In 1948, Israel accepted the UN partition plan but was immediately invaded by five Arab armies. The Arab leadership rejected both the Jewish and the projected Arab state, seeking instead to wipe out the Jews. In the war that followed, Israel survived and controlled land allocated for the Arab state, but Jordan annexed the West Bank and Egypt took Gaza, leaving Palestinians stateless and in refugee camps by Arab design. From 1949 through the 1960s, Israel endured constant fedayeen raids from Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, and Lebanon, with full state backing. The 1956 Sinai campaign came after Egypt blockaded Eilat, an act of war, and massed troops. Under U.S. pressure, Israel withdrew. In 1967, after another Egyptian blockade and massive buildup in Sinai, Israel launched a preemptive strike; despite urging Jordan and Syria to stay out, both attacked, and Israel captured the Sinai, Golan, West Bank, and East Jerusalem. These territories were understood as bargaining chips for peace, not conquest. The 1973 Yom Kippur War, launched by Egypt and Syria, finally led to peace with Egypt and Jordan. The pattern is clear: Israel’s territorial changes came in defensive wars forced on it, not from unprovoked expansionism.