RESEARCH REPORT COMMITTEE: HISTORICAL COUNCIL ISSUE: RESTORING INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND ECONOMIC STABILITY AFTER THE YOM KIPPUR WAR OF 1973 CHAIRS: ANDREW IRWIN, SARAH LEGROS

30.11 – 02.12

 

INTRODUCTION

THE CONFERENCE

In 1897 the first Zionist congress proposed to create a state for the Jewish people in Palestine. This was a reaction to anti-Semitic persecution in Europe, regular pogroms in Tsarist Russia, and clear attempts to block Jews from positions of authority in Western Europe, for example the Dreyfus affair. This crystallised the main ideas of an ideology that had emerged earlier, notably in Thedor Herzl's the Jewish state (1896).1

In 1947 the UN proposed a plan to share Palestine between an Arab and a Jewish State. In the 14th of May 1948, at the end of the British protectorate, while the very last of British troops left the country a Jewish state in Palestine was proclaimed unilaterally. Both the United States and Soviet Union immediately recognised the new state, but its proclamation caused an out-cry from the Arab league2 and led to the invasion of the new state by its Arab neighbours and the first Arab-Israeli war.

First day : 16th October 1973

This is a fictive United Nations conference that would have taken place that day, about the very recent events in the Sinai and In syria, in order to attempt to bring the peace to the re-gion.

Focusing on the Israeli counter-attack the day before, but also on all the ezvents that preceeded. (Sadat’s speech, negociations over Sinai and Golan Height occupation, Egyptian an Syrian attack of the 6th of October ..)

We encourage the delegates to gather information on the ongoing conflict between Arab states between 1947 and the 16th of October 1973, baring in mind that you should not be aware of events after this date, and therefore not take them into account in this conference.

Second day : 17th October

The Chairs will give the Delegates any supplementary information that occured on that date that might help the debate.

 

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TIMELINE OF EVENTS

1897: First Zionist congress in Basel. 1917: Balfour declaration, encouraging the creation of a national home for the Jewish

people3. Similar promises are made to Arab representatives under Ottoman rule. 1918: End of WW1. Collapse of Ottoman Empire, realisation of importance of energy

resources for allied victory, among them petrol, discovered in the Middle East in the first decades of the 20th century.

1923: Treaty of Sevres creates mandate under the French(Syria, Lebanon) and British (Iraq, Palestine) in the Middle East, instead of sovereign states.

1925: Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC) set up. Later called the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) it was owned by Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Royal Dutch/Shell, the Compagnie Francaises des Pétroles (CFP) and Standard Oil (USA).

1930s: Increased emigration of Jews to Palestine from Europe due to persecution. 1939-45: World War Two, six million Jews massacred in the Shoah. The need for a Jewish

homeland becomes impossible to ignore. 14th May 1948: Proclamation of the State of Israel, after the last British forces left

Haifa,Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, declared the creation of the State of Israel. United States President Harry S. Truman immediately recognized the new state, followed by Soviet premier Joseph Stalin. Arab League members Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq declared war and announced their rejection of the United Nations partition decision. Saudi-Arabia and Yemen also sent forces to participate in the invasion, pushed back by the Israelis.

1948-1949: First Arab-Israeli war, armistice signed with the UN, new borders. Israel gets 77% of the Palestinian territory while the original share plan gave them only about 50%. This created massive emigration by Palestinians communities sometimes enforced by the Israeli state.

1956: Suez crisis, Following Nasser’s nationalisation of the canal, Israel, France and United Kingdom agree on a secret plan for Israel to attack and occupy the Sinai while British and French troops are paratrooped in to “keep the peace”. The US and the USSR unite at the UN to force the invaders to leave. Britain and France suffer humiliation. Israel withdraws leaving UN troops in the Sinai region.

1960: Creation of the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries) primarily Arab organisation to regulate oil prices. First real challenges to the Seven Sisters, the Western copmanies which controlled the oil market.

June 1967: Six days war, pre-emptive strike by Israel and victory over Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

1970 Dawson's Field Hijackings: One of the first of a series of plane hijackings in the 1970 and 1980s.4

1970: Black September, King Hussein of Jordan declared military rule in response to a

 

fedayeen coup d’état to seize his kingdom — resulting in the deaths or expulsion of thousands of Palestinians from Jordan. Black September Organisation (BSO) of radical PLO members formed.5

1972 Munich Olympics: the BSO killed eleven Israeli athletes. 1972: The Iraqi government nationalized the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) which were

taken over by the Iraq National Oil Company. Arab states begin to challenge Western companies and their domination.

