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Israeli History Links

The country is divided into four regions: the coastal plain, the central hills, the Jordan Rift Valley, and the Negev Desert. The Mediterranean coastal plain stretches from the Lebanese border in the north to Gaza in the south, interrupted only by Cape Carmel at Haifa Bay. It is about forty kilometers wide at Gaza and narrows toward the north to about five kilometers at the Lebanese border. The region is fertile and humid (historically malarial) and is known for its citrus and viniculture. (Earth Science Tradition of Geography)

During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel captured the West Bank from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, Gaza Strip (which was under Egyptian occupation), and Sinai from Egypt. It withdrew all troops and settlers from Sinai by 1982 and from the Gaza Strip by September 12, 2005. The future status of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights remains to be determined.

The climate of the coastal areas can be very different from that of the mountainous areas, particularly during the winter months. The high mountains in the north, like Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights, can get cold, wet and often snowy and even Jerusalem experiences snow spells every couple of years. The coastal regions, where Tel Aviv and Haifa are located, have a typical Mediterranean climate with cool, rainy winters and hot, dry summers.(Area Studies of Geography)

Armed Forces: As of 1987, army 104,000 on active duty, including 88,000 conscripts; navy 8,000, including 3,200 conscripts; air force 39,000, including 7,000 conscripts. Reservists: army 494,000, navy 1,000, air force 50,000. Male conscripts served three years active duty and female conscripts twenty months; annual reserve duty for males thirty to sixty days following active service. Paramilitary groups included Nahal, combining military service with work in agricultural settlements, and Gadna, providing military training at high school level.

Combat Units and Major Equipment: As of 1987, on mobilization, army had eleven divisions composed of thirty-three armored brigades; also nine independent mechanized brigades, three infantry brigades, five paratroop brigades, fifteen artillery brigades. Equipped with 3,900 tanks and 8,000 other armored vehicles. Navy had 100 combat vessels, including 3 submarines, 19 missile attack craft, 40 coastal patrol boats. Three missile corvettes and two submarines on order. Air force had 655 combat aircraft organized into twelve fighter-interceptor squadrons, six fighter squadrons, one reconnaissance squadron. First-line fighters were F-15s, F-16s, and Kfirs.

Equipment Sources: Large domestic defense industry of state-owned and privately owned firms produced aircraft, missiles, small arms, munitions, electronics, and communications gear. Export sales of US$1.2 billion annually exceeded production for domestic use. United States military aid running at US$1.8 billion annually, including fighter aircraft, helicopters, missile boats, and funding for Israeli-manufactured weapons.

Military Budget: US$5.6 billion in Israeli fiscal year 1987; approximately 14 percent of GNP and 25 percent of total government budget.

In May 1948, Israel became an independent state after Israel was recognized by the United Nations as a country in its own right within the Middle East. If relations in pre-war Palestine had been fraught with difficulties, these difficulties paled into insignificance after Israel became a state in its own right. Immediately on being granted its independence, Israel was attacked by a number of Arab nations. Less than 24 hours later, the regular armies of Egypt, Trans-Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq invaded the country, forcing Israel to defend the sovereignty it had regained in its ancestral homeland. In what became known as Israel's War of Independence, the newly formed, poorly equipped Israel Defense Forces (IDF) repulsed the invaders in fierce intermittent fighting, which lasted some 15 months and claimed over 6,000 Israeli lives (nearly one percent of the country's Jewish population at the time).

During the first few months of 1949, direct negotiations were conducted under the UN between Israel and each of the invading countries (except Iraq which has refused to negotiate with Israel to date), resulting in armistice agreements which reflected the situation at the end of the fighting. Accordingly, the coastal plain, Galilee and the entire Negev were within Israel's sovereignty, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) came under Jordanian rule, the Gaza Strip came under Egyptian administration, and the city of Jerusalem was divided, with Jordan controlling the eastern part, including the Old City, and Israel the western sector. (Man-Land Tradition of Geography)

Following the War of Independence, the British Americans and the French, by mutual agreement, did not supply either the Israelis or the Arabs with meaningful quantities of armaments. In October, 1955, Egypt signed an arms deal with Czechoslovakia which provided Egypt with significant armaments. The arms deal, combined with continued Fedayeen raids in southern Israel, convinced Israeli leaders that steps would have to be taken to alleviate the situation, before Egyptian forces were able to achieve strategic dominance. On July 26, 1956, President Nasser of Egypt, nationalized the Suez Canal. Therefore, the British and French -- who had already been selling Israel advanced weapons -- were provided with a motive for cooperating with Israel's attack on Nasser.

