Page 68 - Egypt & the Eternal Nile by Private, Classic River-Yacht

During World War I, Britain promised to recognize an Arab state, and to support a Jewish
homeland in Palestine. At war’s end, Britain gained control of the country, and as atrocities
leading up to World War II escalated, it halted all migration to Israel. But illegal immigrants
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reached an impasse: Britain relinquished its control, the U.N. passed a resolution to divide the
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Syria, Jordan and Lebanon invaded immediately thereafter—but all were defeated. By the time
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Jewish people immigrated soon after.

In 1956, Egyptian forces moved in to take control of Suez. Israeli, British and French armies
responded quickly, descending on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. The international community
pressured Israel to return the Sinai to Egypt, and British and French troops withdrew. But
hostilities continued: On June 5, 1967 Israel attacked Arab troops that had uncomfortably
gathered along its borders with Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. In the “Six-Day War” that
followed, Israel extended its territory into the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip
and the Sinai Peninsula. But it was not to be an easy acquisition for Israel; Yasser Arafat and
his Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), claiming to solely represent all Palestinians,
vowed to get their land back and annihilate the Israeli state.

In the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Egypt attempted to regain the Sinai from Israel. In the end,
the two countries signed a mutual recognition pact that returned the land to Egypt. Ties with
Lebanon and Syria were also eroding. In 1981, Israel invaded Lebanon and formally annexed
the Golan Heights from Syria; this border area is still a disputed territory decades later.
But relations with other nations have improved. For example, a peace deal with Jordan was
signed in 1994.

A popular 1987 Palestinian uprising, the intifada, intended to end the advance of Jewish
settlements in the West Bank and Gaza via guerrilla warfare against Israeli forces. The
1993 Oslo Peace Accord set their sights on mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO,
along with limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza. When the Israeli Prime
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his successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, took a hard line in negotiations. Under his watch, Israeli
settlements spread in the West Bank and Gaza, leading to increased terrorist activity.

1999 saw the election of Ehud Barak. At Camp David, he sought guarantees of safety and
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and the pair reached an impasse in regard to Jerusalem’s status, the return of Palestinian
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between Palestinian Authority police and Israeli soldiers.

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of Ariel Sharon as prime minister of Israel in 2001. He committed to a complete withdrawal of
Israel from the Gaza Strip, which was completed by September 2005. Sharon also mandated
the erection of a controversial wall that isolates the West Bank (Palestine), and added to a
similar barrier around the Gaza Strip. Sharon’s stroke in 2006 left Ehud Olmert to take over

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