July 15, 2026. The first three pages of the site are live. The rest will follow one at a time over the next few months.
Sources are problematic. One issue is that anyone who writes anything can be quoted on the likes of Wikipedia where the words become authoritative to many readers. Beyond that, it’s easy to take even legitimate words out of context, twist opinions into facts or present exceptions as the norm. For the origins and fundamentals of the Arab-Israeli conflict, we show verifiable, quality sources and use those mostly from the 1800s through the 1980s that, like the Associated Press and United Nations, often contradict their later accounts.
We present this in the name of peace. See About for more on our perspective.
Below are the pages for the top issues, or go by Chronology to best understand the conflict.
#1: To Muslims, historical Palestine was small and never a state, independent or sovereign.
#2: The Muslims in Old Palestine: Settlers, immigrants, growth due to Zionism and not Palestinians.
#3: The Zionists had global and historical support, and they didn’t steal land.
#4: In 1948, the Arab-Muslim war against the Two-State Solution created the refugees. Preview.
#5: After the war, the Arab League abused the refugees and hijacked UNRWA. Preview.
#6: The War of 1967 was Israel’s response to years of terrorism and warmongering. Preview.
#7: The peace process and the numerous times the Arab-Muslim radicals rejected autonomy and the Two-State Solution. Preview.
#8: Jerusalem was never the capital of an Arab or Muslim empire that contained it. Preview.
#9: Extremism. Preview.
Coming soon:
Page #4: In 1948, the Arab-Muslim war against the Two-State Solution created the refugees.
Many outlets today obscure this basic and fundamental point by saying things like “fighting broke out” in 1948. Worse are the implications that the Jews were at fault, as with “Israel’s violent birth”, or saying the Arab invasion in May was a response to Zionist violence.
Associated Press (in Indianapolis News) – December 1, 1947. Full page.
Toronto Star – Dec. 1, 1947. Full page.
First Monthly Progress Report of UN Palestine Commission to Security Council – p. 7 (8 of file)- Jan. 29, 1948. UN.org.
Jamal Bey Husseini of the Arab Higher Committee to the UN Security Council.
UN SC Official Records- No.62, 287th Meeting, April 23, 1948, p. 14 (16 file).
Many of the displaced fled for safety, as in any war.
Among Arabs and Jews: a personal experience 1936-90, p. 81, Archive.org.
P.J. Vatikiotis was a Greek Gentile from Haifa and eyewitness.
Daily Telegraph and Morning Post (UK) – May 5, 1948. Full page.
In a sample of 100 people out of 70,000 in a camp of refugees from 1948, 68% said they left without seeing Israelis.
River Without Bridges- A Study of The Exodus of the 1967 Palestinian Refugees by Beirut’s Institute for Palestinian Studies – 1969, page 21.
One difference in this case is that much Arab fear came from Arab militants.
Monsignor Georges Hakim quoted in a US Congressional Record – July, 1949.
Then there was propaganda in April surrounding Deir Yessin.
An Arab broadcaster admits to fabrications about Deir Yessin.
PBS Documentary The 50 Years War – 1998. Part 1, Land Divided, at 14:18.
Key parts from the transcript:
– Arab radio stations passed on the false reports, ignoring the protests of the witnesses.
– Mahmoud: “We said there was no rape.” He said, “We have to say this so that the Arab armies will come to liberate Palestine from the Jews.”He [Khalidi] said: “We want you to say that the Jews slaughtered people…”
– “It had a devastating impact on everyone in Palestine, and the exodus began… It was the biggest blunder that could have happened.”
What made Deir Yessin more troubling is that two parties on the Jewish side exaggerated the death toll (and no reporter bothered to investigate): one Irgun commander who wanted to scare other Arabs into leaving instead of getting caught in similar battles and the Haganah who wanted to discredit the Irgun as extremists. The latter kept up the false narrative for many years and that’s what most people learn.
Haifa saw the first mass exodus and it was encouraged by the few leaders who remained.
Jamal Bey Husseini, representative of the Arab Higher Committee, to the United Nations Security Council – April 23, 1948. UN.org.
