1. Theodore Herzl was greatly concerned with the treatment of Jews in Europe.

2. European Jews were frequently mistreated and abused.

3. Theodore Herzl came to believe that Jews would only be safe in a Jewish homeland.

4. Theodore Herzl was the founder of Zionism, a political philosophy founded in the 1800s.

5. Zionism was a political philosophy that responded to Anti-Semitism by arguing for the creation of a Jewish homeland.

6. Zionists believed that only a Jewish state or homeland could protect Jews.

7. Great Britain eventually came to support Zionist claims for a homeland.

8. To increase Jewish support for the First World War, British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, wrote a letter supporting a Jewish state.

9. With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War, Great Britain gained control of Palestine.

10. But with the end of the Second World War, Great Britain asked the United Nations for help.

11. Jews believed that God had given them the land but the Palestinians had lived in the land for many years.

12. The U.N. solution was a partition of the land into two states.

13. But by 1948, Israel was being attacked by neighboring Arab states who refused to recognize Israel.

14. The Israelis fought back and gained control of many Palestinian lands. Many Palestinians were forced into exile.

15. To this day, conflict between Israelis and Palestinians persists as no solution to the division of land has led to peace.