A Condensed History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

About Me and This Site

I’m an American-Israeli Jew with a Mizrahi Jewish mother and an Ashkenazi Jewish father. I lived in Israel for 10 years as a child and have been in the U.S. ever since, though I’ve returned to Israel many times. As a Zionist with roots in both Holocaust survivors and Farhud refugees, I’m aware of the ways my heritage may shape my perspective on the conflict and I strive to remain objective.

I believe the pursuit of a Multi-State Solution is likely to be the most feasible and least destructive path to peace. For any agreement on such a solution to materialize, both sides and their supporters need to be disabused of the false myths that stand in the way, and make sober contact with today’s reality and the historical record.

This site is born of an understanding that hostility toward Jews and Israel runs deep in much of the Muslim world – entrenched in state media, educational curricula, religious institutions, and political movements – and poses a tremendous obstacle to peace in the region. Its reach extends beyond the Middle East, shaping international media coverage, swaying Western opinion against Israel and the Jewish people, fueling a distorted view of the conflict and paranoid narratives the world over.  These distortions, fanned by ignorance and its thirst for simple and summary takes on complex, nuanced situations, inflict real harm on communities – Jewish and otherwise – worldwide. Countering the myths and distortions that carry this hostility outward is part of what this site aims to do.

Beginnings

Modern-day Jews are descendants of the B’nei Israel, whose origin and early history are documented in the Torah – the foundational text for Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other world religions. Much of this history is supported by independent sources and archaeological discoveries, and the connection between B’nei Israel and modern Jews is corroborated through cultural practices and DNA evidence.

The seeds of the current territorial conflict over the land the B’nei Israel inhabited and controlled in antiquity were sown in 70 CE, when the Romans quelled a local uprising, expelled many of the Jews from the land and destroyed their Temple and cultural center in Jerusalem. This led to a nearly 2,000-year diaspora, during which many Jews settled in North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

Despite this dispersion, Jewish diaspora communities maintained a strong connection to each other and their shared culture. They held a continuing aspiration to return to their homeland; a sentiment expressed in the traditional Jewish New Year prayer that ends with “next year in Jerusalem”, among other customs. Additionally, the practice of endogamy during this period, evidenced by shared Levantine genetic signatures, reinforced their sense of identity and continuity. This historical context is important to understanding why comparisons between Jewish return and European colonialism/imperialism are misleading. Those who wish to disassociate the Jews from their ancestral homeland in order to serve a conflicting political agenda often make such bad-faith comparisons and call for the Jews to “go back to where they came from”, undeterred by the irony that through much of history, this was the call lobbed by unwelcoming hosts who wished for the Jews to go back to Israel.

Foreign Domination, Islam and Arabization

Roman control of the Levant transitioned to Byzantine rule from 313 to 636 CE. Towards the end of this period, in what is now Saudi Arabia, Islam emerged, unifying various Arab tribes under a common belief system and a mission to spread it. Islam developed in a region familiar with Jewish and Christian teachings and borrowed heavily from those traditions. After its rise, Islamic forces took control of Israel from the Byzantines and soon constructed a place of worship on the site of the Jewish Temple’s ruins. This Arab conquest introduced Islam to the region formerly governed by B’nei Israel and initiated the process of its linguistic and cultural Arabization.

Subsequent control of the region shifted from the Arabs to the Crusaders in 1099, who were then replaced by the Mamluks in 1291, followed by the Ottomans in 1517, and finally the British in 1918. Throughout these changes in rule, attitudes toward Jews varied, but a Jewish community of fluctuating size persisted alongside Christian and Muslim communities – particularly in Jerusalem.

Zionism

The term “Zionism” is derived from the biblical term “Zion,” which refers to both Jerusalem and one of its hills. It is often misunderstood or misrepresented by critics of the modern state of Israel, but in essence, Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. It does not address, nor does it negate, the rights of other peoples to self-determination locally or elsewhere. It is a straightforward and rather narrow concept.

Various Zionist movements existed throughout the Jewish diaspora, advocating for the resettlement of diasporan Jews in their ancestral land and bolstering the continuous Jewish presence under foreign rule. The modern political Zionist movement, which emerged in Europe in the late 19th century while Israel was under Ottoman control, was significantly influenced by the experience of Jews living as minorities in Europe under various hostile regimes. Their discomfort drove waves of Jewish immigration to Israel, but also to the Americas, which is why a large majority of American Jews are Ashkenazi. It’s worth noting that the man credited with the politicization of European Zionism – Theodor Herzl – was a Jewish secularist who considered the assimilation of Ashkenazi Jews into European society to be ideal, but concluded it was unattainable given the rampant anti-Semitism of that era. A return to the ancestral homeland was deemed next-best.

Before the Ottomans lost control of the area to the British, the Levantine region which includes modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories was known as Ottoman Syria, with Syria serving as its primary administrative center. After the Allied victory in World War I, the League of Nations – a precursor to the United Nations – divided this territory between the British and the French, with the British receiving the mandate for Palestine. The inhabitants of this area, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or national origin, came to be known as Palestinians, much like how inhabitants of North America are collectively referred to as Americans.

