I was not interested in the Palestinian and Israel issue until the recent Organisation of Islamic Conference held recently in Kuala Lumpur. Our government's 'commitment' aroused my interest as I am keen to find out what our country leaders are committing all of us into.

I dug for information from websites on the history of Israel and Palestine. I would like to make my intention clear from the beginning that I am an interested neutral party seeking more information purely to enhance my knowledge of this long-drawn war.

The websites that I visited were mostly pro-Israel (though some even condemn the US involvement) and I was not able to locate any Arab-based websites in English. I would be grateful if malaysiakini readers point me to such websites.

From the information that I got, I understand that the land of Palestine was occupied by the Jews 3,000 years ago. As time passed, many invaders such as the Romans, Persians, Babylians, Arabs, Turks, British and others conquered and ruled the land. Most recently, the Arabs and Turks ruled the land from 15th to 19th century.

The British took the land in 1917. During the British colonial period up to 1923, the land was split into two administration districts namely Trans-Jordan (current Jordan, east of Jordan River, populated by Arabs) and Palestine (West of Jordan River, mostly populated by Jews, some Arabs as well). Events of killing occurred frequently, the most infamous being the Hebron slaughters of 1929 and later the 1936-1939 "Arab Revolt".

Trans-Jordan declared independence in 1946 while Palestine was handed over to United Nations. During the 1947 UN Petition Plan 181, the Palestine district was divided into the West Bank, Gaza Strip, part of North-West area connecting to Lebanon (Arabs) and the rest (Jews) based on the population ethnic concentration.

According to the Petition, the Arab-Palestinians will take the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the North-West area while the Jews will take the rest of the Palestine land. The Arab-Palestinians rejected the petition plan but the Jews accepted it and proceed to declare the Jewish state of Israel in 1948.

Immediately after declaring independence, Israel was at war (1948-49 Israeli War of Independence) with Egypt, Trans-Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen. As according to the websites, the Arabs initiated the attack on Israel.

After the war, by the Armistice Agreements of 1949, Israel took control of the north-west area of Palestine and part of the Gaza Strip (Southern area) and some small areas of West Bank while Egypt took control of the Northern area of Gaza Strip and Jordan took majority control of the West Bank (Judea, Samaria) area.

The control of land remained status quo from 1949 to 1967. During this period, the second Arab-Palestinian nation was not made to become a country while majority of the land, according to the UN Petition Plan 1947, was occupied by Egypt and Jordan.

In 1967, the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian launched a three-way invasion (1967 'Six-Day' War) into Israel from Sinai Desert by Egyptian (South), West Bank by Jordanian (East) and Golan Highland by Syrian (North). As a result of the war, Egypt was defeated and lost the whole of Sinai Desert and Gaza Strip, Jordan lost control of West Bank and Syria lost the Golan Highland.

In 1973, the Egyptians and Syrians launched an attack on Israel. I was not able to find anything on the outcome of this war.

In 1982, the Sinai Desert was returned to Egypt and the rest remained as they were after the 1967 'Six-Day' War.

From the analysis of the information I obtained, the Arab-Palestinians engaged a few Arabs countries to conduct a massive invasion war into Israel in 1948, 1967 and 1973. Throughout the wars, after 1949, the Arab-Palestinian lost part of Gaza Strip, Northern area and small area of West Bank to Israel while Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip, Jordan occupied the West Bank (Judea, Samaria).

After the 1967 'Six-Day' War, all the UN Petition Plan 181 Arab-Palestinian land was lost to Israel after the invasion failed. Since then, Israel has been working on re-conditioning the newly occupied land, gained in the defeat of Arab invaders. It was due to this re-conditioning effortthat spurred the tragedy and violence of the Palestinian oppression that we are seeing today. The Palestinians seem to be paying the price for losing the war to Israel.

I would believe the Arabs would do likewise on the Jews if Israel had lost in the war. What would the Arabs have done with the Jews if the Arabs defeated Israel and occupied the land ?

I would like to know what was happening in the Arab-Palestinian land during the Egypt and Jordan occupation. According to some information, the PLO was formed in 1964 when the West Bank was in Jordan control.

If there is any other interpretions of this struggle, please share with me. I understand that my writing may not please some readers but I would like to hear all your opinions, information and comments, but only factual accounts please.