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Balfour Declaration
The British Government stated its support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. However, In the years after the war, the Jewish population in Palestine increased dramatically. -
United Nations Partitions
The Zionist accepted the partition plan even though they had always dreamed of controlling all of western Palestine and Jerusalem. The Palestinian Arabs and the surrounding Arab states rejected the partition proposal. They felt that Palestine was all theirs, that the Jews were a foreign implant foisted upon them, and that they had the strength to drive them out. -
Jewish Forces Attack Deir Yassin
The village was one of several attacked by Jewish forces in April [1948] in an attempt to clear the besieged roads leading to Jerusalem. That offensive was important in itself, since it marked the first time Jewish forces fought with the strategic goal of permanently ridding an area of Arab villages in order to insure the viability of their own settlements. -
Independence and War
Ben-Gurion later became Israel's first prime minister. The day after Israel declared its Independence, armies from the Arab countries of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, and Iraq invaded Israel, Launching the first Arab-Israeli War. -
Israel Declares Its Independence
The Declaration of Independence pledged that the State of Israel would be based on the principles of liberty, justice, and peace as conceived by the Prophets of Israel; would uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of religion, or race. -
The Iraq War
Some U.S. leaders believed that Saddam Hussein posed a greater threat to the United States than before. They worried that Hussein might have deadly weapons that he could give to terrorists.
