Why did Arabs fight for Israel?

Answer 1

They believed that the land was exclusively theirs for three reasons:

1) It's Been Ours for Generations: Arabs were outraged and greatly saddened by the creation of the State of Israel because they believed that the land that had physically belonged to their parents and grandparents should have been theirs for inheritance. In their minds, it did not make sense that a group of German, Polish, French, English, and Russian speaking people should claim land that their ancestors had not even visited for centuries.

2) Jews Will Kick Us Out: Many Arabs were afraid that they might lose their rights and territories under the authority of the Jewish State. In the Middle East, ethnic cleansing was a relatively common phenomenon by victors in wars. (Turks and Greeks expelled each other from territories. Lebanese Christians and Muslims had also done this throughout history.) As a result, Arabs were afraid of losing all of their rights in a Jewish State. Those who stayed realized that this would not be the case, but that was the minority.

3) Pan-Arabism: Many Arabs claimed that a Jewish State would prevent Pan-Arabism from occurring even though the most successful Pan-Arab Nationalist project was the Egyptian-Syrian United Arab Republic which was physically split by Israel. Simply put, a Jewish State in Israel's location drives a geographical wedge between Egypt and North Africa in the west and the Levant, Iraq, and Arabia in the east.

Answer 2

Hezbollah engaged in a border skirmish with Israel and captured some of their soldiers for ransom and internal Propaganda value. Israel responded with a border incursion into Lebanon with tanks and troops. Hezbollah then began a large scale response, attempting to hit Israeli cities with Katyusha, C5K and long range Iranian Fajr-5 rockets. Israel used their Air Force to bombard the Beirut airport, numerous known Hezbollah bases and any rocket trucks and fixed launchers they could locate.
Note that the Lebanese government forces did not participate in the war, and they were pressing both Iran and the United States to try and get both Hezbollah and Israel to stop the fighting.

Answer 3

The question is difficult to answer because there are two ways to read it. Based on those two readings, see the below two answers:

1) Why did Arabs fight in defense of the Jewish State of Israel? -- There were some Arabs who sided with the Jewish Militias during the War. Many of them did not actively engage in the fighting, but permitted Jewish Militias to rest or hide in their villages or supplied them. This is the case of Abu Ghosh. Others did actively assist Jewish Militias such as a few Bedouin tribes in the northern part of the Negev Desert. The reason these Arabs fought alongside the Jews was for several reasons, 1) The leaders of the Israel made it clear that Arabs that did not leave would be permitted to stay and these particular Arabs had no desire to leave. 2) They agreed with the values that the Jewish State intended to implement. 3) Some of them had very close Jewish friends.

2) Why did Arabs and Jews fight each other for control of the land now under Israeli jurisdiction? -- See the below related question for this answer.

Answer 4

Funny you should place that question in the "Israel" category ... asking the launchees

to explain the motivation of the launchers. Only the launchers know for sure what

their motivations were, and all we can do is speculate. Our speculation is that Arab

states launched war against Israel virtually at the moment that Israel came into

existence as a country in modern times, simply because they rather strongly opposed

the existence of a country unabashedly created of, by, and for Jews, especially in

their neighborhood. The country was so new, small, and democratically turbulent that

everyone expected it to be a pushover, and the sooner they attacked, the faster it

could be pushed over. Everyone, including the Israelis themselves, was surprised to

find that at the end of the year, Israel still stood. And the thing that really grinds a

lot of people's gears is the fact that even now, after two more major military invasions,

continuous terrorist pressure, and near-universal demonization in the world, after more

than 60 years, it still stands, has the audacity to imply that Jews now have the deciding

vote on the issue of their own destiny, and that the nation that one Italian "diplomat"

once referred to as "that shi**y little country" has no intention of evaporating.

Answer 5

Arab nations attacked Israel in 1948 because they didn't want a Jewish nation to have its Independence in the middle east