1973: Kippur war. DETAILED TIMELINE OF THE WAR

January 1973 — The 1973-74 stock market crash commences as a result of inflation pressure and the collapsing monetary system. August 23, 1973 — In preparation for the Yom Kippur War, Saudi King Faisal and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat meet in Riyadh and secretly negotiate an accord whereby the Arabs will use the "oil weapon" as part of the military conflict. October 6 — Egypt and Syria attack Israeli-occupied lands in the Sinai Peninsular and Golan Heights on Yom Kippur starting the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Night of October 8 — Israel goes on full nuclear alert. Kissinger is notified on the morning of October 9. United States begins to resupply Israel. October 8–10 — OPEC negotiations with major oil companies to revise the 1971 Tehran price agreement fail. October 12 — The United States initiates Operation Nickel Grass, a strategic airlift to provide replacement weapons and supplies to Israel. This followed similar Soviet moves to supply the Arab side. October 16 — Saudia Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Abu Dhabi, Kuweit and Qatar raise posted prices by 17% to $3.65 per barrel and announce production cuts. October 17 — OAPEC oil ministers agree to use oil to influence the West's support of Israel. They recommended an embargo against non-complying states and mandated export cuts. October 19 — Nixon requests Congress to appropriate $2.2 billion in emergency aid to Israel, which triggers a collective Arab response. Libya immediately proclaims an embargo on oil exports to the US. Saudi Arabia and other Arab oil-producing states follow the next day. October 26 — The Yom Kippur War ends in defeat for the attackers. November 5 — Arab producers announce a 25% output cut. A further 5% cut is threatened. November 23 — The Arab embargo is extended to Portugal, Rhodesia and South Africa. November 27 — Nixon signs the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act authorizing price, production, allocation and marketing controls. December 9 — Arab oil ministers agree to another five percent production cut for non-friendly countries in January 1974.

 

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KEY TERMS

December 25 — Arab oil ministers cancel the January output cut. Saudi oil minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani promises a ten percent OPEC production rise. January 7–9, 1974 — OPEC decides to freeze prices until April 1. January 18 — Israel signs a withdrawal agreement to pull back to the east side of the Suez Canal. February 11 — Kissinger unveils the Project Independence plan for US energy independence. February 12–14 — Progress in Arab-Israeli disengagement triggers discussion of oil strategy among the heads of state of Algeria, Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia. March 5 — Israel withdraws the last of its troops from the west side of the Suez Canal. March 17 — Arab oil ministers, with the exception of Libya, announce the end of the US embargo. May 31 — Diplomacy by Kissinger produces a disengagement agreement on the Syrian front. December 1974 — The 1973–74 stock market crash ends.

ARABS: a major pan ethnic group whose native language is Arabic, comprising the majority of the Arab world. Arab people share common linguistic, culture and political traditions. They originally come from the Arabian Peninsula and who now live mostly in the Middle East and northern Africa. YOM KIPPUR: also known as Day of Atonement is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jewish people traditionally observe this holy day with an approximate 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spend-ing most of the day in synagogue services. SEVEN SISTERS: a term coined in the 1950s by Italian businessman Enrico Mattei head of the Italian state oil company Eni; to describe the seven oil companies which formed the "Consortium for Iran" cartel and dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s to the 1970s. The group comprised Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now BP); Gulf Oil Standard Oil of California (later Chevron) Texaco, Royal Dutch Shell, Standard Oil of New Jer-sey (now Esso/Exxon) and Standard Oil of New York (Socony). OPEC (ORGANIZATION OF PETROLEUM-EXPORTING COUNTRIES): is an organization formed in 1960 to administer a common policy for the sale of petroleum. Its members are Algeria, Angola, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. Ecuador and Gabon were members but withdrew in 1992

 

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SOME KEY FIGURES IN THE CONFLICT

and 1995 respectively. AN EMBARGO: is an official ban on trade or other commercial activity with a particular country. ZIONISM: is a worldwide Jewish movement that resulted in the establishment and devel-opment of the state of Israel.

