Summary: Reading Time: 10 minutesMost histories of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict move from the mandate period into the 1948 Arab Israeli War. This retelling of the story skips over important events that transpired within the brief space of time between the end of the British Mandate and the beginning of the Israeli state. This is the time of the Palestine Partition and Civil War.<br> These events are usually thrown in as part of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War but they should belong to themselves if we are wanting to truly understand the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These events represent the civil war in Palestine that occurred at the end of the British Palestine Mandate and just before the declaration of the state of Israel. It is when tensions and violence between the two sides of the escalating conflict could no longer be contained. It is also when the entity known as Palestine was effectively ended. The Palestine Partition was meant to preserve a homeland for both the Jews and the Palestinians. In the end it set the stage for the conflict that endures to this day.<br> <br> The British at the Time of the Palestine Partition<br> <br> By the end of World War 2 the British were significantly weakened by the violence and fighting of World War 2. The vast empire upon which the sun had once both risen and sat was crumbling. They could no longer maintain their grip on the global colonial holdings that had once made the empire so strong. As a result, they were looking for ways to withdraw in both an orderly and dignified fashion. Many of the events and situations that took place in Palestine were being mimicked elsewhere in the British Empire, such as India and Pakistan.<br> Palestine was unique to the British however in that they were fed up with the constant state of displeasure and frustration there. Try as they did since <a href="http://www.theendofhistory.net/most_recent/complete-balanced-guide-israeli-palestinian-conflict-chapter-3-balfour-declaration/">the Balfour Declaration</a> during the first World War, the harder they worked to please both sides of the Palestine question the more they effectively angered and alienated all parties. The British found themselves the masters and authors of an impossible situation.<br> Films and footage of the holocaust camps in Europe were leaking out across the western world and building greater sympathy for the cause of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This sympathy increased the pressure for greater Jewish immigration into Palestine. On the other hand the British recognized how threatened the local Arab Palestinian population was by new Jewish immigrants arriving to their borders. The <a href="http://www.theendofhistory.net/global-issues/middle-east-history-politics/israeli-palestinian-conflict/complete-balanced-guide-israeli-palestinian-conflict-chapter-4-palestine-mandate/">Palestinian Uprising of 1936-39</a> was still fresh in everyone’s mind. If more violence and bloodshed was to be held at bay, Jewish immigration had to be limited. The British were aware that the end of the Palestine Mandate was within sight and they did not want to leave or be blamed for a situation overflowing with violence and chaos.<br> <br> The British saw a clear sequence of events unfolding in Palestine that had to be stopped. Increased Jewish immigration into Palestine would lead to renewed uprisings and violence from the local Palestinian population. The British did not have the manpower or the weaponry to suppress such an uprising like they did in 1939. This would lead to all out war and the British would be forced to retreat from Palestine as the local populations descended into chaos. The only reasonable solution to stopping this sequence of events was to stop it at the root and limit Jewish immigration.<br> <br> Unfortunately for the British, that was not going to happen. Increasing world sympathy for a Jewish homeland was partnered to outrage by many of the ha...
