With no fixed borders, Egyptian, Jordanian, Iraqi, Syrian, and Lebanese forces moved into the Arab partitions where the new Israeli army and those of the Arab state began to fight. Four campaigns interrupted by cease-fires spurred Israel to occupy the majority of the country.
Righteous Victims
As Benny Morris states in Righteous Victims, the reality of Israeli-Arab relations during 1949-1956 was unremitting,“if generally low-key, conflict. Leaders and news media on both sides regularly voiced propaganda and traded threats, and the Arab world closed ranks in waging massive political warfare against Israel, regarding it as a pariah state and attempting to persuade the rest of the world to follow suit. The Arabs refused to recognize Israel's existence or right to exist -- leaders and writers avoided using the word 'Israel'; maps left its area blank or called it Palestine. “
Six Days War
In June 1967, the start of the Six Days War, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan after Egyptian President, Gamel Abdul Nasser, declared his intention to annihilate the Jewish state and forged military alliances with Syria and Jordan for that purpose. From the ashes of the Six-Day War, the United Nations Security Council arose with a mandate of Resolution 242, emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force and the need to work for just and lasting peace.
In 1974, during the Rabat Summit, The Arab League recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization as the “'sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”. While it was a diplomatic triumph for the PLO, King Hussein stated it is “totally inconceivable that Jordan and Palestine entity could form a federation” (Bickerton, 44).
Oslo Accords
In 1993, the Oslo Accords demonstrated potential peace agreements between PLO and Israel. Emphasizing the absence of economic borders, the Paris Protocol in 1994 set up the framework for the interim-period economic relations between Israel and Palestinian Authority. But the conflict still continued even with continued peace efforts at Camp David in 2000 with President Clinton and Madeline Albright who facilitated Barak and Arafa discussion of the major issues dividing the Israelis and the Palestinians. New York Times writers, Robert Malley and Hussein Agha, in “Camp David: An Exchange”, describe the conflict as, “Years of accumulated mistrust and loss of faith in the peace process, political circumstances in Israel and among the Palestinians, the history of prior agreements, perceptions of the United States' role, the relationship (or lack thereof) between [Ehud] Barak and Arafat, the mechanics of the negotiations—all these contributed to a situation in which each side's actions were interpreted by the other in the most damaging way”.
Since Then
The Israel-Palestinian conflict has intensified since; on December 27, 2008, Israeli armored columns moved into Gaza after a seven-day aerial bombardment. Apparently trying to seize the areas used by the Palestinian militants,“Israeli officials stressed that the objective was to deal further punishing blows to Hamas in the hope of deterring further rocket fire... Although the eight-day air campaign in Gaza has claimed some 450 Palestinian victims, and continues to inflict damage on Hamas fighters — as well as, inevitably, nearby civilians — the attacks have not kept Hamas from launching more missiles. At least 15 rockets fired from Gaza struck southern Israel on Saturday... [Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud] Barak and [Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert have made clear that their objective is not to wipe out Hamas, but instead to force the radical group to accept a durable cease-fire on Israel's terms. While they hope to weaken Hamas, Israel's leaders are aware that a military campaign is unlikely to destroy the organization that remains the most popular political force in Gaza. Any attempt to do so would require not only a massive invasion of all of Gaza, but also an open-ended reoccupation of a hostile population, a trap Olmert and Barak want to avoid at all costs." (CNN)
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