Israel before 1948
Since biblical times and as recorded in the Torah, God promised the Land of Israel to the Jewish people and has been sacred to them ever since. After establishing the First Kingdom of Israel in about the 11th century BCE, the Israelites ruled the area sporadically for the next 1000 years.
Over centuries Jewish presence dwindled due to persecution and massacres at the hands of invaders, scattering of the Jews throughout the world began. However, a Jewish presence constantly remained, particularly in the Galilee area, which became the religious center. Eventually, after most of the major civilizations with power had conquered and ruled the land at one time or another, the Ottoman Empire captured and ruled the area from 1516 until the 20th century.
Throughout the centuries, the Jews, having been dispersed worldwide, had always had a yearning to return to their land. Finally, in 1492, many Jews, on being expelled from Spain, returned to their land, and communities began to grow in the Four Holy Cities of Judaism: Jerusalem, Tiberias, Hebron, and Safed.
Pogroms in Eastern Europe started the first Aliyah in 1881, which was the beginning of what is known as modern immigration. At around that time, the Zionist movement founded by Theodor Herzl started to take root. This movement had as its basis the wish to establish a Jewish State in the Land of Israel.
The Second Aliyah began in 1904, and those who came were mainly orthodox Jews, but amongst them were socialists who began to establish the kibbutz movement. This Aliyah lasted until 1914 and the outbreak of World War I. During the war, Arthur Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, issued The Balfour Declaration, which favored establishing a National Home for the Jewish People in Palestine.
The Jewish Legion, composed mainly of Zionist Volunteers, assisted the British in conquering the Ottoman Empire in Palestine. However, in 1920, rioting Arabs vehemently opposed the Balfour plan, which led to the forming of the Haganah (Hebrew word for Defense).
Between 1919 and 1929 brought 100,000 Jews returning to their land during the third and fourth Aliyah. After the rise of Nazism, the 5th Aliyah began with the arrival of about a quarter of a million Jews fleeing the situation in Europe. This influx caused Arab Riots and resulted in the notorious British White Paper that stopped the arrival of Jews to Palestine. All those Jewish refugees trying to flee the Holocaust were being turned away by countries worldwide. This led to the formation of the underground Aliyah Bet organization who sought to bring these Jews to Palestine.
A furious conflict between the Jewish Community and Britain began after 1945 when the Haganah joined the underground movements Irgun and Lehi in armed resistance as thousands of Jewish Refugees and survivors of the Holocaust seeking refuge in Palestine were being turned away by the British or placed in Detention Camps.
In 1947 Britain found itself unable to reach an acceptable solution to the situation. As a result, it decided to withdraw from the Mandate of Palestine. In November of that year, the Partition Plan for Palestine was approved by the United Nations with two states, Arab and Jewish, with Jerusalem an International City under U.N. rule. The Jewish leadership accepted this plan, but the Arabs immediately rejected it and began a series of attacks against Jewish communities.
On the 14th of May 1948, Israel declared independence. However, the next day the armies of 5 Arab States: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt, with contingents from Sudan, crossed their borders to overthrow the new state, and so began Israel’s 1948 War of Independence.