Most of the Arabs did not feel this way, but did what their leaders told them.
Similarly, the vast majority of Palestine’s Arabs were against the war. The problem is that the radicals dominated society and the Arab League chose to support them instead of tame them.
“[Secretary] Ireland obtained impression from Azzam Pasha and other Arab leaders particularly former that failure of members of Arab League to invade Palestine by force in near future might lead to dissatisfaction and mutual recriminations among Arabs; that relatively moderate elements of Arab League including Azzam Pasha would be overthrown…”
Foreign Relations of the United States, May 5, 1948, The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, Volume V, Part 2. History.state.gov.
A majority of the displaced were the result of Arab actions.
Much of the criticism against the Jews for justifiably expelling some Arabs stems from ignorance about the land.
This section near Tel Aviv is about 30km wide.
Empty circles are Arab villages and circles with a dot are Jewish. Full map.
Associated Press – April 11, 1948. Full page.
In Haifa (and other cities), Arab and Jewish neighbourhoods were close to each other.
Arab snipers targeted Jewish civilians in Haifa for four days before the Haganah launched a counter-attack.
New Star In The Near East – 1950, p. 30. Full page, Archive.org (login).
All this was happening while the ashes of the Holocaust were still warm. The Jews saw two possible outcomes: No state and most Jews slaughtered, or a shrunken state with most communities living under fire.
The page does not overlook the ugly aspects of the war, but it does mention what others omit and what was the norm for the Jews even under such despicable conditions.
Concerning Haifa. The Times (London) – April 22, 1948. Full page.
“From loud speakers mounted on trucks, warnings were shouted in Arabic to women and children to run for shelter.”
New York Times – April 26, 1948.
Concerning Jaffa. (Use Reader View to see the whole article.)
Page #5: After the war, the Arab League abused the refugees and hijacked UNRWA.
Out of the tens of millions of displaced people since WWII, the 700,000 Arabs of Palestine should have faced the least hardship. A majority went to the Arab part of the Partition Plan and others were in nearby Arab states amongst their own kind. The reason they became a refugee problem is because the radicals and Arab League made it so. They thought nothing of abusing their own brethren if it meant hurting Israel. And it worked wonders.
The former head of UNRWA for Jordan, Sir Alexander Galloway, in April 1952.
Palestine refugee program… Full page. Link.
(The quote was verified as some people mistakenly came to call him Ralph.)
During the war and immediately afterwards, Israel refused to take back any of the displaced for the obvious reason of not wanting to recreate the nightmare that existed beforehand, when Arab militants used most villages and neighbourhoods to attack nearby Jewish civilians and infrastructure.
Then there were demographics. Allowing all to return would have meant the Arabs becoming the majority before long.
Associated Press (in Boston Globe) – May 31, 1967. Full page.
Furthermore, the tiny and nascent Israel was swamped with Holocaust survivors, new immigrants and the first wave of Jews who were expelled from, or encouraged to leave, Arab states (a number that came to total 900,000).
Toronto Daily Star – February 13, 1950. Full page.
Israel also wanted a peace deal to cover all aspects of the conflict, but caved under tremendous American pressure and offered to accept 65,000 people on top of 35k who had already returned.
Boston Globe (USA) – July 29, 1949. Full page.
Atlantic Magazine – October, 1961, p. 60.
Ibrat Falastin / Lessons of Palestine by Musa Alami, a Palestine Arab lawyer.
The Middle East Journal – October 1949, p. 386. Full page, Archive.
Early on, UNRWA was pragmatic..
UNRWA was clear that resettlement was a big part of the solution.
UN General Assembly Resolution 393 (v) – December 1950. Link.
UNRWA understood that people should be self-sufficient.
The Guardian (UK) – January 17, 1952. Full page.
Before long…
Former chief of the International Law Division of UNRWA, Lance Bartholomeusz.
The Mandate of UNRWA at Sixty, p. 20 (footnote)- June 2010. Link.
Instead of helping, UNRWA created generations of people dependent on aid and radicalized to believe in a self-created “right of return”.
UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) – December 12, 1948, Article 11.
UN.org (page 5 of the document).
“Live at peace” clearly negates the idea that returning is absolute. Israel didn’t know everyone’s identities to separate the peaceful from the militants. The so-called “right of return” was fabricated in later resolutions when the anti-Israel (and anti-Western) bloc had a majority at the UN- the dozens of Arab and Muslim nations, the fifteen members of the Soviet Union, Soviet satellite states, China and her dependents, and other communist and autocratic regimes. Just a few Western governments joined them out of appeasement or political expediency.
Page #6: The War of 1967 was Israel’s response to years of terrorism and warmongering.
The Six-Day War was merely the continuation of the local violence from 1920 and the Arab League wars from 1948 and 1956.
Washington Evening Star – August 29, 1955. Full page.
Ahmad Shukairy, assistant Secretary General of the Arab League.
Baltimore Sun – June 1, 1956. Full page.
Middle Eastern Affairs – December 1956, p.460. Full page.
Newsweek magazine (USA) – December 3, 1956. Full page.
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XVIII,
Arab-Israeli Dispute, 1964–1967. Link.
Associated Press (in Baltimore Sun) – November 7, 1964. Full page.
Baltimore Sun (USA) – October 21, 1965. Full page.
One of the many under-reported aspects of the conflict is that the PLO was largely created by the Soviet Union’s KGB. Since Israel aligned with America and the West, the Soviets naturally opposed her. Plus, they wanted influence with the Arabs.
The Soviet-Palestinian Lie, an article via Gatestone Institute.
The Soviet Union and the PLO, a book by Roland Dannreuther.
The Deception of Palestinian Nationalism, an article via the Stanford Review.
Do a search and note how mainstream news outlets ignore this topic.
Boston Globe (USA)- January 20, 1967. Full page.
Baltimore Sun – April 8, 1967. Full page.
AP correspondent (in Philadelphia Inquirer) – June 1, 1967. Full page.
Toronto Daily Star – June 2, 1967. Full page.
Page #7: The peace process and the numerous times the Arab-Muslim radicals rejected autonomy and the Two-State Solution.
Most people in 2026- politicians, scholars, news and information outlets, etc.- say that Israel must relinquish all of the West Bank and Gaza, and then there will be peace. Ignorance, foolishness or hatred explain this position.
After the War of 1967, UN Security Council Resolution 242 did not call on Israel to withdraw from all the territories justifiably captured.
UN SC Resolution 242. UN.org.
Resolutions are carefully worded. The absence of “all the” territories was intentional because…
Secure borders were needed. What existed before the war were not borders, but fragile armistice lines based on where fighting stopped after the 1948 War.
General Armistice Agreement between Israel and Jordan, Article VI.9 –
April 3, 1949. Full page. Full PDF on UN.org.
The Camp David Accords that sealed peace between Egypt and Israel also included talks over the territories and repeated 242.
Framework for Peace in the Middle East – September 17, 1978, p. 4. UN.org.
The 1993 Oslo Accords obligated the two sides to negotiate borders.
The Oslo Accords (officially, Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements), Article V, par. 3 – Oct. 11, 1993. Full page, UN.org.
What the radicals couldn’t get from the Security Council was fabricated in the General Assembly where the anti-Israel bloc had a majority, and this is what people quote for “all the”. Over the years and along with other UN agencies and much of the media, this became an alternate reality and a big part of the reason why some saw Israel as a “pariah state” that “flouts the will” of the international community.
What exactly is the issue with the armistice lines? The West Bank to Israel is literally steps away. At its narrowest without the territories, Israel is only 13km (8 miles) wide. This was understood a long time ago-
Boston Globe – November 4, 1956. Full page.
Furthermore, parts of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) are about 900 metres- over half a mile- higher than the central and coastal plains of Israel, which would be a huge advantage to an enemy.
Courtesy of GeographyEducation.org.
Associated Press (in Washington Evening Star) – Oct. 1, 1937. Full page.
Reply of The Arab Higher Committee for Palestine to The 1939 White Paper…
Page 1. Full document (pdf).
