"The Arabs, individually and collectivily regard the future of Palestine as a matter of life and death"
                                                                  Prince Abd-Illan, Regent of Iraq in a letter to President Roosevelt, 1945 (1)

    The Palestinians had control of Palestin (Israel), since the destruction of the 2nd Temple,  about 2,000 years ago.  Since then,  Jews have lived there under persecution and hardship.  It was not until the ending of World War II in 1945,  that the Jews who servived Hitlers regien,  wanted a homeland of their own.  The only problem was the British had been imperalistic witht he small strip of land,  in a fateful chance to try and colonize one last country.  Finally on May 15, 1948, the British withdrew form Palestin along with the help form the UN to plan a partion between 1,300,000 Arabs and 650,000 Jews (which held 56.4% of the country, who comprised 33% of the population and owned 6% of the land) (2) .
    President Truman played a major role in the rebirth of Israel.  The American opinion was at first to be neutral between the sides,  but as time wore on the Jews were favored.  Once the conflicting groups became violent the UN and Truman began to take the two groups more seriously.  Much of his decisions were sought out because of the vast number of Zionist voters,  and it was not compativle with American interests in the world in general and in the Middle East.  Evan through  all the contreversy  in the Palestin, many of the Jewish voters refered "Truman still talks Jewish, but acts Arab"(3).
On May 13, 1948, Israel became a nation for and ran by the Jewish population. The next day Ben Guion, the new nations leader, rose before the leaders in Tel Aviv and officially decleared it to people.  A truce was offered on June 11,  but the Arabs refused it.The United States was brought further in depth with the Middle East, when oil was the main issue of disscusion. Libya took control of a U.S. oil firm on June 11, 1973, because of the U.S./Israeli ties.  They took the Bunker Hunt Oil company because of the belief that Americas goal was total domination of the Middle East, and in supporting Israel,  it was opposing all other Arab nations.  In Vienna on September 15,  the 11 nation Organization of Petrolem Exporting Counties(OPEC) finalized the annoucement of charging western countries higher prices.  It is then that President Nixon nominated Henry Kisssinger as the Secertary of State and negotiater between the opposite worlds (4).
    The Yom Kippur War was on one of the holiest Jewish Holidays- the Day of Anointment; but to the Arabs it is the Ramadan War.  The war was fought on two different fronts:first, as the Syrian forces pushed the Isreali troops back into the Golan Hieghts to try and take the land; second  the Egyptian tanks crossed the Suez Canal and pushed the Israeli forces from their Bar-Lev Defense line (5). Kissinger meet with both sides to help with the military level of cease fire; it lead tothe idea of broading the Israeli-Egyptian border in the Sinai.  The United States and Israel ended with a 10 point  memorandom covering points as UN troops that would be withdrawn only if both sides agreed and the tension was dropped and in America's perspective,  the war was closed(6).
    Since then, there has been conflicts and Holy Wars over the same small strip of land that the two groups call home. Now in  present 1999, the Jews still are in control of Israel, with a growing poulation of Jews and Arabs,  and the main contriversy is still over the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights; the  under Arafat, still demands more land as part of the never-ending "peace-process".
 
 

Map (7)
 
 

1. Curtiss, A Changing Image. page 21
2. Curtiss, A Changing Image. page 27
3. Curtiss, A Changing Image. page 30
4. Sobel, October 1973 War. page 91-96
5. Sobel, October 1973 War. page 90
6. Dowty, Middle East Crisis.  page 303-310
7. www.ddtravel-acc.com