On October 29, 1956, Israeli forces attacked Egyptian forces in the Sinai. Israel rapidly defeated the Egyptian forces, losing just 180 men, inflicting over 1,000 fatalities, and capturing over 6,000 Egyptian prisoners of war. The Israeli forces halted 10 miles short of the canal, allowing the British and French troops to intervene to protect the waterway. Sustained American pressure forced Israel to withdraw from the Sinai and Gaza Strip. In return, the Straits of Tiran were opened for Israeli shipping, and a UN force was placed in the Sinai and Gaza Strip as a buffer force.

With tensions mounting, the Straits of Tiran blocked, and Arab armies poised to strike, Israel decided (on June 5th 1967) to launch a pre-emptive attack on the massive Egyptian forces aimed at her. Within 190 minutes the backbone of the Egyptian air force was broken, and by the end of the first day of war 298 Egyptian airplanes were destroyed. Backed by complete air superiority, Israeli army divisions then thrust into the Sinai desert approaching the bank of the Suez Canal. At the same time, Israel issued an appeal to Jordan to stay out of the war. (1) Jordan refused and opened a heavy artillery barrage on both west Jerusalem and the Tel-Aviv area which forced Israel to counterattack. By June 8th the Israel Defense Forces defeated the Jordanian forces and captured the whole of Judea and Samaria. On the morning of June 9th, Israel attacked the Syrians and captured the Golan Heights. From these heights, Syria had shelled and destroyed 205 houses, 175 acres of orchards and 75 acres of grain.
The six days of fierce fighting ended in Israel’s occupation of the Sinai desert and the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the West Bank, providing Israel’s cities with a much needed buffer zone and dramatically reducing the danger of extinction by a surprise Arab attack. Furthermore, victory had a special religious meaning because of the unification of Jerusalem and the return of Jews to Judea and Samaria which was part of biblical Israel.

The October 1973 War (known in Israel as the Yom Kippur War and in the Arab world as the Ramadan War) developed rapidly, and the coordinated Egyptian-Syrian offensive caught Israel by surprise. On September 28, Palestinian guerrillas detained an Austrian train carrying Soviet Jews en route to Israel. Subsequent Egyptian and Syrian military deployments were interpreted by Israel as defensive actions in anticipation of Israeli reprisals. For one week, Israel postponed mobilizing its troops. Not until the morning of Yom Kippur (October 6), about six hours before the Arab offensive, were Israeli officials convinced that war was imminent; a mobilization of the reserves was then ordered. In the early days of the war, the IDF suffered heavy losses as Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal and overran Israeli strongholds, while Syrians marched deep into the Golan Heights. Israel launched its counteroffensive first against the Syrian front, and only when it had pushed the Syrians back well east of the 1967 cease-fire line (by October 15) did Israel turn its attention to the Egyptian front. In ten days of fighting, Israel pushed the Egyptian army back across the canal, and the IDF made deep incursions into Egypt. On October 24, with Israeli soldiers about one kilometer from the main Cairo highway and the Soviet Union threatening direct military intervention, the UN imposed a cease-fire.

After several months of negotiations, during which sporadic fighting continued, Israel reached a disengagement agreement in January 1974, whereby the IDF withdrew across the canal and Israeli and Egyptian troops were separated in the Sinai by a UNEF-manned buffer zone. Israel signed a similar agreement with Syria on May 31, 1974, whereby Israel withdrew to the 1967 cease-fire line in the Golan Heights and a United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) occupied a buffer zone between Israeli and Syrian forces. On September 4, 1975, after further negotiations, the Second Sinai Disengagement Agreement was signed between Egypt and Israel that widened the buffer zone and secured a further Israeli withdrawal to the east of the strategic Gidi and Mitla passes.

