Explanation
Answer: B - The Balfour Declaration was made in 1917; the State of Israel was created in 1948; the Yom Kippur War (or October War) took place in October 1973; and the Oslo Accord was reached in 1993. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is fundamentally a dispute between Zionist (a group within the Jewish community that aspired to create a Jewish nation-state in the Land of Israel) and Arab Muslim nationalist movements, which both wanted (and still want) control of what the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian people consider the Holy Land. Ideologically, the conflict began at the end of the 19th century. In 1917, during World War I, as the break-up of the Ottoman Empire (which had control of the region) appeared imminent, both sides hoped to achieve their desired outcome. That year, a private British diplomatic transmission-the Balfour Declaration-became public. It affirmed that the British, who took control of Palestine during the war, were in favor of creating a Zionist state. The conflict intensified; no state was created. Animosity simmered until 1947, when the United Nations General Assembly reached a consensus on the Plan of Partition with Economic Union, to divide the region into Palestine (where the Arab Muslims would reside), Israel (where the Zionists would reside), and Jerusalem and Bethlehem, which would be placed under U.N. jurisdiction. Neither faction appreciated the plan and the conflict worsened. The State of Israel was officially created in May 1948. Over the years, demonstrations of violence only increased as neighboring Arab states were drawn into the conflict. In 1973, Syria and Egypt launched the Yom Kippur War against Israel, which lasted for a little less than three weeks. Peace talks later in the decade between Egypt and Israel (the Camp David Accord) inspired optimism that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could likewise be addressed peaceably. Nevertheless, as the feud prepared to enter its second century, the violence continued. In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton negotiated the Oslo Accord between Israel and Palestine, which consisted of a two-state agreement for the future of the region. Clinton would try again in the final weeks of his presidency to mediate a lasting peace between the two factions, but, despite substantive concessions on Israel’s part, Palestine refused to accept an agreement. Hostilities intensified again in the 21st century, and the region remains fraught.