Associated Press (in Indianapolis News) – December 1, 1947. Full page.
The Arab League’s Three Noes of Khartoum – September 1, 1967. UN.org.
Time magazine (USA) – June 23, 1967, p. 25. Full page.
US State Department – Office of The Historian – 1979. Link.
Yasser Arafat of the PLO was the official head of the Palestinians who murdered many Israelis- and Arab opponents- and in 1978 he did not even believe the Arabs were ready for statehood.
Red Horizons: The Extraordinary Memoirs of a Communist Spy Chief
by Ion Mihai Pacepa – 1987, page 28. Page, Archive.org.
Pacepa was a trusted adviser to Romanian President/dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
In 1948, nobody wanted the Arab side of Partition to be headed by the fanatical Mufti.
Associated Press (in Montreal Gazette) – September 23, 1948. Full page.
Concerning a superficial attempt at an Arab government.
From the book “A Will To Survive” – page 3. On Archive.org (needs login).
By John Phillips, a photo-journalist for Life magazine who witnessed the war.
After 1967, this was exactly the same reason why Israel supported autonomy for the Arabs, but not sovereignty- the Mufti’s heir and nephew, Arafat, would have turned the territories into a terror state. Which is exactly what Hamas did to Gaza after Israel completed a withdrawal in 2005 and ended a legal blockade. Gaza was 100% free. Along with the Sinai and part of the West bank, it also brought to 94% the amount of territory Israel relinquished from 1967, more than fulfilling UN Res. 242.
#8: Jerusalem was never the capital of an Arab or Muslim empire that contained it.
Islam, putting aside the various sects and branches, acknowledges an order to their holy sites: Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. There is no denying that the city is sacred to Islam and Christianity. However, it is misleading to say “Jerusalem is holy to the three monotheistic religions”. Its meaning to Judaism is incomparable and it’s only because of it that the other two have a connection to the city.
Before anything else, note the evolution of hatred and propaganda.
- First, the simple truth in 1925.
The Supreme Muslim Council of Jerusalem states that the Dome of The Rock and al-Aqsa mosque are located where the two Jewish Temples stood.
A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif- 1925, page 4, 2nd paragraph. Archive.org.
The Koran also says this.
- Second, the omission of truth in 1961.
The same guide from 1961 omits the Jewish connection.
This one on Archive.org requires a login. Search for “Solomon” and “Jewish”.
- Third, the denial and destruction of truth.
Egypt’s Elbalad News site – 2015. Link.
(A search shows how major news outlets ignored this.)
National Post (Canada) – December 7, 2012. Link.
A search reveals that mainstream (liberal) outlets avoid the topic of “Temple denial”.
Another form of propaganda was the claim that Jews were plotting to harm, or did harm, Muslim holy sites.
Buffalo Evening News (USA) – July 5, 1919. Full page.
This is more absurd when it’s understood that the British were in charge and the Jews were 1/9th of the population.
From “Days of Our Years” by Pierre Van Paassen – page 370. Full page, Archive.
A journalist and witness to the Hebron Massacre of 1929.
This news bubble has gradually turned moderate civilians into extremists who see Israeli defensive actions as aggression. (Not that all acts have been helpful, but they have definitely been reactions.) It should then be no surprise to learn that the 21st century has seen lies and propaganda on steroids- say two Muslim women in this Newsweek article.
In the 400 years before World War I, the Ottoman Empire, or Turkish Muslim Empire, contained the region of Palestine and its capital was Constantinople. Before it, the Egyptian Mamluks ruled the area for roughly 275 years and their capital was Cairo. Before them was the Ayyubid Sultanate and its capital went from Cairo to Damascus to Aleppo.
Back to the beginning of Islam- with the conquest of 632 CE came the first Caliphate, Rashidun, with its capital in Medina and then Kufa. It was succeeded by the Umayyad Caliphate and its capital was Damascus and then Harran. Third was the Abbasid Caliphate and Baghdad was the capital for most of its rulership.
