Posted on 07/03/2006 7:26:29 PM PDT by Nextrush
The Arab nations vowed to "drive the Jews into the sea" when the United Nations partition plan for Palestine came into force in May 1948.
But the new nation of Israel survived the onslaught with arms smuggled in from all kinds of places including Eastern Europe (Czech arms). Communists apparently saw some hope in Israel's Socialist founders.
However, the Soviet's were able to spread Communist influence into Israel's Arab neighbors with ease by the middle of the 1950's with Syria and most notably Egypt.
The flow of Soviet arms provided a sobering picture to Israel's leader David Ben Gurion.
Israeli intelligence reports pointed to an Egyptian arms buildup that included jet aircraft and bombers that could devastate Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. Israel's air force would be no match.
On the ground, the situation was all too similar to today, with weaker borders and security. Constant Palestinian "fedayeen" attacks were launched from neighboring Arab countries.
One such attack on March 24th, 1955 involved a slaughter of a wedding party in the Israeli village of Patish where 20 people were killed and injured.
The attackers came from across the border in Egypt and as the tempo of their raids picked up dozens more Israelis were killed, wounded or kidnapped.
On August 31st, 1955 an Israeli armoured column crossed into the Gaza Strip and destroyed "fedayeen" headquarters in Khan Yunis.
United Nations observers watched the events and talked about "reason" as the deadly attacks on Israelis continued.
Israeli and Egyptian troops faced off in a demilitarized zone at a key crossroads on the Sinai border.
The bottom line in August 1955 was that Israel would soon be militarily inferior to Egypt and had to launch a pre-emptive strike to survive.
For that purpose, Israel needed arms supplies and turned to United States where a 60 million dollar deal was rejected. Britain did little better giving the Israelis six 1945-era jet planes that were obsolete.
Ben Gurion then decided to turn to France. Both countries were led by Socialists and saw Egypt as an enemy.
France saw Egypt as an enemy because of its agitation and support of the rebellion in Algeria and Ben Gurion rightly believed France would help Israel in its time of need.
When Shimon Peres was sent to France in late 1955 he found receptive ears and eventually lists of arms that would be provided to Israel.
The French saw the Israelis as a force that could punish Egypt militarily and force Nasser to back off the Algerian issue.
Followup to: http://free republic.com/focus/f-news/1658589/posts
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