The History of Israel: A Deep Dive into Suffering, Statehood, and Unending Conflict

Introduction: Summary and Overview

The history of Israel is a narrative filled with profound paradoxes. It is a story of two millennia of suffering and persecution endured by a nation without a state, culminating in the hard-won restoration of sovereignty. Simultaneously, it is a record of an unending conflict, where the realization of one people's dream led to the tragedy of another. The Jewish people, having lost their political sovereignty to the ancient Roman Empire and scattered across the globe in the Diaspora, were subjected to centuries of religious, economic, and racial persecution. This history of suffering reached its apex in the 20th century with the Holocaust, a historical catastrophe perpetrated by Nazi Germany. This event became a decisive catalyst, forging an international consensus and political justification for the necessity of a Jewish state.

Against this historical backdrop, the Zionist movement emerged in the late 19th century as a response to the rise of nationalism and antisemitism in Europe. Zionism argued that the only solution to the "Jewish question" was the re-establishment of a Jewish national state in their ancient homeland of Palestine. This movement aligned with Britain's strategic interests during World War I, leading to the diplomatic achievement of the Balfour Declaration. Following World War II, as the horrors of the Holocaust came to light, the movement secured the support of the international community. Finally, with the passage of the UN Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947, Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948.

However, the founding of Israel immediately led to war with neighboring Arab nations. As a result of this war, Israel expanded its territory and secured its survival, but it also created the "Nakba" (the catastrophe), in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians lost their homes and became refugees. Since then, Israel's history has been marked by incessant wars, terrorism, and occupation. The victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, which resulted in the occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, presented Israel with a profound dilemma: how to maintain its identity as a Jewish state while upholding its values as a democratic one.

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Israel's complex and multi-layered history, focusing on four key themes: ▲ the history of suffering, from the fall of the ancient kingdom to the Holocaust; ▲ the birth and development of the Zionist movement; ▲ the process of state-building through international intervention; ▲ and the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians and the Arab world since its founding. Through this examination, this report aims to identify the historical drivers that have shaped the modern state of Israel and to illuminate the multifaceted nature of the unending conflict it faces.

Part 1: The Narrative of Suffering - From Diaspora to the Holocaust

Chapter 1: The Fall of the Ancient Kingdom and the Beginning of Wandering

The Spark of the Roman-Jewish Wars

To understand the Jewish people's history of suffering, it is essential to examine the fall of the ancient Judean kingdom and the subsequent beginning of the full-scale Diaspora. Under Roman rule, the province of Judea enjoyed considerable religious autonomy, but the excessive taxation imposed by Roman governors and their contemptuous attitude toward Jewish culture bred deep resentment among the Jews. This oppression and religious friction ultimately erupted in 66 CE into a massive rebellion known as the First Jewish-Roman War. Although the Jewish rebels achieved some initial victories, Rome dispatched large legions led by Vespasian and his son Titus, who undertook a ruthless suppression campaign.

The climax of the war was the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. After a months-long siege, Roman forces breached the city walls, entered the city, and completely destroyed and burned the Second Temple, the religious and national heart of the Jewish people . According to the historian Josephus, countless Jews were massacred or sold into slavery, and Jerusalem was left in ruins. The war ended tragically in 73 CE with the mass suicide of the Zealots who had made their last stand at the Masada fortress near the Dead Sea.

Jewish resistance continued even after this. The Bar Kokhba revolt, led by Simon bar Kokhba from 132 to 135 CE, was the last major uprising against Rome. For a time, Bar Kokhba was so successful that he established an independent Jewish state, declared the "Redemption of Israel," and even minted his own coins. However, he was ultimately crushed by a massive Roman army sent by Emperor Hadrian. The failure of this revolt had even more devastating consequences than the first war. Jerusalem was utterly destroyed and rebuilt as a new Roman city named Aelia Capitolina, with Jews forbidden from entering. The province of Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina, and the entire region was laid waste.

These two major wars and the subsequent thorough destruction by Rome marked a decisive turning point in the history of the Jewish people. It was more than a military defeat; it signified the violent end of Jewish political sovereignty in their ancestral land. The destruction of the Temple meant the loss of their religious center, while the devastation of the land and large-scale massacres and expulsions uprooted the demographic foundation of the Jewish community. As a result, Jews could no longer sustain a national community in their own land and were forced into the fate of the Diaspora, scattered throughout the world .

The Nature of Diaspora and the Preservation of Identity

'Diaspora' refers to the phenomenon where a specific ethnic or national group leaves its original homeland and lives scattered in other regions, while still maintaining its unique identity and collective memory of the homeland. This is distinct from simple migration or the creation of refugees; it is characterized by a group that has permanently settled outside its homeland but maintains cohesion through linguistic, religious, and cultural ties. The Jewish Diaspora is considered the most classic example of this phenomenon.

In fact, Jewish communities existed outside of Judea even before the wars with Rome, formed for reasons such as commerce and trade in various regions around the Mediterranean. However, the wars fundamentally changed the nature of this Diaspora. Whereas the earlier Diaspora had a strong element of voluntary choice, the post-war Diaspora was an inevitable wandering, undertaken in a state of complete loss of a political and physical base—a state and a territory. Rome's destruction solidified the statelessness of the Jewish people not as a temporary condition, but as a long-term reality.

