Arab–Israeli conflict

Arab-Israeli conflict
Israel and members of the Arab League
Arab League	Israel
Have been at war with Israel	Gaza Strip and West Bank
Date Early 20th century-present Location Middle East Result Ongoing
Belligerents
Arab nations	Israel
Arab-Israeli conflict series History of the Arab-Israeli conflict Views of the Arab-Israeli conflict Media coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict International law and the Arab-Israeli conflict Arab-Israeli conflict facts, figures, and statistics Participants Israeli-Palestinian conflict · Israel-Lebanon conflict · Arab League · Soviet Union / Russia · Israel, Palestine and the United Nations · Iran-Israel relations · Israel-United States relations · Boycott of Israel Peace treaties and proposals Israel-Egypt · Israel-Jordan

The Arab–Israeli conflict (Arabic: الصراع العربي الإسرائيلي‎ Aṣ-Ṣirāʿ al-ʿArabī al-'Isrā'īlī, Hebrew: הסכסוך הישראלי ערבי‎) spans roughly one century of political tensions and open hostilities. It involves the establishment of the Zionist movement and the creation of the modern State of Israel in territory regarded by the Pan-Arab and Pan-Islamic movements as Arab-Muslim territory and by the Jewish people as their historical homeland.

The conflict, which started as a political conflict over territorial ambitions following the decimation of the Ottoman Empire, has shifted over the years from the large scale Arab-Israeli conflict to a more regional Israeli-Palestinian conflict, though the Arab World and Isreal generally remain at odds with each other over territory.

Scope of the conflict

See also: History of the Middle East

Some uses of the term "Middle East conflict" refer to this matter; however, the region has been host to other conflicts not involving Israel (see List of conflicts in the Middle East).

Despite involving a relatively small land area and number of casualties,^[1][2] the conflict has been the focus of worldwide media and diplomatic attention for decades. Many countries, individuals and non-governmental organizations elsewhere in the world feel involved in this conflict for reasons such as cultural and religious ties with Islam, Arab culture, Christianity, Judaism or Jewish culture; or for ideological, human rights, strategic, or financial reasons; or because they are consistently exposed to the conflict by the media.

Some consider the Arab-Israeli conflict a part of (or a precursor to) a wider clash of civilizations between the Western World and the Arab or Muslim world.^[3][4] Others claim that the religious dimension is a relatively new matter in this conflict.^[5] This conflict has engendered animosities igniting numerous attacks on and by supporters (or perceived supporters) of opposing sides in countries throughout the world.

Religious aspects of the conflict

The Land of Canaan or Eretz Israel (Land of Israel) was, according to the Torah, promised by God to the Israelites. In his 1896 manifesto The Jewish State, Theodor Herzl repeatedly refers to the Biblical Promised land concept.^[6] In the same period, Jewish migration to Palestine (Aliyah) increased in number.

Several studies have argued that beyond the secular motivations, groups on both sides, including Hamas and Gush Emunim, also evoke religious arguments for their uncompromising positions.^[7][8] The Likud party is currently the most prominent party which includes the Biblical claim to the Land of Israel in its platform.^[9]

Many currently argue that the Jews' claim to the Promised Land has been invalidated by subsequent holy messages, including the Christian doctrine of Replacement Theology.^[10] Anti-Zionist Jewish groups also evoke religious arguments.

History of the conflict

Main article: History of the Arab-Israeli conflict

End of 19th century-1948

Before World War I, the Middle East, including Palestine, had been under the control of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 500 years. During the closing years of their empire the Ottomans began to espouse their Turkish ethnic identity, asserting the primacy of Turks within the empire, leading to discrimination against the Arabs.^[11] The promise of liberation from the Ottomans led many Jews and Arabs to support the allied powers during World War I, leading to the emergence of widespread Arab nationalism.^[12] During this time tensions between the native Arab population of Palestine and the small, but growing, Jewish population in the area had begun to increase. For details, see Aliyah, First Aliyah, Second Aliyah.

