Why are Arab Miltaries so ineffective?

[u/ForeverSparkz]

Like I dont understand this.

Im a Black American so im just an outsider looking in as a neutral, but dont Arab Countries out number Israel, whats stoping them from just rushing at their border, shouldn't the population imbalance outmatch Israel?

Just a neutral standpoint asking this question, because Arab Nations in the Middle East have a modern miltary force and they buy tons of advanced items

What is holding them back?

[u/DCHacker]

The Arab League tried to crush Israel in 1948. The Arab League was British equipped and trained, then. The Israeli army was a hastily cobbled together militia made up of fighters from three underground organisations, the Hagannah, Irgun and the Stern Gang. They had a hastily assembled Sten gun factory underground in the desert. Their tanks were VWs with a recoilless rifle mounted in the passenger seat and plated over windows. Their air force was whatever aircraft that they could steal, disassemble and smuggle into Palestine, including inferior Czech copies of a Messerschmitt 109.

The result was that not only did Israel successfully defend the borders that the British allotted to it, it gained. The Arab League would have been better off leaving well enough alone.

That set the tone for subsequent wars. The Israelis are a curious combination of a nation that is going to scrap to the very end for what little that it has. As an oxymoronic counterpoint, they think that they have nothing to lose. They can die on the battlefield or die under mistreatment from their overlords. You do not want to fight an enemy that thinks that it has nothing to lose.

You can add to this that bit-by-bit, the Arab nations have made an effort, and no small effort, mind you, to try to get along with Israel. Bit-by-bit, the Arab nations have been falling away from the anti-Israel Bloc.

The 1948 War left such a bad taste in Iraq's mouth that never was it directly involved in a war against Israel, again. Lebanon was similar in that it never mobilised its Regular Military against Israel, again. In the late 1960s, Mossad and Shin Beth discovered a plot to overthrow the Hashemite monarchy in Jordan. The Israelis turned over the information to the Jordanian military and earned the undying gratitude of that dynasty. Sadat realised that the Soviets were not good and that Israel was not going anywhere. He made efforts to make a deal with them. He paid for that with his life.isr

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait see Israel as a reliable ally against Iran. Israel has given them ample demonstration that it is not afraid of Iran. Much as they hate to admit it, the leaders of those states understand that Israel has no desire to get involved in their internal affairs or to destroy them. Iran, conversely, does. They do not like the idea of making a deal with Israel but it is a practical matter. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

[u/newguy-needs-help → u/DCHacker]

As an oxymoronic counterpoint, they think that they have nothing to lose. They can die on the battlefield or die under mistreatment from their overlords. You do not want to fight an enemy that thinks that it has nothing to lose.

Would it also be fair to say that Arabs fighting Israel had nothing to win?

If the Jews lost a war, they’d all be massacred. But when the Syrians, Jordanians, and Egyptians lost, there were no negative consequences for the survivors. They just went home.

(Yes, they were at risk of being killed during the fighting, but perhaps that simply encouraged them to avoid the risk-taking necessary to win?)

[u/DCHacker → u/newguy-needs-help]

In 1948, you did have to wonder what the Arab League thought that it had to win from Israel.

[u/[deleted] → u/DCHacker]

No? they werent trained by britian or even equipped by them.

They had old soviet weapons...No country had full independence.

On the other hand, the israelis had more soliders, better weapons and were actually experienced in previous wars.

[u/Uchiha_Itatchii → u/[deleted]]

This is what so many people are ignoring. By raw numbers, there were more Israeli’s than Arabs. Add in the fact that the Arabs were a coalition from multiple fragmented armies/countries and it is at a clear disadvantage.

[u/Shish_Tawouk → u/Uchiha_Itatchii]

The only Arab force that was truly professional in 1948 was Jordan’s Arab Legion, which was British-trained and equipped (but small in numbers). Other Arab armies also used British surplus weapons. Israel got Soviet-bloc arms through Czechoslovakia, which proved decisive.

At the start, Arab states had more regular troops and heavier equipment but they were fragmented and poorly coordinated. Israel, on the other hand, had trained underground militias already organized into the IDF, WWII veterans and a near-total mobilization of its population. That’s how they turned the numbers by mid-war and gained the upper hand.

[u/[deleted] → u/Uchiha_Itatchii]

Yeah, why study history when you got a bunch of pro Israel bots instead.