Despite this desperate situation, the driving force that allowed the Jewish people to survive for nearly 2,000 years without disappearing was their unique sense of community and religious solidarity. Though they lost their state and territory, they still had the Torah (the Law) as their spiritual territory. Jewish communities (Kehillot) scattered across the world passed down the nation's language (Hebrew) and traditions through the study and teaching of the Law. The principle that "all Jews are responsible for one another" served as a powerful unifying force for these Diaspora communities.

Furthermore, the religious and cultural longing for Jerusalem and the Promised Land, symbolized by 'Zion,' played a crucial role in maintaining Jewish collective identity. The tradition of reciting "Next year in Jerusalem" at the end of the Passover and Yom Kippur prayers served as a constant reminder of the national hope of one day returning home, even while their bodies were scattered .

This ability to maintain an identity as a nation without a state is a remarkable historical phenomenon, but it did not guarantee physical security. On the contrary, living as minorities in various lands, Jews became extremely vulnerable to local political and economic changes, setting the stage for centuries of persecution to come. This long-term vulnerability, forced upon them by Rome, was the fundamental historical problem that Zionism would later seek to solve.

Chapter 2: Persecution in the Middle Ages and Modern Era

A Precarious Life in Christian Europe

With the Roman Empire's adoption of Christianity as its official religion, the status of Diaspora Jews became even more precarious. As Christian theology came to dominate European society, Jews became the target of theological condemnation as the people who rejected and crucified Jesus. This religious hostility translated into social and legal discrimination. After the death of Emperor Constantine, his son Constantius II enacted laws making marriage between Jews and Christians a capital offense and prohibited Jews from owning Christian slaves, thus reinforcing discriminatory policies.

In the early Middle Ages, some rulers like Charlemagne protected Jews and appointed them to high positions to utilize their commercial skills , but these were exceptions. Throughout European society, distrust and animosity towards Jews gradually deepened.

A decisive turning point was the Crusades, which began at the end of the 11th century. Organized under the pretext of reclaiming the Holy Land of Jerusalem from Muslim forces, the Crusaders targeted the "infidels" within Europe—the Jews—as their first victims. The massacres of Jews, which began in Rouen, France, in 1096, spread along the Crusaders' route to various cities in the Rhine Valley. Shouting "Vengeance for Jesus," the Crusaders attacked and plundered Jewish villages, slaughtering countless Jews. This marked the transformation of sporadic antisemitism into an organized and violent mass movement.

Economic Role and Scapegoating

The socioeconomic status of Jews in medieval Europe was highly paradoxical. Prohibited from owning land under the feudal system and excluded from most guilds, Jews were inevitably drawn to commerce and finance, particularly money-lending, which was forbidden by Christian doctrine. This economic activity provided an essential function for European society at the time, and many Jews accumulated wealth through it. However, this very economic success made them objects of envy and hatred.

Jews acted as intermediaries between the ruling and ruled classes, contributing to economic development, but they were also the first to be scapegoated during times of social unrest or economic crisis. Debtors took advantage of chaos like the Crusades to murder their Jewish creditors, thereby canceling their debts.

The most horrific example of this scapegoating occurred during the outbreak of the Black Death in the 14th century, which wiped out more than a third of Europe's population. Terrified by the inexplicable plague, Europeans spread malicious rumors that Jews had poisoned the wells to spread the disease. This led to large-scale massacres of Jews across Europe, and numerous Jewish communities were destroyed. The fact that Jews, due to their strict hygienic practices based on religious law, suffered relatively less from the plague only fueled these suspicions .

This discrimination and persecution became institutionalized. The 'Ghetto,' which originated in Venice, Italy, in 1516, was a forced residential area created to physically segregate Jews from the rest of society. The ghetto system subsequently spread throughout Europe, becoming a symbolic space for the confinement and control of Jews. Thus, while Jews were economically necessary to society, they were politically expendable. Their safety was always conditional, and these conditions were easily revoked whenever society faced a crisis. This repetitive historical experience ingrained in the Jewish people the realization that economic success alone could never guarantee their safety and that their 'otherness' as a minority was a permanent shackle.

The Rise of Modern, Racial Antisemitism

Entering the modern era, the persecution of Jews began to take on the characteristics of racial hatred, moving beyond religious discrimination. The 'pogroms' carried out in the Russian Empire, particularly from the late 19th to the early 20th century, starkly illustrate this shift. Pogroms were not mere popular riots but organized massacres of Jews that the Tsarist government deliberately instigated or condoned to divert social discontent.

When Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881, the Russian government blamed the Jews and initiated a massive campaign of repression. Subsequently, until 1921, numerous pogroms occurred throughout Russia and Eastern Europe, during which Jewish property was plundered and countless people lost their lives. The Kishinev pogrom of 1903, in particular, shocked the world with its brutality. During a two-day riot over Easter, dozens were killed, hundreds were injured, and numerous homes and shops were destroyed. The revelation that the Russian Minister of the Interior was aware of the riot plans in advance and allowed them to proceed made it clear that the pogrom was a state-sponsored crime.

