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Der Judenstaat
In 1896 Theodore Herzl, considered to be the founder of Modern Zionism wrote Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State). In it, he outlines the reasons why the Jews should once again make the Holy land theirs, and unify the religion under one country. This came abut due to rising anti-semantism in the late 19th century. However, at this point in time, Palestine was controlled by the Ottomans. -
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WW1
Unlucky -
McMahon Correspondance 1
The McMahon Correspondance is a series of ten letters sent between Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca and Lieutenant Colonel Sir Henry McMahon from the British high command. In 1915 WW1 was in full swing and the Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia), were looking for any advantage that they could gain over the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy). One way of doing this was by persuading the Arabs that they would be given Independence from the Germany alligned Ottoman Empire. -
McMahon Correspondence 2
The Allies promised the Arabs independent control over Arab lands, with the exception of "Portions of land west of Damascus" if they were to rise up against the Ottomans, knocking them out of the war, or at least drawing upon their precious resources. The British also promised to support the Arabs in their revolt. -
Sykes-Picot Agreement
The British had no intention of actually giving the Arabs all of Arabia, as shown in the secrete Sykes-Picot agreement, which was made between France and Britain, and showed their plans to divide Arabia between themselves, giving the arabs only a fraction of the land they were promised. -
The Great Arab Revolt
Due to increased Arab Nationalism and the McMahon Correspondance's promises of independence the Arab broke out in revolt against the Ottomans. The British to help the Arabs sent several army officials to help advise the Arabs, one of these officials is the well known, Lawrence of Arabia. The British also sent a small amount of equipment to aid the Arabs, this was stuff like guns, munitions, mortars, and explosives. The Revolt was successful and relieved the Ottomans of Arabia by October 1918. -
Balfour Declaration
The Allies, still looking for any advantages that they could obtain decided to win the support of the Rich Jewish community in Britain and Germany. They did this through the Balfour Declaration, in which the British proclaimed that they were supporters of Zionism and that they would help the Jews to make Israel their national home. They addressed the Balfour Declaration to Lord Rothschild, the widely acknowledged leader of the British-Jewish community. -
British Mandate
The Allied powers decided to divide up Arabia between themselves, the British took Iraq and Palestine and France took Lebanon and Syria. The Arabs were salty as they were promised independence. The British argue that it was not a proper agreement, and also found flaws in the wording of the correspondence, on top of the fact that they had already promised it to the Jews. The British control also led to an increase in the Jewish settlement of Israel. -
1936 Arab Revolt
The Arabs, still angry at the British occupation of Arabia organised a revolt in 1936. This revolt failed miserably, and lead to a stronger Britsh Military presence, and the creation of a Jewish Army in Palestine. -
The British White Paper 1
After the Arab Revolt and the increasing tensions in Palestine, Britain drafted the White Paper, in an attempt to please the Arabs. In it they pretty much said that within 10 years Britain will have left Palestine, and in their place, there will be a joint government of Arab and Jewish leaders. They also promised to restrict future Jewish immigration into Palestine and bring up the amount of Jews in Palestine to 1/3 of the country, and then stop the Jewish immigration. -
The British White Paper 2
However, this was rejected by both sides of the argument. The Jews were not happy as they did not bleieve that the Jewish Immigration into Palestine had been extensive enough, and they wanted their own Jewish state, not sharing with the Arabs. And the Arabs wanted independance now not in ten years, and the did not wish to share their land with the Jews. -
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WW2
Unlucky -
UN Partition Plan (resolution 181)
After the resistance of British occupation by both Jews and Arabs, along with the faltering British economy and the high-cost expenses that came with maintaining power in Palestine, the British decided to leave the area. They put it to the newly formed UN to decide what would happen to the area. The only problem was that the Jews had more land and fewer people, and the Arabs had less and bad land and more people. and neither group wanted Jerusalem to be controlled internationally. -
