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Truth About Israel

Lately people have been talking about Israel a lot what with the current war on terror and all, and not all of it has been positive. There are a lot of misconceptions about Israel and most people do not know its facts and history. In this article I hope to clear that up. The Story of modern Israel starts back at the beginning of the 1900’s. At the end of World War I the Ottoman Turk Empire was defeated and its territories were spilt up by the winning countries, primarily Britain and France. The Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 established the region of Palestine to be under British and French rule. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 promised to establish a Jewish homeland within the territory for Zionist settlers who had come to the region. However, this declaration never came to fruition and in 1920 the British Mandate of Palestine was passed. It established the name and borders for modern Palestine, which is now Israel. The Name Palestine comes from Philistines who lived in the region in ancient times. The White Paper of 1939 passed by the British Government limited the number of Jewish Immigrants to Israel. As a result many Jews escaping from Europe and the Nazis at the time were turned away and forced to return. The British continued to have control over the region until 1947 when they gave it over to the U.N. In 1947 the U.N. passed the U.N. Partition Plan which effectively divided the region into separate Jewish and Arab states. Under the plan Jerusalem would remain under international control. However, the surrounding Arab nations of Egypt, Syria and Jordan didn’t want the establishment of a Jewish State and the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 started. During this time many Palestinians fled their homes and became refugees. These refugee camps still exist today. The war was eventually ended and the region was divided between Israel, Egypt, Syria and Jordan, with Israel claiming the largest portion. Due to the war the original U.N. the plan for two separate states was abandoned. In 1967 further conflict erupted when Egypt took action against Israel and called for united Arab action for its destruction. The Six day war followed with Egypt and Jordan, at the end of which Israel was victorious. As a result of the war Israel gained the heavily Arab occupied regions of East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, West Bank and Golan Heights. The Gaza Strip and West Bank are the areas that are the most highly populated with Palestinians today. So as you can see prior to 1920 there was no such thing as Palestine or Palestinians. They were merely Arabs living in a region that where given a nationality by the British. The idea that Israel is an imperial nation who is supported by the United States to oppress Palestinians isn’t true. The plan was to have two states however, the Arabs did not want a Jewish state and in order to defend itself Israel took over the Palestinian areas during the conflict. There is a very disturbing trend now to support the Palestinians independence from Israel its oppressor. This trend also comes surprisingly from liberals who think of Israel as a puppet of the United States. Jews have fought long and hard to have their own sovereign state and although many would like to rewrite history to make it seem like Israel should not exist. Š