Lebanon -Israel War of 1982, Operation Peace For The Galilee

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                               

The 1982 Lebanon War (Operation Peace for the Galilee) began on June 6, 1982, 9 years after the Yom Kippur War.  44 years ago.  [It is still continuing with some different antagonists, called Hezbollas. ]

• Causes: Triggered by cross-border rocket and guerrilla attacks from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) against northern Israel, alongside the attempted assassination of Shlomo Argov, Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.   The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is a Palestinian nationalist coalition recognized internationally as the official representative of the Palestinian people.
• Major Attacks and Actions Against Israel and Israelis
  • 1964–1967 (Founding and Early Guerrilla Phase): Formed under the Arab League, the PLO and groups like Fatah initiated border raids, sabotage, and guerrilla attacks against Israeli infrastructure and settlements from bases in neighboring Arab countries.
  • 1970–1971 (Jordanian Civil War / Black September): After attempting to subvert or challenge the Jordanian monarchy, the PLO was violently ousted from Jordan by King Hussein’s forces, after which it relocated its main operations base to Lebanon.
  • 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre: Operatives from the Black September organization (linked to Fatah/PLO) infiltrated the Olympic Village in Munich, Germany, murdering 11 Israeli Olympic athletes and coaches.
  • 1974 Ma'alot School Massacre: Members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a PLO-affiliated faction, seized a school in Ma'alot, Israel, resulting in the deaths of 21 Israeli schoolchildren and several adults.
  • 1978 Coastal Highway Massacre: Fatah militants hijacked a civilian bus along the Haifa-Tel Aviv coastal highway, shooting at passing cars and the bus, which left 35 Israelis dead and dozens wounded. Fatah (officially the Palestinian National Liberation Movement) is a major Palestinian nationalist and social democratic political party, and the largest faction within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Founded in the late 1950s (commonly cited around 1957–1959) by figures including Yasser Arafat, Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad), and Salah Khalaf. 
  • 1982 Lebanon War: Operating extensively from southern Lebanon to shell northern Israeli towns, the PLO drew a full-scale Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982, culminating in the PLO’s expulsion from Beirut and the relocation of its leadership to Tunisia.
  •                       Continued Activity of PLO 
  • 1985 Achille Lauro Hijacking: The Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), a faction within the PLO umbrella, hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and murdered Leon Klinghoffer, a disabled American-Jewish passenger.
    
                                              Yasser Arafat, top terrorist
    
  • Post-1993 Violations and Incitement: Following the 1993–1995 Oslo Accords in which Yasser Arafat formally recognized Israel and renounced terrorism, Israel's Government Press Office and international monitors accused the PLO/Palestinian Authority of breaches, including failure to consistently curb militant infrastructure, delay in formally amending anti-Israel clauses in the Palestinian National Covenant (eventually addressed in 1998), and ongoing political incitement.
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                       Sharon and Begin, both PMs of Israel but separately.

• Objectives: Led by Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, the initial aim was to push PLO forces 40 kilometers north of Israel's border, though goals expanded to expelling Syrian forces and reshaping Lebanon's political landscape.                  
  
  
  

• Major Operations:
• The Israeli Air Force destroyed Syrian air defenses in Operation Mole Cricket 19. Operation Mole Cricket 19 (Hebrew: מבצע ערצב-19) was a massive Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) and air-to-air combat campaign launched by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) against Syrian forces.
• Syria's air force entered Lebanese airspace in 1982 to defend Syrian ground troops and surface-to-air missile (SAM) batteries in the Bekaa Valley, and to counter Israeli air dominance after Israel launched its June 1982 invasion of Lebanon.  During 1982, the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon was a major military theater during the 1982 Lebanon War (Operation Peace for Galilee), highlighted by Operation Mole Cricket 19 on June 9, 1982, which became one of the largest air battles since World War II.
• The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) advanced to besiege West Beirut for 10 weeks.  During the Lebanese Civil War, West Beirut primarily housed leftist, Muslim-majority factions, the civil government, and Palestinian populations/guerrillas,  The Lebanese Civil War was a 15-year multi-sided conflict lasting from April 13, 1975, to October 13, 1990.  Israel's War waa sandwiched inbetween.  
• Human Cost & Atrocities: The conflict resulted in thousands of casualties. Lebanese Christian Phalangist militiamen committed the Sabra and Shatila massacre inside Palestinian refugee camps under the observation of Israeli forces, drawing severe international condemnation.  The Sabra and Shatila massacre was the mass killing of between 700 and 3,500 Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians. It took place from September 16 to September 18, 1982, in the Sabra neighborhood and the adjacent Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon.  This was after the war that began in June.  
  
