Israel

Some Orthodox Jews did not approve of the modern nation of Israel, because it was created by humans via the United Nations. It was not directly created by God. Most Jews have no problem with the modern nation of Israel, and those Orthodox Jews are in the minority as far as most Jews are concerned.

The Arab-Israeli Conflict existed long before 1948 and actually entered a violent stage as early as 1921. In 1948, however, Israel declared Independence which caused the internal Jewish-Arab Engagements to escalate into an international war when Arab Nations declared war on Israel.

To see a discussion of causes for the Arab-Israeli Conflict, see the related question below.

In 1947 the united nations voted to divide Palestine into a Jewish and a Arab state. while arab counries rejected this plan, the Jews accepted it, and a year later created the state of Israel.

Israel is Israel and Palestine is Palestine. Confusion occurs because both things refer to an extant piece of land with people living on it, a nationality, an ethnicity, and a prior piece of land which no longer exists.

Israel is a Jewish State that contains territory from the former British Mandate of Palestine. The remainder of the British Mandate of Palestine belongs to the modern Palestinian State. Israel is a majority Jewish population who returned from their Exile in Europe and the Middle East. Palestinians are a majority Arab population whose families lived in the region for centuries. Palestinians did not simply become Israelis (except for those who did not flee during the Israeli-Arab War of 1948-9) or vice versa.

If the question is asking why Israel exists where Palestine formerly existed, the premise is faulty. Palestine was the name that the British assigned to that piece of land regardless of its history. Prior to the British, the Ottomans administered Palestine as three distinct regions: Vilayet of Beirut (which included Lebanon and northern Israel), the Vilayet of Damascus (which included Syria, Jordan, and southern Israel), and the Mutasaffirat of Jerusalem (which included central Israel and the Palestinian Territories). The name had nothing to do with the previous administration or the indigenous peoples.

As a result, when the Palestinian Jews declared independence, they chose to call their country according to how they see themselves. This is no different than how the British colony of Rhodesia in Africa became independent as Zambia in the north and Zimbabwe in the south. Since the British name was unconnected to the people on that land, the people reasserted their own identity. Since the Palestinian Arabs did not have a unique identity prior to Israeli independence, they continued to use the term Palestinian to describe their experience.

The West Bank is a kidney-bean shaped piece of land on the West Bank of the Jordan River, bordered on its east both by the river and by the Kingdom of Jordan. It is bordered on the north, south, and west by State of Israel. The West Bank also controls a quarter of the Dead Sea.

The Gaza Strip is a thin coastal piece of land, bordered on the northwest by the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered on the northeast and southeast by the State of Israel. It is bordered in the southwest by the Republic of Egypt.

Israel declared their independence from the British in 1948. Then was attacked by six other countries within an hour who refused to accept it as a nation. There was never peace because they claimed Israel was not a nation so a ceasefire was called instead. Please people stop editing things just for fun this is a resource not an online game. most people dont appreciate it!

The conflicts that involved both the State of Israel and an Arab belligerent force occurred during the following years, 1948-49, 1956, 1967-70, 1973, 1981-82, 1987-1993, 1995-2000, 2006, and 2008-09. These correspond to the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9, the Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War and the War of Attrition, the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, the Israeli involvement in the Lebanese Civil War, the First Intifada, the Second Intifada, the War with Hezbollah, and Operation Cast Lead.

Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995) was the 5th prime minister of Israel, from 1974 to 1977, and again from 1992 to 1995. He was the second Israeli prime minister to die in office, and the only one to die by assassination. He was killed on November 4, 1995.

Israel doesn't have "states" like the United States does, it does have less powerful adminstrative districts called mehozot, of which there are 6 or 7, depending on your political view. Tel Aviv District, Jerusalem District, Haifa District, North District, Central District, Southern District, and the 7th being Judea and Samaria, better known as the West Bank, which is up for interpretation.

HOWEVER, these are far from states, and should not be considered states at all. Nobody says that they are from a certain district, like people say they are from a certain state in the U.S. Note: Israel is about the size of Massachusetts.

