Arab-Israeli conflict

Cultural

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.)

Example Sentences

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

From New York Times • Feb. 6, 2024

An Israeli official statement said the meeting in New York "mostly dealt with ways to establish an historic peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which could greatly advance an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict".

From BBC • Sep. 21, 2023

A month later, on June 6, 1967, the Arab-Israeli conflict known as the Six-Day War broke out.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 6, 2022

The 63-year-old Asfura is the son of Palestinian immigrants who fled their homeland after the start of the Arab-Israeli conflict in the 1940s.

From Reuters • Nov. 26, 2021

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.)

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023