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It began in the late 19th century when the region was part of the Ottoman Empire.

They began to immigrate to the region to escape religious persecution.

By 1914 the Jewish population of Palestine was about 85, 000 (12 percent of the total population).

In 1917 the British government, hoping to gain Jewish support for WWI, issued the Balfour Declaration, which expressed Britain's support for the establishment of a national home for the Jews in Palestine.

The Zionist movement saw the Declaration as an important achievement in promoting Jewish settlement in Palestine.

The British and French planned on taking control of the area after the defeat of the Turks.

They had also made promises to support Arab independence in return for Arab support of British forces against the Ottomans. 

The League of Nations gave Palestine to Britain as a mandate.

1919-1939, 240, 000 Jews immigrated to the area primarily from Russia, Poland, and after the rise of Hitler in Germany.

The British allowed the Jewish and Arab communities to run their own internal affairs. 

As a result of the promises made in WWI. Each community believed it was entitled to the territory after the expulsion of the Ottomans.

Led to Britain to imposing drastic restrictions on Jewish immigration.

Became a powerful force among world Jewry after the Holocaust.

With no desire to going back to their homelands, the Jewish community instituted a network of illegal immigration activities.
During 1945 - 1948 about 85, 000 Holocaust survivors were smuggled into Palestine.

Jews tried to drive out the British through terrorism.

July 1946 - Jews bombed the British Headquarters in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, was the most destructive.
41 Arabs, 28 British, 17 Jews, and 5 other people died.

The British turned the Palestine issue over to the UN after discussions with the U.S. on the Palestine problem went nowhere, and no longer able to afford its military presence in Palestine.

UN created Special Committee on Palestine.

UNSCOP recommended that the British mandate over Palestine be terminated, that Palestine be granted independence, and Palestine be partitioned into separate Arab and Jewish states.

After slightly altering the proposed borders of the two new nations, the UN General Assembly approved the UNSCOP plan.

Zionist approved.
Arabs already having rejected an earlier more favorable partition offer from Britain, stood firmly in their demand for total sovereignty over Palestine.

The day after the UN approved the partition resolution, Palestinian guerrillas attacked Jewish settlements throughout the country and blockaded the roads between them.

Jan - 5, 000 Arabs who had been trained and armed by Syria, the so called "Arab Liberation Army," infiltrated Palestine and began conducting guerrilla attacks.

April - armed with weapons shipped from Czechoslovakia, the Jews went on the offensive and between 650, 000 to 750, 000 Palestinians either fled or were drive into neighboring countries.

Most expected  to return, believing that an Arab force would intervene in the conflict and expel the Jews.

The  refuges created many social, political, and economic problems for the countries that accepted them.

The British mandate official expired and Israel proclaimed its independence.

The U.S. was the first country to recognize the new state, the USSR a close second.

A combined Arab forced invaded the new state, and in the first few weeks the Israelis retreated before the combined armies of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.

The U.S. and the USSR, working through the UN, brought about a month long truce. During this time, the Israelis purchase a large amount of heavy weapons from communist Czechoslovakia.

the Israelis decisively defeated the Arabs, and in January 1949 an armistice was signed. UN troops occupied a buffer zone between Egypt and Israel in the Sinai Desert.

the Jewish had captured 30% more territory than the UN had allotted it, and, by the Palestinian exodus, a solid Jewish majority; there were still thousands of angry Palestinian Arabs.

The possible inviting war with Britain - Egypt's and Jordan's protector deterred the Israelis from conquering the West Bank and Gaza as well.