The British government gave up its mandate over Palestine in May of 1948. The United Nations voted to divide the land between the Arabs and the Jewish people, making Jerusalem an international city shared by all. The Arabs voiced their disapproval of at the plan while the Jews were in favor of it. The date was set for May 14, 1948. The world knew that war would immediately break out and the Arab countries were heavily favored to crush the existence of any Jewish state.

On the first night of independence, Tel Aviv was bombed and the Arab armies marched into Israel. The war raged on for a year, finally ending with an armistice between Israel and Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. The Arab countries refused to recognize Israel as being anything more than occupied Palestine.

In the summer of 1956, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, bringing Israel-Arab tensions to a head. In October of that year, Israel along with Britain and France, attacked Egypt. Israel gained most of the land in the Sinai Peninsula but it was later returned under pressure from the United States. This is known as the Sinai Campaign.

War broke out again in 1967, known as the Six-Day War, Israel gained the Sinai, the West Bank and the Golan Heights east of the Sea of Galilee. Most significant was the gaining of the Old City of Jerusalem. Not since 1948 had the Jews been allowed to come to the Western Wall.

In 1973, Egypt and Syria staged a surprise attack on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. The ensuing days proved disastrous for both sides, yet Israel recouped from the surprise attack and maintained its previous borders, with some minor modifications. This is know as the Yom Kippur War.

In 1979, Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty and the Sinai was returned to Egypt in stages, with the final stage completed in 1982.

After repeated attacks by the terrorists of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in South Lebanon against Israeli settlements in the Galilee, Israel invaded South Lebanon in 1982 in a war against the PLO and Syrian troops occupying Lebanon. Syria was defeated and the PLO infrastructure in South Lebanon was destroyed. The PLO was expelled from South Lebanon and Beirut. Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 1985.

In 1993, there was mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO with Israel agreeing to withdraw from most of the Gaza Strip and Jericho, accomplished in May 1994. A five year period of negotiations is to follow to determine the final status of Jerusalem and the West Bank.

In 1995, further negotiations were conducted concluding with the Oslo II Agreement in which Israel agreed to withdraw from six major West Bank Arab cities and to turn them over to the Palestinian Authority: Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Tulkarm, Bethlehem and Qalkilya. The withdrawal process was completed by the end of 1995. A partial withdrawal from Hebron was finalized in 1996. Further withdrawals are presently under negotiation and scheduled for 1998 and 1999.