Discuss the key issues that characterize the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians.

What will be an ideal response?

Answers will vary. For many years after Israel was founded in 1948, the neighboring Arab states did not accept its legitimacy as a nation. The result was a series of wars between Israel and those states, including Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, waged in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, a large number of Palestinians-Arab residents of the area, known as Palestine until 1948- were forced into exile, adding to Arab grievances. The failure of the Arab states in the 1967 war led to additional Palestinian refugees and the rise of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a nonstate body committed to armed struggle against Israel. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Palestinian groups launched a wave of terrorist attacks against Israeli targets around the world. Following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat launched a major peace initiative. U.S. president Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) then sponsored intensive negotiations. Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979 that marked the end of an era of major wars between Israel and other states. Lower-level conflicts continued, however. Israel and Jordan eventually signed a peace treaty in 1994, but no peace treaty between Israel and Syria has yet been negotiated, and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians continues.