                                  Major Saad Haddad
• The Christain Phalanagists were friends of Israel who were helping out by guarding the perimeter of Israel from the  Lebanon and Syrian terrorists.Major Saad Haddad was the head.  While closely associated with the broader Lebanese Christian right-wing movement, he actually commanded the Free Lebanon Army (later renamed the South Lebanon Army). He was a Lebanese Army officer who broke away to form an Israeli-backed, Christian-dominated militia that operated along the border to protect the region and serve as a buffer for northern Israel.  He had an arrrangement with Israel that if he was killed, Israel would care for his children.  Following the death of Major Saad Haddad—the founder of the pro-Israel South Lebanon Army (SLA)—in 1984, his family relocated to Israel, where his children grew up, integrated into Israeli society, and pursued advanced careers.   The most prominent public account regarding his children involves his daughter, Arza Haddad, and their trajectory in Israel.   Fleeing to Israel: Arza was only three years old when Major Haddad died of cancer in 1984. After completing high school in Lebanon, she fled across the border to live permanently in Israel.   Academic and Professional Achievement: She integrated fully into Israeli society, attending the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. She went on to graduate with a master's degree in Aeronautics, specializing in research on Ramjet missile defense engines.  Life in Israel: Arza became the valedictorian of her master's graduation class. She has publicly stated that her adult life is entirely rooted in Israel and that she has no intentions of returning to Lebanon.   The broader SLA community experienced a massive migration wave to Israel later in May 2000 following the sudden withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from southern Lebanon.    The SLA community in Israel consists of former Lebanese militia fighters and their families who were allied with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the South Lebanon conflict.   However, Major Haddad’s immediate family had already established their ties and refuge in Israel much earlier due to his foundational alliance with the country.  May 2000, the SLA collapsed. Fearing severe reprisals and treason trials from Hezbollah and the Lebanese government, thousands of SLA members and their families fled across the border into Israel.
• Aftermath:
  • The PLO leadership and Yasser Arafat were forced to evacuate to Tunisia.
  • Israel withdrew to a southern security zone in Lebanon, which it occupied until 2000.
  • The war contributed directly to the formation and rise of Hezbollah in Lebanon.  Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party with an active paramilitary wing whose military and security activities have been prohibited by the Lebanese government since March 2026, amid the 2026 Lebanon war.  It started in 1982 by the Iranian religious people, Shiite clerics.   Hezbollah actively engages in Holocaust denial and spreads antisemitic conspiracy theories. Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, a prominent Lebanese Shia cleric and an influential ideological figure associated with Hezbollah, made a number of statements expressing hostility toward Jews as a group.  The anti-Semitism of Hezbollah leaders and spokesmen combines the image of seemingly invincible Jewish power ... and cunning with the contempt normally reserved for weak and cowardly enemies. Like the Hamas propaganda for holy war, that of Hezbollah has relied on the endless vilification of Jews as 'enemies of mankind,' 'conspiratorial, obstinate, and conceited' adversaries full of 'satanic plans' to enslave the Arabs.  It fuses traditional Islamic anti-Judaism with Western conspiracy myths, Third Worldist anti-Zionism, and Iranian Shiite contempt for Jews as 'ritually impure' and corrupt infidels. Sheikh Fadlallah typically insists ... that Jews wish to undermine or obliterate Islam and Arab cultural identity in order to advance their economic and political domination.

    Various antisemitic statements have been attributed to Hezbollah officials

  • Defense Minister Ariel Sharon resigned following the findings of the Kahan Commission.

The Six Day War:

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                      

The 1967 Six-Day War (June 5–10, 1967) was a brief, pivotal conflict between Israel and its neighboring Arab states—Egypt, Jordan, and Syria—that dramatically reshaped the Middle East and held deep religious and historical significance for world Jewry.  

It was pre-ceded by a building up of tension.  Over 2 years of sabotage activities inside Israel and border incidents,; mostly done by Syrians, who were interested in involving the other Arab states in a further war with Israel.  So Egypt began moving its army into the Sinai Peninsula on May 15, 1967.  Nasser demanded the removal of UN troops who had been posted along the Gaza Strip  and at Sharm e-Sheikh and when the UN secretary-general, U Thant, immediately acceded, Nasser decreed a blockage of the Straits of Tiran so that no Israel shipping would be permitted to go to the port of Elath.                                     

Israel inaugurated diplomatic activity to try and prevent the situation from deteriorating into war, but Nasser moved 100,000 men and 1,000 tanks into Sinai while the other Arab sates rapidly made their preparations and coordinated their moves for a unified attack on Israel, including an agreement between Nasser and King Hussein of Jordan.  

The Arab world was seized with war hysteria and in a preemptive move, Israel  struck on June 5th.  The Israel Air Force went into action, attacking mainly grounded Egyptian planes, over 300 of which were destroyed in 3 hours. Similar attacks almost wiped out the Syrian and Jordanian air forces.  

