Background:
Following World War II, the British withdrew from their mandate of
Palestine, and the UN partitioned the area into Arab and Jewish
states, an arrangement rejected by the Arabs. Subsequently, the
Israelis defeated the Arabs in a series of wars without ending the
deep tensions between the two sides. The territories occupied by
Israel since the 1967 war are not included in the Israel country
profile, unless otherwise noted. On 25 April 1982, Israel withdrew
from the Sinai pursuant to the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.
Outstanding territorial and other disputes with Jordan were resolved
in the 26 October 1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace. In addition,
on 25 May 2000, Israel withdrew unilaterally from southern Lebanon,
which it had occupied since 1982. In keeping with the framework
established at the Madrid Conference in October 1991, bilateral
negotiations were conducted between Israel and Palestinian
representatives (from the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip)
and Syria to achieve a permanent settlement. But progress toward a
permanent status agreement has been undermined by the outbreak of
Palestinian-Israeli violence since September 2000.