Israel and Palestine

The Arab-Israel conflict is a story which has taken place over a century. In order to understand the conflict between these two cultures their collective histories must be taken into consideration. It was a long and hard path for the Jewish population to get a piece of land they can call their own. A land free of religious persecution. I think that history has shown that these two states can not and will not be able to sustain peace over any period of time. The story between these two countries starts shortly after the First World War. The defeat of the Ottoman Empire caused the League of Nations to split up their existing territories. Palestine happened to be one of the affected territories. The British and the French saw this as an opportunity to expand their empires (Origins). The United States under the presidency of Harry S. Truman stated that the land acquired after the war would eventually be granted their independence (Victor 169). The pro-Zionist movement was concerned in the development and support of a Jewish national homeland (Dictionary). With this new land a pro-Zionist movement led by Dr. Hiam Weizmann came up with the Balfour declaration, which stated that there was to be the creation of a Jewish national home inside Palestine (Brief). The Palestinians obviously opposed this idea because it would take away land from their country. The reasons that the Jews wanted this land so much was because this was the birthplace of the Jews, this is where they formed their national and religious identity, and here they wrote and gave the Bible to the rest of the world (Concise 113). Eventually this plan was adopted without taking into consideration the existing inhabitants. Shortly after this declaration Arab nationalists started riots opposing the Jewish presence in many of their cities for example: Jerusalem, Haifa, and Hebron (Brief). These Arab riots caused problems for the unprepared British Army. Hundreds of Jews were killed during