After WWII, Jews were settled in a state controlled by Palestinian Arabs, a move supported by most of the European nations and the US. in the 1960's, the Jews took over the state militarily and turned it into the current Jewish state of Israel, driving many of the Palestinians out of the region and turning the rest into a largely disempowered minority. Most Arabs see the state of Israel as an illegitimate state imposed on the region by western powers in an effort destabilize the surrounding Arab/Muslim states and believe it should be removed (much the way the US saw the Iraqi take-over of Kuwait as illegitimate and took steps to remove it). add several centuries of conflict between Arabs and Europeans (the various European crusades and expansions of the Ottoman empire), where Jews are largely considered by Arabs to be European rather than semitic.

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The following facts were apparently dropped from the above account

because of some sort of computer error:

1). the continuous Jewish presence in the area since roughly 1200 BCE;

2). the stated policy of the British government 20 years before WWII that

some part of the mandate administered by the British in Palestine ought

by rights be re-designated a modern Jewish homeland;

3). the resolution by the majority of the UN General Assembly in 1947 to

partition the western extremities of the British mandate into regions

administered respectively by Arab and Jewish interests, in endorsement

of the British policy;

4). the declaration of independent statehood by Israel in 1948 (not "the 1960s"),

and its subsequent recognition by all but about 30 UN members;

5). the property, economic, voting, and legal rights of the "largely disempowered

minority", including its several elected representatives in the national parliament.

It depends what you mean by "Palestine".

If you are referring exclusively to the Palestinian Territories, there are abuses by Muslim Palestinians of Christian Palestinians and the defacing of their holy sites and monuments. Additionally, there is a conflict between Jewish Israeli Settlers and Israeli Soldiers and Palestinians (both Muslim and Christian).

If you are using "Palestine" as a shorthand for "Israel and Palestine", then the religions in the conflict are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. However, those religions are not at conflict. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is a ethnic/nationalist conflict where religions are used as ethnic identifiers (similar to the 1990s in Yugoslavia). It is not a theological conflict.

The Palestinians didn't lose their country. Actually, not all of them. Most of the Palestinians still live in what was called the British Mandate of Palestine. Most of them in the West Bank and the Gaza strip and in Israel still remains a large Arab community. The Arabs in Israel are called Israeli Arabs and make up about 20 % of the Israeli population and got equal rights. They are the only Arabs in the Middle East who are allowed to vote! The first homeland for the Arab/Palestinians was Transjordan, which was cut off from the British Mandate of Palestine in 1922. The remaining part would be available for a Jewish National Home. When the UN in 1947 wanted to share the rest of Palestine 50/50 into a Jewish State and another Arab State the Arabs rejected the partition and the Jews accepted it. The Arab/Palestinian spiritual leader called: 'Kill the Jews, my Muslim brothers!' 'Drive them into the sea'. After the British withdraw from Palestine, David Ben Gurion declared the Independence and rebirth of the Jewish State of Israel in 1948. Israel was the first independent Jewish State in the Jewish home region after 19 centuries of foreign rule and diaspora. Short after the Israeli Independence Declaration all the Arab countries attacked Israel. In the Israeli-Arab war (in Israel called the War of Independence) some more then 500 thousands of Arabs/Palestinians who lived between 1946-1948 in Palestine fled away. Most of them fled to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which was part of historical British Palestine. These people actually didn't leave what they call their Palestine! Those territories remained to become a Palestinian State. However Transjordan and Egypt who occupied it didn't give it to the Palestinians! There only goal was to destroy Israel, they didn't care about the 'Palestinians'. However a smaller group fled to Southern Lebanon and Syria. The Arabs locked them up into refugee camps so the people would grow and grow because of the poverty and the lack of hygienical care (condoms!). They used and use them as a demographic weapon against Israel. At the same time from 1948 to the 70s more then 1 million Jews fled from the Arab world to Israel from Persia, Yemen, Iraq, Egypt, Tunesia etc. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_Arab_and_Muslim_countries) These people would have had no future in islamitic countries where Jews never have had equal rights. All the governments of the State of Israel from the Independence till now have announced as long as the Arabs don't recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist the Arabs should resolve their 'Palestinian' issue on their own ground (there are more then 15 MILLION square kilometers left, comparing to Israel which is only 22 thousand square kilometers).

