Arab-Israeli conflict

Cultural  

1. A conflict between the Israelis and the Arabs in the Middle East. The United Nations established Israel, a nation under control of Jews (see also Jews), in Palestine in the late 1940s, in territory inhabited by Palestinian Arabs. Israel was placed in the midst of four Arab nations — Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt (see also Egypt) — and 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; and Six-Day War.)

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Example Sentences

The U.S. built on the goodwill it had generated with grateful Gulf states to convene a peace conference in Madrid aimed at resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 1, 2026

“The question of the Arab-Israeli conflict divided the Black freedom struggle,” Mr. Fischbach said.

From New York Times • Feb. 6, 2024

The fate of refugees has been a core issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

From BBC • Jan. 28, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia would be a "giant leap" towards ending the Arab-Israeli conflict.

From Reuters • Apr. 18, 2023

To put it simply, all key issues in the Middle East—the Arab-Israeli conflict, Iraq, Iran, the need for political and economic reforms, and extremism and terrorism—are inextricably linked.

From The Iraq Study Group Report by Iraq Study Group (U.S.)