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Between 1517 and 1917, the Ottoman Empire of Turkey controlled the areas of Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. Supporting Germany during the First World War, the Turks were defeated and in 1916, the southern portion of control was mandated to Britain and France - Lebanon and Syria going to France, with Palestine (the areas known today as Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank) controlled by the British. Jews had begun mass immigration to Palestine during the 1880’s and slowly started changing the very landscape from malarial swamps and dry desserts to farmable land. This also attracted a large number of Arab immigrants who were looking for employment and better living conditions.
In 1923 Palestine was divided into two areas by the British – 25% of the land (west of the Jordan River) was to be the Jewish homeland and administratively run by the Palestinian Jews. The remaining 75%, called Trans-Jordan would be the Arab-Palestinian homeland.
Arab Palestinians began a systematic effort to drive out the Jews from the area west of the Jordan River with continuous attacks on Jewish settlements. Most widely known was the 1936-39 “Arab Revolt”, where attacks on Jews continued mercilessly. The British, who once protected the Jews and Arabs from each other, soon began ignoring the situation after many of their own died getting in between Arabs and Jews. The Jews began pouring more and more resources into their own defensive force called the Hagana, which eventually became the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
By 1947, the British had grown weary of the Middle East and left it to the United Nations to decide the fate of the region. The UN passed resolution 181 partitioning the land west of the Jordan River (the original 25% of Palestine) into a Jewish Palestinian state and an Arab Palestinian state. The Jews accepted the resolution and the Arabs rejected it, claiming all of Palestine. On May 14, 1948 the Palestinian Jews celebrated for the first time as Israelis, but on the following day, seven neighboring Arab armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen invaded the new state. Many Arabs who were living within the new Israeli boundaries were encouraged to leave by the other Arab states so a mass invasion could wipe out all of the Jews. The Arabs, who were anticipating an easy victory, promised Jewish land and property in return. The Independence War lasted about a year and a half and the Arabs that had stayed in the Israeli boundaries became Israeli citizens; those that had left are known as one of the first waves of “refugees”.
Israel now had a state that was a little bit bigger than it was before the war, though their population was reduced slightly by the casualties sustained during the war. The area that was Arab Palestine was now controlled by Egypt (taking the Gaza Strip) and Jordan (occupying the West Bank). Jordan annexed this territory and the land east and west of the Jordan River was simply called Jordan.
In 1964 the Palestinian Liberation Organization was formed. Led by Yasser Arafat, it claimed to be the sole representative of the Palestinians. They vowed to reclaim the land and destroy the state of Israel.
In 1967, the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian armies began to mobilize along the borders of Israel. Israel called for a pre-emptive strike and attacked Egypt, utterly destroying their Air Force within two hours. Jordan launched their attack from the West Bank, unaware of Egypt’s loss, while the Syrian army attacked from the Golan Heights mountains into the north. The Israelis won the war in six days and now controlled the Sinai Desert, the West Bank (including all of Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights.
In 1973 on the eve of the holiest Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, Syria and Egypt launched a surprise attack on Israel. After initial losses suffered due to the surprise, Israel still controlled most of the territory gained from the 1967 six-day war. In 1979, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat signed a mutual recognition pact with Israel in exchange for the return of the Sinai Desert.
Israel formally annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, using the natural barrier of the mountains as defense. In response to terrorism from the north, Israel invaded Lebanon on June 6, 1982 and went as far north as Beirut. By 1985, Israeli troops withdrew from most of Lebanon, but kept a security zone on the southern border.
Israel built settlements on the land captured in the 1967 war throughout the 1980’s. In response, the Palestinians launched the first intifada (uprising) against Israeli occupation in 1987. Peace talks were launched and the Oslo Accords in 1993 attempted to pave the way for peace. Mutual recognition between the PLO and Israel and limited self-rule for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza were the highlights of the agreement; Jordan also signed a peace treaty with Israel.
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