Plan Dalet
This was a controvercial plan devised by the Isralies to try and rid Israle of the Arabs that were living there. They did this by taking Arab villages and forcing the Arab to flee, as well as killing Arab civilians to scare them into running. -
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1948 War
After threatening to declare war on the Jews if the unfair resolution 181 went through, the Arabs declared war on the Jews. The Arab nations of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq invaded Palestine. The Jews immediately seized control of all Palestinian-controlled lands in Israel. The Arabs, although vastly outnumbering the Jews, had neither the coordination nor the training to win. The Jews managed to keep all the land given to them in the parititon, and 60% of the Arab state. -
Suez Canal Crisis
The Arabs lead by Gamal Abdul Nasser attempted to blockade Israel economically, by denying them access to the Suez Canal and the Straights of Tiran. Nasser also wanted to remove British Influence from Egypt, so he nationalized the Suez Canal. British and French got angry and used the fact that they were supporting Israel in a war agaisnt the agressions of Egypt as a cover up for their true intention to try and retake the Suez. They stopped the invasion after UN and Soviet intervention. -
Six Day War
The Six-day war was the result of Soviet Mischief. They told Egypt that Israel was moving troops towards Syria their ally, and preparing to attack. To dissuade them from attacking Egypt sent several troops up to the Egyptian - Israeli border, the number of troops, however, is debated. Many Arab states followed likewise and sent their troops to the borders of Israel. Israel noticing that it was surrounded struck first and easily won. Resulting in massive land grabs by the Israelis. -
Settler Movement
Begin started to raise more illegal jewish settlements closer and closer to palestinain territory, in an attempt to try and force the Palestinians out, or at least overwhelm them. -
UN Resolution 242
UN Resolution 242 called upon Israel to return 'occupied' territories. Israel got around this by returning a little bit of territory but not all of it, as it was a loophole in the resolution. It also pretty much attempted to abolish all former claims of countries over other countries lands, essentially telling the Arab to deal with it. It also said that everyone has to be allowed through the Suez Canal. And it established demilitarised zones. The two sides fought over the interpretation. -
Yom Kippur War
Anwar Sadat New president of Egypt wanted to take back the Sinai to restore the honor of Egypt he planned to invade Israel during their religious holiday, Yom Kippur during which most of the Israeli army was sent home. Sadat and Assad (Syrian President) both knew they wouldn't be able to beat Israel entirely, they just wanted to gain some land. US and USSR supplied the war. Egypt and Syria still lost. However, Arabs realized that they could use their oil to sway international opinion. -
Camp David
Sadat realized Peace and diplomacy was the best way to retake Sinai. He offered Israel peace in November 1977. He wanted the Sinai back and the recognition of the Palestinians, and their independence from the Israeli government. Begin refused but continued negotiations. Jimmy Carter invited them both to his Presidential Retreat. Sadat wanted peace cause Egypts economy was screwed. Camp David set up the framework for further negotiations and it drafted the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Sinai. -
Madrid Accords
The first time that the leaders of all of the parties involved had a peace conference, together, this is significant as prior to this they never really spoke to each other or tried to use diplomacy, However, not much came from this as Old mate Israel is going to election, so he tries not to look pissy. It was also the first time Palestinians had representation through the Palestinians in negotations. -
Oslo
New Isralei Prime Minister was conciliatory towards the Palestinians. Secret meetings were held in Oslo, Norway, between him and Arafat. Eventually, they came to an agreement and signed a Declaration of Principles in Washington. This included mutual recognition,redeployment of isralei troops out of palestinian lands. Governance of palestinain lands would be given to a palestinain council. in the mean time amore permanent peace treaty owuld be worked out and full independance can be granted. -
Oslo 2
Oslo failed in the end due to the wide spread hatres of the idea from radical groups in both Palestine and Israel, one of the radicals assassinated the Isralis President Yitzhak Rabin, and he was replaced with a furthur right government Benjamin Netanyahu.