The population of British Mandated Palestine grew from 700,000 inhabitants in 1922 to around 1,800,000 in 1945 due in part to the natural growth of all its inhabitants, but very significantly bolstered by the increasing Jewish migration as anti-Semitism was driving Jews out of parts of Europe en route to the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust. Much of the land purchased during this period by various Jewish groups seeking safety in their homeland under the comparatively amiable Brits was sold to them by absentee landowners – large landholders, many of them Turkish (formerly Ottoman) or from elite Arab families based in Beirut, Damascus, and Cairo, who held title to sizeable tracts worked by tenant farmers. A preference for land without resident cultivators led many purchases to be concentrated in the Jordan Valley, Jezreel Valley, and parts of the Galilee — areas that were sparsely populated in part because marshy or difficult soils made them costly to bring under cultivation.

The period of mass Jewish resettlement in the land is often the subject of conflicting memories. In collective Jewish and Israeli memory, this period is marked by Arab resistance to Jewish immigration and by violence committed against Jewish settlers by the larger Arab Muslim population. On the other hand, the Palestinian narrative sometimes portrays a more welcoming attitude toward Jews who arrived seeking refuge from persecution elsewhere. 

From the Jewish perspective, the period underscores the necessity of establishing an autonomous Jewish region, free from the control of an Arab Muslim majority. In contrast, the Arab narrative envisages a scenario where Jews could have lived in relative comfort as a “Dhimmi” minority under Arab Muslim rule. Given the history of Jewish persecution culminating in the Holocaust, and the many well-documented pogroms against Jews in Mandatory Palestine, I believe the establishment of a Jewish autonomous region was necessary for ensuring the safety of Jews both locally and abroad.

This aspiration for a Jewish state conflicted with the Pan-Arab nationalist movement of the time, which sought to create an uninterrupted Arab hegemony over the entire Levant and beyond. While Jewish leaders sought autonomy that would coexist with the local Arab population, Arab nationalist goals were absolute and did not accommodate any form of Jewish self-rule. Today, the existence of the small Jewish state is notable as the only example of non-Muslim sovereignty in the region, despite the presence of many Non-Arab and non-Muslim minorities throughout the Middle East.

Partition, War of Independence and Population Shift

The conflicting national aspirations of local Jews and Arabs led to escalating tensions between them and with the British rulers of the land. In 1947, the UK referred the “Palestine problem” to the United Nations, which proposed partitioning the land into two independent states, with Jerusalem as an internationally governed zone (Resolution 181 (II) of 1947). This partition plan was accepted by the Jews but rejected by the Arabs, resulting in a civil war between the two populations. Palestinian Arab factions, allied with the Arab Liberation Army, launched attacks on Jewish cities, which were defended by the Haganah, Irgun, and LEHI. The Arab goal was to prevent the implementation of the partition resolution, while the Jewish goal was to establish control over the areas designated for the Jewish state.

On May 14, 1948, the Jews declared the independence of the State of Israel. This declaration prompted an invasion by the armies of Jordan (then named Transjordan), Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. The Jewish forces, now operating under a unified command that would become the Israel Defense Forces, ultimately gained the upper hand. As a result, Israel came to control the territory designated for the Jewish state by the UN, as well as nearly 60% of the land intended for the Arab state. Israel also took control of West Jerusalem, which was meant to be an international zone. Jordan annexed East Jerusalem and what became known as the West Bank (of the Jordan River) the following year, while Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip.

Many Palestinian Arabs fled their homes during the conflict and resettled in refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank. Others remained in their homes and were granted full Israeli citizenship. Today, the descendants of those who remained in Israel constitute an Arab Israeli minority of roughly 2 million people, or about 20% of the citizenry. These individuals are referred to internally as Israeli Arabs, but many identify with the Palestinian national movement.

A concurrent mass migration of some 850,000 Jews who were expelled, fled, or migrated from Muslim-majority countries in Asia and Africa into Israel was transforming the character of the young state. This migration was spurred primarily by atrocities committed by Muslim host countries during and following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, but also by expulsions that took place over the course of decades before and after. The Jews who were displaced were mainly Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) and Sephardic, and they left behind their homes, property, and other assets. Their descendants make up the majority of Jewish Israelis today, in contrast with the majority-Ashkenazi Jewish population of the United States.

The war for Israel’s independence concluded with the signing of the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and its neighboring states: Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.

The 1967 “Six-Day War”

Jordan continued to control the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt the Gaza Strip, from 1948 until June 1967, when Egypt announced the closure of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping and began mobilizing its military along the border with Israel. Israel launched a series of preemptive airstrikes against Egyptian airfields and other installations in response, as well as a ground offensive into the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip.  Jordan, which had a defensive pact with Egypt, launched attacks against Israel to slow its military’s advancement. Syria joined on the fifth day by shelling Israeli positions in the North.