This wave of pogroms triggered a mass emigration of millions of Jews, who left their homes for Western Europe and the United States. Furthermore, among Jewish intellectuals who witnessed that hatred towards Jews had not disappeared but had evolved into a more violent form despite the age of Enlightenment and emancipation, a deep sense of skepticism about assimilation began to grow. They concluded that Jews could not be safe anywhere and needed their own state to protect themselves. Thus, the violence of modern antisemitism became a decisive backdrop for the political alternative of Zionism to gain strength.

Chapter 3: The Holocaust - The Tragedy of Annihilation

Ideological Roots and Systematic Persecution

The Holocaust stands as the most horrific genocide in human history, a tragedy born from the convergence of centuries-old European antisemitism with the modern totalitarian state of the 20th century. With the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany in 1933, the persecution of Jews took on a dimension unlike any before. Nazi antisemitism was based not on religious discrimination but on biological racism. They defined Jews not as a religious group, but as a racial threat—like 'pests,' 'germs,' or 'parasites'—that endangered the purity of the German people and sickened society. Therefore, the Nazi goal was not merely to convert or expel Jews, but to completely 'exterminate' them from German society and, ultimately, all of Europe.

From 1933 to 1945, the Nazi regime systematically and incrementally implemented its policy of Jewish annihilation. Initially, the focus was on excluding Jews from German society through legal, social, and economic discrimination. The Nuremberg Laws, enacted in 1935, stripped Jews of their citizenship and forbade marriage and sexual relations with Germans . The "Night of Broken Glass" (Kristallnacht) on November 9, 1938, was an act of state-sponsored, organized violence. In its wake, numerous Jewish shops and synagogues were destroyed, Jews were arrested en masse and sent to concentration camps, and their property was systematically confiscated . Jews were also forced to wear a 'yellow star,' making them easily identifiable and subject to control in their daily lives .

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939 and Germany's occupation of Poland and other parts of Europe, the "Jewish question" expanded from a domestic German issue to a 'European problem' . The Nazis established 'ghettos' in occupied territories, forcibly relocating Jews into densely populated, specific districts. Inside the ghettos, Jews perished from starvation, disease, and inhumane conditions. This entire process was a preparatory stage aimed at physically isolating the Jewish community, dehumanizing them, and preparing for their final annihilation.

The 'Final Solution' and Industrialized Murder

Nazi policy toward the Jews took a decisive turn with the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The Nazi leadership decided to use the chaos of the war to 'finally solve' the Jewish question, which meant the systematic murder of all European Jews. This plan was concretized at the Wannsee Conference, held on January 20, 1942, near Berlin. At this meeting, high-ranking officials of the Nazi regime gathered to coordinate the roles and cooperation of various government departments for the extermination of the Jews. This demonstrates that the Holocaust was not the act of a few fanatics but a meticulous, bureaucratic plan involving all state administrative bodies, including the railways, finance, and justice ministries .

The implementation of the 'Final Solution' was carried out on a horrific and industrial scale. On the Eastern Front, special units called 'Einsatzgruppen' followed the army, shooting hundreds of thousands of Jews . However, the Nazis sought more efficient methods of mass murder, leading to the construction of extermination camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor, and Bełżec in occupied Poland . Jews from all over Europe were transported in freight trains to these 'death factories.' Upon arrival, those deemed unfit for labor—the elderly, women, and children—were sent directly to the gas chambers and murdered. Even the victims' bodies were exploited for the war effort, with gold teeth and hair being collected, demonstrating a complete annihilation of human dignity.

This vast system of murder was sustained by a network of numerous concentration and labor camps across Germany and the occupied territories. In camps like Dachau, Buchenwald, and Mauthausen, Jews died from forced labor, starvation, disease, and medical experiments . The Nazis remained obsessed with the extermination of the Jews until the very last moments of the war, even as defeat became imminent, proving how deeply antisemitism was embedded at the core of Nazi ideology .

Consequences and Historical Significance

The Holocaust continued until the end of the war in 1945, resulting in the systematic murder of approximately six million Jews. This number represented two-thirds of the Jewish population living in Europe at the time . This catastrophe left an indelible scar on the Jewish psyche. While there had been a long history of persecution, the attempt to industrially annihilate an entire people using all the resources of a state was unprecedented.

The Holocaust starkly proved that the promise of emancipation and assimilation offered by the European Enlightenment was a complete illusion for the Jewish people. This barbaric crime, perpetrated in the heart of what was considered the most 'civilized' nation, Germany, provided an irrefutable historical basis for the Zionist argument that Jews could never be safe as a minority. For Holocaust survivors and Jews worldwide, the establishment of a Jewish state was no longer a matter of choice but a desperate necessity for survival .

