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Israel The Beginnings, The Tribe of Judah
 
13 Tribes      What happen to the tribes, video by E. Raymond Capt.     Israel the Nation
 
This Beginnings of a new state. In the mid-1800's, Eastern European Jews began to develop a desire to live in the Holy Land. By 1880, about 24,000 Jews were living in Palestine, which was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. In the late 1800's, oppression of Jews in eastern Europe triggered the Zionist movement and eventually led to a mass emigration of Jews to Palestine. By 1914, there were about 85,000 Jews in Palestine, out of a total population of about 700,000.

In 1917, during World War I (1914-1918), the United Kingdom issued the Balfour Declaration, which expressed British support for a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine. The United Kingdom was fighting to win control of Palestine from the Ottoman Empire as part of the war. The British hoped the declaration would rally Jewish leaders in the United Kingdom and the United States to support the British war efforts. At the same time, however, the British promised independence to various Arab groups in the Middle East, hoping to gain their support against the Ottomans. The promises were vague, but Arab leaders assumed they included Palestine.

Following the Ottoman defeat in World War I, the League of Nations made Palestine a mandated territory of the United Kingdom. According to the mandate, the British were to help Palestinian Jews build a national home. Many Zionists viewed the mandate as support for increased Jewish immigration to Palestine. But the British, fearful of the hostility of the large Arab population, proposed limits on Jewish immigration. But these limitations were not fully enforced.

Large numbers of European Jews came to Palestine in the 1930's to escape persecution by the Nazis. Alarmed by the Jewish immigration, the Palestinian Arabs revolted against British rule during the late 1930's. In 1939, the United Kingdom began attempting to limit Jewish immigration to Palestine. Jews strongly opposed this policy.

During World War II (1939-1945), the Nazis killed about 6 million European Jews. This led to increased demands for a Jewish state, but the British continued to limit Jewish immigration to Palestine. In 1947, the United Kingdom submitted the issue to the United Nations (UN).
 
Independence and conflict. On Nov. 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly agreed to divide Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state and to place Jerusalem under international control. The Jews in Palestine accepted this plan, but the Arabs rejected it. Fighting broke out immediately.

Israel officially came into existence on May 14, 1948, under the leadership of David Ben-Gurion. On May 15, Arab armies, chiefly from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Transjordan (which became known as Jordan in 1949), attacked Israel, aiming to destroy the new nation. By early 1949, Israel had defeated the Arabs and gained control of about half the land planned for the new Arab state. Egypt and Jordan held the rest of Palestine. Israel controlled the western half of Jerusalem, and Jordan held the eastern half. Israel incorporated the gained territory into the new country, adding about 150,000 resentful Arabs to its population. Hundreds of thousands of other Palestinian Arabs settled as refugees in parts of Palestine not under Israeli control and in Arab countries.

By mid-1949, Israel had signed armistice agreements with Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. But formal peace treaties were not signed because the Arab nations refused to recognize the existence of Israel.

Israel held its first election in January 1949. In February, the Knesset elected Chaim Weizmann president. He officially appointed Ben-Gurion prime minister.
 
The Sinai invasion. Border clashes between Arab and Israeli troops occurred frequently in the early 1950's. In the mid-1950's, Egypt began giving financial aid and military supplies to Palestinian Arab fedayeen (commandos). The fedayeen raided Israel from the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian-occupied part of Palestine. The Israelis raided the Gaza Strip in return. Egypt also blocked Israeli ships from using the Suez Canal and stopped Israeli ships at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba. In July 1956, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, which at the time was owned mainly by the United Kingdom and France.

In response to the Egyptian actions, on Oct. 29, 1956, Israeli forces invaded Egypt. The United Kingdom and France attacked Egypt two days later. By November 5, the Israelis occupied the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, and the British and French controlled the northern entrance to the Suez Canal. The UN ended the fighting and arranged the withdrawal of foreign troops from Egyptian territory. The UN also set up a peacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula.

The Six-Day War. In May 1967, the UN removed its peacekeeping force from the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula in response to demands by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Nasser then sent large numbers of troops into the Sinai. He also announced the closing of the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships, thus blocking the Israeli port of Elat.

Fearing that Arabs would soon attack, Israel launched a surprise air strike against Egypt on June 5, 1967. Syria, Jordan, and Iraq, which had signed defense agreements with Egypt, immediately joined in the fighting. In one day, Israeli planes almost completely destroyed the Arab air forces. Israel's ground forces then defeated those of the Arab states. The UN arranged a cease-fire, ending the war after six days.
 
At the war's conclusion, Israel held the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip, as well as Syria's Golan Heights. It also occupied the West Bank, which had been claimed by Jordan. Israel vowed not to withdraw from these territories until the Arab states recognized Israel's right to exist. In June 1967, Israel officially made the eastern half of Jerusalem part of Israel.

