Chronicles of Conflict: Six-Day War
After the Suez Crisis in 1956, the United Nations stationed troops along the border of Israel and Egypt. In May of 1967, President Nasser of Egypt demanded that the UN leave the border and stop policing the boundary between Israel and Egypt. Then Nasser announced the closing of the Gulf of Aqaba. This would block Israel’s sea route to Africa and Asia, thereby cutting off their trade routes.

In June of 1967, Israel began a lightning war against Egypt. Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt. Then Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria and took the entire west bank of the Jordan River from Jordan. The “West Bank,” had remained in Arab hands after the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. Lastly, Israel annexed Jerusalem, which the United Nations had made into an international city.

This war became known as the “Six-Day War.” It changed Middle Eastern nations’ views of Israel. Palestinians realized that Arab governments could not get their land back from Israel.

Chronicle of Conflict: Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War lasted from October 6 – October 26, 1973. It was fought between Israel and a group of Arab nations. Egypt and Syria were the leaders of the opposition to Israel. The war began on Yom Kippur, a Jewish holy day, with a two-pronged attack by Egypt and Syria. These Arab nations invaded the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, land that Israel had captured during the Six-Day War in 1967. Within two weeks, Israel had pushed the Syrians back out of the Golan Heights. Then, the Israelis cut off the entire Egyptian army near the Suez Canal. After this, the United Nations declared a ceasefire. Israel would hold the territories until the peace agreements several years later.

Chronicles of Conflict: Iran-Iraq War
The Iran-Iraq War took place from September 1980 – August 1988. The combatants were the nations of Iran and Iraq. This conflict has been called the longest conventional war of the twentieth century. It cost one million casualties and 1.19 trillion dollars. Over fifty towns and cities were ruined. Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 because of border disputes. The leader of Iraq was
Saddam Hussein and the leader of Iran was Ayatollah Khomeini. Iran wanted the government of Saddam Hussein overthrown. (At this time, the U.S. was on the side of Saddam Hussein!) Iraq borrowed seven billion dollars from Kuwait to keep the war going when oil revenues were low.
Both the U.S.S. R. and the U.S. provided weapons to the nations at war and protections for the oil industry.

Chronicles of Conflict: The Persian Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War, also called Desert Storm, began when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August of 1990. Iraq believed that Kuwait was “slant” drilling petroleum across Iraq’s border. The value of the oil that was supposedly taken illegally from Iraq was $2,400. Iraq further stated that Kuwait was hurting Iraq’s economy by keeping oil prices low because of overproduction. Iraq also thought that Kuwait should cancel war debts owed from the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).

Kuwait sent urgent messages to the United Nations to say that Iraq was drilling for oil in Kuwait. Kuwait also notified the United States that the U.S. was committed to defending Kuwait if attacked.

Iraq placed 100,000 troops along the border and invaded Kuwait in August. The United Nations immediately condemned Iraqi actions and told Iraq that economic sanctions and military force would be necessary if Iraq did not withdraw from Kuwait.

There were thirty nations in the coalitions forces fighting Iraq. The United States led the forces under the direction of General Norman Schwarzkopf. The war did not expand out of the countries of Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, but Iraq took the opportunity to fire missiles on Israeli cities.

Saddam Hussein said he would withdraw troops from Kuwait if Syria withdrew
from Lebanon and Israel withdrew from Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and
Lebanon. The U.S. and Israel rejected this plan and Iraq was removed from Kuwait in
February 1991.

Chronicles of Conflict: The Persian Gulf War
President George Herbert Bush said, April 5, 1991, that the U.S. did not intend to intervene in the internal affairs of Iraq and it was not an objective of the coalitions forces to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

In June, 1991, a UN delegation goes to Baghdad to investigate nuclear facilities. Then, in October, the United Nations made a resolution aimed at eliminating Iraq’s nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons arsenal. The Iraqis continued to fight internally, with the Kurds.

Chronicles of Conflict: Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
After the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were refugees, with no place to go and no nation of their own. Many lived in camps, in tents, without clean water or other necessities. The Palestine Liberation Organization was created in 1964 to represent Palestinians. The original goal was the destruction of the State of Israel, to be replaced by an independent Palestinian state. In the 1970’s, this group used violence against Israel to reach its goals. The PLO took credit for many terrorist activities.

Quotes from PLO: “We plan to eliminate the state of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. . .. We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem.” — Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the PLO (in front of an Arab audience in Stockholm in 1996)

Chronicles of Conflict: The West Bank
The West Bank is the name of the area west of the Jordan River. The area is smaller than the state of Delaware. The government of Jordan named it after it was taken by Jordan in 1948. In the early twentieth century, this region was part of the British mandate. It was to be part of Palestine after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. This area was taken over by Israel in 1967, in
the Six-Day War. Israel continues to occupy this region today.

The area is under some jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority; however, Israel has overall control. This includes the Israeli settlements, rural areas, and border regions. The area is mostly Palestinians, 84%, with a minority Jewish population. Part of Jerusalem, the eastern portion, is in the West Bank region. Israel claims to have annexed it, but other nations and the United Nations do not recognize the annexation.

Since the West Bank holds part of the city of Jerusalem, a city that is holy to Judaism,
Islam and Christianity, the importance of it geographically cannot be overstated. This is a region
that three major world religions claim as their own.

Chronicles of Conflict: The Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip is a long region of coastal land adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea. About 1.4 million people, Palestinians, live there. The area is slightly more than twice the size of Washington, D.C. This strip of land does not belong to any country, although it was occupied by
Israel for the last forty years. The Israeli government has been controlling the airspace and coastline of the Mediterranean Sea; the Palestinian Authority controlled the border with Egypt
and had jurisdiction within the area. In 2005, Israel began to dismantle some of the settlements in the Gaza Strip that had been created after the Six-Day War in 1967. The homes occupied by the Israelis would be destroyed and high rise apartment buildings would be built to house the
Palestinians that had waited for the return of this small bit of land.

Chronicles of Conflict: The Golan Heights
This small but disputed area had been the territory of Syria before the Six-Day War. Afterwards, the 80,000 Syrians fled and now there is a population of about 33,000 living in the region. The area is important for boundary security, for Israel, between Lebanon and Syria, and for water rights. Syria believes the Golan Heights is their territory. Israel offered the return of the Golan Heights to Syria in 2000, if Syria recognized Israel and promised peace. Syria refused. The Golan Heights continues to be a land of contention in the Middle East, another point of conflict for Israel and her neighbors.

(edited from source)