Furthermore, the horrors of the Holocaust shook the conscience of the international community. The tragic reality of hundreds of thousands of Jewish survivors who became post-war refugees created an urgent need to find an international solution to the Jewish problem . This moral and political pressure was a decisive factor in the United Nations' approval of the creation of the State of Israel just a few years later. Thus, while the Holocaust was the greatest tragedy for the Jewish people, it paradoxically became the most powerful impetus for the rebuilding of their state after 2,000 years.

Part 2: The Return to Zion - The Aspiration for Nation-Building

Chapter 4: The Birth and Development of Zionism

Intellectual and Political Origins

Zionism is a modern nationalist movement that emerged in late 19th-century Europe with the ultimate goal of establishing a national state for the Jewish people in the region of Palestine . While the movement is rooted in the ancient religious and cultural longing for 'Zion,' its direct impetus was the pervasive antisemitism in contemporary European society and the failure of Jewish emancipation. Following the 18th-century Enlightenment, various European countries took 'emancipation' measures, granting Jews citizenship and abolishing social discrimination. Many Jews responded by trying to assimilate into local societies, sometimes to the point where their Jewish identity faded . However, despite these efforts, antisemitism did not disappear; instead, by the late 19th century, it intensified, evolving from religious animosity to racial and ethnic exclusion.

In this context, some Jewish intellectuals, realizing the limits of assimilation, concluded that the only solution to the Jewish problem was for Jews, like other nations, to form a sovereign nation-state in their own territory. This was influenced by the nationalist ideologies sweeping across Europe at the time. In essence, Zionism was an attempt to apply the dominant political model of the 19th century, the 'nation-state,' to the Jewish people. They diagnosed the root of Jewish suffering as the vulnerability of a stateless people and proposed state-building as the political solution to overcome it.

Theodor Herzl and Political Zionism

The individual who transformed this Zionist idea from a scattered concept into a concrete political movement was Theodor Herzl, a Jewish journalist from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Originally deeply assimilated into German culture, Herzl was initially skeptical of Zionism. However, his perspective completely changed after witnessing the 'Dreyfus Affair' in 1894 while serving as a Paris correspondent . This case, in which Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was unjustly convicted of espionage, starkly revealed how deeply antisemitism was rooted even in French society, the birthplace of the French Revolution and considered the most enlightened in Europe. Herzl realized that no matter how loyal Jews were to their society or how much they tried to assimilate, they could be branded as outsiders and scapegoated whenever a crisis arose.

Based on this shocking experience, Herzl published a pamphlet in 1896 titled Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State). In this book, he defined the Jewish question as an urgent political problem that could no longer be ignored and proposed a modern, practical plan to solve it. He argued that the establishment of a Jewish state was no longer a vague dream but a feasible project that could be realized by purchasing land and organizing immigration through specific bodies like the 'Jewish Company' and the 'Society of Jews'. Herzl's vision included all the elements of a modern state, such as a flag and an army, which was a decisive moment in elevating Zionism from a religious longing to a realistic political movement .

Institutionalization and Internal Debates of the Movement

Herzl did not stop at publishing his book; he dedicated himself to diplomatic and organizational efforts to realize his vision. In 1897, he convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland . Zionist representatives from around the world attended this congress and adopted the 'Basel Program,' which stated the goal of "establishing for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law." Furthermore, the World Zionist Organization was founded as a permanent body to pursue this goal. With this, Zionism took on the characteristics of an international political organization and began to conduct systematic activities.

Of course, the Zionist movement was not a monolithic entity. There were various ideological currents and debates. 'Labor Zionism,' which originated in Eastern Europe, combined with socialist ideals and sought to build a utopian community (kibbutz) in Palestine based on the values of equality and labor . In contrast, some Orthodox Jews criticized Herzl's secular and political Zionism, arguing that the rebuilding of the Jewish state should only come through the arrival of the Messiah, not by human hands. There were also debates about the location of the state, with alternatives like Argentina or Uganda being considered, but ultimately, Palestine, with its historical and religious symbolism as the ancestral land, was confirmed as the sole objective .

The European origins of Zionism greatly contributed to the movement's political success, but they also contained the seeds of tragic conflict. Viewing the issue from a European nationalist perspective, early Zionists tended to either seriously underestimate the presence and national aspirations of the Arabs already living in Palestine or to regard them as a population that could be naturally assimilated by their 'civilized' project. Herzl's description of the future Jewish state as "an outpost of civilization against Asian barbarism" is a stark illustration of this viewpoint. While this perspective may have been effective in gaining the support of European powers, it ultimately foreshadowed the tragedy of two nationalist movements clashing over the same land.

Chapter 5: The Arena of International Politics and the Conditions for Statehood

The Balfour Declaration (1917)

The decisive moment that transformed the Zionist movement from a vague aspiration into a realistic goal of international politics was the Balfour Declaration, issued during World War I. On November 2, 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour sent a letter to Lord Walter Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community. The letter stated: "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object" .

This declaration breathed immense vitality into the Zionist movement. With the official support of the world's superpower, the British Empire, Zionism was no longer the dream of a few activists but an internationally recognized political project. The declaration became a key element in the foundation of the British Mandate for Palestine and served as a catalyst for Jewish immigration (Aliyah) to Palestine.