BEN GURION, ISRAELI PM (1948-63)

NASSER LEADER OF EGYPT (1955-70)

GOLDA MEIR, ISRAELI PM (1969-74)

SADAT LEADER OF EGYPT (1970-81)

SADAT, CARTER AND BEGHIN AT THE WHITE HOUSE

 

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

THE YOM KIPPUR WAR (1973) AND ITS CONSEQUENCES: SUMMARY

On the 6th of October 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated surprise attack against Israel on the Holy day of Yom Kippur. Both countries were hoping to occupy regions they had lost to Israel in previous conflicts. Israel’s government and army staff were taken by surprise as Egypt pushed through light defences on the Suez canal and crossed into the Sinai and Syr-ia attacked in the Golan Heights region. Israel counter attacked a few days later, and managed to regain control of Golan Heights and push enemy forces back in the Sinai. But the war was a blow to Israeli morale and their illusion of invincibility following easy victories against the odds in 1948 and 1967. It also showed that Israel could not completely rely on her American ally, under economic pressure from the growing power of OPEC. 1. THE IMPACT OF THE 1967 SIX DAY WAR

The Kippur war, or October war, was the consequence of the previous Arab-Israeli conflict: The Six Day war of 1967, a clear victory for the Jewish state. This left Israel in control of a territory four times bigger than its previous size. After his success in confronting Britain and France in the Suez crisis Gamal Abdel Nasser had become the unofficial leader of the Arab world. But Nasser and Egypt were now humiliated, losing the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, while Israel took the Golan heights from Syria in the north. 2. SADAT'S PLAN

At the death of Nasser, in September 1970, Awar El-Sadat became president of Egypt. He found himself leader of an economically troubled nation that could not afford to continue its end-less crusade against Israel. He wanted to make peace and thereby achieve stability and re-covery of the Sinai, but after Israel’s 1967 victory it was unlikely that Israel’s peace terms would be favorable to Egypt. Sadat had to gain momentum in his political career, and re-launch Nasser's Pan-Arab policy. He therefore conceived a daring plan for a surprise attack with President Assad of Syria, to weaken Israeli and bring her to the negotiating table. But Sa-dat prepared his attack diplomatically by expelling over 20 000 Soviet advisers and opening diplomatic channels with the US. The United States were Israel’s main ally, and an essential mediator in any future peace talks.

 

3. THE WAR

The fourth Arab-Israeli war began on October 6, 1973. Israeli soldiers and civil servants were on holiday to celebrate Yom Kippur. The Arab armies made impressive advances with their state of art weaponry.

SOVIET MIG-17 FROM THE EGYPTIAN AIR FORCE

SOVIET 9M14 MALYUTKA ANTI-TANK MISSILE OR “SAGGER” USED BY EGYPTIAN SOLDIERS

 

EGYPTIAN SAM MISSILES PROVIDED BY THE USSR Iraqi forces soon joined the war, and Syria received support from Jordan. After several days, Israel was fully mobilized, and the Israel Defence Forces began beating back the Arab gains at a heavy cost to soldiers and equipment. A U.S. airlift of arms eventually came to help Israel, but President Richard Nixon delayed the emergency military aid for a week as a tacit signal of U.S. sympathy for Egypt. On October 25, an Egyptian-Israeli cease-fire was brokered by the United Nations. 4. THE AFTERMATH

Israel's victory came at the cost of heavy casualties, and Israelis criticized the government’s lack of preparedness. In April 1974, the nation’s Prime Minister, Golda Meir (1898-1978), stepped down. Although Egypt had again suffered military defeat at the hands of its Jewish neighbour, the initial Egyptian successes greatly enhanced Sadat’s prestige in the Middle East and gave him an opportunity to seek peace. In 1974, the first of two Egyptian-Israeli disengagement agree-ments providing for the return of portions of the Sinai to Egypt were signed, and in 1979 Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the first peace agreement between Israel and an Arab country. In 1982, Israel fulfilled the 1979 peace treaty by returning all the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. For Syria, the Yom Kippur War was a disaster. The unexpected Egyptian-Israeli cease-fire exposed Syria to military defeat, and Israel seized even more territory in the Golan Heights. In 1979, Syria voted with other Arab states to expel Egypt from the Arab League.

