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In 1917 Britain gave support to the Zionist movement by the Balfour Declaration, which viewed "with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
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To fulfill the Bafour Declaration, Britain in 1923 received the League of Nations mandate over Palestine.
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By 1938 over 500,000 Jews had migrated to Palestine, they built modern cities, founded agricultural settlements, started industries, restored desert lands to fertility, improved health standards, and established schools.
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In 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, Britain severely limited Jewish migration to Palestine. By so appeasing the Arabs, the Zionists claimed, Britain was violating the Balfour Declaration.
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In 1947 Britiain turned the Palestine problem over to the UN General Assembly. It voted to end the British mandate, place Jerusalem under international control, and partition Palestine into seperate Arab and Jewish states.
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in 1948, Israel proclaimed its independence. The Israeli republic is the Middle East's only modern democratic state.
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The Arab nations defied the UN decision for a Jewish state and attacked Israel. Despite their numerical superiority, the Arabs were driven back and lost some territory to the Israelis. In 1949 the Arab states accepted,as temporary, the armistice agreements arranged by UN mediator Ralph Bunche.
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The Arab League enforced an economic boycott against Israel and against Western companies doing business with Israel. Under President Nasser, an Arab nationalist, Egypt barred Israeli ships from the Suez Canal. Egyptian artillery on the Sinai Peninsula blockaded ships bound for Israel's southern port of Elath on the Gulf of Aqaba. Egypt allowed guerilla raids against Israeli border communities.
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Israel invaded Egypt to wipe out guerrilla bases and end the Aqaba blockade. Israeli forces quickly scattered Nasser's armies and overran the Sinai Peninsula. (Britian and France also invaded Eqypt to regain control of the Suez Canal.) The UN secured withdrawal of the invading forces and stationed a United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) in Egypt o the border with Israel and at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula. For 10 years Israel was free from Egyptian querrilla raids and free to use the Gulf.
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In 1974 the Arab nations, meeting at Rabat, Morocco, unanimously declared the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) to be the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" and called for the creation of Palestinian state. Also in 1974, the Arab nations secured a UN General Assembly invitation for the PLO, as "representative of the Palestinian people," to take debates on Palestine.
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The presence of Palestinian guerrillas destablized such Arab nations as Jordan and Lebanon, Jordan's army drove the guerrillas out of Jordan in 1970-1971, but relations later improved. Leftist Palestinian guerrillas took part in Lebanon's civil war, which began in 1975. They fought first against Lebanese Christians and later agains the Lebanese Muslims who had formerly been their allies.
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Syria sent 15,000 troops into Lebanon in 1976 under an Arab League mandate to enforce cease-fire. War rekindled in 1981 and caused massive destruction in the years that followed.
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PLO commandos used southern Lebanon as a base for attacks inside Israel. In 1978 a PLO squad landed on the Israeli coast and killed 30 civilians. In retaliation, Israeli troops occupied southern Lebanon for three months. They wthdrew after organizing a Lebanese Christian militia to prevent Palestinians from reoccupying southern Lebanon.
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In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon and forced most PLO guerrillas to leave. Syria helped drive out the rest in 1983. Factions with the PLO then divided into two camps. The largest faction, loyal to Yasir Arafat, spoke of seeking a negotiated solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. A smaller facton, which included Marxist and pro-Syrian guerrilla groups, gave exclusive attention to military action.
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After the Lebanese civil war resumed in 1981, Lebanon's neigbors quickly became involved. Syrian troops battled on the side of Lebanese Muslims and Palestinians. Israeli armed forces bombed the Lebanese capital, Beirut, 1981, and launched a full-scale invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The Israeli's trapped several thousand PLO troops in Beirut and forced their evacuation to Tunisia and other Arab countries far from Israel's borders.
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The United States joined France, Italy, and Britain in creating a miltinational force to help the weak Lebanese government. Leftists and Muslims regarded the multinational force as supporting rightist Lebanese Christians. Suicide bombers drove trucks into the United States and French military compounds in 1983, blowing up the trucks and killing 241 Marines and 58 French soldiers.
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In 1984 President Reagan withdrew United States forces.
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Israel withdrew most of its forces in 1985, keeping a small "security zone" in southern Lebanon. The Israeli's continued to arm a southern Lebanese Christian militia in the south
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In November 1988, Arafat and the Palestine National council met in Algiers to proclaim the formation of an independent "state of Palestine" with its capital in Jerusalem. For the first time, Arafat signaled his acceptance of Israel's right to exist. He called for an international peace conference to resolve the Middle East conflict.
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The term of President Amin Gemayel expired in 1988, without agreement on a successor. After fighting flared up, Muslim and Christian members of Lebanon's parliament met in Taif (Saudi Arabia). In 1989 they approved a new constitution designed to increase the power of Lebanon's Muslim majority and end the civil war.
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Lebanon's deeply fragmented society fell into turmoil when civil war broke out in 1975. The free-for-all war pitted many rival militias against one another.
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Syrian troops assaulted the presidential palace in 1990 to remove a Christian general, Michel Auonm who was a key holdout against the new constitution. A new "national unity" government reestablished central authority and disarmed the rival militia. A shaky peace took hold. Syrian and Israeli troops remained on Lebanese soill, as did some PLO guerrillas.
