Arab-Israeli relations are influenced by problems between the two groups extending back centuries, and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 today remains a sore point in the Arab world. The international political economy of the Middle East is complex and derives both from historical factors and economic and political actions of recent origin. The tensions in the Middle East date back centuries, but they have been exacerbated by such actions in recent times as the creation of the state of Israel, Israeli actions with regard to the Palestinians, the discovery and development of oil in the Arab countries, and shifts in the world geo-political situation, with the results of the most recent shifts on the latter macro-level still in the process of working themselves out on the world stage. There have been six wars between Israel and the Arab states, some of which have been more important or more threatening than others.
The state of Israel was created in 1948 in a battle between the newly declared state and her Arab neighbors, ending in 1949 with armistice agreements between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Israel as a state developed out of the Palestinian question. When the British wanted to turn the state of Palestine over to the United Nations, a solution to the issue of what people would reside in Palestine was reached in the form of partition, after which Jerusalem would be made an international city in which there would be free access for worship in Christian, Islamic, and Jewish shrines and holy places. After this, Israel now controlled half of Jerusalem, and nearly 60 percent of the Palestinians had been uprooted from their homes. Displaced Palestinians lived in crude refugee camps; the remaining Palestinians lived within the 22.6 percent of the territory the Israeli's had failed to capture (Neff 23-24).
The state of Israel thus began in conflict with its neighbors, and tensions continued during ...