Part two of the Arab-Israeli Conflict in a Nutshell brings the history from WWI to the present. Just as part one, it is historically accurate and it hits the highlights and not every tiny detail. It is meant as a survey or as the Arab-Israeli Conflict in a nutshell, and yes, it does have a bias; as do all of us.
Part II:
World War I brought many changes to the world, most notably in Europe. In four years the land was ravaged and millions of Europeans killed. The old Austro-Hungarian Empire was in ruins and divided up between the Allies. Great Britain got Palestine (Israel) & Transjordan with all of its Jews and Arabs. Jews lived in Europe and the Middle East/North Africa. Not in harmony, they were still Dhimmis (second class non-citizen peoples protected under Muslim law) but inferior according to Muslim law. In the 1930's Adolf Hitler came to power and he and his followers (Austria, the Sudetenland, the Rhineland, and other ethnic Germans were all reunited thanks to Neville Chamberlains folly policy of Appeasement. Hitler gave money and arms to a man filled with hatred with the men, influence, and power to bring war (once again) to the Jews of Palestine. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was a rabid anti-Semite even though the Jews had no power over him & had never done anything to him. The Grand Mufti rallied an army to himself and in 1937 attacked the Jewish landowners who were planning on putting their parcels of land together to bring law to the lawless territory of Palestine. The Grand Mufti was expelled and spent the rest of WWII in Europe helping Hitler pull off the mass-murder of the Holocaust.
After World War II, the Grand Mufti was declared a war criminal for conspiring and acting with the Nazi German Government in War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, including Genocide. The Nuremberg trials gave the Nazi leaders and their cronies the fair trials that they never gave their victims. The Jewish landowners finally put their parcels of land together in 1947 after the British withdrew. The 600,000 Jews who had made Tel Aviv out of the desert and had made Beersheba and the desert bloom once again, these farmers were attacked by the organized, superior armies of the surrounding Arab states (40 million strong. Against all odds, they Jews won and a declared an Independent Jewish State in 1948. They had expected that an Arab Palestinian state would be declared in 1947, but the Arabs refused and declared war instead.
In 1956, the mighty Arab armies once again attacked the Jewish state. Once again, against all the odds of being outmanned and outgunned, the nascent Jewish state of Israel won. They had a self-sufficient nation with a solid, growing infrastructure. They had made the desert bloom with crops where there had been nothing but worthless desert for centuries. They had carved new cities out of the desert that had never existed before. In 1967, the Jews were victorious again, but this time, they recaptured the province of Old Jerusalem in the East and the Galilee near Syria before the Arabs surrendered. In 1973, on the Holiest Day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur, the mighty Arab armies attacked while the Jewish nation was praying. The Jews were almost defeated, thanks to help and U.S. agents. The Arabs never knew how close they had come. However, the Jewish nation was victorious yet again.
The Arabs and Palestinians that had left there homes refusing to live under the rule of those they considered inferior, in 1948 clamored for the death of the Jews and driving them into the sea for 25 years. Rich Arabs like Yasser Arafat began using terrorist tactics instead of leading armies to attack Israel. The President of Egypt came in 1977 to genuinely deal peace. Israel accepted provided they recognize Israel's Right to Exist as a legitimate State, and provided that the Egyptians stop their terrorism. Along with Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (with David Ben Gurion & Golda Meir's blessings) and U.S. President Jimmy Carter declared the 1st peace. The Arab/Palestinian response was to murder Sadat. Later, the Arabs stopped shooting and threw rocks. Yitzhak Rabin tried to deal peace with Arafat, and although he was killed by a Jewish nut, the peace process proceeded. The U.S. and European nations, including Israel gave the money for the new Palestinian Authority to build infrastructure. Against Jewish objections, the government of Israel began withdrawing from the West Bank area and the Gaza strip.
They did this even though Arafat had declined Ehud Barak's offer of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with Jerusalem as a jointly controlled city (the city is holy to Christians, Jews, and Muslims). It is sacred to Jews because the Jewish Holy Temple was there as was the 2nd Jewish Holy Temple. The Arabs hold it as sacred because Mohamed visited Jerusalem in addition to Mecca & Medina (declaring all three holy cities that should be Jewish only, which is what the Muslims want to make Jerusalem). The Dome of the Rock and Al Asaq Mosques were built on the Temple Mount (The Jewish Holy Temple Mount) to prevent a Third Holy Jewish Temple. Christians hold Jerusalem and Israel as holy because Yeshua (Jesus) the Jew of Nazareth is from there. Christians maintain that Jerusalem should only be in the hands of those who would allow all faiths. Even though the Palestinians rejected the Jewish offer in 2000, and peace, the Israeli government has withdrawn. The walls are to keep terrorist and rioters out. If the Canadians were blowing things up along the United States' northern border, The U.S would do much worse than build a wall. The same would hold true for any nation. With all the billions of dollars that the so-called Palestinians and their government the (P.A.) have been given since 1993 alone, they have not even tried or attempted to build an infrastructure. Instead they have purchased more and deadlier weapons. The Arab nations surrounding Israel have never offered to take in their brethren living on the edges of Israel in the refugee camps. The Israeli government built them housing, and they have used them to launch rockets and throw bombs and grenades. The Israelis built up their infrastructure with no help from any other nation or government in less than 3 years. Why haven't the Palestinians been able to do it with help in the 35 years since the Yom Kippur War? One solution might be to make these so-called Palestinians Israeli citizens. They would be better off than most Arabs in region.