The Birth Of Israel. Background World War II ends in 1945 Old empires are crumbling (French, British)

The Birth Of IsraelThe Birth Of Israel

BackgroundBackground

• World War II ends in 1945• Old empires are crumbling (French,

British)

19471947• Britain pulls out of the British

Mandate• The UN General Assembly

approved the 1947 UN Partition Plan dividing the territory into two states, with the Jewish area consisting of roughly 55% of the land, and the Arab area consisting of roughly 45%.

• Israeli leader David Ben-Gurion cautiously accepted the plan while the Arab League rejected it sparking the beginnings of the Arab – Israeli War

19481948• The State of Israel was established on May 14, 1948 • Following Israel’s establishment, the armies

of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon declared war on Israel

• The creation of the Israeli state forced many Palestinians to flee and created a massive influx of Jewish settlers into Israel

• The war ends the same year it is started and the armistice agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors results in the division of the former British mandate into Israel, the Gaza strip held by Egypt and the West Bank held by Jordan.

Trouble Brews Once Again• In May of1967 Syria, Jordan, and Egypt had been hinting at

war• Egypt expelled UN Peacekeeping Forces from the

Gaza Strip, violating prior peace treaties and began an arms build up along the Israeli-Egyptian border

• Israel deemed it necessary to preemptively attack Egypt on June 5 1967

• The ensuing war would become known as the Six-Days War between Israel and its Arab neighbors

• Israel defeated the armies of three large Arab states• Territorially, Israel conquered the West Bank, Gaza Strip,

Sinai Peninsula, and Golan Heights. This is the source of much of the conflict in the region.

• The Sinai was later returned to Egypt following the signing of a peace treaty in the 1970’s.

Territory gained in the Six Days War Present Day Israel/Palestine

War of Attrition• Period from 1968 to 1972 known as the

War of Attrition• Culminates in at the 1972 Munich Olympic

Games, when Palestinian militants held hostage and killed members of the Israeli Olympic Team.

• Israel responded with Operation Wrath of God, in which agents of Mossad assassinated most of those who were involved in the massacre.

• Eternalized in Steven Spielberg's film Munich

• Munich Trailer

Peace on the Horizon?Peace on the Horizon?

• 1977- Egypt becomes the first Arab nation to recognize Israel as a sovereign state

• In March 1979, Israeli Prime Minister Begin and Egyptian leader Sadat sign the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty in Washington, DC.

• The Gulf War of 1991 prompted the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993

List of Terror Attacks

• http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/terrorism/terrisrael-1.html

• http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/terrorism/terrisrael-2.html

Not Yet . . .Not Yet . . .

• The Israel-Palestine conflict continues to be a source of major controversy

• Many Arabic countries see Israel as a colony of the West on sacred Arabian soil

• Terrorist attacks are still a problem all over the region