Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict | Page 15

A Brief Guide for the Perplexed 9
century , but in the perspective of a thousand , two thousand or even three thousand years .
Years later , President John F . Kennedy offered his perspective on the meaning of Israel ’ s rebirth nearly 1,900 years after its last sovereign expression :
Israel was not created in order to disappear — Israel will endure and flourish . It is the child of hope and home of the brave . It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success . It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom .
Regarding the subject of peace , Israel ’ s 1948 Declaration of the Establishment of the State included these words :
We extend our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness , and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land for the common good of all .
Tragically , that offer , like others made by Jewish leaders in the months prior to the state ’ s creation , was ignored .
On May 15 , 1948 , the armies of Egypt , Iraq , Jordan , Lebanon , and Syria attacked the fledgling Jewish state , seeking its destruction .
In the course of this war , launched by Arab nations , civilian populations were affected , as in all wars . Controversies continue to this day about how many local Arabs fled Israel because Arab leaders called on them to do so or threatened them if they did not , how many left out of fear of the fighting , and how many were compelled to leave by Israeli forces . Importantly , hundreds of thousands of Arabs ended up staying in Israel and became citizens of the state .
But the central point must not be overlooked — Arab countries began this war aiming to wipe out the 650,000 Jews in the new State of Israel , and in doing so , these nations defied the UN