Britain's Strategic Motives

However, the Balfour Declaration was not born solely out of pure humanitarian motives or sympathy for the Jewish people. Behind it lay cold, strategic calculations aimed at maximizing Britain's imperial interests in the context of the total war of World War I.

First, Britain desperately needed the support of the global Jewish community to win the war. It was necessary to win the favor of influential Jews in the United States to encourage its entry into the war and in Russia to prevent its withdrawal from the front. Securing financial support, such as the purchase of British war bonds by Jewish financiers represented by the Rothschild family, was also a crucial objective.

Second, there were geopolitical considerations. Palestine was a strategic hub adjacent to the Suez Canal, the empire's lifeline to India . After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Britain sought to establish a pro-British force in the region to check French influence and maintain its dominance in the Middle East. They judged that by establishing a Jewish state in Palestine under British protection, they could secure a stable foothold in the region . Chaim Weizmann, a Zionist leader at the time, persistently persuaded British leaders that the establishment of a Jewish state was in Britain's national interest.

The Great Contradiction: A Double Promise

The fundamental and fatal flaw of the Balfour Declaration was that it directly contradicted promises Britain had previously made to the Arabs. Between 1915 and 1916, in the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence, Britain had promised Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif of Mecca, that it would support the establishment of an independent Arab state after the war if the Arabs revolted against the Ottoman Empire . Although there is room for interpretation as to whether Palestine was explicitly included in this promise, the Arab side naturally believed that Palestine would be part of the independent Arab state.

Consequently, Britain made contradictory promises to both Jews and Arabs regarding the same piece of land. This 'double promise' is widely criticized for sowing the tragic seeds of the Middle East conflict. The original text of the Balfour Declaration included a proviso that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine" , but this has been criticized as a deceptive phrase that deliberately ignored the 'political' rights of the Arabs, who constituted the vast majority of the population.

After World War I, the League of Nations designated Palestine as a British Mandate. The Mandate's provisions incorporated the Balfour Declaration, granting international legal legitimacy to the Zionist project while simultaneously burdening Britain with the impossible task of managing these conflicting promises. Ultimately, the fate of Palestine was decided by the geopolitical calculations of the imperial powers fighting a world war, irrespective of the will of its inhabitants. Britain failed to resolve this contradiction, exacerbating the conflict between Jews and Arabs, which directly led to Britain handing over the Palestine problem to the United Nations.

Chapter 6: UN Intervention and the Palestine Partition Plan

Britain's Exit and UN Intervention

After World War II, the British Empire was exhausted and no longer had the capacity to manage the Palestine problem. As Jewish immigration surged, violent clashes with Arabs intensified, and the situation spiraled out of control, with Jewish armed groups even carrying out terrorist attacks against British forces . The incident involving the ship Exodus, which carried Holocaust survivors and was denied entry, with its passengers forcibly returned to refugee camps in Germany, drew international condemnation and further weakened Britain's position . Finally, in 1947, Britain decided to terminate its Mandate for Palestine and refer the issue to the newly formed United Nations (UN) .

The UN formed the "United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP)" to address the issue. After conducting an on-site investigation, UNSCOP submitted a report proposing the partition of Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, with Jerusalem and its surrounding areas to be established as an international city under UN administration due to its religious significance.

UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (1947)

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted on the Palestine Partition Plan based on UNSCOP's recommendations, known as 'Resolution 181.' The resolution was passed with 33 votes in favor, 13 against, and 10 abstentions . With this, the international community officially approved the establishment of a Jewish state on the land of Palestine.

The specifics of the partition plan were as follows:

Jewish State: Allocated approximately 56% of the total territory. This included the coastal plain and most of the Negev Desert .
Arab State: Allocated approximately 42% of the total territory. This included Western Galilee, the hill country of the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
Jerusalem International Special Regime: An area including Jerusalem and Bethlehem, to be administered directly by the UN .

This partition plan was a historic victory for the Jewish side. The Jewish Agency, representing the Zionist movement, immediately accepted the plan, despite disappointment over the exclusion of Jerusalem, as it secured international legitimacy for the establishment of a state .

In contrast, Palestinian Arabs and neighboring Arab states vehemently opposed and rejected the resolution . Their anger was palpable. At the time, Jews constituted only about one-third of Palestine's total population and owned less than 7% of the land, yet the partition plan allocated them more than half of the territory, including the fertile coastal plains and areas with significant development potential . The Arab side considered this an unjust decision that ignored their historical rights and amounted to the theft of their land.

Geopolitical Landscape and the Prelude to War

The passage of Resolution 181 was achieved through a rare consensus among the major powers in the context of the Cold War. The United States, driven by President Harry S. Truman's personal convictions, strong lobbying from the domestic Jewish community, and strategic interests in the Middle East, strongly supported the partition plan . Surprisingly, the Soviet Union also voted in favor of the plan. This was due to the expectation that it would weaken British influence in the Middle East and that the new state might adopt a socialist orientation. The alignment of interests between the two superpowers, the US and the USSR, provided the decisive momentum for the plan's passage. Meanwhile, Britain, the party directly involved in the issue, abstained from the vote, effectively evading responsibility amid criticism from both sides.

