The importance of Palestine as an imperial possession of the British is too often overshadowed by the international significance of the Jewish and Arab conundrum. As a result, the centrality of Palestine within the British decolonization process is regularly overlooked by historians. Britain's political leaders understood that the immediate post-war years were a crucial period for the empire. If the British wished to maintain a prominent role in global affairs they would first have had to prove to the rest of the world that they were capable of properly managing their own responsibilities (both domestically, as well as throughout the empire). Because the British were aware of this fact, they believed that finding a solution to the Palestine question was the key to maintaining a leadership role in the Middle East, and to the continuance of the empire. Palestine represented the first of its kind when major hostilities erupted against Jewish terrorist groups in 1945. It was the first of the post-war colonial conflicts that Britain had to face and many of the techniques used there would prove to be crucial in the formation of an imperial policy in future conflicts in places like Malaya, Kenya, Cyprus, and Aden. Because of this, Palestine must not be viewed as a distinct or separate entity from British Decolonization, rather, it must be viewed as the lynchpin upon which all else rested.