ABSTRACT
The Arab states of the Middle East were created through a mixture of local alliances, imperial interest and the processes triggered by the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The state of Israel was voted into existence at the United Nations and consecrated through a costly regional war. The creation of Israel, although a fulfilment of the Zionist dream, had a dramatic and divisive impact on the region and its international relations. Few states in history have engendered the passionate responses that Israel has evoked in its short history. As explored in the previous chapter, the fractious final years of the Mandate notwithstanding, the major patron of the Zionist movement was the United Kingdom. However, in the late 1940s the United Kingdom’s power was waning, the devastation of the Second World War and the turbulent end of the colonial period sapping the strength of this one-time regional power-broker.
