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The origins of the five wars in the Middle East can be traced back to the controversial UN Resolution 181, adopted in 1947
The resolution would divide Palestine under the British Mandate into two and establish an Arab and Jewish state, respectively
When this resolution reached Palestine, it was like a thunderbolt for the Arabs there, who had lived there for thousands of years, and this unfair resolution was to throw them out of their familiar homeland
But for the Jews who wept with joy, statehood in Palestine was really their only option
A thousand-year feud in Jerusalem
The Jews, an ancient people who first lived on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean in 1000 BC, established an independent Jewish kingdom in present-day southern Palestine
However, the advent of the Crusades made the region a frontline between the Catholic world and the Muslims
Since then, the Jews, whose homeland has been lost, have embarked on a thousand-year-long journey of wandering
In the Middle Ages, when nationalism was not taking shape, the Jewish identity was more of a religious display
Although these outliers who did not believe in the local religion often encountered anti-Semitic incidents, European feudal lords, who valued the talent and culture of the Jews, also acted as protectors of the Jews at certain times
Jerusalem is a common holy place for many religions
Under the intermittent protection of Europeans, wandering Jews survived into modern times, but with the rise of nationalism, anti-Semitism slowly rose from the behavior of a few regions to the unified perception of the entire country in European countries
Against this backdrop, shrewd Jews began to realize that in order to survive the repeated wave of anti-Semitism, they must establish a state with Jews as the main ethnic group, and the "Zionism" that guided Israel's restoration came into being
"Zionism" and Zionism
Initially, the Zionists aimed simply to establish a Jewish nation-based state of Israel, which could be virtually anywhere in the world
At the end of the nineteenth century, in addition to Palestine, parts of present-day Argentina and Uganda were included in the Zionist options, and 5,000 square kilometers of Uganda were promised to the Jews with the support of the British Empire
However, the indigenous people of Marseille who lived here were hostile to strange Jews, and for many Jews, this African land thousands of miles away had nothing to do with the Jewish "Promised Land."
"Haredis" who follow Jewish teachings to the greatest extent
In the end, the Zionists rejected the British proposal and agreed at a conference in 1904 that the areas of Palestine, where the Jews had established a state, should be the sole goal of restoration
But at this time, Palestine had been ruled by the Ottoman Empire for five hundred years, and in the thousands of years since the Jews left here, Jerusalem, which had experienced countless regime changes, had long forgotten that they belonged to a small ethnic group called "Jewish"
If the dream of a state in Palestine is to be realized, there is only one way to go to war with the Ottomans, but although the Ottomans are called the "sick man of West Asia", they are not something that the Jews can deal with like a scattered sand
The road to reconquest seemed dead-end, but fate did not keep the Jews waiting, and after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Ottomans chose to side the United Kingdom, which gave the British the opportunity to dismember the ancient country
In order to win over the Jews with wide influence in the war, Britain generously promised: "His Majesty's Government is in favour of the establishment of a national house for the Jews in Palestine and will do its utmost to contribute to this goal."
This phrase was eventually written into the Balfour Declaration, which was the most crucial document of the future Zionism
The Balfour Declaration of "Less Talk, Big Deal"
Jews, convinced that they had British support, began to move into Palestine in large numbers while the Ottoman Empire was on the verge of disintegration
Before the Balfour Declaration, fewer than 50,000 Jews lived in the entire Palestinian area, representing only 6 per cent of the total population
Since then, hundreds of thousands of Jews have come to Palestine from all over the world, taking advantage of the economic advantages that the Jewish people have built up over the millennia to buy large amounts of land from local Palestinian landowners
By the end of World War II, Jews in Palestine had made up 40 percent of the population and had "legally" acquired large amounts of land in the area through redemptions over a decade
However, the "legal" redemption of the Jews actually greatly affected the original economic structure of Palestine, and after the Jews bought the land, a large number of Arabs attached to the original landlords became landless refugees, and they spread their anger on the Jews from outside
Since 1940, there have been many vicious incidents between Jews and Palestinian indigenous peoples, and as the contradictions between the two sides have intensified, Britain, which was preparing to end its Mandate in Palestine, finally decided to dump the issue to the United Nations
Jews persecuted in World War II
In 1947, the United Nations passed Resolution 181, which called for the division of Palestine into two after the end of the British Mandate, with the establishment of an Arab state and a Jewish state, respectively
This resolution finally led to the return of the Jews to the "Promised Land" after nearly two thousand years
