Creation of Israel

Zionism is the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish authority in the Land of Israel, from its inception, tangible as well as spiritual aims. Jews of all persuasions, left and right, religious and secular, joined to form the Zionist movement and worked together toward these goals. Disagreements led to rifts, but the common goal of a Jewish state in its ancient homeland was attained. The term "Zionism" was coined in 1890 by Nathan Birnbaum. The conflics that this new country was that it was attacked by the combined forces of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt, just a day after it declared independence, is an important part of the Israeli consciousness. After the war the Palestine people did not like the holy land so, after the 1948 war, Israel possessed approximately 8,000 square miles of Palestine, reducing the Arab lands partition by some 50 percent. Jerusalem was divided, with Arabs on the east side of the armistice line the Green Line and the Jews on the west.