How Did Israel Go To War?

Since its founding in 1948, Israel has almost continuously been at war. First the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, then the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Six-Day War in 1967, the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the 1982 Lebanon War, the 2006 Lebanon War, and several wars in Gaza (2008, 2012, 2014). The two Intifadas of 1987 and 2000 could also be seen as wars. Israel claims that it is surrounded by enemies bent on destroying it, and this is undoubtedly true to some extent. Upon closer analysis, however, especially of the wars of 1967, 1973, and 1982, we may observe that many of the conflicts were, in fact, unnecessary, and that Israel may have had other motivations for going to war. In fact, Israel perpetually looks for violent solutions to questions that can be
Israel had come closer than ever before to destruction, and the threat of annihilation and genocide after the Holocaust was still looming over its head. Israel’s existentialist rhetoric had finally become a reality and 1973 served as undeniable proof that Israel was surrounded by neighbors all bent upon its destruction. Another immensely important fact was that the Arab armies attacked on Yom Kippur, the most holy of Jewish holidays. This made the war extremely symbolic. It now represented Israeli survival in the face of those who wanted to destroy it, and further served as a powerful unifying factor between all components of Israeli society. The Yom Kippur War solidified three important concepts in the Israeli mindset: Israeli would never be at peace with its Arab neighbors, Israel would always be endangered by them, and Israeli cold never peacefully coexist with
Should Israel be a Jewish state? Would a true Jewish state be antidemocratic, infringing upon the rights of Israel’s Arab and Druze citizens? Where can the proper balance between secularism and Judaism be struck? What role should Jewish law have on the Israeli legal system? Again, this is just one of many internal cleavages dividing Israel, but not necessarily related to the Palestinian question or Israel’s neighbors, along with the Ashkenazim-Sephardim/Mizrahim divide and the question over the role of Ethiopian immigrants in Israeli