The Six-Day War again proved the superiority of Israel's military forces, but it also planted the seeds of additional Arab-Israeli problems. The occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank placed Israel in control of about 1 million hostile Palestinian inhabitants.

The rise of the PLO. Following the Six-Day War, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) became prominent in the Middle East. The PLO is a confederation of Palestinian Arab groups that work to establish an Arab state in Palestine. It adopted guerrilla tactics, including terrorist attacks and commando raids against military and civilian targets.

After the defeat of the regular Arab armies in the 1967 war, Arab leaders began increasing their support of the PLO's forces. These forces then stepped up guerrilla activity against Israel. Israel retaliated with raids against PLO bases in neighboring Arab countries.
 
The Yom Kippur War. Israeli and Egyptian forces engaged in intense border fighting along the Suez Canal between April 1969 and August 1970. The Soviet Union provided military assistance to Egypt in the conflict, which was ended by a U.S.-sponsored cease-fire. On October 6, 1973, full-scale war broke out again when Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked Israeli positions along the Suez Canal and in the Golan Heights. The attack occurred on Yom Kippur, the most sacred Jewish holy day. Israel pushed back the Arab forces. It recaptured the Golan Heights and some additional Syrian territory. A cease-fire went into effect on October 25.

The Yom Kippur War had far-reaching effects. The Israeli economy suffered severely. Although Israel won the war, it suffered heavy losses of men and equipment. Many Israelis criticized the government's handling of the conflict. As a result, Prime Minister Golda Meir resigned in April 1974. Yitzhak Rabin succeeded her in June. The war also greatly increased Israel's dependence on the United States, which supplied Israel with arms.

The Camp David Accords. The Labor Party and the party from which it developed, the Mapai, controlled Israel's government from independence until 1977. Under Israel's political system of the time, the prime minister was usually the leader of the party with the most seats in the Knesset. In 1977, parliamentary elections transferred control of the country to the Likud bloc. Menachem Begin, the Likud leader, became prime minister.

Israeli-Egyptian tensions eased after the Yom Kippur War. In November 1977, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat announced that he was ready to negotiate a peace settlement with Israel. That month, he met with Begin in Jerusalem. In September 1978, Begin, Sadat, and U.S. President Jimmy Carter met at Camp David in the United States for talks arranged by Carter. The talks resulted in the Camp David Accords, which focused on achieving two objectives: (1) peace between Egypt and Israel, and (2) a comprehensive peace in the Middle East.
 
The first objective of the Camp David Accords was met when Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in March 1979. In February 1980, they exchanged diplomats for the first time. Israel withdrew from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in 1982. No immediate progress was made in efforts to meet the second objective.
 
Invasion of Lebanon. Tensions between Israel and the PLO escalated in the late 1970's and early 1980's. In 1978, Israel invaded southern Lebanon in an attempt to drive out Palestinian terrorists who had been attacking Israel for several years. In June 1982, a large Israeli force attacked southern and central Lebanon in retaliation for PLO attacks on northern Israel. The PLO withdrew most of its forces from Lebanon in August 1982. In 1985, Israel withdrew its forces from all of Lebanon except a security zone along the Lebanon-Israeli border.

Unity government. Begin resigned as prime minister in September 1983. Yitzhak Shamir of the Likud bloc succeeded him. Parliamentary elections were held in July 1984. The Labor Party won more seats than the Likud bloc, but neither party won a majority and neither was able to form a coalition government. In September, Labor and Likud agreed to form a unity government for 50 months. Under the agreement, Shimon Peres, leader of the Labor Party, served as prime minister for a term of 25 months. Shamir served as vice prime minister and foreign minister. The roles of Peres and Shamir were reversed after 25 months, in October 1986.

The unity government included Cabinet members of both parties. It succeeded in reducing a high inflation rate in Israel. But the government was divided on how to attain peace with the Arabs. The Labor camp favored giving up portions of the occupied territories in return for peace agreements. The Likud bloc, however, supported the establishment of Jewish settlements in the territories and their retention by Israel.

In late 1987, Arab residents of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank began staging widespread-often violent-demonstrations against Israel's occupation. Israeli troops killed a number of protesters during these demonstrations, which became known as the first intifada (an Arabic word for uprising). A few Israelis were also killed, and hundreds of Palestinians and Israelis were injured.
 
In November 1988, new parliamentary elections were held. The Likud bloc won one more seat than the Labor Party, but again neither party won a majority. In December, Likud and Labor formed a new coalition government with Shamir continuing as prime minister. In 1990, Shamir refused to compromise on peace plans for the occupied territories. The Labor Party then left the coalition, and the government fell in March. In June 1990, Likud and small conservative parties formed a new coalition government with Shamir as prime minister.