The British Government was favorable to the establishment in the Holy Land of a national home for the Jewish people as stated under the Balfour Declaration of 1917.^[13]

After World War I the area came under British rule as the British mandate of Palestine. Jewish immigration to Palestine increased. This, together with the worsening world wide economic situation and other internal factors, led to a large Arab immigration to the region and further increased tensions in the region.^[14][15] By 1931, 17 percent of the population of Palestine were Jews, an increase of six percent since 1922.^[16] Jewish immigration increased soon after the Nazis came to power in Germany, causing the Jewish population in Palestine to double.^[17] Palestinian Arabs saw this rapid influx of Jewish immigrants as a threat to their homeland and their identity as a people. Moreover, Jewish policies of purchasing land and prohibiting the employment of Arabs in Jewish owned industries and farms greatly angered the Palestinian Arab communities.^[18] Demonstrations were held as early as 1920, protesting what the Arabs felt were unfair preferences for the Jewish immigrants set forth by the British mandate that governed Palestine at the time. This resentment led to the harassment and persecution of Jews. In August of 1929, Arabs murdered 67 Jews in the city of Hebron, in what became known as the Hebron Massacre. By 1936, escalating tensions led to the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.^[19]

In response to Arab pressure, the British Mandate authorities greatly reduced the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine (see White Paper of 1939 and the Exodus ship). These restrictions remained in place until the end of the mandate, a period which coincided with the Nazi Holocaust and the flight of Jewish refugees from Europe. As a consequence, most Jewish entrants to Palestine were illegal (see Aliyah Bet), causing further tensions in the region. Following several failed attempts to solve the problem diplomatically, the British asked the newly formed United Nations for help. On 15 May 1947 the UN appointed a committee, the UNSCOP, composed of representatives from eleven states. To make the committee more neutral, none of the Great Powers were represented.^[20] After five weeks of in-country study, the commission recommended creating a partitioned state with separate territories for the Jews and the Arabs in Palestine . This "two state solution" was accepted with resolution 181 by the UN General Assembly in November 1947 by 33 votes to 13 with 10 abstentions. The Arab states, which constituted the Arab League, voted against. On the ground, Arab and Jewish Palestinians were fighting openly to control strategic positions in the region. Several major atrocities were committed by both sides.^[21]

The main differences between the 1947 partition proposal and 1949 armistice lines are highlighted in light red and magenta

On May 14, 1948, one day before the end of the British Mandate of Palestine, Israel declared its independence and sovereignty on the portion partitioned by UNSCOP for the Jewish state. The next day, the Arab League reiterated officially their opposition to the "two-state solution" in a letter to the UN.^[22] That day, the armies of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq invaded the territory partitioned for the Arab state, thus starting the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The nascent Israeli Defense Force repulsed the Arab nations from part of the occupied territories, thus extending its borders beyond the original UNSCOP partition.^[23] By December of 1948, Israel controlled most of the portion of Mandate Palestine west of the Jordan River. The remainder of the Mandate consisted of Jordan, the area that came to be called the West Bank (controlled by Jordan), and the Gaza Strip (controlled by Egypt). Prior to and during this conflict, 711,000^[24] Palestinians Arabs fled their original lands to become Palestinian refugees, in part, due to several atrocities committed by the Israeli forces.^[25] The War came to an end with the signing of the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and each of its Arab neighbours. This 1949 armistice line, the so-called green line, is to this day the internationally-recognized border of the state of Israel. It is often referred to as the "pre-1967" border.

1949-June 11, 1967

Following the adoption by the United Nations of Resolution 181 in November 1947 and the declaration of the State of Israel in May 1948, several Arab countries adopted discriminatory measures against their local Jewish populations.^[26][27] There were riots in Yemen and Syria in particular. In Libya, Jews were deprived of citizenship, and in Iraq, their property was seized.^[28] As a result, a large number of Jews were forced to emigrate from Arab lands, although many also emigrated for ideological reasons.^[29] Over 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel between 1948 and 1952, with approximately 285,000 of them from Arab countries.^[30][29] Overall, about 850,000 Jews had left the Arab World by the early 1970s (according to official Arab documentation), with many of them leaving their property behind.^[31] Today, these displaced Jews and their descendants represent 41% of the total population of Israel. For details, see Jewish exodus from Arab lands.

In 1956, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, and blockaded the Gulf of Aqaba, in contravention of the Constantinople Convention of 1888. Many argued that this was also a violation of the 1949 Armistice Agreements.^[32][33] On July 26, 1956, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal Company, and closed the canal to Israeli shipping.^[34]

Israel responded on October 29, 1956, by invading the Sinai Peninsula with British and French support. During the Suez Canal Crisis, Israel captured the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula. The United States and the United Nations soon pressured it into a ceasefire.^[34][35] Israel agreed to withdraw from Egyptian territory. Egypt agreed to freedom of navigation in the region and the demilitarization of the Sinai. The United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) was created and deployed to oversee the demilitarization.^[36] The UNEF was only deployed on the Egyptian side of the border, as Israel refused to allow them on its territory.^[37]

On May 19, 1967, Egypt expelled UNEF observers,^[38] and deployed 100,000 soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula.^[39] It again closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping,^[40][41] returning the region to the way it was in 1956 when Israel was blockaded.

