This is the original 1947 map showing the original partition of Palestine under the UN mandate.
- Gaza is much larger than it is today and almost touches the West Bank.
- Jerusalem is solidly within the West Bank and is designated as an international enclave.
- The city of Jaffa on the Mediterranean coast is an Arab enclave.
- Arab lands extend north to the border with Lebanon.
- All of these areas were to be connected by extraterritorial roads, guaranteeing free passage within each state and free passage of all to Jerusalem.
Several things to notice
So what happened? Jewish leaders weren't thrilled with the partition but reluctantly accepted it. Arab leaders rejected it completely. Partly this was on the grounds that Israel had been given the best land, but mostly it was because they flatly refused to accept the establishment of a Jewish state. They declared war on Israel as soon as the partition was announced, with the stated intent of destroying it.
They lost, and by the time the war ended a lot of territory had changed hands. Israel took Jaffa, the northern Arab region, most of Gaza, and much of the West Bank—and forcibly expelled nearly a million Palestinians from Israeli territory in the process. Jordan seized the rest of the West Bank. Egypt took the remaining piece of Gaza. The extraterritorial roads, needless to say, were consigned to the dustbin of history.
From that point on the Arab states enforced a total air and land blockade against Israel while Egypt blocked its use of the Suez Canal. In 1956, Egypt's president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, blockaded the Gulf of Aqaba, preventing Israel from developing an alternate route to the Red Sea and Asia. At the same time he nationalized the Suez Canal, prompting an invasion from Britain, France, and Israel. They pulled back due to international pressure and Nasser reopened Aqaba.
During the rest of the 50's Palestinian fedayeen trained in Eqypt mounted repeated attacks across the border into Israel. In 1964 Nasser created the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1967 he blockaded Aqaba again and planned an imminent war against Israel, joined by other Arab states.
Several more wars later, all of them started by Arab states or Palestinians and we are where we are today.
What a different world it would be today had the Palestinians accepted the 1948 partition. Launching a war of choice is rarely a good idea. Whether you are the Confederate south, the Nazis and Japanese in 1939, the Palestinians in 1948, the Americans in Iraq, or the Russians in Ukraine.