Arab and Israel Conflict Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 3

Arab and Israel Conflict - Essay Example al and nationalist clash over competing territorial ambitions after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and it involves the foundation of the Zionist movement and the ensuing formation of the modern State of Israel. The first conflict between the two nations, known as the first Arab-Israeli War, started on May 15, 1948, when five Arab armies invaded the one-day- old Jewish state. This war is generally divided into two phases: the first began on November 30, 1947 and ended on May 14, 1948, with the termination of the British Mandate and the second phase started on May 15, 1948 and ended on July 20, 1949, with the signing of the last of the Armistice Agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Significantly, the War of Independence in 1948 was the most destructive wars that the two nations ever fought and it only marked the beginning of the Arab-Israeli conflict. â€Å"By the time the fighting was over, Israel, albeit at the exorbitant human cost of 1 percent of its population, had survived the Arab attempt to destroy it at birth and had asserted its control over wider territories than those assigned to it by the UN Partition Resolution.† (Karsh 2008, P. 6). It is essential to realise that the 1948 war was more than a war about national self-determination in the light of concept of the formation of a Jewish homeland and the displacement of the Palestinians. This chapter makes a reflective exploration of the War of Independence in 1948, outlining the balance of forces which shaped the British Mandate of Palestine between Palestinians, Arabs, and the increasing number of immigrant Jews, in order to comprehend the various aspects of the conflict such as the two-state solution provided by the United Nation. The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, which was fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbours, has been known in different names, and the Israelis call it as the War of Independence or War of Liberation while the Arabs name it as the