Who started the Arab-Israeli Conflict?

Answer 1

It is terribly unclear. The Jewish immigrations to Ottoman Palestine, especially the Vilayet of Beirut, were welcomed by the Arab inhabitants. They brought their agronomic and infrastructural skills with them to what was an Ottoman backwater. When the territory shifted to being a British Mandate in 1919, Jewish Immigration increased, leading to Arab resentment. This resentment came about because the Arabs assumed (reasonably) that the Jews would want a political stake in the country if they became a large minority or majority. In order to discourage further immigrations, some Arabs formed militant organizations to attack Jewish settlements. Jews responded with the militant organizations they had founded to assist the British in World War I. Each side claims that the other one started the conflict, the Arabs on account of a Jewish colonization campaign and the Jews on account of the hostile reception they received when they did not intend to unseat Arabs (at least according to contemporaneous documentation). When Israel declared independence, other Arab countries invaded with the intent of eliminating the Jewish State and putting the Arabs of Palestine into a position of political power or just conquering the land for themselves.