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The land of Israel holds special importance to many religions. The Jews believed that the land of Palestine was promised to them by God. The Christians found importance in the area, due to the birth of Jesus Christ in the ancient city of Jerusalem, who they believed to be the son of God. The Islamics laid religious claim to the area, which was the location of Prophet Muhammed's believed ascension. It is the tension of these different religions laying claim to this "Holy Land" that has led to a series of bloody battles.
On November 29, 1947, the United Nations Special Comittee on Palestine proposed a plan to split Palestine into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an internationally administered state that included Jerusalem and surrounding areas. The Arabs however, opposed this plan, while the Hebrew's accepted it. On May 14, 1948, the creation of an Israeli state was passed at Tel Aviv. Soon after the birth of the new Jewish state of Israel, it was invaded by several countries including Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq, and many Palestinian Arabs fleed from Israeli lands. By the time a truce had been called, in January of 1949, the Israeli's had taken over the state of Palestine. In December of 1949, the Jew's moved the capitol to Jerusalem to reiterate their claim to that city. They also passed the 1950 Law of the Return, which allowed all immigrant Jews to return to Israel.
Renewed fighting began between the invading countries, even in the midst of the intervention of the United Nations. These conflicts led to Israel conquering the Gaza Strip, and the Sinai Peninsula, until pressure from the U.S.A. forced them to withdraw from the area. Soon after, the opposing countries attempted another takeover of Israel, and were pushed back, and Israel once again occupied the Gaza Strip, and the Sinai Peninsula, this time with no pressure from the UN to withdraw.
In December of 1973, the first ever Arab-Israeli Peace Conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland, under the supervision of the UN. Relatively little happened between 1973 and the 1980's, besides peace conferences between Israel, Egypt and neighboring countries. On June 6, 1982, Israel raided Lebanon, surrounding the headquarters for the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization), a radicalist group intent on one thing, the destruction of the Israel state and government, responsible for many terror / guerilla attacks on civilian / military targets. Both sides retracted from the area, and the guerilla army dispersed into neighboring Arab countries. No longer a terror group, the PLO called for a self-ruling Palestinian state, which renounced terrorism and recognized Israel as a state that had a legitimate right to exist.
In 1987, a radicalist uprising, named Intifada (meaning to uprise, or shake off), attempted to finish what the PLO was unable to, and tried to overthrow the Israeli grip on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, by waging violent attacks on Israeli troops. Israel was also made the target of 1991 missle attacks by Iraq, during the Persian Gulf War.
Perhaps these bloody encounters could have been avoided had it not been for the interference of outsiders. One must think, when will they see reason and stop slaughtering eachother needlessly over as petty a reason as this, especially when Palestinians were given back a settlement in the area, even if they no longer have control of Jerusalem.
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zelaron = klingon??
:O) 
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