This report covers the modern history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but since ancient times conflict in the Middle East between Jews and Muslims has been geographically as well as religiously rooted. The land called either Israel or Palestine is only 10,000 square miles in size, a small piece of land that nevertheless is of supreme importance to Israelis and Palestinians (Isseroff 1). Judea, home of the Jews in ancient times, was conquered by the Romans, who renamed it Palestine (Isseroff 1). The Zionist movement arose to restore Israel to the Jews, and Palestine was granted to Great Britain by the League of Nations to build the State of Israel in 1917 in what was known as the Balfour Declaration (Isseroff 1). Conflict increased between Israelis and Palestinians, with Palestinians resenting what they viewed as the theft of their lands.
In 1947 the United Nations partitioned the disputed land into Arab and Jewish States but war erupted when Arabs rejected the partition. Israel fought against Palestine's five neighboring states (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq), but won a decisive victory, "expanded their state and created several hundred thousand Palestinian refugees" (Isseroff 1). This analysis will discuss the conflict that has characterized the history of Arabs and Jews since.
The full-scale war between Israel and Palestine erupted in 1948 after the Britain "terminated its mandate over Palestine and the Zionists announced the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel" (Isseroff 4). Support for the State of Israel was high in the aftermath of the Holocaust during WWII. Because of superior military power, Israel won a decisive victory. The current state of Israel occupies all of the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean ocean, bordered by Egypt in the south, Lebanon in the north, and Jordan in the east (Isseroff 1). Israel's recognized borders presently com...