Can somebody please summarize the history between Israel and the Palestinians for me? I don't have the time to research it in depth and cut through all the propaganda from both sides.
My intuition tells me that Israel is the aggressor and the worse of the two evils. Antiwar.com seems to present this narrative as well. So, what is really going on with the whole situation?
In the 1800's nationalism and socialism were on the rise as ideas. (Germany did not become a nation until 1871).
Jewish intellectuals, like so many other nationalities, began to define what makes a Jew a Jew, (like Serbs, Germans, Ukrianians, etc were doing.)
The came zionism, in the 1890's founded by Thedor Herzl, and the hope for a homeland.
The idea was to buy a bunch of land somewhere, and create a socialist or communist state: New York, Argentina (who was actively recruiting Europeans in attempts to modernize) or Israel.
At the time, palestine was owned by the crumbling and distant Ottoman empire, and there were no states so to speak of in the region.
After WW I, the Ottoman Empire vanished, and the Brits got the area known as Palestine.
The Brits tried to limit the influx of Jewish settlers between the wars, but failed, and militant anti-Brit, (Brits were seen as pro-arab) organizations were formed, like Irgun and Hergannah. After the holocaust, these organizations became as extremist as you would expect a people who lost 6 million of their own would, and started a bombing/terror campaign against Brits and Arabs.
Brits didn't want to deal with it. And in 1947, they went to the UN, and proposed a two state settlement. Zionists had bought 6% of the land, had 31% of the population,. but were given 48% of the land, and Arabs, the other 52%. America, under Truman, was the first to say OK, and many nations followed. Israel became a state. Within a week, the Arab states surrounding Israel invaded, on behalf of the Palestinians, because they wanted to get rid of the Palestinian immigrant problem, and for their own personal ambitions. (most of these states were brand new post-colonial monarchies propped up by Britain and France).
They surely could have won, except that they had no coordination, and no common goal. Jordan was the most successful of the war, but after seizing the west bank and part of Jerusalem, stopped, the King happy with his gains. The paramilitary groups in Israel slaughtered Palestinians, and many fled the country. Zionist narrative says the Palestinians fled because they thought victory was near, Palestinian narrative says they fled because they feared for their lives. End result was all who fled were not allowed back in, and their homes, farms and plantations were seized and given to Jews.
In 1976, The Arab states again decided to go to war with Israel, under Egypt's Nasser, who was hoping to form a pan-Arabic state, and because all of the nations around Israel were sick of supporting and dealing with Palestinian refugees, who were starting to cause violence in their new host countries. At this time, the Arab world was westernizing. Women wore miniskirts and beehives, western music, everything. The Arabs were sure they would win, because their cause was just. But they were defeated handily. Israel took the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai, and the Golan Heights. Only the Sinai was returned after 1982.
This is when Islamist fundamentalism really took of, and gained hold in popular culture. Arabs felt they had lost because they were sinful, and no longer following the teachings of Islam.
Since 1976, Israel has been slowly seizing lands in the west bank, and the Golan heights, and turning them into state-sponsored settlements for Jews only. Palestinian groups have been committing bombing/terrorist campaign and demanding everything from the destruction of Israel, to the right of return (Palestinians are not allowed to immigrate to Israel, as Israel is a Jewish state, and does not want to be outnumbered by Arabs) to their own state.