Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Roger Allen, An Introduction to Arabic 

Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 

2000); Salm K. Jayyusi, Modern Arabic Poetry: An 

Anthology (New York: Columbia University Press, 

1987); Kees Versteegh, The Arabic Language, 2d ed. 

(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001).

Arabic language and literature

  

55  J

---

Arab-Israeli conflicts

Among the most intractable conflicts to emerge 

in the 20th century are those that developed 

with the expansion of Zionism (a modern Jewish 

movement and political ideology) and the estab-

lishment of the nation-state of i

srael

. Israel’s a

rab

neighbors took offense at the displacement from 

p

alestine

 of more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs 

during fighting between Zionist settlers and Arabs 

in 1947–49 and came to view Israel as a menac-

ing tool of Western expansion in their region. 

Israelis, meanwhile, viewed their new nation as 

a necessary haven for world Jewry threatened by 

anti

-s

emitism

 and saw their new Arab neighbors 

as unreasonably hostile enemies continuously 

plotting their destruction. The term Arab-Israeli 

conflict thus does not distinguish between the 

specific problem of Palestinian displacement and 

all of its consequences for the Palestinians them-

selves on the one hand, and the wars and conflicts 

between Israel and its many Arab neighbors on 

the other.

Tensions have rarely abated, and formal con-

flict has broken out between Israel and neighbor-

ing Arab states several times. In 1948–49, e

gypt

,

Transjordan (now J

ordan

),  l

ebanon

,  s

yria

, and 

i

raq

 invaded the newly declared Israel, hoping 

to eliminate the new state, but they were repelled 

by the vastly better equipped and trained Israeli 

military. In 1956, Israel joined Britain and France 

in an invasion of Egypt after that nation national-

ized the Suez Canal. However, the Soviet Union 

and the United States forced the alliance to retreat 

from its invasion, humiliating Israel and bolster-

ing Egypt.

Furthermore, in 1967, after receiving faulty 

intelligence reports of an imminent Israeli inva-

sion, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria allied in a mutual 

defense pact, preparing for any potential invasion 

by Israel with an Egyptian-led blockade of Israeli 

shipping at the Strait of Tiran. Israel responded by 

invading the countries, beginning on June 5 and 

ending on June 11, 1967. The result was a deci-

sive defeat of the Arab armies, the occupation by 

Israel of the West Bank, the Sinai, the Gaza Strip, 

and the Golan Heights, and the displacement of at 

least 300,000 more Palestinians and 80,000 Syrian 

residents of the Golan.

Israel’s occupation of such large areas of Arab 

territory provoked Egypt and Syria to invade in 

1973, and the resulting October War, the cease-fire 

of which was sponsored by the United States and 

the Soviet Union, demonstrated the tremendous 

involvement of the cold war superpowers in the 

Arab-Israeli conflict. Although peace was eventu-

ally brokered between Israel and Egypt in 1977, 

resulting in a return of the Sinai, tensions did not 

abate. Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and its 

continued occupation of Palestinian land guar-

anteed further hostilities. From 1987 until 1993, 

the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, erupted, 

escalating the tensions between Israel and the mil-

lions of Arabs living under its rule as well as those 

living in neighboring nations. Although an Ameri-

can-sponsored peace plan gained some ground in 

the mid-1990s, the year 2000 prompted a new 

intifada from a frustrated, oppressed Palestinian 

population. Over the years, the conflicts have 

also fanned the flames of Islamic radicalism in the 

Middle East, as seen first with the rise of the m

Us

-

lim

 b

rotherhood

 (1940s), then the Lebanese Shii 

militia h

izbUllah

 (1980s), the Palestinian militant 

organizations h

amas

 and Palestinian Islamic Jihad 

(1980s), and in the 1990s 

al

-q

aida

. At the dawn 

of the new century, Arab-Israeli conflicts appear 

far from over. Indeed, the American-sponsored 

“war on terror” that began in 2001 has further 

pushed Arab-Israeli conflicts to the forefront of 

world attention.

See also a

raFat

, y

asir

; 

Jihad

 

movements

; J

Uda

-

ism

 

and

 i

slam

; p

alestine

 l

iberation

 o

rganization

; 

terrorism

.

Nancy Stockdale