 

MAPS AND DOCUMENTS

FORCES DURING THE FIRST OFFENSIVE

 

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

MIDDLE EAST AFTER THE TREATY OF SEVRES

TO SUM UP THE OIL CRISIS:

During the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an embargo against the United States in retaliation for the U.S. deci-sion to re-supply the Israeli military, even though this was delayed by Washington in order to show support to Egypt, and to gain leverage in the post-war peace negotiations. Arab OPEC members also extended the embargo to other countries that supported Israel in-cluding the Netherlands, Portugal, and South Africa. The embargo both banned petroleum ex-ports to the targeted nations and introduced cuts in oil production. Several years of negotia-tions between oil-producing nations and oil companies had already destabilised the old pric-ing system, which exacerbated the embargo’s effects. The US took the idea of peacemaking more seriously with their new potential ally Egypt, but the peace brokered by President Carter was to be very controversial.

SOLUTION FOUND BY THE UN The first cease-fire was negotiated by the UN on October 22. It did not work, the fighting soon

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

broke out again. Soon Israel had the Egyptian Army nearly surrounded. United States and the Soviet Union were opposed, the tensions between the two countries increased. If one of them should join in the war to help out an ally, the other would likely join as well. Many people felt the world was on the brink of World War III.

On October 25, 1973 under UN pressure to avoid escalation of the conflict another cease fire was negotiated. It was successful and Egypt was powerful enough to negotiate with Israel.

EGYPT'S SECRET NEGOTIATIONS, SUPPORTED BY THE US Nasser negotiated directly with Israel, encouraged by the US. He obtained the Sinai in return for recognising Israel. He became the 'black sheep' of the Arab world and was assassinated in 1981 by his own soldiers during a military parade.

Was a better solution for the Palestinian question possible in 1973 ?

Article and videos:

http://www.history.com/topics/yom-kippur-war

Essay about the consequences:

https://cliojournal.wikispaces.com/The+Consequences+of+the+Yom+Kippur+War

Involvement of USSR and USA:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-yom-kippur-war-brings-united-states-and-ussr-to-brink-of-conflict

http://www.ducksters.com/history/cold_war/yom_kippur_war.php

The oil crisis and countries involved:

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/oil-embargo

Timeline of events, Kippur war:

http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/9169/a-timeline-of-the-events-of-the-yom-kippur-war/

Timeline oil crisis:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis#Chronology

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

Géopolitique de l’Afrique et du Moyen-Orient

Le Monde diplomatique, Juin 2007

 

NOTES

1 "The Jewish question persists wherever Jews live in appreciable numbers. Wherever it does not exist, it is brought in together with Jewish immigrants. We are naturally drawn into those places where we are not persecuted, and our appearance there gives rise to persecution. This is the case, and will inevitably be so, everywhere, even in highly civilised countries—see, for instance, France—so long as the Jewish question is not solved on the political level." Herzl, 'the Jewish state” page 53

2 Extract from the Balfour declaration His Majesty's government view with favour the estab-lishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best en-deavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish com-munities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

3 The Arab League was formed in Cairo in 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan , Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria, It now has 22 members in North Africa, Arabia and the horn of Africa (21 since Syria was suspended in 2011). At the Cairo Summit of 1964, the Arab League initiated the creation of an organisation representing the Palestinian people. The first Palestinian Na-tional Council convened in East Jerusalem on 29 May 1964. The Palestine Liberation Organisa-tion was founded during this meeting on 2 June 1964. Palestine was shortly admitted in to the Arab League, represented by the PLO. Today, the State of Palestine s recognised as a full mem-ber of the Arab League.

4 In a single day, four planes were simultaneously seized by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) gunmen, and forced to fly to Dawson's Field in the Jordanian desert. Most pas-sengers were freed, but Jewish passengers and the flight crews consisting of 56 members were kept behind. The PFLP demanded and obtained the release detained hijacker Leila Khaled.

5 The group's most infamous operation was the killing of 11 Israeli athletes, nine of whom were first taken hostage, and the killing of a German police officer, during the 1972 Summer Olym-pics in Munich Black September's official name for the operation was "Ikrit” and "Bira", after the names of two Palestinian villages whose residents had been killed or expelled by the Is-raeli armed forces Haganah (now Tsahel) in 1948.