Olivia Seltzer

not even a month after the official end of the war, reps from fifty countries got together in San Francisco to talk peace. And agreed that the whole idea of the Allied forces (multiple countries coming together to fight for a cause) should stick around.

an effort to get Jews on the side of the Allied powers during the First World War, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration. This basically said that the British supported the idea of “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” It alsoooo said that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” Point being: they believed Jews should get an official homeland—but not at the expense of other groups already living there.

for the most part, everyone was cool with this plan . . . especially since the Brits were going around making the same promise to the Muslim leaders of the surrounding Arab countries (see: the Hussein-McMahon correspondence). You read that right—Britain
was essentially offering the land to both sides at the same time.

. World War I ends. Britain seizes control of Palestine. Intense riots break out between Jews and Arabs living there. There is a huge power struggle for control of the land.

Just twenty-one years later, World War II starts.

I’ll repeat: at this point, lots of Jews had immigrated to Palestine (hence those riots I just mentioned). But once World War II hit, even more fled to the land.

The local Arab population was not a fan of this increased migration. They saw it as a European colonial movement. Cue even more vicious fighting that seemed to be beyond anyone’s control.

The British mandate is officially over. Israel declares independence and RSVPs yes on its invite to the United Nations.

Only a slight problem . . . while Israeli Jews nodded their heads to the Partition Resolution, Arabs never did. So almost as soon as Britain packs its bags and leaves, a war breaks out.