Jerusalem was naturally the centre of affairs for its local region and it’s quite a stretch for some outlets today to equate that with a national capital. The fact remains it was never the heart and soul of an Arab or Muslim empire that controlled it, which spans 636 CE to 1099 and then 1187 to 1917, for a total of 1,193 years.
The Sun (Sydney, Australia) – November 3, 1917. Full page.
The Koran, or Quran, mentions Jerusalem 0 times. It was written over the years 610 CE to 632, or about 500 years after the Romans applied the name Syria Palaestina to Judea.
https://www.clearquran.com/#search
The name appears 625 times in the Jewish Bible’s Books of Prophets and Writings (Nevi’im and Ksuvim). It is not directly mentioned in the Five Books of Moses (Torah/Chumash) since the name was not yet in use, though place-names and implications add many more instances.
Based on the Hebrew. The other times in the Pentateuch (Chumash).
Page #9: Extremism.
While the Jews have had their share of extremists, as in any society or movement, the conflict has always been about the Muslim radicals violently opposing the Jews from having independence on even an inch of land. They are against the Two-State Solution and publicly state their objective to destroy Israel. Though a small minority in the early years, they overshadowed the majority who favoured compromise with the Jews.
Peel, p. 28.
The Jewish underground arose in the 1930s as a response to Muslim violence and to British restrictions on Jewish immigration that was costing lives in Nazi Europe.
Concerning 1936 and the start of the Arab Revolt. Peel, p. 105.
H.R. Knickerbocker in The Washington Times – Sep. 26, 1938. Full page.
(He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1931.)
While most of their actions were at the level of guerillas or revolutionaries, the Jewish majority denounced and “cancelled” them. (However, they were then needed in 1948 to help repel the Arab-Muslim war.)
The Rise of Israel: Jewish Resistance – 1987, p. 1 of Intro. Archive.org.
(The book is a collection of original documents.)
Another thing that differentiated the Arab radicals and Jewish extremists was the former hurting their own people as much- or more, really- as they hurt the Jews.
A Will To Survive by John Phillips. Page 5, Archive.org.
A Life magazine photo-journalist who was on the ground in 1948.
The Daily Telegraph And Morning Post (UK) – November 16, 1938. Full page.
Associated Press (in Miami Herald)- July 21, 1951. Full page.
Jordan’s King Abdullah was assassinated two years after 1949’s Armistice Agreements paused the Arab League’s war against Israel.
Reuters (in Toronto Daily Star)- October 29, 1969. Full page.
Atlantic Magazine – October 1961, p. 56.
Concerning Southern Lebanon.The Guardian (UK) – August 1, 1979. Full page.
Newsweek magazine – September 21, 1970. Full page.
Nasser’s Egypt instigated the Suez/Sinai War of 1956 and the Six-Day War of 1967.
Time magazine (USA) – August 27, 2001. Full article.
Is it then a surprise to learn that Hamas built tunnels in Gaza that were under and near residential buildings, schools, mosques and UN facilities? This was done knowing that Israel would eventually be forced to react- with warnings whenever possible- and much of the world would blame the Jews and not Hamas.
What exactly is the basis for the uncompromising, radical Muslim perspective? It’s not what they said in the late 20th century, like being a nation or Canaanites, it’s what they said in 1920: dar-Islam. They believe in the extremist interpretation that says land once conquered by Muslims (7th century) remains Muslim forever. Islam Online, Fathom and JPost.
Other forms of Islamic extremism were unrelated to Zionism or existed long before it.
Chicago Daily Tribune – September 9, 1903. Full page.
Indianapolis Journal (USA) – October 4, 1903. Full page.
The article concerned the massacre of 50,000 Christians in Macedonia by the Muslim Turks and gave the perspective of an educated Muslim from Constantinople.
The Immovable East- Studies of the People and Customs of Palestine
by Philip J. Baldensperger – 1913, page 115. Archive.
(Mr. Baldensperger made the mistake of writing that the Hebrew Bible endorses revenge. Four passages explicitly forbid it and “eye for an eye” refers to compensation.)
Byeways in Palestine by James Finn – 1872. Page 413 on Archive.org.