Israel’s power quickly overwhelmed the Arab armies, who signed a ceasefire agreement with Israel just six days after the war had begun. At the time of cessation of hostilities, Israel had seized the Golan Heights from Syria, Jordan’s West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Egyptian Gaza Strip. This marked the start of a new phase in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians by bringing more than one million Palestinians in the newly Israeli-occupied territories under Israeli rule.

Following the conclusion of the war, the United Nations passed Resolution 242, which called for Israeli withdrawal “from territories occupied in the recent conflict” in exchange for lasting peace and mutual recognition of sovereignty. The deliberate ambiguity of the phrasing — “territories” rather than “the territories” — left room for differing interpretations that persist to this day, with Israel reading it as a partial withdrawal and Arab states as a full one. The resolution was accepted in principle by Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, though Syria initially rejected it and the PLO did not recognize it until decades later. Despite these disputes over interpretation, Resolution 242 became the foundational framework for subsequent diplomacy, including the Camp David Accords with Egypt and the broader push for a two-state solution with the Palestinians. 

Post-1967, Oslo Accords and Camp David

There have been ongoing hostilities between Israel and the various militant organizations in Gaza and the West Bank since 1967, stemming from the residents’ discontent with varying degrees of Israeli control. Waves of attacks and suicide bombings originating from those territories have been a fact of life in Israel ever since. 

For its part, Israel has established settlements in these areas over the years, populated in part by Israeli citizens motivated by religious beliefs to settle historic lands, and by others driven by economic factors such as a lower cost of living. These settlements may become an obstacle, or a bargaining chip, in future peace talks. Alternatively, they could be the home of a Jewish minority in a future Palestinian state, mirroring the large Arab minority already existent with equal rights within Israel proper.

The first serious attempt at a negotiated resolution came through the Oslo Accords of the 1990s – a series of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The accords marked the first time both parties officially recognized each other, and they established the Palestinian Authority as an interim self-governing body in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Oslo was designed as a framework toward a final-status agreement rather than the agreement itself; core issues like borders, Jerusalem, refugees, and settlements were deferred to later negotiations.

Those final-status negotiations came to a head at the Camp David Summit in July 2000, hosted by President Bill Clinton with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. Israel’s offer included a Palestinian state covering roughly 91% of the West Bank and nearly all of Gaza, with land swaps and a shared arrangement in Jerusalem. The Palestinian delegation rejected the offer without presenting a counter-proposal. Follow-up talks at Taba in January 2001 narrowed some gaps but ended inconclusively as Barak’s government fell. The prevailing sentiment among Israelis following this outcome was that the Palestinian leadership was unwilling to accept any realistic two-state framework, and a rightward shift in Israeli politics followed — compounded by the Second Intifada, which erupted in late 2000 and brought years of suicide bombings into Israeli cities.

Israeli Disengagement from Gaza

In 2004 Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced a unilateral plan for the dismantlement of the 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip and the evacuation of their 8,000 Jewish inhabitants. This process, completed on September 12, 2005, was highly contentious and ultimately required Israeli military personnel to forcibly remove many Jewish residents from their homes.

Shattering the hopes for a peaceful Palestinian autonomous region in the strip post-Israeli disengagement, the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections held across Gaza and the West Bank delivered victory to Hamas – a terrorist organization fundamentally opposed to the existence of any Jewish state.  A brief power-sharing arrangement with the rival Fatah faction collapsed, and in June 2007 Hamas seized sole control of Gaza through armed conflict, expelling Fatah from the territory. No further elections have been held in Gaza since. With no presence of Israeli armed forces to impede them, attacks by Hamas and its closely allied military groups have intensified ever since, exacting a painful toll on Israeli society. 

Foreign Patronage and the October 7^th Massacre

Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979 transformed the country from a largely secular and Western-oriented one to what we see today.  The new hardline Islamist leadership had the elimination of Israel as one of its priorities and began a process of funding and arming forces to threaten Israel’s borders – most notably Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. 

Additional support for Hamas’ rule of the Gaza Strip came from Qatar in the form of financial support and a safe haven for its leadership since 2007.  The Qatari government controls Al Jazeera, which has become the de facto news source for the Arab world, and a news outlet of significance in the West. As of this writing, Qatar is the largest foreign donor to American universities, meaningfully affecting the perception of the conflict on campuses. The influence of Qatar and Iran in shaping and intensifying the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in recent decades is hard to overstate.

The Abraham Accords of 2020, which established peace between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and between Israel and Bahrain, represented a significant setback for Iran’s regional ambitions. In 2023, reports emerged suggesting that a peace agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel was imminent. In what many perceive to have been a last-ditch effort to derail such an agreement between its two most formidable regional opponents, Iran gave the green light for the Hamas-led October 7^th attack on Israel.  Hezbollah – the Iranian-sponsored army occupying the south of Lebanon – joined the battle in support of Hamas the next day. The attack and its aftermath have exacted a significant toll on the Israeli, Gazan and Lebanese civilians The final chapter on this painful escalation is yet to be written.