30-second background

• There are only two situations when war is legal – in self-defence, or with permission from a resolution passed by the UN Security Council

• In 1989, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and the Security Council passed resolution 678 permitting the legal use of force – the first Gulf War.

• The end of the war in 1991 resulted in a cease-fire, and resolution 687 was passed stating that UN weapons inspectors must be allowed free reign in Iraq to ensure WMDs aren’t developed.

30-second background

• The European Union (EU) is an association of 27 European countries

• It began in 1951 as the European Coal and Steel Community involving Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany

• It gradually grew, becoming the European Union in 1993 and included economic, foreign policy and police cooperation

30-second background

• During the early 1900’s Britain began making promises that it would create an independent country for both Jews and Palestinian Arabs in Palestine.

• After the horrors of WWII, the world became sympathetic to the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, what used to be Israel about two thousand years ago. Arabs in Palestine also wanted freedom from British rule.