Now we turn our course to the Middle East, that
endlessly bleeding wound, and the Arab-Israeli wars. But before diving into our
historical notes, we need to pause and underline a bitter reality. History
books often dress these events up with strategies, borders, and names like the “Six-Day
War,” detailing who occupied where, but they rarely mention those who paid the
real price. Unfortunately, nothing has changed from yesterday to today. I
cannot in good conscience write these lines without remembering the innocent
Palestinians who have lost their lives in the ruthless genocide that has
spanned decades since those days and continues right before the eyes of the
world today. Sadly, while great powers play chess for their own interests on
the world stage, the innocent always foot the bill. Look at how events unfolded
in 1967 and how the foundations of this oppression were laid…
The 1967 Arab-Israeli War (The Six-Day War)
The pressure exerted by
Israel on the refugees displaced after the 1948-1949 Arab-Israeli War, and the
subsequent legitimate struggle initiated by the Palestinians, kept tensions
constantly high in the region. The following key events paved the way to the
Six-Day War:
The Samu Massacre: On November 13, 1966, an
Israeli unit composed of tanks and armored vehicles crossed the Jordanian
border, attacking the village of Samu, which had a population of 4,000, causing
massive destruction and slaughter.
Aerial Clashes: On April 7, 1967, Syrian
planes responded to an Israeli air strike on Syrian artillery units, resulting
in 6 Syrian jets being shot down.
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| The capture of Sinai. 5-6 June 1967 |
The
Course and Results of the War:
June 5, 1967: The war officially began
with the offensive of Israeli troops. In the initial phase, Israel maintained a
defensive posture against Jordan and Syria while launching a massive attack on
Egypt.
Israeli Advance: Following the defeat of
Egypt and the capture of the region up to the Suez Canal, the Israeli army
turned its focus to Syria and Jordan, seizing the strategically vital Golan
Heights from Syria.
Ceasefire: Hostilities ceased
following a “ceasefire” call by the United Nations on June 10, 1967. By the end
of the war, Israel had expanded its occupation in the region by extending its
territories all the way to the Suez Canal.
Following this war, Soviet
Russia, which had settled in the Middle East to supply military equipment and
train personnel for Arab countries, began establishing naval bases in the Mediterranean.
This Soviet manoeuvre affected Mediterranean sovereignty and security, which
were of vital importance to NATO and Türkiye.
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| The capture of Sinai. 7–8 June 1967 |
The 1973 Arab-Israeli War (Yom Kippur War)
Having pinned their hopes on the UN
and US-USSR negotiations after the 1967-1968 War, the Arab states rapidly
embarked on rearmament activities when they could not achieve their desired
outcomes. United in the belief that the occupied Arab lands could only be
liberated through an all-out struggle, Egypt and Syria planned to launch a
joint military operation against Israel.
The offensive by the Egyptian and
Syrian armies began on October 6, 1973, on the day Israel was celebrating its
holy day (Yom Kippur).
Israel first concentrated on the Syrian front; after neutralizing the Syrian
army, it turned towards Egypt and successfully landed troops west of the Suez
Canal.
With the arrival of the UN
Peacekeeping Force on October 26, Israel complied with the ceasefire. The USSR’s
announcement that it would send troops to the region was highly influential in
Israel's decision.
The Yom Kippur War made Israel
significantly more dependent on the US in military, diplomatic, and economic
spheres than before.
As a result of the “Shuttle Diplomacy”
conducted by US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the Sinai Agreement was
signed on January 18, 1974. With this treaty, Israel withdrew from a portion of
the Sinai Peninsula.
Meanwhile, the oil embargo, which
began immediately after the war, was spearheaded by Saudi Arabia and targeted
Western countries supporting Israel. It lasted until March 1974. As a result of
this embargo, oil prices skyrocketed globally, leading to a massive worldwide
gasoline and energy shortage (the 1973 Oil Crisis).
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| The Jordan salient, 5–7 June. |
The Camp David Accords (Israel
& Egypt) (September 17, 1978)
Following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, US
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger initiated “shuttle diplomacy” between Egypt
and Israel. The product of this prolonged diplomatic traffic was the Camp David
Accords, signed on September 17, 1978.
Historical Shift and Key Provisions:
According to the agreement, Israel
would withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula, which it had occupied during the
1967-1968 wars, and in return, Egypt would officially recognize Israel and
establish diplomatic relations.
Crucial Note: With this treaty, for the first time, an Arab state (Egypt)
officially recognized Israel and legitimized its existence on the occupied
territories.
The Issue of Palestine, Gaza, and the West Bank: The agreement failed to bring
complete clarity to the core bleeding wound, the fate of the Gaza and West Bank
regions (and the Palestinians), essentially kicking the can down the road. It
only envisioned the following steps to establish an autonomous administration
within 5 years:
Palestinians living in Gaza and the
West Bank would be granted autonomy for a period of 5 years.
During this autonomy period, Israel
would reduce its troop levels in these two territories.
Starting from the third year of the
autonomy period, negotiations would be held for an agreement to determine the
final status of the West Bank and Gaza.
On paper, this agreement was to
recognize the “legitimate rights” and “just demands” of the Palestinian people;
during this period, peace negotiations between Israel and Jordan, as well as
arrangements to ensure Israel’s security, were to be made.
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| The Battle of Golan Heights, 9–10 June. |
The Arab Reaction and the 1979 Peace Treaty
As expected, Arab countries initially reacted strongly
against the Camp David Accords and decided to sever bilateral relations with
Egypt. Although the “Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty,” framed within the Camp David
Accords, could not be signed within the planned timeframe due to various
crises, it was ultimately signed in Washington on March 26, 1979. This treaty, which drew the current
Israel-Egypt borders based on mutual respect for territorial integrity and
independence, guaranteed Israel's security in the south while causing Egypt to completely break away from the Arab
world.
The Aftermath and Harsh Realities on the Ground:
When economic aid from Arab countries
to Egypt was cut off, the US stepped in and provided substantial economic
assistance to Egypt. Israel, complying with the treaty, completely withdrew
from the Sinai on April 27, 1982.
These developments fuelled anti-US sentiment
in the Middle East to a peak and pushed regional countries like Syria closer to
the USSR.
Ultimately, these so-called “peace” agreements
failed to achieve their purpose and only served to increase the oppression of
Palestinians and tension in the region, as Israel continuously built Jewish settlements
in the West Bank (where autonomy had been promised) in defiance of
international law, declared
Jerusalem its capital, and announced the annexation of the Golan Heights.
With this, we wrap up the
Arab-Israeli conflicts in the Middle East and the painful, so-called peace
process that began with the Camp David Accords. As we have seen, signatures
penned at the negotiation table and borders drawn by great powers for their own
interests were not enough to stop the bloodshed on the ground; rather, they
further complicated the regional balance of power and the tragedy of the
Palestinian people.
Now, we are closing this
long block and transitioning to another dark dimension that shaped the fate of
the Middle East: the “energy crises and regime wars.” In our next post, we will
cover the following crucial topics respectively: OPEC and the 1973 Oil
Crisis, which shook the entire world, followed by the Regime Change in
Iraq and the rise of the Ba’ath Party, and finally, the Iran-Iraq
War (1980-1988), a relentless conflict that dragged the region into years
of devastation.
