Establishing the State, Preparing Occupation

Abstract

The history of the early national period in Israel, like the one before it, is shaped by the interactions of three parties: the Israelis, the Palestinians, and ambitious outside powers, each with constant and self-interested motives. As in the previous period, the conflicts of interest that arose among them ended in a war whose results brought great losses to the Palestinians and to some of the great or aspiring-to-be great powers and only a Pyrrhic victory to Israelis.