Coalition Against Israel example essay topic

COALITION WARFARE: ARAB ISRAEL WARS Introduction 1. After the WW II, major colonial powers like Great Britain, France, Netherlands etc which were devastated by the war, lost their control over their colonies and other occupied territories. British, while departing occupied Palestine in 1948 (which they took from Ottoman Empire in 1918) left behind a new Jewish state i.e. Israel. The creation of Israel was not accepted by the local politicians as well as the neighboring Arab states. When all the political efforts were fruitless to stop the creation of Israel, the Arab states decided to form a coalition to attack Israel and replace it with the state of Palestine (majority of Palestinians were Muslims with a sizeable populations of Christians) as they could not tolerate a Jewish state in that region because of conflicting ideology.

The Coalition 2. The following countries / forces formed a coalition against Israel: (a) Palestinian militia forces (b) Egypt (c) Syria (d) Iraq (e) Saudi Arabia (f) Lebanon (g) Jordan 3. These countries joined their resources and conducted four major and two low scale armed conflicts against Israel. These wars are as follows: (a) War of Independence (1948) When UN General Assembly voted with a 2/3 majority on 29 November 1947 to divide "Old Palestine" into a Jewish and Arab state, the neighboring Arab states not only rejected the partition but also mobilized their military forces and attacked Israel from north, south and east. During the war, Israeli forces managed not only to repel their opponents but also took control of additional area. (b) The Sinai Campaign (1956) After unsuccessful attempt to crush Israel, the Egypt performed the blockade of Port of Eilat thus adversely affecting the Israel's trade with Far East and Africa. This act of war by Egypt forced Israel to respond.

Since Egyptians had also nationalized Suez Canal (controlled by Britain and France), the French and British also waged military operations against Egypt but withdrew owing to international pressure. (c) The Six Day War (1967) Israel, after determining through various sources that the Arabs will strike yet another blow, very swiftly, carried out an pre-emptive attack and destroyed almost the entire Air forces of Egypt, Jordan. Syria and Iraq within a span of two days. Thus at the end of this six days war, Israel captured substantial amount of Egyptian territory, West Bank and Golan Heights. (d) Ramadan War (1973) On October 6, 1973 Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated attack on Israel. The Arabs did achieve surprise and were able to take back some of their territory but a classic riposte (a counter offensive maneuver) by the Israeli army threatened Cairo and thus forced advancing Egyptian army to recoil and ultimately accept cease fire. 4. In 1975, Egypt accepted truce and hence the fear of such major wars in the region was eradicated.

Although there were military operations like invasion of Southern Lebanon in 1982 and the air attack on Oz irak nuclear facility in Iraq, but since these operations did not occur through any coalition therefore I would not discuss them here. The quarter century period (1948-1973) saw four major armed conflicts in the region and these would be discussed in the following paragraphs. (a) Goals As mentioned earlier, the Arab states neighboring Israel joined hands to crush the latter. The countries which fought militarily were Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Jordan whereas Kuwait, Sudan and Algeria provided funds. This goal was based on the assumptions that: (i) This land belongs to Palestinians only and (ii) Since Jews are cursed community therefore they have no right to establish a Jewish state "here". Although the history of coalition warfare is full of examples where participating states rarely shared identical aims (Napoleonic Wars, WW II etc) but in this case, there was only one goal and one aim i.e. to crush Israel. The failure to achieve military objectives is understandable if the coalition had varied and diversified aims.

But why did such a big and vast coalition failed to achieve its objectives despite having 3-4 times more resources against their enemy? The following chapters shall contain the answer. (b) Training Since the Arab states had equipment and arsenal of Soviet origin, their (Arab) training was also of Soviet style. But their training lacked realistic approach (since there was no concept of joint ness, command and control was a major problem in their respective military setup which prevailed throughout the period of warfare). There was high degree of rigidity and lack of initiative in the planning. The other factor was lack of professionalism and can be explained by this example. On the morning of crucial day i.e. 5th June, Field Marshal Amer (Egyptian Air Force) accompanied by all the commanders, flew off on inspection tour of Sinai.

