THE REAL STORY OF PALESTINE AND ISRAEL
Israeli forces storm Al-Aqsa Mosque. Palestinian families evicted from their homes. Rockets fired by Hamas. Gaza bombed. Hundreds of casualties and thousands displaced. An international appeal for peace. How did we get here? Well, to comprehend the current escalation that has the world on its edge, you need to understand the creation of Israel. At the time of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was 617 years old and on the brink of collapse. Still, they ruled large swathes of geostrategically important territory including controlling access to the crucial Mediterranean and the Black Sea. When the First World War erupted, Ottomans were desperately looking for foreign allies to hold onto their survival. They chose to ally with Germany. And as they say, the rest is history. The European powers offered Arabs complete sovereignty of the Arabian Peninsula if they helped them defeat the Ottoman Empire. However, the Arabs were in for a surprise. The British and French held a top-secret