Israelis with flags protesting in front of old city walls

Opinion: Anniversary of Arab-Israeli war provides opportunity

FIFTY years ago and 19 years after the 1948 War of Independence, Israel was once again dragged into an existential war.

Recently, Israel’s state archives released detailed original transcripts of Cabinet discussions before the war.

Conquest wasn’t on the minds of Israel’s leaders. Survival was.

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s blockade of the Straits of Tiran, his demand for the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers and his troop build-up in Sinai, totalling almost 100,000 soldiers and 1000 tanks, created a bleak picture. Numerous Arab leaders promised a war of annihilation.

IDF Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin warned that “if Israel doesn’t strike first, there would be a grave danger to Israel’s existence”.

Israel’s decisive victory that followed was a watershed event in the Middle East.

Read the full article by Colin Rubenstein at The Courier-Mail.