It was natural that when the CinC was in the air, orders should be issued to all SAMs batteries to hold their fire. And it was during that tour that Israel attacked. Egyptian President Anwar Sada at explained this situation and I quote, "We can thus say that the war began and ended while Amer was in the air". On the other hand, although heavy emphasis was laid on training of Israeli military, IAF was probably the best.

Their pilots proved highly capable air combat fighters even when their platforms were equal to Arab aircraft if not better. (c) Capabilities As they say "in reality, coalition means friction, inefficiency and the whole amounting to less than the sum of all the parts", was perfectly applicable to Arab coalitions. Capability is a combination of tangible and intangible i.e. equipment and doctrine coupled with sound training. The Arabs lacked in the last two (Doctrine and training) and thus their capabilities were far inferior to that of Israel. On the other hand, Israel had western and better equipment coupled with hard and realistic training and a very effective and sound doctrine. In fact, Israel possessed one thing which Arabs did not. Israel had no choice but to fight better than their adversaries because it was a matter of their survival, their existence as a nation. (d) Logistics Logistics is the most important aspect of any coalition after the 'goal'.

The Arabs had difficulty in mobilization due to lack of infrastructure. The absence of communication links between the major partners (Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan) resulted in un-even force potential distribution around Israel, much to the dislike of Arabs. Whereas, Israelis fully utilized the concept of interior lines as professed by Jo mini. It was because of this very reason (interior lines) that they could swing their forces from Sinai to Golan Heights in few hours. Moreover, all these wars saw a huge support from the main donors i.e. Soviet Union for Arabs and USA for Israel. In fact, had it not been a swift and timely support to Israel by the USA during the early days of 1973 Ramadan war, the map of Israel would have been different. (e) Strategy Israel's military strategy was to capture enemy territory and destroy enemy forces as quickly as possible.

It was based on the German concept of Blitzkrieg which lay emphasis on offensive action, surprise and mobility. Whereas Arabs were trained for prolonged war from well dug in positions based on 'Shield and Sword' concept of the Soviets. A highly mobile and dynamic war was alien to them. (f) Culture Owing to a common culture, language and heritage, the Arabs did not find it difficult to have cohesion in working or coalition environment. However, as mentioned above, lack of other factors (command & control, logistics) was the cause of Arabs failure. (g) Communication Israeli communication system was simple, practical and secure. Whereas Arabs could not ensure the security of their communication network.

For example, during 1967 War, jamming of Egyptian communication was responsible for their failure to pass crucial orders to the battlefield. So much so that important messages to Egyptian units had to be passed through Cairo radio. It was ironic that Jordan and Syria could not be informed about the pre-emptive strike and the outbreak of war in Sinai. As a result, their air forces kept holding only to get destroyed after the mid-day. (h) Leadership and Morale The military leadership on the Israeli side was of high professional standing and was backed by rich combat experience. One of the main secrets of Israel's success lay in the fact that the officers were ahead of their men in battle. On the contrary, leadership suffered from poor coordination, planning and execution on the Arab side.

Conclusion 5. A coalition is an informal agreement for common action between two or more nations. Necessity drives nations to form coalitions as doing it alone normally impose serious limitations. Historically, coalition has been in vogue for thousands of years. When the Israelites fought the worshippers of Baal about 1100 B.C., Gideon's side included the Abiezrites and the clan of Mann assa against Zerah and Zalmunna's Midianites, Amelekites and Arabians. The most important aspect of any coalition is its goal and objective.

The commonality of interests (goal) can even force arch rivals to join hands in order to fight together as partners as it was amply displayed during Napoleonic, pre Napoleonic and WW II. During the period of 25 years of war against Israel, the Arab coalition had a single common goal which was to crush Israel. But they lacked almost everything else from logistics to doctrine, from command & control to leadership & morale, from training to communication.