Table 1: 1947 UN Palestine Partition Plan (Resolution 181) Vote Results

Vote Result	Number of Countries	Key Countries
For	33	United States, Soviet Union, France, Australia, Canada, Poland, Brazil, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Ukrainian SSR, Union of South Africa, etc.
Against	13	Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Cuba, Greece, India
Abstained	10	United Kingdom, China, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mexico, Yugoslavia

The UN Partition Plan was an attempt by the international community to propose a rational two-state solution to an intractable conflict. However, the decision-making process was driven by a sense of moral debt after the Holocaust and the geopolitical calculations of the great powers. As a result, it granted international legal legitimacy to a plan that was demographically and territorially unacceptable to one of the parties. Paradoxically, instead of leading to a peaceful partition, the UN resolution provided the Jewish side with a legal basis for declaring a state and the Arab side with a justification for war. Immediately after the resolution's passage, civil war between Jews and Arabs intensified within Palestine, serving as a prelude to the full-scale war that would soon follow.

Part 3: The Founding of Israel and the Continuing Conflict

Chapter 7: Declaration of Independence and the First Arab-Israeli War

Proclamation of the State

Following the UN's approval of the partition plan, the region of Palestine descended into a de facto civil war. Amid this chaos, Britain decided to officially terminate its mandate as scheduled at midnight on May 15, 1948. As British forces began to withdraw, the Jewish leadership determined they could delay no longer.

On the afternoon of May 14, 1948, just hours before the British Mandate was set to expire, the 'People's Council' convened at the Tel Aviv Museum. There, the council's chairman, David Ben-Gurion, solemnly proclaimed, "We... hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel". The Declaration of Independence asserted the legitimacy of statehood based on the Jewish people's long history, their unbroken bond with their ancient homeland, the tragedy of the Holocaust, the efforts of the Zionist movement, and UN Resolution 181. The ceremony concluded with Ben-Gurion's reading, a rabbi's blessing, and the attendees singing the national anthem, 'Hatikvah' (The Hope). It was a historic moment, the rebirth of a state for the Jewish people after nearly 2,000 years of stateless wandering.

Israel's declaration of independence elicited an immediate international response. The United States granted de facto recognition to the new state just 11 minutes after Ben-Gurion's proclamation, and a few days later, the Soviet Union also officially recognized Israel . By receiving simultaneous recognition from the two Cold War superpowers, the nascent state of Israel was able to solidify its existence on the international stage.

The 1948 War (War of Independence / The Nakba)

The joy of statehood was short-lived. The very next day, on May 15, 1948, the regular armies of five Arab nations—Egypt, Jordan (then Transjordan), Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq—invaded Israel, igniting the First Arab-Israeli War (known in Israel as the 'War of Independence'). The Arab coalition held an overwhelming advantage in population, troops, and equipment, and the war began under extremely unfavorable conditions for Israel. Many expected the new state to collapse within days.

In the initial stages of the war, the Arab armies advanced rapidly, capturing several Israeli territories. However, Israel mounted a desperate resistance. The hastily formed Israel Defense Forces (IDF), built on the foundation of existing militia organizations like the 'Haganah,' fought back with desperation and superior strategy. As the war progressed, discord within the Arab coalition began to surface. Each country prioritized its own interests over the common goal, hindering effective joint operations. In contrast, Israel used several UN-brokered ceasefires to smuggle in weapons, primarily from Czechoslovakia, and reorganize its forces. The tide of the war gradually turned, and by early 1949, Israel had shifted to the offensive on most fronts, repelling the invading armies.

The war lasted for about 15 months, ending in 1949 with the signing of separate armistice agreements between Israel and each of the Arab states, mediated by the UN. In this war, Israel lost about 6,000 lives (1% of its Jewish population at the time) but succeeded in defending its existence as a state.

The War's Aftermath and Conflicting Narratives

The 1948 war became the foundational event that has defined every aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the memories and narratives surrounding it are starkly divided.

For Israel, the war is the heroic 'War of Independence.' It is the core of their founding myth, a David-and-Goliath struggle where they miraculously triumphed against overwhelming odds to fulfill the dream of national liberation. As a result of the war, the 1949 Armistice Line (the Green Line) gave Israel control over about 78% of the former British Mandate of Palestine, significantly more than the 56% allocated by the UN partition plan. Jordan occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip.

For Palestinians, however, the war is remembered as 'Al-Nakba,' or 'The Catastrophe.' During the war, between 700,000 and 800,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes and lands . Hundreds of Palestinian villages were destroyed, and their society was shattered. They were scattered into refugee camps in neighboring Arab countries, marking the beginning of the Palestinian refugee problem that remains unresolved to this day.

Thus, the 1948 war gave birth to two completely contradictory national narratives about the same event. One nation's independence and liberation were inextricably linked to another's expulsion and disaster. This fundamental difference in perception, where key terms like 'independence,' 'liberation,' 'catastrophe,' and 'refugee' mean entirely different things to each side, is a core reason why resolving the conflict that has persisted for over 70 years remains so difficult. As long as efforts to acknowledge and reconcile the conflicting traumas of these two peoples fail, true peace will remain elusive.

