One year after the 7/10 Hamas attack on Israel killing 1200 civilians and 251 kidnapped, the war had swung out of control in Middle East. IDF retaliation immediately at 10 am of 7th Oct ’23 and that relentless bombings and ground invasion of Gaza killed 40,000 of which half are civilians. It is a war of attrition hitherto not seen in the last two and half decades. Giving a lecture at Boston Public Library on March 2012 while discussing his book ''Better Angels of our Nature: Why violence has declined'' Steven Pinker must not be too happy about how violence has become the mainstay in Middle East eleven years later.
Pinker explained that essentially the perception that we live in violent times is wrong, as trade, literacy and government’s have. all worked to achieve peace.Arab and Israel are locked in a conflict that is frozen over time. It started with the beginning of British mandate over Palesine in 1922, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire. When the British left in 1947 that conflict that was intermittent between the Jews who had come to settle in their homeland, had the fierce opposition of the Palestine people who wares settled there in course of the migration of t9he Jews from first millennium CE, at the time of the Roman rule in the kingdom of Judae.
On 29 November 1947 the UN announced the partition of the British mandate of Palestine, into an Arab state of Palestine and a Jewish state.
Immediate response by Arabs on 30th November was to attack a bus carrying Jewish passengers from Netanya to Jerusalrm.On 9 April the Stern gang carried out the infamous attack on Deir Yassin village. The Arabs followed up by killing 78 Jewish passengers in a bus heading from Hadassah hospital.British forces moved out on May 15th 1948 and on the eve of withdrawal Israel declared Independence. Egypt conducted aerial raid on Tel Aviv the next day. Ground invasion by Egypt, Trans Jordan as Jordan was called in those days grabbed land East of Jordan river and East Jerusalem. Iraq and Syria alongwith Lebanon joined the war.
By 1949 Israel recovered its lost territories upto the Negrev, in the Egypt-Palestine frontier minus Gaza Strip.The next timelines of the conflict was the Suez Crisis in 1956,which happened after Nasser nationalised the Suez canal, the busiest shipping lane of the world.Egypt blocked the Israeli port of Eilat that made Israel to respond and capture Gaza, Rafah border crossing and Al Arish, as also opening up sea access through the Gulf of Aqaba.
The six day 1967 war begun with Syrian bombardment on Golan Heights and similar sabre rattling by Egypt across the Sinai, when Israel brought down number of Syrian MiG fighter jets. Istael responded to Egyptian mobilization by precision strike that decimated the Egyptia Air Force.As a consequence the Egyptian lost Gaza and Sinai peninsula, Golan Heights was occupied and l Jordanians were pushed out of the West Bank, which was a Trans Jordanian territory during the British mandate.
Yom Kippur War 1973:
The War began on the holy Yum Kippur day on Oct 6 by a joint attack on Israel from across the Suez Canal by Egypt and across Golan Heights by Syria. Both sides were beaten back after suffering initial reverses in a War that continued till Oct 26th.The 7 Oct attack dramatically escalated the conflict into a regional War as Iran and its Shia proxy armies started to attack Israel. Firsr the Hezbollah on 8th Oct rained missiles and Houtis of Yeman fired long range missiles. Running into its first anniversary Israel is facing a seven front War.
On 17th and 18th September thousands of Pagers and Walkie Talkie sets exploded in Lebanon, that was a surgical operation by IDF. Similar attacks had killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a high security Iranian compound in Tehran Thd Pager attack that targeted the Hezbollah Command and communication was followed by the killing of Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah, a leader of tall standing within the Arab world.
As all the proxies of Iran got critically attacked including targets in Syria and proxies in Iraq, the Iran government stepped in..On Oct 1st Iran rained close to 180 ballistic and supersonic missile attacks into Israel that covered the thousand plus distance upto Israel within ten to twelve minutes.Simultaneous to the attacks on high value targets deep inside Lebanon the capital Beirut came under bombardment and a ground invasion, a thing Israel last did in 2006.
The regional balance of Midsle East is poised precariously and much depends on the November 5 US election results. Israelii PM Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened that Israel will respond
to the missile attack on his country. If and when Israel will attack and the manner in which it will target the leadership or the nuclear sites or oil installations cannot be hazarded. But the Oct 7th 2023 Hamas attack had brought an existential threat to Israeli doorstep.