Many Arab states and organizations (that includes Hamas, Fatah, and Hezbollah) have never accepted the idea that Jews should have a state of their own. So, today, I’m going to start with the international acceptance of the idea at the end of World War One.
One of the consequences of that war was the de facto dismantling of empires on the losing side; specifically, the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian. The main consideration in redoing the borders of the old and new countries was the ethnic make-up of the inhabitants, alongside the wishes of the winners to enlarge their own spheres of influence. England promised Prince Faisal of Mecca an independent Arab Kingdom. The Arabs in Arabia threw him out, almost immediately. The British, as compensation, installed his sons as kings of Iraq and Jordan. The kingdom of Jordan was carved out of land that had originally been preserved for a future Jewish state. The remainder of that land became a League of Nations mandate to be ruled by Britain until it was ready for independence. The French got a similar arrangement for Syria, from which they removed a majority Christian populated area as Lebanon.
During the international discussions in 1921 about these arrangements, the Arab representative supported the establishment of the British mandate over a future Jewish State. It took almost a decade before Arab nationalism came to the conclusion that Palestine needed to be an ARAB country (not Jewish). Arabs revolted against British rule in 1929 (and thereafter) but were never strong enough to achieve their objectives. With the rise of the Nazi party in Germany the leader of the Palestinians (Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Hussaini) threw in his lot with the Axis (and lost).
England tried to maintain post WWII control, but faced with both Jewish and Arab independence movements, and a dwindling treasury, finally declared she would leave Palestine in 1948. The result was the 1948-9 Israeli War of Independence (which the Arab side now callas “Naqba” [The disaster]). Israel managed to defeat, not only the indigenous Palestinians, but also the regular armies of other neighboring Arab States; Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.
The agreements to a cease-fire with each of those countries (not including Palestine [not yet a state]) all called for future negotiations to determine borders and conclude a final peace treaty. That did not happen, and will be the point from which I will continue.
Wetherhorn 