Wars Part 2: 1982-2014
Note: Even to name this week’s newsletter is challenging. We are ostensibly talking about wars/violent conflicts/clashes//aggressions/incursions on the macro level. Some may see the 76 year history of Israel’s existence as an ongoing war, while others may see the following events as distinct conflicts. Some may call the periods in between peaceful, and others not. This newsletter provides an overview of formative violent moments in the history of Israel/Palestine, using widely used terminology from different perspectives. Even to describe the timeline of these events is impossible to do without bias, so we will rely heavily this week on sources that you can review. The information will likely prompt questions about self-defense, counter-insurgency, civilian versus military personnel, terrorism, and revolution. Please ask us!
1982 and 2006: Wars in Lebanon
1982: Known to some as the Lebanon Invasion and the First Lebanon War, or to others as Operation Peace in the Galilee, Israel invaded South Lebanon in June 1982, in the midst of the Lebanese Civil War, purportedly in retaliation for the attempted assassination of the Israeli Ambassador to England.
2006: Known in Lebanon as the July War and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War, this second military conflict began on July 12, 2006 when Hezbollah militants ambushed an Israeli army border patrol in a cross border raid, kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing three others.
The Middle East Research and Information Project describes the First Lebanon War here.
The European Institute for the Mediterranean describes the Second Lebanon War in its report, “In the Eye of the Storm: the Summer 2006 War in Lebanon.”
The Israeli Defense Forces describe the First and Second Lebanon wars from an Israeli perspective.
This timeline gives a history of Israeli-Lebanese relations from an Arab perspective
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy provides this interactive map of clashes along the Lebanese border with Israel.
1987 and 2000: Intifadas
First Intifada
Intifada is an Arabic word that means “shaking off”. In the context of the Holy Land, it has come to mean a “civil uprising.”
Encyclopedia Britannica describes the catalyst for the First Intifada: In December 1987, an Israeli vehicle struck two vans carrying Palestinian workers, killing four of them, an event that was perceived by Palestinians as an act of revenge for the death by stabbing of an Israeli in Gaza a few days earlier.
Acts against civilians, on both sides, are often cited as the spark that set off this series of conflicts. Here’s an overview from Wikipedia.
This overview of the first intifada comes from Makan, a Palestinian organization in the UK. there are useful footnotes at the end for further reading.
This explanation is from the International Encyclopedia of the Palestinian Question.
Not unexpectedly, the ADL presents this alternative view, as does the Jewish Virtual Library.
Second Intifada
The Second Intifada began after the perceived failure of negotiations at Camp David, hosted by then-President Bill Clinton. The immediate event which sparked the violence may have been the visit by Ariel Sharon, an Israeli politician and former general, to the Al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem.
Similar to above, Makan, describes the Second Initfada from a Palestinian perspective, and the ADL from a Jewish perspective.
You can also get a Palestinian perspective from Al Jazeera, and an Israeli one from the Israeli Embassies.
2005: Gaza Withdrawal
After 1967, Israel assumed effective military control of the Gaza Strip. In the early 1970s, with the approval of the Israeli government and the support of the Israeli Defense Forces, Jewish Israelis began moving into Gaza. In August 2005, the State of Israel withdrew personnel from the Gaza Strip, removing all Israeli military installations, and 25 Israeli settlements (4 in the West Bank) with over 8,000 residents.
For information on indigeneity and history residency in the Gaza Strip, see the newsletter from two weeks ago.
The European Institute of the Mediterranean outlines the plan and outcome in detail here.
The Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs provides an interactive map of Gaza in 2005 here.
The Israeli Embassy describes the 2005 disengagement here, while the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Negotiations Affairs Department has a different perspective, suggesting that disengagement did not free Gaza from occupation.
Professor Maha Nassar describes why the history of the Gaza Strip is key to understanding the current conflict.
2014 Gaza War
The 2014 Gaza War, described by the IDF as Operation Protective Edge, was a 50-day military operation that took place in the Gaza Strip. The war began on July 8, 2014, when Israel invaded Gaza after Palestinian militants attacked Israeli cities with rockets. The war ended in a truce on August 26, 2014.
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs put together a comprehensive report from an Israeli perspective, “The Gaza War 2014: The War Israel Did Not Want and the Disaster It Averted.” The Encyclopedia of the Palestinian Question provides a different view.
Many have compared the current war in Gaza to this 2014 one, including the Associated Press, and the Voice of America.