The UN thought most of the fled Arab Palestinians would also be happy to live in the West Bank under Jordanian Rule and the Gaza Strip and Egyptian Rule , the rule of their Arab brothers. This was true until in the 60s the PLO came to exist, to destroy Israel. Short there after in 1967 (the 6 Day War) Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They never drove the Palestinians living there away. There were refugees in 1967, but all of them returned. In the 90s the territories inhabited by Palestinians on the West Bank (most of the West Bank) got their own administration in the Palestinian National Authority. This is called the Israeli-Palestinian interim agreement. In 2005 Israel withdraw from the Gazastrip. The permanent status of these territories has to be achieved by negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel which can lead to the creation of the first independent Palestinian State (if you don't count Jordan which is actually also a Palestinian State!) in the whole history next to the State of Israel. Obstacles are the Israeli settlements and the Arabs who don't want to recognize the right of existence of the State of Israel.

You can say most of the Palestinians didn't lose there country. In Israel the remaining Palestinian Arabs have got equal rights as Jews, aswell as in the Palestinian territories they administrate themself, aswell as in Jordan most of the Palestinian refugees nowadays are Jordanian citizens. The West of Jordan is also included in historical Palestine at the time of the Arab Empire when most of the nowadays called Palestinian Arabs immigrated to Palestine from the Arab Peninsula. According to that theory, all the Palestinians still live in historical Palestine.

*The only way to peace is when both parties understand each others stories and rights to live in the conflict territory!

It was founded on May 14, 1948 by David Ben-Gurion.

Easy answer for a difficult problem: 1. They (Europeans, inc Britain) made a nation out of someone else's country 2. See the link below for more information.

The Ottoman Empire owned most of the Middle East since the 16th century. It became an ally of Germany's during WWI. the British offered to give the Arabs independence in return for their help in defeating Germany and the Ottoman Empire. The Arabs agreed and, led by Lawrence of Arabia, fought in the war on the side of Britain.

After WWI, however, the British reneged. Britain and France entered into a secret pact, called the Sykes-Picot Treaty, to divide up the former Ottoman Empire after the war. ( See The Balfour Declaration,

Then, after WWII, a homeland for the Jews (Israel) was established in Palestine, and a flood of Europeans, who had never set foot in the Middle East, arrived and took away land that had belonged to the Arabs for millenia.

These refuges relocated to the half of Palestine that was left to them after the creation of Israel. From the Arab point of view, they have been lied to, cheated, and run off their land. They are very resentful of the Jews, whom they see as Europeans, who were given Their land. Also, they are just plain Angry at having their loyalty betrayed.

From the Israeli point of view, Israel is only Part of Their land, which they fled after Rome destroyed Solomon's temple in 70 a.d. The land belongs to them, pure and simple.

There are some Israelis who believe that All of ancient Israel should be returned to them, and are building settlements in an effort to retake the Rest of their land, which is currently occupied by Palestinians, since it is in the half given to them in the partition.

For additional information on the Causes of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, please see the Related Question below.

Arabs, Turks, Magyars (Hungarians), and numerous other ethnic groups are not actually homogenous. They are composed of two historical groups that intermarried and created a unified culture. In the Arab case, Arab nomads from Arabia conquered the Levant region and brought it under their rule. During that period, those Levantines who converted to Islam began to take on the same mannerisms as the foreign Arabs who had conquered them. They began to speak the same language, dress in the same clothes, and believe in the same general ideologies. This process is well-documented by Arabs and is called Arabization or Ta3arib (تعريب). This is why the Jews and the Christians of the Upper Middle East (the Levant and Mesopotamia) often do not consider themselves Arabs. Unlike their Levantine brothers whose conversion to Islam made them more susceptible to Arabization, they retained their pre-Arabized ethnic sensibility. Therefore, although Palestinians call themselves Arabs, the majority do not and should not have lineages that go back to Arabia, but to pre-Arab ancestors in the Levant region, likely Jews, Christians, and Pagans in the Byzantine Empire.

(The Turks "Turk-ified" the formerly Byzantine population of central Anatolia and most of modern Turkey and had some effect elsewhere in the Balkans. The Magyars made the sedentary population of the Hungarian Empire into Hungarians through conversion to the Catholic Church and the proliferation of the Hungarian Language and customs.)

Palestinians (Philistines in the Bible) lived in Palestine. Then many Jewish people came and took the farms, cities, and land, and called it Israel. The Palestinians want the invaders to go away. The Israelis want to stay and to expand their small country.

Answer this question… Egypt and Syria launched surprise attacks on Israel.