On May 30, 1967, Jordan entered into the mutual defense pact between Egypt and Syria. In response, on June 5 Israel sent almost all of its planes on a preemptive mission in Egypt. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) destroyed most of the Egyptian Air Force in a surprise attack, then turned east to destroy the Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi air forces.^[42] This strike was the crucial element in Israel's victory in the Six-Day War.^[39][41] At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The results of the war affect the geopolitics of the region to this day.

June 12, 1967-1973

In the summer of 1967, Arab leaders met in Khartoum in response to the war, to discuss the Arab position toward Israel. They reached consensus that there should be:

• No recognition of the State of Israel.
• No peace with Israel.
• No negotiations with Israel.^[43]

In 1969, Egypt initiated the War of Attrition, with the goal of exhausting Israel into surrendering the Sinai Peninsula.^[44] The war ended following Nasser's death in 1970.

On October 6, 1973, Syria and Egypt staged a surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, overwhelming the Israeli military.^[45][46] The Yom Kippur War accommodated indirect confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union. When Israel had turned the tide of war, the USSR threatened military intervention. The United States, wary of nuclear war, secured a ceasefire on October 25.^[45][46]

1974-2000

Egypt

Following the Camp David Accords of the late 1970s, Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in March, 1979. Under its terms, the Sinai Peninsula returned to Egyptian hands, and the Gaza Strip remained under Israeli control, to be included in a future Palestinian state.

Jordan

In October 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace agreement, which stipulated mutual cooperation, an end of hostilities, and a resolution of other issues.

Iraq

See also: Iraq–Israel relations

In June 1981, Israel successfully attacked and destroyed newly built Iraqi nuclear facilities in Operation Opera.

During the Gulf War, Iraq fired 39 missiles into Israel, in the hopes of uniting the Arab world against the coalition which sought to liberate Kuwait. At the behest of the United States, Israel did not respond to this attack in order to prevent a greater outbreak of war.

Lebanon

See also: Lebanon-Israel relations

In 1970, following an extended civil war, King Hussein expelled the PLO from Jordan. The PLO resettled in Lebanon, whence it staged raids into Israel. In 1981, Syria, allied with the PLO, positioned missiles in Lebanon. In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon. Within two months the PLO agreed to withdraw thence.

In March 1983, Israel and Lebanon signed a ceasefire agreement. However, Syria pressured President Amin Gemayel into nullifying the truce in March 1984. By 1985, Israeli forces withdrew to a 15 km wide southern strip of Lebanon, until its complete withdrawal in May 2000, seen largely as the result of painful blows suffered at the hands of Hezbollah.^[47]

Palestinians

In December 1987, the First Intifada began. The PLO was excluded from peace negotiations until it recognized Israel and renounced terrorism the following year. In mid-1993, Israeli and Palestinian representatives engaged in secret peace talks in Oslo, Norway. As a result, in September 1993, Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo Accords, known as the Declaration of Principles or Oslo I; in side letters, Israel recognized the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people while the PLO recognized the right of the state of Israel to exist and renounced terrorism, violence and its desire for the destruction of Israel.. The Oslo II agreement was signed in 1995 and detailed the division of the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C. Area A was land under full Palestinian civilian control. In Area A, Palestinians were also responsible for internal security. The Oslo agreements remain important documents in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

2000-present

As an attempt to halt the al-Aqsa Intifada, Israel raided facilities in major urban centers in the West Bank in 2002. This included re-taking many parts of land in Area A. Violence again swept through the region. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon began a policy of unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2003. This policy was fully implemented in August 2005.^[48]

In July 2006, Hezbollah fighters crossed the border from Lebanon into Israel, attacked and killed eight Israeli soldiers, and abducted two others as hostages, setting off the 2006 Lebanon War which caused much destruction in Lebanon.^[49] A UN-sponsored ceasefire went into effect on August 14, 2006, officially ending the conflict.^[50]

On September 6, 2007, in Operation Orchard, Israel bombed an eastern Syrian complex which was allegedly a nuclear reactor being built with assistance from North Korea.^[51] Israel had also bombed Syria in 2003.

