The United States was the first country to recognize Israel as an independent state on May 14, 1948, when President Harry Truman issued a statement of recognition following Israel's proclamation of independence on the same date.
U.S. President Harry Truman was the first world leader to officially recognize Israel as a legitimate Jewish state on May 14, 1948, only eleven minutes after its creation.
On May 17, 1948, three days after Israel declared independence, the Soviet Union legally recognized it de jure, becoming the first country to grant de jure recognition to the Jewish state.
Thus, Egypt became the first Arab country to officially recognize Israel and make peace with it.
The Soviet Union, despite its official view of Zionism as, in Lenin's words, “bourgeois nationalism,” became the first country in the world to give legal recognition to Israel on this date in 1948, just three days after the state declared its independence.
The two countries have never established diplomatic relations; in 1947, Saudi Arabia voted against the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, which aimed to split the territory of British Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state. As of 2023, negotiations to establish diplomatic relations were ongoing.
(Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen do not recognise Israel as a state.) (Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan do not recognise Israel as a state.)
Since diplomatic relations were established between Germany and Israel on 12 May 1965, the relationship between the two countries has continuously been deepened and grown stronger, both at the official level and in the sphere of civil society.
In 1950, Hermann Maas became the first German to be officially invited to Israel. It took another fifteen years until West Germany and Israel established diplomatic relations on May 12, 1965.
While the State of Israel was established on 15 May 1948 and admitted to the United Nations, a Palestinian State was not established. The remaining territories of pre-1948 Palestine, the West Bank - including East Jerusalem- and Gaza Strip, were administered from 1948 till 1967 by Jordan and Egypt, respectively.
In 1917, in order to win Jewish support for Britain's First World War effort, the British Balfour Declaration promised the establishment of a Jewish national home in Ottoman-controlled Palestine.
The Merneptah stele is considered to be the first extra-biblical reference to ancient Israel in ancient history and is widely considered to be authentic and providing historical information.
Following the Oslo I Accord in 1993, the Palestinian Authority and Israel conditionally recognized each other's right to govern specific areas of the country. This boosted Israel's legal authority and legitimacy on the international stage.
In 1974, India became the first Non-Arab State to recognize Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
Until the 2003 Iraq War
Following the war, Iraq was the only Arab country not to sign a ceasefire agreement with Israel, and the two countries have technically been in a continuous state of war since 1948. Despite not sharing a border with Israel, Iraq was an important player in the Arab–Israeli conflict.
The Soviet Union officially recognizes the state of Israel, three days after Israel declared independence and the United States immediately offered de facto recognition of the new state's provisional government.
France has established a robust bilateral relationship with Israel, marked by constant commitment to the its existence and security. France was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, on 11 May 1949.
However, the UK recognised Israel de facto on 13 May 1949, and de jure on 28 April 1950. Sir Alexander Knox Helm was the first British Chargé d'Affaires in Israel, whose rank was later raised to Minister, serving from 1949 to 1951. He was succeeded in 1951 by Francis Evans, whose rank was raised to Ambassador in 1952.
Israel and Australia have had diplomatic relations since the Australian government of Ben Chifley recognised Israel on 28 January 1949. The Liberal–Country Party Coalition supported Israel during and after the 1967 Six-Day War.
The Republic of China granted de jure recognition to Israel on 1 March 1949.
Because of the pressure from Arab countries and the People's Republic of China, the Indonesian government refused to issue visas for the Israeli and Taiwanese delegations, thus refused the entry of delegations from Israel.
Israel and North Korea do not have official diplomatic relations, and unofficial communications between the two countries are hostile. North Korea does not recognise Israel, denouncing it as an "imperialist satellite state".
Although it had voted against the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, Turkey recognized the State of Israel in 1949.
The British, who held a colonial mandate for Palestine until May 1948, opposed both the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in Palestine as well as unlimited immigration of Jewish refugees to the region.