Dept Sem:Terror Reprisal M.E

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This seminar, using documentary evidence, will deal with Israeli-Arab relations during the first decade of Israel's existence, 1949-1956. It will focus on the "border wars" between Israel and its neighbors, principally Egypt (the Gaza Strip), Jordan (the West Bank), and Syria, and the problems of Arab infiltration and the demilitarized zones, which triggered these conflicts. We will look at the nature of that infiltration, with its growing terrorist component, and the Arab governments' policies on the matter, and Israel's responses to the infiltration, eventually leading to the reprisals policy. We will examine some of these reprisals--including Qibya, 1953--in depth. Ultimately, we will examine the count-down to the Sinai/Suez War, the course of that war, and its consequences.