Chapter 8: War, Occupation, and the Security Dilemma

The Cycle of Recurring Wars

Even after the 1948 war, the hostile relationship between Israel and the Arab world continued. The 1949 armistice agreements were not peace treaties, and Arab states refused to recognize Israel's existence. The region was plagued by a vicious cycle of constant tension, localized clashes, and large-scale wars.

In 1956, the 'Second Arab-Israeli War (Suez Crisis)' erupted. When Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, a key Western shipping route, Britain and France, who had ownership stakes in the canal, colluded with Israel to attack Egypt. Israel took this opportunity to occupy the Sinai Peninsula but was forced to withdraw under strong pressure from the United States and the Soviet Union. This war marked the beginning of direct intervention by the two superpowers in Middle Eastern affairs.

In 1973, on 'Yom Kippur,' the holiest day in Judaism, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel, starting the 'Fourth Arab-Israeli War (Yom Kippur War)'. In the early stages of the war, Israel suffered severe setbacks but soon regrouped and successfully counterattacked, crossing the Suez Canal into Egyptian territory and advancing to the outskirts of Damascus, the Syrian capital, in the north. This war taught Israel a costly lesson about security complacency and, at the same time, allowed the Arab side to restore some of its tarnished military pride through its initial successes. This later became a background factor for Egypt to enter into peace negotiations with Israel.

The 1967 Six-Day War: A Paradigm Shift

The event that fundamentally changed the nature of the Israeli-Arab conflict was the 'Third Arab-Israeli War (Six-Day War)' in June 1967. As the crisis escalated with Egypt blockading the Straits of Tiran and massing troops in the Sinai Peninsula, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.

The result was an overwhelming victory for Israel. In just six days, the Israeli Air Force decimated the air forces of the Arab nations. Ground forces captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the vast Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the strategic Golan Heights from Syria. Israel's territory more than tripled, and it firmly established its position as the strongest military power in the Middle East.

This war was more than just a military victory; it completely transformed Israel's national identity and the nature of the conflict. Before the war, Israel was a nation defending its borders for survival. After 1967, however, Israel became an occupying power ruling over millions of Palestinians. This plunged Israel into its most serious and enduring dilemma since its founding.

The Era of Occupation and the Security Dilemma

The victory in the 1967 war provided Israel with strategic depth, but it also created an intractable political, moral, and demographic quagmire. The West Bank, known to many Israelis as 'Judea and Samaria,' was the historical and religious heartland of the Jewish people, so its occupation seemed to fulfill the dreams of many religious and nationalist Zionists. However, this land was inhabited by a large Palestinian population that did not want to be ruled by Israel.

This is where Israel's fundamental dilemma arises. If it were to grant full citizenship to the Palestinians in the occupied territories, the higher Arab birth rate would soon lead to Arabs outnumbering Jews, making it impossible for Israel to maintain its identity as a 'Jewish state'. Conversely, if it were to rule over them permanently without granting citizenship, Israel would be violating the basic principles of democracy and would inevitably face international condemnation as an 'apartheid state'. Maintaining the dual identities of a 'Jewish state' and a 'democratic state' becomes nearly impossible.

This dilemma has become the key variable defining all of Israel's policies and its relationship with the Palestinians since 1967. Immediately after the war, the Arab world adopted a hardline stance at the Khartoum Summit, declaring the 'Three No's': "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it". The conflict with hostile external Arab states now transformed into a conflict with the Palestinians within the occupied territories. The subsequent rise of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the beginning of settlement construction, the outbreak of the Intifada (popular uprising), and the failed peace process are all extensions of attempts to resolve or manage this fundamental contradiction born from the 1967 war.

Chapter 9: Core Issues of the Conflict and the Search for Peace

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is entangled in numerous complex issues, but the status of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, and the Palestinian refugee problem are considered the most difficult core issues to resolve in peace negotiations. These issues are not merely subjects of territorial or political compromise; they are existential matters directly linked to the historical, religious, and national identities of both sides.

The Status of Jerusalem

Jerusalem is perhaps the most emotional and explosive core of the conflict. The city is one of the holiest sites for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. For Judaism, it is the site of the ancient Solomon's Temple and the center of national and religious identity. For Islam, it is the place where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven, making it the third holiest city after Mecca and Medina.

The 1947 UN Partition Plan recognized Jerusalem's special character and designated it as a special zone under international administration. However, the 1948 war divided the city into West Jerusalem, controlled by Israel, and East Jerusalem, controlled by Jordan. Then, in the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured East Jerusalem, bringing the entire city under its control. In 1980, Israel officially annexed East Jerusalem and enacted a Basic Law declaring it the "complete and united capital of Israel," but the international community considers this an illegal occupation and does not recognize it. This is why most countries keep their embassies in Tel Aviv.