The Middle East war was won five times in five wars
However, UN Resolution 181 is still controversial, and the focus of the dispute is not only the permission of Jews to establish a new state in the territory of a third party, but also the extreme favoritism of Jews in the agreement
In the 1947 program, not only did the Jewish minority receive 60 percent of the land, but the number of Arabs under their administration was equal to that of Jews
The cheap Jews immediately endorsed the plan and declared their statehood on May 14 of the following year, but the Arabs of the Middle East had long held a grudge against this group of Palestinian outsiders
To the Arabs, a new Jewish state would be like a wound torn open by the West in the Middle East, and it would cause long-term damage to the Arab world
On the day Israel declared its statehood, almost all Arab countries, including Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, united and prepared to drive the foreigners back to the sea
Soon, a coalition Arab army of up to 40,000 was organized, but what they did not expect was that this small Jewish state was far more difficult than they thought
Nasser was Israel's number one enemy
In just two months, the IDF, hastily organized during the war, thwarted the Arab coalition's offensive and quickly forced it into the defensive
The first Middle East war ended in defeat in the Arab world, but Israel's victory in this battle for statehood was actually inextricably linked to the international environment at the time
Because Jews were massacred in World War II, the great powers had sympathy for the nation after World War II, and this sympathy did not mean that they would directly support the war between Israel and the Arabs, but it did not prevent their Jews from supporting the newly established state of Israel
In World War II, as many as 1.4 million Jews worldwide participated in the war against fascism, and these World War II veterans came to Palestine at a rate of nearly 10,000 people a day after the establishment of the State of Israel to defend the nascent State of Israel
And Jews scattered around the world, especially large numbers of Jewish American businessmen, provided the IDF with much-needed munitions during the war
First Middle East War
In the end, Israel won the battle for statehood and finally gained a foothold in the Promised Land, but the conflict between Arabs and Israel was far from over, but the subsequent four Middle East wars fully demonstrated the short-sighted side of the Jews
Short-sighted Jewish state
After the end of the First Middle East War, the Jews did not set out to resolve their conflicts with the Palestinians, and the emerging state, having gained a foothold, quickly shifted its goals to territorial expansion
In 1956, Israel and Britain and France declared war on Egypt with the goal of occupying the Egyptian-controlled Suez Canal, although Britain and France had to completely withdraw from Egypt under the threat of the two major powers of the United States and the Soviet Union, but Israel's expansion ambitions were not stopped
In 1967, in order to avenge the Suez Canal, Egypt took the initiative to attack Israel, and the Israelis on the other side were prepared, and in just six days, Israel not only completely repelled the Egyptian attack, but also occupied the Sinai Peninsula, which was several times larger than its own territory
In order to retake the Sinai Peninsula, the Egyptians eventually launched the Fourth Middle East War, but Egypt lost four battles and the Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula eventually lasted until 1982
The last recognized war in the Middle East was provoked by Israel in 1982 with the aim of establishing a puppet regime in neighboring Lebanon
The fifth war in the Middle East initiated by Israel
Israel won all five Middle East wars, but in reality, the last four wars were unnecessary for Israel
Since Israel's independence, Jews have failed to recognize the key problem, which is that the contradictions within the Arab camp are actually no less than the contradictions between Arabs and Israelis
Yet through five Middle East wars, Israel managed to unite its opponents, and even pan-Arabism was one step away from success during Nasser's reign in Egypt
A unified Arab world is actually the outcome that Israel needs to avoid the most, Israel is so small in size that today the country has only 9 million people, and Egypt alone has a population of more than ten times that of Israel
This small country can win countless times in the Middle East, but as long as it loses once, then what awaits them is the end of wandering again, and for the Arab countries, they only need to win once against Israel, and how many times they lose before that will not erase the unfathomable power gap between the two sides
During the Cold War, Israel's successive victories were not unrelated to the support of the United States, and to this day, Israel is still the staunchest ally of the United States, but time has passed, and now even Iran and Saudi Arabia have begun to shake hands and make peace, and a new Middle East is about to appear in front of the world
It remains to be seen whether Israel, surrounded by Arabs, can continue to gain a foothold in the "Promised Land."
Flag of Israel
Bibliography:
Shao Zhengda; The King's Cow: The Ups and Downs of Medieval Jews in Britain
Yang Zhihan; Moses Hess on Zionism
Qi Shujie; Xie Lichen; "New Exploration of the Causes of the Outbreak of the Middle East War in 1967"
Liu; "Cumulative Deterrence" and the Evolution of Egypt-Israel Relations
Lu Peng; Research on Israel's National Security Strategy (1948-1977)