Wars of Israel

The state of Israel has experienced seven wars, and two intifadas since its establishment, which constitute the militaristic component of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Wars of Israel

The violent confrontations which appear in this list were recognized as wars by the Defense Minister of Israel:

*1948 Arab-Israeli War (November 1947 - March 1949), known in Israel as the War of Independence ( _he. מלחמת העצמאות, "Milhamat HaAtzma'ut"), - the first in a series of wars fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbors in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict. In its conclusion, a set of agreements were signed between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria called the 1949 Armistice Agreements which established the armistice lines between Israel and the West Bank, also known as the "Green Line".

* The Sinai War (October 1956) - a military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel beginning on 29 October 1956 with the intention to occupy the Sinai Peninsula and to takeover the Suez Canal. The attack followed Egypt's decision of 26 July 1956 to nationalize the Suez Canal after the withdrawal of an offer by Britain and the United States to fund the building of the Aswan Dam.

* Six-Day War (June 1967) - fought between Israel and Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The nations of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Algeria also contributed troops and arms to the Arab forces. Following the war the territory held by Israel expanded a lot ("The Purple Line") : The West Bank, Golan Heights is and Sinai were occupied from Jordan, Syria and Egypt, respectively.

* War of Attrition (1969-1970) - a limited war fought between the Israeli military and forces of the Egyptian Republic, the USSR and the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1967 to 1970. It was initiated by the Egyptians as a way of recapturing the Sinai from the Israelis, who had been in control of the territory since the mid-1967 Six-Day War. The hostilities ended with a ceasefire signed between the countries in 1970 with frontiers remaining in the same place as when the war began.

* Yom Kippur War (October 1973) - fought from October 6 to October 26 1973 by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel as a way of recapturing part of the territories which they lost to the Israelis back in the Six-Day War. The war began with a surprise joint attack by Egypt and Syria on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Egypt and Syria crossed the cease-fire lines in the Sinai and Golan Heights, respectively, which had been captured by Israel in 1967 during the Six-Day War.

* First Lebanon War (1982) - began in 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon. The Government of Israel ordered the invasion as a response to the assassination attempt against Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov by the Abu Nidal Organization and due to the constant terror attacks on northern Israel made by the terrorist organizations which resided in Lebanon. See also Operation Litani.

* Second Lebanon War (summer 2006) - began as militaristic operation in response to the abduction of two Israeli reserve soldiers by the Hezbollah. The operation gradually strengthened to a wide confrontation. The principal parties were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israeli military. The conflict started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon.

Violent confrontations that were not recognized as wars

* The retribution operations (in the years 1950s) - originally held to get a high 'blood cost' in the Arab side for every terror action made by the Fedayeen which would occasionally infiltrate into Israel.
* Operation Litani (March 1978)- The 1978 South Lebanon conflict (code-named Operation Litani by Israel) was an invasion of Lebanon up to the Litani River carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in 1978.
* The fighting in Southern Lebanon (1985 - 2000) - held in order to maintain a security zone which prevented attacks on the northern border of Israel until Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.
* The First Intifada (Erupted in December 1987) - was a mass Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule that began in the Jabalia refugee camp and quickly spread throughout Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
* The Gulf War (1991) - during the war the major cities in Israel were attacked by missiles which were launched from Iraq. Israel was abstained from reacting in militaristic means in response to the Iraqi aggression.
* The al-Aqsa Intifada (Erupted in September 2000) - the second massive Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule in the occupied territories.

^* the IDF defined the violent confrontation in the southern Lebanon and in the occupied territories as a Low intensity conflict and refers to the participants from the Arab side as criminals or terrorists and not as enemy soldiers (so, for example, armed Palestinians which are caught do not face a trial and don't receive the same position as prisoners of war).

Characteristics of the wars

Each one of the wars has different characteristics, and there are wars similar to each other. Even so, there is place to compare them through examining the wars according to different categories:

* A war of "of choice" (as opposite to "war of no choice"): did Israel have the ability to avoid that specific war, or was the war bound to start by Israel's enemies? The "First Lebanon War" is the first war which was considered to be a "war of choice", but after this term was coined, it became also easier to claim that "Operation Kadesh" is also included in this category. In both of the wars, the state of Israel had to deal with a difficult position which was created by its enemies, but there would always be the doubt, according to the data which was known before the war, and even more from the data of the wars' results, if the wars were a necessary step to the solution of these problems. Some people ever go further and claim that the Yom Kippur War was a "war of choice", because Israel did not progress into the track of peace talks which was proposed to her in the years which preceded the war, and as such chose consciously to go in the track of war.

* The extent of harm to the civilian population: the "Second Intifada" is more prominent than all of its predecessors in the extent of the injury extent caused to the civilian population. The strategy of the Palestinians in this war is to hurt the civilian population in Israel, and the majority of the Israeli victims in this war are citizens. Also the Palestinian population is hurt, because the terrorists operate from within the population and use to Palestinian villages and towns as hideout place and therefore Israel's army attempts to locate them and stop them occasionally causes injury to innocent civilians. Also during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, in which both parties tried to occupy civilian settlements, there was a considerable injury to the civilian population; several Jewish settlements were destroyed and their residents were expelled. a similar fate happened to four hundred Palestinian settlements which were destroyed. During the course of the War of Attrition the Israeli army operated several times against civilian infrastructures in Egypt.

* Territorial achievements: In the majority of the wars, Israel occupied extensive territories, some of which still remain in the possession of Israel until today, and some of which were returned after a short time or continuous time. The War of Attrition and the 2006 Lebanon War were the only wars of Israel in which Israel didn't have any territorial objectives (except of conserving the existing situation).

ee also

* History of the Israel Defense Forces
* Military operations conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces
* Israel casualties of war
* [http://warsofisrael.com Wars of Israel- Bible Wars]