History of Israel
The modern State of Israel was formed in 1948 from part of Palestine, the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people and a region sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. In biblical times the area was controlled by the kingdoms of Israel, Judah, and Judea. After the 1st century ad, it was held successively by virtually every power of the Middle East. Palestine fell under the rule of a series of Islamic dynasties from the 7th century ad until the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. Nevertheless, the biblical promise of a homeland remained an important part of Jewish identity during the many hundreds of years of the Diaspora, the period in which the Jews were scattered outside Palestine. (For the early history of the area, see Palestine.)
Zionism and the Creation of a Jewish State
The founding of Israel was the climax of the modern Zionist movement of the late 19th century, which sought the reestablishment of a Jewish national state in Palestine. At the time, the region was ruled by the Ottoman Turks, and most of the people living there were Palestinian Arabs. In 1917 the United Kingdom issued the Balfour Declaration, which promised British support for the creation of a Jewish state. The United Kingdom gained control over Palestine after World War I and governed it under a League of Nations mandate beginning in 1923. The numbers of Jewish settlers in the region were small at first but increased dramatically during the second quarter of the 20th century, as Jews fled severe persecution worldwide, particularly in Nazi-dominated Europe during the Holocaust.
Conflicts arose between the Jewish immigrants and the region’s Arab residents, who did not want Palestine to become a Jewish country. Waves of anti-Zionist riots broke out in the 1920s and ’30s. Larger-scale battles occurred in 1947, when the United Nations (UN) offered a plan to partition the region into separate Jewish and Arab states. The Palestinian Arabs and the neighboring Arab countries rejected the UN plan, but the Zionists accepted it.
The Arab-Israeli Wars
Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq immediately declared war on Israel. Israel won the war. It was the first of several Arab-Israeli wars. In 1949 Israel took control of three fourths of Palestine, twice as much land as proposed by the United Nations.
Israel gained more territory in the Six-Day War of 1967. It took the eastern part of Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria. In 1973 Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel. Israel lost many soldiers but eventually won the war.
In 1979 Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty. However, Israel’s relations with other Arab countries remained poor. In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon. They wanted to drive out Palestinian fighters belonging to a group known as the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In 1987 Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip began a violent protest (intifada in Arabic) against Israel.
The Troubled Peace Process
Peace talks between Israel, the Arab countries, and Palestinians began in 1992. The following year Israel agreed to give the Palestinians some control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Soon after that Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan. In 2000 Israeli troops pulled out of Lebanon. Five years later Israel pulled its troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip. The peace process continued to face difficulties, however.