On the other hand, Palestinians envision East Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state. As both sides maintain an uncompromising stance of claiming all or part of Jerusalem as their capital, the final status of the city remains the biggest obstacle to peace negotiations.

Israeli Settlements

The issue of Israeli civilian residential complexes, or settlements, built in the West Bank occupied by Israel since the 1967 war, is another major obstacle to peace. Israel has continued to build settlements, citing security reasons and historical rights to the biblical heartland of 'Judea and Samaria.' Currently, hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers reside in the West Bank.

However, the majority of the international community, including the United States and the European Union (EU), considers these settlements a violation of international law. They argue it contravenes the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its own civilian population into occupied territory. The Palestinian side criticizes the expansion of settlements for encroaching on and fragmenting their territory, making it physically impossible for a future Palestinian state to be territorially contiguous and exercise independent sovereignty. While the settlement issue is a matter of fierce political debate within Israel, successive Israeli governments have continued to expand settlements despite international criticism, which has been a key factor in deepening mistrust with the Palestinians.

Palestinian Refugees and the Right of Return

The Palestinian refugee problem, which arose during the 1948 war, is another source of the conflict. The approximately 700,000 refugees who left their homes at that time and their descendants now live scattered in refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, numbering in the millions.

The Palestinian side, citing UN General Assembly Resolution 194 adopted on December 11, 1948, insists that the refugees have a 'Right of Return' to their original homes and lands . For them, the right of return is a non-negotiable basic right, a matter of correcting the injustice suffered due to the 'Nakba' and restoring lost dignity.

However, Israel firmly rejects this demand. It believes that allowing millions of Palestinian refugees to return to Israeli territory would fundamentally alter the country's demographic composition, leading to the demise of its identity as a Jewish-majority state . Israel considers this a 'national suicide' and maintains that the refugee issue must be resolved within the future Palestinian state. As the right of return is perceived as the realization of justice by one side and an existential threat to the state's existence by the other, finding a middle ground that can reconcile both positions is extremely difficult.

The Elusive Peace Process

Peace negotiations to resolve these core issues have been ongoing for decades. The most significant progress was the Oslo Accords, signed in 1993. Through this agreement, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) officially recognized each other, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) was established to exercise limited self-governance in parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Oslo Accords laid out a blueprint for achieving permanent peace by concluding final status negotiations within five years.

However, the peace process soon reached a stalemate. The assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a right-wing Jewish extremist opposed to peace, and the unceasing cycle of terrorism and violence from both sides, pushed mutual distrust to an extreme. After the Camp David Summit in 2000 failed to reach a final agreement, the Second Intifada erupted, and the Oslo process effectively collapsed.

Today, the international community still officially supports the 'Two-State Solution'—the coexistence of Israel and Palestine as independent states—as the formal resolution . However, pessimism prevails, with many arguing that the feasibility of the two-state solution is diminishing due to continued settlement expansion, the presence of armed factions like Hamas governing the Gaza Strip, and a lack of political will and deeply rooted mutual distrust on both sides of the leadership .

Conclusion: Historical Reflection and Future Prospects

The history of Israel is a success story of a nation, marked by suffering, that built a state through an indomitable will for sovereignty. At the same time, it is a tragic narrative of a process that created the tragedy of another people and became trapped in a cycle of unending conflict. These two narratives are inseparable, like two sides of the same coin, and they are the key to understanding Israel's present and future.

Centuries of wandering and persecution in the Diaspora, and the Holocaust, an unprecedented catastrophe in human history, imprinted on the Jewish people that the establishment of a sovereign state was not just a national aspiration but an absolute imperative for survival. Zionism converted this historical trauma and desperation into political momentum, turning a 2,000-year-old dream into reality amidst the upheavals of international politics. The founding of Israel was a remarkable achievement that reunited a scattered people, revived the Hebrew language, and built a dynamic nation on barren land.

However, behind this achievement lies the deep wound of the Palestinian 'Nakba.' The return of one people meant the expulsion of another, and the birth of one state resulted in obstructing the possibility of another's creation. The conflict that began with the 1948 war entered a new phase of occupation after the 1967 war, plunging Israel into a fundamental dilemma that forces it to constantly grapple with its identity as both a 'Jewish state' and a 'democratic state.'

Today, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is adrift, with no clear solution in sight. Core issues like the status of Jerusalem, settlements, and the refugee problem are not just subjects of political negotiation but are intertwined with the existential identities of both sides. This 'zero-sum' perception, where the realization of justice for one side is seen as an existential threat to the other, severely limits the political space for leaders to make historic compromises.

Prospects for the future are extremely difficult to predict. The 'two-state solution,' supported by the international community, is increasingly threatened by the physical and political realities on the ground. The chasm of mutual distrust and hatred has deepened over decades of violence and failed negotiations. To solve this intractable problem, what is desperately needed is bold leadership that can confront the historical wounds of the past, acknowledge the suffering and narrative of the other side, and seek a new paradigm that can guarantee a minimum of justice and security for both peoples. However, considering the weight of centuries of accumulated trauma and competing historical rights, the path to true peace in the land of Israel appears to remain long and arduous.