Behind the Headlines Israel Leaves an Area Where Its Bloodiest Wars Took Place

When Israel completed its withdrawal from Sinai today, it left behind not just a large strategic hinterland, the rubble of once prosperous settlements and natural resources, including oil, of incalculable value to a resource-poor nation. It left behind the scenes of its bloodiest wars and greatest losses in terms of lives and equipment.

The sandy, rocky plains and jogged mountains of the peninsula are the grave of more Israeli soldiers than any other area of combat in the five wars Israel has fought since it proclaimed independence in May, 1948. From that moment, in fact, Sinai was a battlefield. The 15 years of Israeli occupation which ended today was only the longest of a series of occupations and withdrewals that began 34 years ago.

Israel today withdrew, not in defeat nor under intense international pressure, but in compliance with a peace treaty, solemnly entered into with Egypt three years ago. It was not a happy withdrawal but a willing one.

The first time the Israel army entered Sinai was in December, 1948, in pursuit of an Egyptian army that had invaded the new Jewish State only a few months earlier. The Egyptians retreated and Israeli forces occupied the northern salient of the peninsula until forced to withdraw under urgent Anglo-American pressure. Egypt retained the Goza Strip and, despite thearmistice agreements, there was no peace along the southem borders.

BORDER WARFARE WAS INCESSANT

Border warfare was incessant and Israel, hoping to put an end to it, joined eight years later with the British and French effort to regain the recently nationalized Suez Canal and unseat the troublesome regime of Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

In October, 1956, in what came to be known as the Sinai campaign, the Israeli army thrust into the peninsula in force and within eight days was entrenched on the eastern banks of the canal. But the Anglo-French invasion of Egypt faltered under the influence of opposition at home, the threat of Soviet intervention and powerful pressure from Washington against its allies.

The British and French forces withdrew. The Israeli army remained stubbomly in place for several months until Eisenhower’s threat to withdraw American economic and political support of Israel forced Premier David Ben Gurion to yield the security asset only recently won. Early in 1957, the Israeli forces pulled out of Sinai for the second time.

In May, 1967, Nasser, firmly entrenched in Cairo and bent on international adventurism, summarily ordered United Nations peacekeeping forces out of the peninsula and declared a blockade of Israeli shipping entering the Straits of Tiran. The Israeli government, then headed by Premier Levi Eshkol, debated long and arduously over how to counter this new menace.

In early June, a powerful Israeli army supported by the air force swept again into Sinai. Egyptian defenses crumbled On the sixth day after the start of hostilities, Israel was in possession of the entire peninsula. That sweeping victory has gone down in history as the Six-Day War.

1967 WAR BROUGHT NO PEACE

It brought no peace. Almost immediately, the Egyptians opened their war of attrition. Powerless to retake Sinai, they resorted to artillery and air war-fare along the new frontier of the Suez Canal. It did not command headlines abroad, but it was costly to both sides.

Between March 1969 and August, 1970, Israel suffered 244 soldiers dead and 683 wounded. On August 7, 1970, Nasser agreed to an American call for a cease-fire. Under the cover of that demarche, the Egyptians moved their missile batteries for the first time to the banks of the canal.

The cease-fire brought political stalemate. But when Anwar Sadat succeeded to the Presidency of Egypt after Nasser’s death, he adopted parallel political and military strategies. He abandoned his predecessor’s strong Soviet orientation and moved closer to the United States, exerting pressure for a political solution with Israel. At the same time, he planned a military strike against Israel in coordination with Syria. The surprise attack on October 6, 1973, Yom Kippur, caught Israel unprepared.

THE YOM KIPPUR WAR

Egypt’s forces crossed the Suez Canal and overcame the Israeli defenders on the first day of battle. Although Israel swiftly mobilized, and with a life-line of military supplies air-lifted from the U.S. gained the better of her foes, the Yom Kippur War was by for the costliest of Israel’s battlefield experiences.

Between October, 1973 and the first disengagement agreement on January 18, 1974, 1,630 Israeli soldiers died, 4,242 were wounded and 232 were taken prisoners of war. The battle for Sinai ended in military stalemate because of the cease-fire imposed by the United States and the United Nations. But Sadat had succeeded in breaking the political stalemate.

By February 22, 1976, the Israeli army completed the evacuation of 6180 square kilometers of Sinai under the terms of the disengagement agreement. This was the first fruit of Henry Kissenger’s shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East. It was also the first time Israel returned territory to an Arab foe in accordance with an agreement.

Israel relinquished control of the strategic Giddi and Mitla passes in the Sinai mountains, the traditional Egyptian attack route to Israel’s borders. Also given up were the Abu Rodeis oilfields which had been supplying almost 66 percent of Israel’s petroleum needs-Later, the even more productive Alma oilfields in the Gulf of Suez were returned to Egypt ending Israel’s brief period of oil self-sufficiency.

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS RECALLED

But the disengagement agreements were the precursor of far more significant events: Sadat’s historic visit to Jerusalem on November 19, 1977, the camp David accords in September, 1978 and the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty signed in Washington in March, 1979.

The treaty called for Israel’s withdrawal from all of Sinai in stages. The final stoge was completed today Israel gave up much.

The 250-400 kilometers of territory between the nearest Egyptian forces and its border; the three military air bases it built in Sinai, said to be the most modern and sophisticated in the world; the electronic warning system in the mountains which had been used for monitoring Egyptian military movements and now could be used by the Egyptiens to monitor Israel; the defense line from Sharm el-Shekh to the Mediterranean coast; the model resort town of Yamit and its surrounding network of agricultural villages.

But these losses are balanced by a peace treaty and normal diplomatic relations between Israel and its most populous and powerful Arab neighbor, and the demilitarization of most of Sinai. If the treaty holds, Israel will have gained what it said it ardently wished after the Six-Day War — peace for which it was willing to sacrifice territory to obtain.