On June 5th, 1967, Israel launched an attack on neighboring Arab states
Known as the 1967 War, The June War or The Six-Day War
After success in the war, the Israeli government occupied and subsidized settlements in the West Bank, Golan Heights, and Gaza Strip. It also occupied the Sinai Peninsula (which is mostly desert but strategically buffers Egypt’s control of the Suez Canal)
"Territory Occupied by Israel in 1967 and UN Peacekeeping Forces" by United Nations is in the Public Domain, CC0
On October 6th, 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel
Also known as The October War or The Yom Kippur War
During the Cold War, The Soviets and Americans had been increasingly relied upon to broker the situation. Since 1967, the Americans had sat back to wait for the Arabs to come to the negotiating table to get their land back. The attack sought to involve the Americans more actively
11,000-16,000 Arab and Israeli casualties
Intifada means “shaking off”
It began as grassroots protests on December 9, 1987 after an IDF vehicle killed four Palestinians, and when protests formed, the IDF fired indiscriminately into the crowd
The first intifada largely consisted of civil disobedience, and the quintessential image was of children throwing stones at IDF soldiers.
The second intifada, which began in 2000, was bloodier, and marked by Palestinian suicide bombers murdering Israeli civilians
The second intifada was borne out of Palestinian resentment of the failures of Oslo and discontentment with the corrupt leadership of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Yasir Arafat
Since 1978 when Sadat negotiated a return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, the formula had been “land for peace.” Oslo represented direct negotiations with the Palestinians, rather than Arab states
Israel recognized the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) as the leader of an independent entity, the Palestinian Authority (PA)
The PLO recognized Israel
Territory of the 1949 armistice lines, 80% of the territory of historic Palestine, was no longer up for negotiation