At the same time, Israel troops attacked Egyptian positions along the Gaza Strip and  in the Sinai Desert.  By June 8, Israel had overrun the Gaza Strip and the entire Sinai peninsula as far west as the Suez Canal and as far south as Sharm e Sheikh. 

A few hours after the fighting had begun, Jordan attacked Israel, despite the message sent to Hussein by the Israel prime minister, Levi Eshkol that if she remained out of the war, she would not be attacked.   The Israeli section of Jerusalem as well as Israel proper and border new Jewish neighborhoods were heavily shelled by the Jordanians.  

So, late of June 5th, Israeli troops began their moves against Jordanian positions and in a pincer mover, starting from the Latrun salient, cut off Jordanian Jerusalem (including the Old City) which fell on June 7th.  The entire area W. of the Jordan river, including Bethlehem, Hebron, and Nablus fell to the Israel army.  

Dancing the Hora when could enter this part of Jerusalem 

                                Paratroopers finally seeing the wall for first time

Emotional scenes were witnessed when the Israel troops first reached the Western Wall, access to which had been barred to Jews for almost 20 years.  (So close-yet so far).  

Precursors: In May 1967, Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran, massed troops in the Sinai Peninsula, and formed defense pacts with Jordan and Syria, leading Israel to launch a preemptive military strike.

Meanwhile, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian control, with harsh military rule imposed on local residents.

Outcome: Israel defeated the combined Arab forces in six days, capturing the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem (including the Old City).  For the first time in 19 years, Jewish people gained access to the Old City of Jerusalem and could pray at the Western Wall (the Kotel), Judaism's holiest site. 

Provoking facts:

First, in June 1967, there was no state of Palestine. It didn’t exist and never had. Its creation, proposed by the UN in 1947, was rejected by the Arab world because it also meant the establishment of a Jewish state alongside.

Second, the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem were in Jordanian hands. Violating solemn agreements, Jordan denied Jews access to their holiest places in eastern Jerusalem. To make matters still worse, they desecrated and destroyed many of those sites.

Third, the Arab world could have created a Palestinian state in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip any day of the week. They didn't. There wasn't even discussion about it. And Arab leaders, who today profess such attachment to eastern Jerusalem, rarely, if ever, visited. It was viewed as an Arab backwater.

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia, pp. 870-873

https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-six-day-war

Second Arab-Israel War Of Israel; The Sinai

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                     

In 1956, the Egyptian government seized the Suez Canal from British control. The loss of this vital passageway for international trade infuriated British officials. In response, the United Kingdom partnered with France and Israel in a secret plan to take it back through military force. Later that year, the three countries invaded Egypt and recaptured the canal, but there was a major problem with their plan: the United States.

The Suez crisis happened in the midst of the , when the United States was trying to convince as many countries as possible to side with it over the . U.S. officials were eager for anything that might erode the world’s opinion of the Soviet Union, and they got it in 1956, when Hungarian citizens overthrew their communist government. The Soviet Union responded. Sending its military in to brutally crush the revolution. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower and his administration pointed to the bloodshed in Hungary as a prime example of Soviet repression. But the Suez crisis distracted the world’s attention, and it put the U.S. in a bind. While the United States was allied with the British and French, American officials knew that the Arab world greatly resented the invasion of Egypt. They realized that, if the United States supported the invasion, it would hurt its own popularity throughout the Middle East, potentially allowing the Soviet Union to grow its influence in the region.

The 1956 Suez Crisis (also known as the Tripartite Aggression or the Second Arab–Israeli War) was a secret military campaign launched by Israel, Great Britain, and France against Egypt from October 29 to November 7, 1957. 

Key Details & Timeline

• The Catalyst: Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal on July 26, 1956, after the United States and Britain withdrew financial support for the Aswan High Dam. HighDam, Military Actions:
• • On October 29, 1956, Israeli forces invaded the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip.   It ended March 1957.                                                      
    
                                               An Israeli Air Force Meteor in flight
  • Britain and France issued an ultimatum, then launched air strikes and landed troops at Port Said in early November. 
• Resolution & Withdrawal: Heavy political, economic, and diplomatic pressure from the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations forced the coalition to halt operations and withdraw. Anglo-French forces left by December 1956, and Israeli forces withdrew from Sinai by March 1957.  
• Aftermath: Egypt retained control of the Suez Canal, Nasser’s political prestige surged, and the event signaled the decline of British and France as global superpowers while expanding US and Soviet influence in the Middle East.

The Aswan High Dam, often called simply Aswan Dam, was built between 1960 and 1970 across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt. One of the world's largest embankment dams, it was developed by the Egyptian government with the help of the Soviet Union to control flooding, increase water storage for irrigation, and generate hydroelectricity. The dam was seen as pivotal to the country's industrialization plans. Like the Aswan Low Dam, which had been completed in 1902, the High Dam has changed the economy and culture of Egypt.                                                       

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