Following the threads of history: Israel

[James]

I've been thinking for a while about how much of history is like the game where you link people to the movie actor Kevin Bacon. I thought we might try to do that here - taking events or individuals and seeing where it takes us. This thread isn't meant for arguing or examining events in any sort of depth; just write a sentence or two in response to whatever was posted last. I hope that we will see that, in this case, starting with the formation of Israel in 1948 we will see various people and events all over the world, many of which have little or nothing to do with Israel itself. Go forward or back, and I'll try to write a summary every week or so to see what threads we've followed. Flames will be deleted and earn the flamer an infraction.

As an example - Israel in 1948 can lead to "Suez 1956" or "Yom Kippur War" or "Anwar Sadat", thought I hope we won't make great leaps through time.

So, to begin...

Israel, in the form we know it today, came into existence on May 14 1948.

[chulo_allen]

Israel, in the form we know it today, came into existence on May 14 1948.
The 15th May 1948 Arab-Israeli War starts, also known by Israelis as the War of Independence

[IDF_TANKER]

Well, one of the results of the war was that Gibraltar became property of Britain. Both Gibraltar and Suez are/were important strategic assets, connecting Europe with the Asia. Which eventually became reason for the Suez Crisis -> Israel.

Nice try, though.:)

[Stainless Steel Rat]

And the Suez Canal led to easy transport of goods to Europe from the Middle East, which became crucial after oil was discovered and when Saddam threatened that oil line, well....

[IDF_TANKER]

Please don't make me to make connections between Hollywood producers and Israel, this would be just too easy.

[sergentdarmes]

It seems there are some lapses in knowledge of european and middle east history and geography:
Gibraltar was taken by the United Kingdom during the 18th Century

The Suez canal was buit at the end of the 19th Century and was crucial for the British Empire (and some other european countries)since its opening.

Saddam Hussein was the dicator of Iraq, that country is quite far from the Suez canal (only acces to the sea is at the north of the Persian gulf) and Iraq had no navy to speak of.
Current tankers are too large to use the Suez canal.