The Arab–Israeli conflict in 500 words or less
September 9, 2010
The century old political tension and hostilities between the Arab people of the Middle East and the Jewish community of present-day Israel. The Land of Israel was, according to the Torah, promised by God to the Children of Israel.
The beginning of the modern conflict was the large-scale Jewish immigration to Palestine in the late 19th century, after the establishment of the Zionist movement, and intensified with the creation of the modern State of Israel in 1948.
Before World War I, Palestine had been under the control of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 500 years. After the war, the area came under British rule as the “British Mandate of Palestine” included what is today Israel, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. Under the Mandate, Jewish immigration to Palestine increased. By 1931, 18 percent of the population of Palestine was Jews. Jewish immigration increased soon after the Nazis came to power in Germany, causing the Jewish population to double.
In response to Arab pressure, the British authorities greatly reduced the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine, causing Jewish terrorism against the British. However; these restrictions remained in place until the end of the mandate, a period which coincided with the Nazi Holocaust and the flight of Jewish refugees from Europe. As a consequence, most Jewish entrants to Palestine were illegal, causing further tensions in the region. Following several failed attempts to solve the problem diplomatically, the British asked the newly formed United Nations for help. The result was the “two-state solution” of Israel and Palestine in 1947.
On May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence and sovereignty. The next day, the Arab League reiterated their opposition to the UN. That day, the armies of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq invaded the territory partitioned for Palestine, thus starting the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The Israeli Defense Force repulsed the Arab nations, thus extending its borders beyond the original UN partition. By December 1948, Israel controlled most of the portion of Mandate Palestine west of the Jordan River. The remainder of the Mandate consisted of Jordan, the area that came to be called the West Bank (controlled by Jordan), and the Gaza Strip (controlled by Egypt). The War culminated with the signing of the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and each of its Arab neighbors. This armistice line is the internationally recognized border of the state of Israel.
While David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, had accepted a “two state solution”, he openly expressed a “partial” Jewish State was just a beginning. He planned “the organization of a powerful army and the use of Jewish coercion and force to absorb all the country’s extension”. Ben Gurion immediately went to work raising money and arms from American and European Jews. These efforts sustained Israel and initiated the deep anti-western emotions harbored by Arabs.
