It is interesting, the history of it, because it seems that so many people have competing claims to the land.
From Dave's link:
quote:
Egypt sealed off the Israeli port of Eilat, effectively stopping Israel's sea trade with much of Africa and the Far East.(1) In response to this violation of international agreements which amounted to an act of war, Israel launched a military operation on October 29, 1956. At the same time, Britain and France, angered over the Egyptian nationalization of the Suez canal, launched their own campaign in order to reverse Egypt's unilateral action. In March 1957, after receiving international guarantees that Israel's vital waterways would remain open, Israel withdrew her troops from the Sinai and Gaza strip.
Now, most of the information contained on that site is a vast simplification of the truth, but this one stretches things beyond the truth. The attack on the Sinai was not in response to anything - it was a co-ordinated effort at aggression between France and Israel: France wanted to kill Nasser, who was supporting terrorists in the Maghreb, and Israel just wanted to expand her borders to the Suez.
Anyway, Dave especially, enough finger poinitng - what's the solution? Should Israel stop building settlements in Pal. areas, and allow a two area state of Palestine (Gaza and West Bank) to come into existence?
