Bible Times > Present day Arabs and Jews = Palenstinians live in...you guessed it, Palestine!
British Colonial Time > More of a division between Arabs and Jews....Mostly Arabs in ME
Post British White Paper > many jews want to go back to ME and create a state...starting an emigration to israel from all over the world....Britian then backs down from White Paper (which says it will support an Israeli state)
Post World War II > Britian leaves ME, Jews go to ME after holocaust
UN Partition '49 > called for Israel state along with Palestinian....arabs reject, deny Israel is a sovereign state, all surrounding arab nations attack, israel repulses, and also advances into arab lands over course of war. Even though they did not start it, UN makes Israel cede the conqured lands back to the arabs....
Seven Days War > Arab nations call for elimination of all Jews in ME.....Egypt/Syria/Jordan/Lebbanon build up forces on border....Israel launches a pre-emptive strike believeing (probably correctly) that if they waited for the combined attack they would get annihilated. They waste Arab forces
Yom Kippur War > Arabs once again call for extinction of Israel/jews....launch a suprise attack on Yom Kippur (holy day for jews), b/c most of the army was home on leave...Israel barely repulses attack..
Arabs realize outright military conflict is not desirable....respond by funding thrid party terrorist groups such as Hezbollah etc.
The 'refugee' question was mainly the fault of the surrounding Arab nations, as they TOLD the arabs living in palestine to LEAVE, b/c they were going to raze the homes of the jews and their cities, and then they could move back
As long as Arafat is 'in power' over there, nothing is going to get done...he doesnt control anything, and as long as there are suicide bombings, it is hard to get a peace initiative going. Arafat missed a lucrative deal @ Camp David a few years back...but wanted more. I really dont think this issue is gfoing to get resolved any time soon...just take a moment to read the state-run newspapers in such countries as Syria and Saudi Arabia which constantly print Anti-Semetic stories 9they had one about how jews eat their own kids in Sabbath....) Then take a look at the Jerusalem Post...I dont see any rascist articles there, do you? Thus, the UN is always condeming Israel, b/c they are actually accountable..what would happen if the UN 'condemned' the suicide bombers...thats right, nothing, b/c they dont follow the normal rules of combat or negotiate.....really a sad state of affairs.
Also, there has *never* been a real palestinian culture....it is a myth....there are Jews and Arabs...no palestinians. Turkey ceded 'palestine' over to Britian, who then ceded 80% to jordan...other part became Israel. The term 'palestinian' as a name for the Arabs who used to live in Israel, did not come about until 1967...
Also, interestingly enough...The number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries is estimated to be a million. This number is greater than the number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948, estimated as 500,000.
Here are some links i found for you...
Very informative maps
A quick primer
detailed timeline