Israel, a New State

"There is Israel, for us at least. What no other generation had, we have. We have Israel in spite of all the dangers, the threats and the wars, we have Israel. We can go to Jerusalem. Generations and generations could not and we can."

Israel became a sovereign nation after centuries of rule by foreign governments, in 1948. Many Jews had been scattered for centuries among the surrounding nations including many nations in Europe. After Hitler's regime was defeated and the Holocaust revealed, many surviving Jews from the Concentration Camps and Europe traveled to settle in their new free nation. The United Nations orchecstrated the rearrangement of the former British occupied territory, Britain occpied many new countries in the Middle Eastern territories that were created by the League of Nations after World War I  that were carved from the former Ottaman Empire, into two separate nations, one Arab, one Jewish once again.

This separation caused a war to breakout between Israel and its Arab neighbors in May 1948-1949. However, Israel won that war, gaining more territory and increaced its size by nearly 1/3. This later set the stage for a war in 1967 often called the Six Day War in which Syria, Egypt, and Jordan lost territory to Israel. The Sinai Peninsula was given back to Egypt in 1982 to fulfill an agreement made at Camp David. 

Below is a picture of Israel and the Arab nation created in 1947 by the United Nations. The picture to the right is modern day Israel.

Read more about Israel's history see "Israel's History" and "Israel."

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