Palestine ( ) a region controlled by the English- called the Palestine Mandate or the British Mandate Both Arab and Jewish residents live in this area.

The U.N. voted on the creation of two States: one for the Jewish inhabitants of the Palestine Mandate, and a second one for the Arab inhabitants. The Jewish residents accepted, but the Arabs and Palestinians refused the two State solution and the 1948 war was under the way.

1949 Israel won its war of Independence and the Palestinians missed their first chance on getting a State of their own. The borders of 1948 are shown below with Israel outlined in green, while the West Bank (under Jordan control) and Gaza (under Egyptian control) are shown in brown:

1967 The next major war occurred in 1967, also known as the six day war. In May 1967, Egypt closed the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping and began mobilizing its forces to attack Israel. Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq also mobilized and sent troops. In response, Israel launched a strike. Starting June 5, the Israeli air force destroyed Egypt's planes on the ground. Enabled by air superiority throughout the region, Israeli tank columns and infantry captured the Sinai Peninsula in three days. Elsewhere, the Israelis overran the Golan Heights, the West Bank, including the Old City of Jerusalem, and Gaza.

1973- The Yom Kippur War The next war occurred in 1973 when the Arab States attacked Israel by surprise on the holiest day of the year for Jews: Yom Kippur. This is a day where even many non-religious Jews choose to fast as their orthodox counterparts do. Israel won this war as well, but many Israelis lost their lives - no major territory changes occurred.

1978 Peace with Egypt The next major change in the region occurred not after a war, but after peace! In 1978, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty that formally ended the state of war that had existed between them for 30 years. The Sinai was bigger than Israel itself and contained oil reserves but in return for Egypt's recognition of Israel's right to exist, Israel returned it to Egypt. It is also interesting to note that Israel wanted to return the Gaza Strip as well (since Egypt occupied it between 1948 and 1967), but Egypt refused.

1982- The Lebanon War After numerous terrorist attacks from Arafat's PLO against Israeli civilians living in the North, Israel entered Lebanon and created a security zone, as shown below: During the Lebanon war, the massacre of Sabra and Shatila occurred: a Lebanese Phalanges militia murdered hundreds of Palestinians (estimates vary between 460 to 800 victims). Israel pulled out of the security zone on May 24, unfortunately, this pullout was not achieved after a peace treaty with Lebanon and Syria, but was an unilateral move on Israel's part.

1993 In the beginning of the 90's the Oslo peace process between Palestinians and Israel got underway and in the next few years after a series of negotiations, the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza finally got some taste of independence (given to them by Israel). Although a State has not been declared, for the first time in history an autonomy exists for Palestinians. Another major breakthrough happened in 1994 when King Hussein, representing Jordan, and Yitzhak Rabin, representing Israel, signed a peace treaty. This brought the number of Arab countries that recognized Israel and now have diplomatic relations with the Jewish country to two (Egypt and Jordan).

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