Given all the flap over anti-Semitic tropes being thrown around by Muslim members of the Hpuse of Representatives and the general ignorance being expressed by lots of folks, I think a bit of history is in order.
The establishment of the state of Israel began with the establishment of the Mandate for Palestine in 1923 by the League of Nations. That document ratified the Balfour Declaration of 1917 but also established safeguards for the non-Jewish population.
Britain was placed in charge of the mandate and allowed to establish the boundaries of Trans-Jordan, today the state of Jordan, and Palestine.
Between 1923 and 1947 there was a bloody three way pissing contest in Palestine between Jews, Arabs and the British. Finally Britain gave up and dumped the whole mess in the lap of the United Nations which had recognized existing international documents including the Mandate for Palestine.
The UN established a special committee to recommend actions related to Palestine. The committee came back with the following:
(1) approved the termination of the British mandate,
(2) a majority proposal for the partition of Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state with international control over Jerusalem and an economic union,
(3) a minority proposal for a federal union with Jerusalem as the capital.
The Zionist factions accepted the majority proposal. The Arab factions rejected both proposals.
The Jews were allocated more land than the Arabs (53% to 46%) despite Arabs being in the majority (1,270,000 to 610,000) because large scale Jewish emigration from Europe was anticipated.
On November 29, 1947, the UN adopted Resolution 181 which partitioned Palestine based upon the majority proposal.
The shooting started the next day with the ambush of two buses carrying Jewish settlers.
Jewish settlements were attacked by Arab forces including troops from Jordan, Syria and Egypt. Arab villages were attacked by Jewish forces. The Jewish committee told Jewish settlers to hold their ground while many Arabs either evacuated or were forced out by Jewish forces.
Both sides ignored the boundaries of the partition plan and probably committed atrocities. When the smoke had cleared Israel controlled all of Palestine except for the West Bank, which was controlled by Jordan, and the Gaza Strip which was controlled by Egypt. About 750,000 Palestinian Arabs out of an original 1948 population of 1.2 million had become refugees.
Israel took the West Bank from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt in the 1967 war. Israel withdrew from Gaza and dismantled Jewish settlements there in 2005.
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