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[indent][i]"We appeal to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel."[/i] 
- David Ben-Gurion, The Proclamation of Independence, Israel, 1948

[i]"“We declare that Israel will never abandon Jerusalem of its own volition, in the same way as we have not for thousands of years given up our faith, our national character and our hope of return to Jerusalem and Zion."[/i] 
- David Ben-Gurion, Knesset Speech, December 1949[/indent]

[b]Cyprus[/b]
[indent]Since the victory of the Jews in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the previously secret efforts of the Mossad Aliyah Bet (Agency for Immigration B, or more accurately, the Agency for Illegal Immigration) to slip immigrants into the Holy Land under the noses of the British Empire, intent on supporting the Arabs in policy (if not all Britons in agreement with such a policy) were conducted openly and legally, without the need of secrecy, IAF transports waiting to ferry men, women, children from the airports of the world, such as in Cyrpus, to their new home, the State of Israel. Once upon a time, before the victories of 1948, the British Empire did their damndest to prevent all immigration into Palestine, to stop the Jews from igniting tensions in the region with the Arabs, despite the Balfour Declaration, because the British Empire wanted good relations with the men that controlled the oil under the desert. For what it was worth, what was done was done, and now there was a transfer of populations; the Jews of many countries coming to Israel, assisted by Israeli authorities eager to help them make the Aliyah (ascension) and the Arabs of Palestine, forced into camps, political decisions by both sides of the conflict that would have a profound effect on the relations between neighbors for years to come.

Israel needed people, and many Jews sitting in countries like Yemen and Iraq, all the Arab nations, were being evacuated from those nations, if the situation permitted. And if the rulers did not allow their jews to leave? Well, the Israelis still knew how to smuggle.

These people were needed to build a nation that had so much work to do, but had so little to work with. Already, with so many refugees, the Israeli economy was on austerity measures, rationing food and other amenities while feeding as many people as they could into the kibbutzim and moshavim, communal farming enclaves that dotted Israel, clearing the land, draining swamps and trying to make the desert, lain fallow for thousands of years, bloom again. 

The flights from Cyprus were the Jews of the Diaspora; A political liability at best, unless one was the United States, at turns unwanted, reviled or outright scapegoated for the second world war, one of the most victimized classes of people in the world, derided for having no home, no true loyalty to the lands they inhabited. After the war, they were shuffled from death camps to refugee camps, sometimes the latter occupying the sites of the former. At times, in attempts of mass escape, they were returned to these sites, notably by the British, whose policy, at the direction of the hated British foreign secretary Bevin, was to keep the Jews out out Palestine, even if it meant dumping them into Germany. In a twist of bitter irony, the British even had the temerity to intern Jews at Dachau -- one of the most infamous names of recent history. Those days were over; they had a place to go, away from the haunted graveyard of Europe.

These were the Jews of the Diaspora, come home at last to Israel, their nation, where a Jew would never have to bow his head in shame again. But there was a lot of work to be done. An economy in shambles, threats all around, and a people to heal. Old/new nation, old/new hatreds.[/indent]

[b]Summary[/b]
- Israel is established May of 1948, and is subsequently invaded by the forces from six Arab nations (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia) at once. 
- Israel prevails in the 1948 war and is recognized as a sovereign entity in July 1949 with the conclusion of military actions (a huge and unexpected Arab loss.)
- Previously, emigration of Jewish refugees into the Palestinian Mandate was restricted by the British Empire, who maintained authority over the land. After the Arab-Israeli war, immigration for Jews was thrown open to settle Israel.
- Meanwhile, Arabs that fled Palestine during the fighting are not allowed back in. They are being put into refugee camps and kept there.
- Jerusalem, the titular capital of Israel, is held by Israeli and Jordanian forces, split in a way very similar to Berlin.