Arab leaders reject the plan and insist on a united Palestine with a secular government. Fighting begins between Jews and Palestinians. Many Palestinians become refugees. With Britain out, Jews proclaim a Jewish state. Local Palestinians and army units from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon engage in an escalating war to prevent the partition of Palestine, the creation of a Jewish state, and Israeli expansion into the proposed Palestinian area.
Israeli units defeat the combined Arab armies.
The UN had proposed that Jerusalem and other holy places become an internationally-governed entity. In the fighting, Jerusalem was divided into Israeli west and Jordanian east. The 1948 defeat was a major humiliation for the Arab world. Within a few years, the governments of Egypt and Syria are swept away in military coups and the king of Jordan is assassinated. Only l60,000 remain in Israel itself.