Arab-Israeli Conflict
Persecution of Jews by the Nazi regime in Germany vastly increased Jewish immigration to Palestine from the early 1930's. In 1947 the United Nations drew up a plan of partition that divided Palestine between the Jews and the Arabs; Jerusalem was included in the Arab part as an international city. British control ended in 1948, and war broke out immediately between the new nation of Israel and surrounding Arab nations. Fighting was ended in 1949, with the Israelis occupying about half of the Arab territory, including part of Jerusalem. (The remainder of Arab Palestine, known as the West Bank, was annexed by Jordan in 1950.)
Hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled from Israeli territory, many to refugee camps that became, in effect, their permanent homes. The liberation of Palestine became the focal point of Arab activism. There were frequent border incidents. In 1956 Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, and Israel immediately invaded the Sinai Peninsula. The United Nations forced the Israelis, and French and British troops who had been rushed to the canal, to withdraw.
Arab commandos continued to attack Israel, bringing retaliatory raids. In 1967, war broke out between Israel and surrounding Arab nations, who were quickly defeated in what came to be called the Six Day War. Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria. Egypt blocked the Suez Canal with sunken ships, and it remained impassable until 1975.
Israel declared at least some of the occupied territory to be essential to its security and refused to withdraw. The active Arab opposition became nominally unified under the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Arab extremists began a worldwide campaign of terrorism against Israel.
In 1973 Israel was attacked by neighboring countries, but fighting was halted within a few weeks under a UN cease-fire. In 1979 Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel. Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt in a series of steps, 1979–82.
During the late 1970's and early 1980's, Lebanon became the principal arena of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Civil war broke out in 1975 among the Christians, PLO, Shiite Muslims, Sunnite Muslims, and other groups. Israel gave military support to the Christian groups, and Syria helped arm the Islamic groups. Both countries became directly involved when in 1976 Syria entered eastern Lebanon and when in 1982 Israeli troops invaded southern Lebanon. Israeli forces did not fully withdraw from Lebanon until 2000; Syrian troops left Lebanon in 2005.
In 1993, after two years of secret negotiations, Israel and the PLO signed a peace agreement. Israel gave the PLO limited self-rule in the Gaza Strip and in Jericho, in the West Bank. In 1994, Jordan and Israel signed a peace agreement. Another pact between Israel and the PLO, signed in September 1995, expanded Palestinian control over more towns in the West Bank. An Israeli opponent of the agreement assassinated Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November, and conflicting interpretations of the agreement between Israel and the PLO delayed its fulfillment. By the end of 2000 there was a marked increase in acts of violence between Israel and Palestinians. As part of a plan approved by the Israeli parliament in 2004, Israel removed Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank in 2005, allowing Palestinians to assume complete control of these areas.
