The Birth of Modern Israel and Conflict with the Palestinians and Arabs

In the 19th century the Zionist movement began. At the time, one half of the world jews lived in Russia where they were severely persecuted. An independent nationalist movement began and Jews began leaving the country. Between 1882 and 1903, approximately 35,000 Jews moved to what is now Israel followed by another 41,000 by 1914. In 1917, the British foreign minister, Lord Balfour issued a proclamation known as the Balfour Declaration which favored the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

Following World War I, Britain was given a mandate to rule over the territories of Palestine and Transjordan and this remained in effect from 1923 to 1948. Jewish migration to Palestine increased with over 250,000 arriving between 1929 and 1938, Tension escalated between Jews and Arabs leading to periodic riots and plans developed to establish separate states for Jews and arabs. After the Holocaust and Word War II, sympathy for a separate Jewish state grew.

Transjordan became largely autonomous under the British and fully independent under a treaty with Britain of March 22, 1946.

In November 1947, the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was passed, envisaging the creation of separate Jewish and Arab states operating under economic union with Jerusalem being transferred to UN trusteeship. The map shows the ridiculous plan they drew up which would have never been practical.

Two weeks later, Colonial Secretary Arthur Jones announced that the British Mandate would terminate on May 15, 1948. A civil war began almost immediately with frequent attacks on Jewish communities and a blockade was begun of the 100,000 Jewish residents of Jerusalem.

On the last day of the Mandate, May 14, 1948, David Ben Gurion and others signed an Israeli Declaration of Independence and established the State of Israel. Both the United States and the Soviet Union immediately recognized the new state, but it was not accepted by the Arab countries. The next day the combined forces of Egypt, Jordan and Syria attached the new state. The attackers immediately took control of Arab areas and then attacked Israeli positions.

The heaviest fighting occurred in Jerusalem and on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Road. As the war progressed, periodic truces occurred and Israeli forces began to make gains. The entire Upper Galilee area was captured by the Israelis in October 1948 and they then directed their attention to fighting the Egyptians in the south. In 1949, Israel signed separate armistices with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Israeli controlled approximately three-quarters of the prior British administered Mandate. Israel controlled territories of about one-third more than was allocated to the Jewish State under the UN partition proposal. Egypt ended up controlling Gaza and Jordan the West Bank so a Palestinian Arab state was never created and within three years, more than 700,000 arabs relocated while Jewish immigration increased.

The next conflict occurred in 1956 after Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal taking control from the British. Israel attached the Egyptian Sinai while Britain and France attacked Egypt. The U.S. and U.S.S.R. intervened to stop the conflict embarrassing the British. The canal was closed for many months.

On May 19, 1967, Egypt deployed 100,000 soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula. It again closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, returning the region to the way it was in 1956 when Israel was blockaded.

On May 30,1967, Jordan signed a mutual defense pact with Egypt. Egypt mobilized Sinai units, crossing UN lines and mobilized and massed on Israel's southern border. On June 5th Israel launched an attack on Egypt. The Israeli Air Force destroyed most of the Egyptian Air Force in a surprise attack, then turned east to destroy the Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi air forces. This strike was the crucial element in Israel's victory in the Six-Day War. At the end of the war, Israel had gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and the Golan Heights.

The 6 day war and far reaching consequences. Israel gained access to holy sites such as the Wailing Wall, Temple Mount, Cave of the Patriarchs, and Rachels Tomb which they had not been allowed to even visit before. Arab countries resented the victory and this has led to the ongoing conflicts we see even to this day.

On October 6, 1973, Syria and Egypt staged a surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. The Israeli military were caught off guard and unprepared, and took about three days to fully mobilize.This led other Arab states to send troops to reinforce the Egyptians and Syrians. In addition, these Arab countries agreed to enforce an oil embargo on industrial nations. Egyptian forces quickly crossed the Suez Canal and entered the Sinai while the Syrians attacked in the Golan Heights. Israeli forces pushed back into Syria and fought the Egyptians to a stalemate by recapturing territory around the canal. By the end of the month, the U.N. brokered a truce.

The war renewed Israeli efforts to achieve lasting peace agreements leading to the Camp David accords in 1978 between Israel and Egypt which returned the Sinai to Egypt. A peace agreement with Lebanon was signed in 1983 and with Jordan in 1994.  The treaty with Jordan will allow us to visit the baptismal site of Jesus.

But there was no peace with Palestinian arabs who ended up with no homeland and were exiled from arab countries as well. The PLO was formed in 1964 and became prominent with terrorist incidents like the Munich Olympics in the 1970s. In 1987, the First Infatada, an uprising of Palestinans against Israeli rule, began. Israel invited peace talks if they recognized Israel and denounced terrorism. Eventually this led to the Oslo Peace accords in 1993. A Second Infitada occurred in 2000 after Israel's prime minister made a visit to the Temple Mount. Israel increased security efforts against Palestinians and eventually withdrew from Gaza in 2005. War in Gaza erupted again in December 2008 lasting for about a month and there are periodic clashed between the Palestinians and Israelis there today.

During our trip we will be in the West Bank for a day and also travel to Palestinian controlled territory in Bethlehem for a day.