Muslim-Jewish War

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Muslim-Jewish War

(The below was taken from a discussion on the email list. While most early Swarm Cycle stories ignore the Middle East or pass lightly over it with the comment that the people there are mostly not eligible for extraction, there are a few mentions. 'Albion' gives a few details about a great war that went nuclear, destroying most Middle East nations. 'Behind The Steel Veil' gives much more detail, but some of that disagrees with 'Albion'. The email list has decided that both are mostly right in a narrow sense, but neither account shows the whole story. The following is what REALLY (canon) happened. -ZM)

At the dawn of the fourth year of the Swarm Era the "Dirty War" erupted in the Middle East and in a matter of weeks, Israel is destroyed, as are Mecca, Amman, Damascus, Cairo, and indeed most larger cities across the Middle East. But things had been focused locally and most uninvolved countries did their best to ignore the conflict.

Afterward, the rest of the world suffered a period of Muslim/Jew unrest as those that had previously blamed western nations for interfering in the Middle East now blamed them for not intervening to prevent the nuclear holocaust.

Instigation

A group of humans, believing they were elite and that the reduction of the human race to a population of 250 million was a desirable event and that any methods were acceptable to achieve this goal, agitated the existing conflict between Israel and its Muslim neighbors. This was accomplished by employing hackers, who planted false intelligence reports from otherwise reliable sources. Reports delivered to Israeli Intelligence stated the Muslim clerics were claiming Allah would preserve them if they retook Jerusalem before the Swarm arrived. Reports delivered to the intelligence agencies of Muslim nations detailed a plan to destroy Mecca when the Swarm arrived and blame it on the invaders.

Conventional War

Using intelligence reports to justify their actions Israel attempted to eject all of the Arabs, predominantly the Palestinians, from within its borders. Anyone who resisted the seizure of all property and deportation was to be shot. This ethnic cleansing included the various areas of the border states, which it still occupied.

In retaliation for the deaths of their brethren and to prevent a larger attack on Muslims they believed would follow, the states of Syria and Lebanon launched an attack on Israel. Egypt found itself compelled to give support for the attack when the population threatened revolt at the government's initial refusal to support their Arab brethren. Support from other Muslim states flooded in, including Libya, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Of all the nominally Muslim nations in the Middle East, only Turkey and Kurdistan remained neutral.

Foreign nations were too busy, too disinterested, or too tired of the constant bloodshed to intervene. No support was offered to either side from outside the region and Israel had no support in the region. As more Israeli territory fell to the Arabic advance, intelligence reports claimed all Jews were rounded up and executed, and all Christians were arrested without charge.

A general evacuation of all Jews and Christians was called for out of the ports of Ashdod and Hadera. Even the dilapidated port of Tel Aviv was reopened for the evacuation as the Arab advance neared Ashdod and Hadera.

Nuclear War

As the defenses at Ashdod, Hadera and Jerusalem fell in a coordinated push, a submarine in the Red Sea launched 3 nuclear missiles targeting all 3 locations. Detecting the missiles, Israel launched bombers with nuclear payloads against every major population center in every nation supporting the Arabic advance. Erroneous British intelligence reports listed the airbases at Hatzerim, Ramat David and Tel Nof as the bases the strike missions took off from. This was because many of the bombers used had been moved from Hatzerim and Ramat David before they were destroyed by the Arabic advance, to Tel Nof.

As the Israeli Air Force headed on their bombing runs two stealth missiles went unnoticed and hit Medina and Mecca. These were not needed as the Israelis had already dropped their payload before the missiles struck.

Once the first nuke exploded on Arabic soil all Arabic nations in the region with nuclear weapons launched their missiles and bombers. Missiles that left the atmosphere were destroyed by naval ships in orbit, but the shipboard AIs wouldn't allow weapons fire into the atmosphere.

Aftermath

After the destruction of Jerusalem and Mecca, Jews and Muslims of all ethnicities attacked each other all over the globe. Christians, Hindus, and anyone too near a mosque or synagogue got caught in the crossfire. Much of the violence, especially in England, ended when terrorists, assumed to be Islamic, staged a well-planned attack on the Queens' residence at Balmoral Castle that killed most of the royal family.

Muslim-Jewish War

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