In April 2008, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad told a Qatari newspaper that Syria and Israel had been discussing a peace treaty for a year, with Turkey as a go-between. This was confirmed in May 2008 by a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. As well as a peace treaty, the future of the Golan Heights is being discussed. President Assad was quoted in the The Guardian as telling the Qatari paper:

...there would be no direct negotiations with Israel until a new US president takes office. The US was the only party qualified to sponsor any direct talks, President Assad told the paper, but added that the Bush administration "does not have the vision or will for the peace process. It does not have anything." ^[52]

Speaking in Jerusalem on August 26, 2008, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Israel's increased settlement construction in the West Bank as detrimental to the peace process. Rice's comments came amid reports that Israeli construction in the occupied territory had increased by a factor of 1.8 over 2007 levels.^[53]

References

Further reading

• Associated Press, comp. (1996). Lightning Out of Israel: [The Six-Day War in the Middle East]: The Arab-Israeli Conflict. Commemorative Ed. Western Printing and Lithographing Company for the Associated Press. ASIN B000BGT89M.
• Bard, Mitchell (1999). Middle East Conflict. Indianapolis: Alpha Books. ISBN 0-02-863261-3.
• Barzilai, Gad. (1996). Wars, Internal Conflicts and Political Order: A Jewish Democracy in the Middle East. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN0-7914-2944-X
• Carter, Jimmy (2006). Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-8502-6. Note: Critical analyses such as [1] have pointed to numerous factual errors and misrepresentions in this book.
• Casper, Lionel L. (2003). Rape of Palestine and the Struggle for Jerusalem. New York & Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House. ISBN 965-229-297-4.
• Citron, Sabina (2006). The Indictment: The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Historical Perspective. New York & Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House. ISBN 965-229-373-3.
• Cramer, Richard Ben (2004). How Israel Lost: The Four Questions. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-5028-1. 
• Dershowitz, Alan (2004). The Case for Israel. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-67952-6.
• Falk, Avner (2004). Fratricide in the Holy Land: A Psychoanalytic View of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Madison: U of Wisconsin P. ISBN 0-299-20250-X
• Gelvin, James L. (2005). The Israel-Palestine Conflict: 100 Years of War. New York & Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge UP. ISBN 0-521-61804-5. 
• Gold, Dore (2004). Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos. New York: Crown Forum. ISBN 1-4000-5475-3. 
• Goldenberg, Doron (2003). State of Siege. Gefen Publishing House. ISBN 965-229-310-5.
• Hamidullah, Muhammad (January 1986). "Relations of Muslims with non-Muslims". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 7 (1): 9. doi:10.1080/13602008608715960. 
• Howell, Mark (2007). What Did We Do to Deserve This? Palestinian Life under Occupation in the West Bank, Garnet Publishing. ISBN 1859641954
• Israeli, Raphael (2002). Dangers of a Palestinian State. New York & Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House. ISBN 965-229-303-2.
• Katz, Shmuel (1973). Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine. Shapolsky Pub. ISBN 0-933503-03-2.
• Khouri, Fred J. (1985). The Arab-Israeli dilemma (3rd ed. ed.). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-2339-9. 
• Lewis, Bernard (1984). The Jews of Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP. ISBN 0-691-05419-3. 
• Lesch, David (2007). The Arab-Israeli Conflict A History. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0195172302. 
• –––. (September 1990). "The Roots of Muslim Rage." The Atlantic Monthly.
• Maoz, Zeev (2006). Defending the Holy Land. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. ISBN 0-472-11540-5

• Morris, Benny (1999). Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0-679-42120-3. 
• Rogan, Eugene L., ed., and Avi Shlaim, ed. The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001.
• Segev, Tom (1999). One Palestine Complete: Jews and Arabs Under British Mandate. New York: Henry Holt & Co. ISBN 0-8050-6587-3.

