1970
- found Egypt to be an economically troubled nation that couldnt afford to continue endless crusade against Israel
- Due to Israel's victory in 1967, he had doubts they would establish peace terms favorable to Egypt
- Sadat decides to attack Israel, even if unsuccessful, may convince Israelis peace with Egypt is necessary
- Formed alliance with Syria and attacked