Recent developments. From the mid-1980's to the early 1990's, thousands of Ethiopian Jews moved to Israel. Also, hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews moved there. The influx of newcomers led to problems in housing and employment. Israel continued to build new settlements in occupied territories, in part to accommodate the immigrants. Despite protests from Palestinians, Shamir and Likud backed these construction projects.

In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. In early 1991, the United States and other countries defeated Iraq in the Persian Gulf War. During the war, Iraq fired missiles at Israel.

In October 1991, peace talks began between Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation. Israel's Labor Party gained control of the government in June 1992 parliamentary elections. In July, Labor Party leader Yitzhak Rabin replaced Shamir as prime minister. Rabin agreed to limit construction of new Jewish settlements in the occupied territories as a step toward a peace agreement.
 
The PLO was not a participant in the peace talks that began in October 1991. But in September 1993, following secret talks in Oslo, Norway, Israel and the PLO recognized each other and signed an agreement that included steps to end their conflicts. As a result of this agreement and later ones, Israel withdrew its troops from most of the Gaza Strip and portions of the West Bank. Palestinians took control of these areas. In October 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty that formally ended the state of war that had technically existed between the countries since 1948.

Not all Israelis agreed with the peace process, and some protested it. Some opponents argued, for example, that Israel was giving away land that should historically belong to it. On Nov. 4, 1995, Rabin was assassinated in Tel Aviv by a right-wing Israeli university student who was opposed to his policies. Following Rabin's death, Peres, who had been foreign minister, became prime minister.

In May 1996, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud leader and a critic of the Israeli-PLO peace agreements, defeated Peres in an election for prime minister. Netanyahu claimed that the peace agreements did not include enough provisions for Israel, such as guaranteed security and allowance for its population growth.

Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians grew after the 1996 elections, and the peace process slowed. In 1996 and 1997, Israel announced plans to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank and to build new Israeli housing in East Jerusalem. Both decisions met with angry and violent protests from the Palestinians. Also in 1997, however, Israel completed an agreement with the PLO over the withdrawal of Israeli troops from most of the West Bank city of Hebron.
 
In October 1998, Israel and the Palestinians signed another agreement, called the Wye River Memorandum. The accord called for Israel to turn over more land in the West Bank to Palestinian control, and it allowed a Palestinian airport in the Gaza Strip to open. Also as a result of the agreement, the PLO revised its charter to remove language calling for the destruction of Israel. Many conservative members of the Israeli parliament and in Netanyahu's Cabinet opposed the accord. In December 1998, Netanyahu, claiming that the PLO was not fulfilling its security commitments, suspended Israeli troop withdrawals. That same month, the Israeli parliament voted to dissolve itself and scheduled new elections.

In May 1999, Ehud Barak, leader of the Labor Party, was elected prime minister of Israel. Barak favored renewing the peace process with the Palestinians. In September, Barak and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat signed a new agreement that revived and expanded on the previous Wye River Memorandum. Israel resumed its troop withdrawals from the West Bank shortly after the agreement was signed.

In May 2000, Israel withdrew its troops from the security zone it had established in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah guerrillas immediately took control of the area. Hezbollah, also spelled Hizbollah, is a movement that opposed the Israeli occupation of Lebanon. Guerrillas from the group had often clashed with the Israelis and the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army. By September, UN peacekeepers and Lebanese security forces had moved into most of southern Lebanon. But Hezbollah remained in control of the area near the Israel-Lebanon border. Violence has continued between Hezbollah and Israeli forces in the border region.

The peace process between Israeli and Palestinian leaders continued in 2000. In July, Barak and Arafat met at Camp David in the United States for peace talks hosted by U.S. President Bill Clinton. However, the two sides were unable to agree on key issues, especially those involving Jerusalem. One point of dispute was how much control Palestinians should have over East Jerusalem. The two sides also disagreed about who should govern the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Temple Mount, known to Arabs as Haram al-Sharif, is a holy site for both Muslims and Jews.
 
In September 2000, Ariel Sharon, the leader of the right-wing Likud party and a controversial critic of the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements, visited Temple Mount. This visit angered Palestinians, who began riots and demonstrations against Israeli security forces in Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. This violence came to be known as the second Palestinian intifada. Israel responded to the intifada with police crackdowns and military attacks in Palestinian areas. Hundreds of Palestinians and Israelis have died in the violence.

After the intifada began, Barak faced mounting pressure from opposition parties to hold new elections. In late November, he agreed to hold a new election for prime minister. In the vote, which was held in February 2001, Sharon defeated Barak. Sharon formed a coalition government that included the Labor Party and several other parties.

 



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