Israel

Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 by a United Nations mandate, the Middle East has been a flashpoint of conflict between the world's only Jewish state and the Palestinians, who lost their land because of the UN partition. Although peace agreements were signed with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994, Israel's relationships with Lebanon and Syria continue to be strained, owing to those countries' ties with the Islamic political party Hezbollah, and its relationship with Pal...