Chapter 3 Arab Israeli conflict

Abstract

For more than nine decades, the Jewish–Palestinian conflict has dominated all aspects of life in the Arab world. The Arabs have disregarded and neglected their political, economic, and social development since 1916 because of their obsession with defeating the Jews or driving them into the sea. When the Arab armies collectively failed to destroy the newly established Jewish state in 1948, the dynamics of the conflict changed. On the one hand, Arab rationalists such as King Abdullah ibn al-Husyan (King Abdullah-I) (d 1951) of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (HKJ) suggested accepting the United Nations Partition Plan as proposed by the UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947. On the other hand, most Arab countries followed the lead of Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nassir, who advocated the destruction of Israel. The latter view was also adopted by the PLO during Ahmad Shukeiri's reign (1964–1967) and later by Yasir Arafat (1969–2004) and most Palestinian armed factions.

Citation

Attar, R. (2009), "Chapter 3 Arab Israeli conflict", Attar, R.A. (Ed.) Arms and Conflict in the Middle East (Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, Vol. 13), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 35-64. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1572-8323(2009)0000013005