Israel's military victory in 1973 came at a heavy price of more than 2,400 lives and an estimated US$5 billion in equipment, of which more than US$1 billion was airlifted by the United States during the war when it became apparent that Israel's ammunition stores were dangerously low. This action, and the threatened Soviet intervention, raised more clearly than ever the specter of the Arab-Israeli conflict escalating rapidly into a confrontation between the superpowers. The October 1973 War also cost Israel its self-confidence in its military superiority over its Arab enemy.

In the spring of 1982, Palestinian terrorists entrenched themselves in Southern Lebanon, creating an informal state-within-a-state. From there they dispatched terrorists on murderous missions abroad and fired Katyusha rockets and artillery at civilian targets in Israel's northern Galilee region. On June 3, 1982, Israeli Ambassador Shlomo Argov was gunned down and critically wounded near his London home. The next day Israeli jets bombed P.L.O. ammunition depots and training bases. This triggered a massive P.L.O. bombardment against Israel's northern settlements, causing extensive damage and loss of life. On June 6, the IDF launched Operation Peace for the Galilee with the purpose of removing the threat to Israel's northern settlements. Israeli units advanced along three major north-south routes, destroying P.L.O. bases and their terrorist infrastructure along the way.

IAF fighters and attack helicopters bombed terrorist strongholds, clearing the way for the ground forces. Transport helicopters provided around-the-clock tactical, logistic support. They airlifted fuel and ammunition to front-line troops when the three narrow roads which wind their way north into Lebanon became clogged. They also played a life-saving role by rapidly evacuating wounded to Israeli hospitals.

But the most spectacular achievement of the war was the destruction of the Syrian surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites in the Bekaa Valley. The IAF was equally impressive in air-to-air combat, downing about 90 Syrian MIGs without loss.

Future historians will point to many important features of the air war over Lebanon. First and foremost, the IAF re-affirmed its undisputed aerial superiority. This was the first major conflict in which F-15's and F-16's could demonstrate their awesome prowess. It was also the first time that the IAF employed the Cobra and Defender attack helicopters on a wide scale. One of the war's greatest successes was achieved by its smallest participant: the locally produced mini-RPV (remotely piloted vehicle).

These tiny, propeller-driven craft beamed down real-time intelligence to air force and battlefield commanders, giving them a decisive edge in the rapidly unfolding combat arena. Another source of pride for the Israel Aircraft Industry (IAI) was the superb performance of the Kfir fighter bomber. Last but not least, honorable mention will be saved for the F-4 Phantom, which pounded home a reminder that it will be around for quite some time. In the spring of 1981, Israeli reconnaissance photography revealed a dangerous new development. Syria had begun to move Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) batteries into the neutral territory of Lebanon. During the course of the next year, Syria built up an overlapping network of SAMs, which included Soviet SA-2, SA-3 and mobile SA-6 missiles in the Bekaa Valley and along the Zabadani mountain range above it. The density of SAM site locations was unmatched anywhere in the world—including the U.S.S.R. itself!

Because the SAMs were so effective in 1973, many experts had come to believe that “the missile had clipped the aircraft's wings.” Few realized the intensity with which the IAF had prepared to settle the score with its ground-based adversary. On the fourth day of the war, in a coordinated attack utilizing decoys, anti-radiation missiles and several locally developed systems, the IAF methodically destroyed every one of the threatening SAM batteries. It was almost as if fighter pilots were exacting a kind of personal revenge for the harsh treatment they had received years earlier, during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

During the attack, the Syrians sent up dozens of interceptors. Twenty-two Mig-21's and Mig-23's were downed in mass dogfights. Stripped of its surface-to-air defense, Syria continued to flood the Bekaa Valley with fighters over the next few days. Israeli F-15's and F-16's roamed the area without fear of SAMs and raised the total number of aerial victories to about 90. Incredibly, not a single Israeli fighter was lost during the risky attack against the SAMs or in the ensuing dogfights. The IAF once again proved that it was master of the skies.