for the person who answered first. in recent history palestine was part of the ottoman empire. after world war 1 the entire middle east was under british and french mandates and was being divided into countries.

syria, lebanon, jordan, iraq, even egypt got their independence after world war 1. in 1922 when the british faced palestine the idea was to divided the land into two countries, jordan for the palestinians and israel for the jews.

jordan became an independent state in 1946 but the naighbouring arabs didnt want a jewish state in palestine. after the founding of jordan, the arabs living in palestine demanded that instead of them migrating into jordan the rest of the british mandate will be divided into two, palestinian and israeli... although the original idea was that jordan will be the palestinian state.

a vote was made by the united nations in which 33 voted for and 13 voted against the israeli state.

in 1948, the day following israel proclamation of independence the arab countries attacked israel and israel conquered parts of what was inteded to be the palestinian state. the plestinians themselves fled into gaza and the west bank. as the war ended, the gaza strip was in egyptian control and the west bank was in jordanian control.

in the 6 day war, the arab armies were forming and building on israel's borders readying to attack israel, israel counter attacked and managed to conquer the gaza strip, golan hights, west bank and the etire sinai paninsula.

after negotiations israel gave back the sinai paninsula to the egyptians and offered the gaza strip, but egypt didnt want the gaza strip.

israel also offered the west bank to jordan, but jordan didnt want the west bank.

none of the arab countries wanted the refugee problem on their hands, so thus israel has made its biggest mistake by leaving its army in the gaza strip and west bank.

israel ended up with the refugee problem on its hands, the palestinians were offered again a state but refused because they wanted the land they lost in war that they initiated back.

then in 2005 israel pulled out of gaza and gave the palestinians a chance to create their own state, with billions of aid money being pured into it by different nations of the world, all the while israel is providing gaza with electricity, water and gasoline. but all the palestinian managed to do was to fight amongst themselves and smuggle weapons, making the terrorism against israel worsen.

israel had said it will negotiate with the palestinians for a state for them, but the hamas who is in control of gaza does not want to talk, its agenda is the destruction of israel and called for a jihad on israel, a jihad is a holy war equal to the crusades. israel is now striking the hamas to desrupt their weapon smuggling and to hurt the terrorist infrastructure in gaza. israel is saying its goal is to make southern israel safe for the israeli people.