The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.
Arab-Israeli conflict
A conflict between the Israelis and the Arabs in the Middle East. The United Nations established Israel, a nation under control of Jews, in Palestine in the late 1940s, in territory inhabited by Palestinian Arabs. Israel was placed in the midst of four Arab nationsLebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egyptand the presence of Israel has led to constant contention between Israel and the Arab world. Both the Israelis and the Arabs claim land in Palestine as theirs by ancestral rights, and war has periodically broken out between them. (See also Yasir Arafat; Gamal Abdel Nasser; intifada; Oslo Accord; Palestine Liberation Organization; Yitzhak Rabin; Anwar Sadat; andSix-Day War.)