External links

Government and official sources

• Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Arab League Online
• Palestinian Authority Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• US State Department Mideast Peace information
• United Nations on the Question of Palestine, and *Israel's UN mission's responses
• Victims of Palestinian Violence and Terrorism since September 2000

Regional media

Israeli

• Israel News - Yedioth Aharonoth Israel's largest newspaper, centrist (Hebrew)
• IsraelInsider Israel's Daily Online News Magazine (see also Israelinsider)
• Jerusalem Post, Israel's oldest English newspaper, conservative
• Ha'aretz Israeli newspaper, liberal
• Jerusalem Newswire Christian-run Jerusalem-based news website, conservative

Arab

• Lebanon Daily Star, largest English-circulation newspaper in the Arab world
• Al Jazeera, pan-Arab news station (see also Al Jazeera)
• Al Ahram, Egypt's largest newspaper (see also Al Ahram)
• Palestine Chronicle, weekly electronic paper

Think tanks and strategic analysis

• Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
• Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, influential centrist Israeli think tank specializing in military and strategic analysis
• Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA), Palestinian research organization
• Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information Joint Israeli-Palestinian think tank
• Middle East Research and Information Project (see also Middle East Research and Information Project)
• Saban Center for Middle East Policy (see also Saban Center for Middle East Policy)
• Washington Institute for Near East Policy (see also Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
• Original analysis of current developments in the peace-process, from Middle East Media Research Institute
• The Ariel Center for Policy Research
• A Regional Perspective on the Arab-Israeli Conflict by Jay Shapiro

Peace proposals

See main article: List of Middle East peace proposals

• Defensible Borders for a Lasting Peace
• An historical summary of Middle East Peace Plans and Proposals
• The Novel Catalyst for the Jerusalem Solution A website explaining why one school for the children of the Israeli and Palestinian governments might be the missing piece needed to achieve a lasting solution
• "Geneva Accord" Alternative Version

Maps

• MideastWeb Middle East Map Collection
• FactsOfIsrael.com Maps, history, statistics, victims
• University of Texas Map Collection

General sources

• Crisis Guide: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict from the Council on Foreign Relations
• Resources >Modern Period>20th Cent.>History of Israel>State of Israel The Jewish History Resource Center, Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• ProCon's solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Daily digest of commentary about the Arab-Israeli conflict from around the world
• Israel and the Palestinians
• Palestine Facts
• Encarta Encyclopedia on the Arab-Israeli Conflict
• Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict, includes links to historical sources, as well as sources representing the Arab and Israeli sides of the conflict.
• The Guardian (UK) A Brief History of Arab-Israeli Conflict (flash)
• Mideast: Land of Conflict from CNN
• Open Directory Project - Israel-Palestine Conflict
• University of Texas Center for Mideast Studies extensive collection of updated links
• Diplomacy Monitor - Middle East
• The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict as viewed by Jews for Justice in the Middle East
• Information (articles, reports, maps, books, links, ...) on the israeli palestinian conflict (middle east conflict)
• Holy Land, Unholy War Independent coverage of the Middle East conflicts by the news agency Inter Press Service

See also

• Binational solution
• Arab-Israeli conflict facts, figures, and statistics
• International law and the Arab-Israeli conflict
• Arab League and the Arab-Israeli conflict
• History of the Arab-Israeli conflict
• Soviet Union and the Arab-Israeli conflict and Russia and the Arab-Israeli conflict
• Foreign relations of Israel
• Accession of Israel to the European Union
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict timeline
• Israel-Lebanon conflict
• Occupation of the Gaza Strip by Egypt
• Occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Jordan
• Policide
• Political status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip
• Jewish-Islamic conflict in the days of Muhammad
• Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator

