From Mandate to Six Day War: the roots of the Arab–Israeli conflict (1945–1967)
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Question
What was the British Mandate for Palestine?
Answer
The authority Britain was granted by the League of Nations in 1922 to govern Palestine.
Question
Why did Britain hand Palestine over to the UN in 1947?
Answer
Post-WWII exhaustion, financial strain, and rising Jewish–Arab violence made continued British rule unsustainable.
Question
What did the 1947 UN Partition Plan propose?
Answer
Dividing Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, with Jerusalem under international control.
Question
Who declared the independence of Israel, and when?
Answer
David Ben-Gurion, on 14 May 1948.
Question
What is the Nakba?
Answer
The displacement of roughly 700,000 Palestinian Arabs during and after the 1948–49 War, creating a lasting refugee crisis.
Question
Process: how did the 1948–49 War unfold from independence to armistice?
Answer
Israel declares independence (May 1948) → Arab states (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq) invade → disunited Arab forces are defeated → 1949 armistice leaves Israel controlling more land than the UN plan proposed.
Question
Why did Nasser nationalise the Suez Canal in 1956?
Answer
To fund the Aswan Dam after the US and Britain withdrew financing, partly due to his Soviet-bloc arms deals and recognition of Communist China.
Question
What was the outcome of the Suez Crisis for Britain and France?
Answer
Superpower (US and USSR) pressure forced their humiliating withdrawal, showing they were no longer the Middle East's dominant powers, while boosting Nasser's Pan-Arab prestige.
Question
What triggered Israel's pre-emptive strike in June 1967?
Answer
Egypt's blockade of the Straits of Tiran, expulsion of UN peacekeepers, and troop build-up near Israel's border.
Question
Comparison: territorial outcomes of 1948–49 War vs Six Day War
Answer
1948–49: Israel gains ~78% of Mandate Palestine; Jordan takes West Bank, Egypt takes Gaza. 1967: Israel additionally captures Sinai, Gaza, West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
Question
What is Pan-Arabism?
Answer
The idea that all Arab peoples should unite politically, an ideology boosted by Nasser's stand during the Suez Crisis.
Question
Why does 1967 matter for later peacemaking?
Answer
The occupied territories captured in 1967 (Sinai, Gaza, West Bank, East Jerusalem, Golan Heights) became the central, unresolved issue in all future Arab–Israeli peace negotiations.
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Topic 21.17 hub
Post-war developments in the Middle East (1945–2000)
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