Four have been, one soon is, and three are yet to come

Because modern Israel is in constant turmoil and conflict, we need to delineate between actual full-fledged wars and terrorist conflicts and incursions. There is clear consensus on the first four historical wars as I have listed them here, but since 1973 there have been many small to medium sized conflicts/incursions with military responses. It is tempting to list these with the "real" wars of modern Israel, but a clear and concise definition makes the categorization clear.

For the purpose of illustration and discussion, we will use the following definition of an "Israeli War": A conflict between Israel and other nation-states where a nation or nations attack Israel, and Israel is forced to reply in kind and eliminate the thread via military retaliation.

To make this clear, the conflicts in Gaza by Hamas and the conflicts in the north with Hezbollah would not be included because neither terrorist entities are nation-states. Also, by this definition, the first Gulf War would not be included since Israel was the recipient of 39 Scud missiles but never retaliated against Iraq. However, the next four future wars are all classified as wars due to specific Biblical references or implications. That is, Israel will be central to these conflicts, and specific ethic groups and modern states will be involved as key players.