Arab–Israeli conflict Participants in the Arab-Israeli conflict Governments  Egypt •  Iraq •  Israel •  Jordan •  Lebanon •  Palestinian National Authority •  Saudi Arabia •  Syria •  Yemen Active organizations Amal • al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades •  Arab League • Arab Liberation Front •  Ba'ath Party •  Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine • Fatah • Guardians of the Cedars •  Hamas •  Hezbollah • Jaish al-Islam • Kataeb • Lebanese Forces • Palestinian Islamic Jihad • Palestine Liberation Front • Palestine Liberation Organisation • Palestinian Popular Struggle Front •  Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine • Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command • Popular Resistance Committees • as-Saiqa Former South Lebanon Army • Arab Higher Committee • Arab Liberation Army • Holy War Army • Irgun (Etzel) • Lehi • Black Hand • Black September •  Mandate of Palestine Other Governments  Iran •  Norway •  Turkey •  Russia •  United Kingdom •  United States Other Organizations  European Union • United Nations Former States  Soviet Union •  United Arab Republic Arab-Israeli conflict individual participants Lester B. Pearson • Abd al-Hakim Amer • Hosni Mubarak • Gamal Abdel Nasser • Anwar Sadat • Mahmoud Ahmadinejad • Ali Khamenei • Ruhollah Khomeini • Faisal I • Saddam Hussein • Ehud Barak • Menachem Begin • David Ben-Gurion • Moshe Dayan • Levi Eshkol • Golda Meir • Benjamin Netanyahu • Ehud Olmert • Shimon Peres • Yitzhak Rabin • Yitzhak Shamir • Ariel Sharon • Chaim Weizmann • King Abdullah I • King Abdullah II • King Hussein • Emile Lahoud • Hassan Nasrallah • Fouad Siniora • Mona Juul • Johan Jørgen Holst • Terje Rød-Larsen • Mahmoud Abbas • Yasser Arafat • Marwan Barghouti • George Habash • Ismail Haniya • Amin al-Husayni • Khaled Mashal • Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi • Ahmed Shukeiri • Ahmed Yassin • King Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud) • King Abdullah • King Fahd • King Faisal • Folke Bernadotte • Hafez al-Assad • Bashar al-Assad • Shukri al-Quwatli • Salah Jadid • Ernest Bevin • Arthur Balfour • Tony Blair • Richard Crossman • Madeleine Albright • Ralph Bunche • George H. W. Bush • George W. Bush • Jimmy Carter • Bill Clinton • Henry Kissinger • Ronald Reagan • Condoleezza Rice • Dennis Ross • Harry S. Truman • Cyrus R. Vance Arab-Israeli conflict engagements Before 1948 1920 Palestine riots • 1921 Jaffa riots • 1929 Palestine riots • 1936–1939 Arab revolt • 1947 Jerusalem riots 1948-50 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandate Palestine • 1948 Arab-Israeli War 1950s 1950s terrorism against Israel • 1953 Qibya massacre • 1956 Suez Crisis 1960s 1966 Samu Incident • 1967 Six-Day War • 1968–1970 War of Attrition 1970s 1972 Munich Olympics massacre • 1972 Operation Wrath of God • 1973 Israeli raid on Lebanon • 1973 Yom Kippur War • 1975–1990 Lebanese Civil War • 1976 Operation Entebbe • 1978 South Lebanon conflict 1980s 1981 Operation Opera • 1982 Lebanon War • 1982–2000 South Lebanon conflict • 1985 Operation Wooden Leg • 1987–1990 First Intifada 1990s 1991 Gulf War • 1993 Operation Accountability • 1993-present Palestinian suicide attacks • 1996 Operation Grapes of Wrath 2000s 2000–present Al-Aqsa Intifada • 2002 Operation Defensive Shield • 2003 Ain es Saheb airstrike • 2004 Operation Rainbow • 2004 Operation Days of Penitence • 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict • 2006 Lebanon War • 2007–2008 Israel-Gaza conflict • 2007 Operation Orchard Diplomacy and Peace proposals in the Arab-Israeli conflict Damascus Protocol • Hussein-McMahon Correspondence • Sykes-Picot Agreement • 1917 Balfour Declaration • Declaration to the Seven • Anglo-French Declaration • 1919 Faisal-Weizmann Agreement • 1920 San Remo conference • 1922 Churchill White Paper • 1939 White Paper • 1947 UN Partition Plan • 1948 Establishment of Israel • 1948 UNGA Resolution 194 • 1949 Armistice Agreements • 1964 Palestinian National Covenant • 1967 Khartoum Resolution • 1967 UNSC Resolution 242 • 1973 UNSC Resolution 338 • 1973 UNSC Resolution 339 • 1974 UNSC Resolution 350 • 1978 UNSC Resolution 425 • 1978 Camp David Accords • 1979 UNSC Resolution 446 • 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty • 1979 UNSC Resolution 452 • 1980 UNSC Resolution 478 • 1981 UNSC Resolution 497 • 1983 Israel-Lebanon agreement • 1991 Madrid Conference • 1993 Oslo Accords • 1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace • 1998 Wye River Memorandum • 2000 Camp David Summit • 2001 Taba Summit • 2001 UNSC Resolution 1373 • 2002 Beirut Summit and Peace Initiative • 2002 Road map for peace • 2004 UNSC Resolution 1559 • 2004 UNSC Resolution 1566 • 2005 UNSC Resolution 1583 • 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh Summit • 2005 Israel's unilateral disengagement plan • 2006 Palestinian Prisoners' Document • 2006 UNSC Resolution 1701 • 2007 Annapolis Conference