The Arab-Israeli Conflict

For many generations there has been a constant conflict in the Middle East. The conflict has taken many lives, caused numerous arguments and is still yet unresolved. Although many solutions have been proposed, none have produced a reasonable resolution. The Arab-Israeli conflict could be easily solved if both the Jews and the Arabs met and openly discussed each other’s needs.Jewish people have lived in Palestine for thousands of years. The Jews even once had territorial control over Palestine until in A.D. 135 the Romans conquered Palestine and threw out the Jews. Jewish people like the relative closeness Palestine was to holy, biblical places such as Jerusalem. Many Jews went on pilgrimages to Palestine and lived there for a long time or even their whole lives. However, the mainstream idea of Jewish settlement in Palestine started in the 1890’s by Theodor Herzl, who suggested the idea of Zionism.Zionism literally means the reuniting of Jewish people in Palestine. The problem with reuniting Jews back into Palestine is that Palestine is already occupied. Palestine for the most part consists of Arabs who are all mostly Muslim. There are a fair amount of Jewish occupants but mostly Arabs. Zionism and the Zionist movement gained more strength in the next two centuries and many Jews immigrated to Palestine. The newly arrived Jewish people bought land from Arabs to get a start. These purchases led to Arab peasants being displaced from the land. The Ottoman Empire up until World War I ruled the land of Palestine when it was defeated. This was a dramatic change because the power behind Palestine was no longer in Muslim control it was now in Western control. The British in an effort to assess the needs of both the Jews and the Arabs released the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration basically stated that the British would give land taken from the Ottoman Empire and give certain amounts to both Jews and Arabs. British gained the right to rule Palestine in 1922, and the British after the major oppression of Jews in World War II passed something called Resolution 181. Resolution 181 stated how Palestine would be divided into different states for the Israelis and the Arabs. The British Mandate was terminated less than a year later and the state of Israel declared independence. The Arabs were outraged by the idea of the Jews having their own physical state in Palestine and attacked it immediately. The Jews main point of conflict with the Arabs is of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism basically is the hostility towards the Jewish people. It was presented in the most major of forms in Adolf Hitler’s ideology and persecution. The state of Israeli is the only actual state of the Jews. Many pro-Israelis believe that any attempt of action or idea of against this current state is an attack on the entire Jewish society and their beliefs. Many Israelis have used this as a major defense in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Throughout time millions of Jews have immigrated to live in Israel, most from Arab lands.  When thousands of Palestinians sought to return to Israeli the Jews rejected the idea and stated how it would be unhealthy for the state to have to use up it’s limited resources on the new Arab arrivals. That is one defense Israel has used to attack the Arabs. Palestinians widely oppose the Jewish building of homes and stores in Palestine. They claim it violates international law and should not be tolerated. However, the Jews say that simple land disputes should not be treated on a larger scale such as terrorism or disturbing the peace. The Jewish people also strongly believe that the minorities of Jews outside of Israeli are treated unfairly and are not given all of their rights or freedom. The Arabs contradict this statement by saying how Palestinians have very few job opportunities in Israel because of Israel’s neglect to let Palestinians into the armed forces. The Arabs have many claims to what the causes of the dispute are. One of them is that before the creation of Israel the Arab Muslims and the Jews had generally good relations with each other. People who have supported this viewpoint state how many Muslims left the land of Palestine because of the hostility the creation of Israel created. Arab supporters often suggest how Muslim occupied states accepted Jewish refugees many times throughout history. Another strong point Arabs make regarding the situation is how the creation of the state of Israeli was at their expense. The world only saw the oppression of the Jews during this time and gave them the land without concern for who was already there. Many wars and military conflicts occurred over time between the Arabs and the Jews. These conflicts usually only added to the already high state of hostility between the Arabs and Jews. The first major war between the Jews and Arabs is known as the War of 1948. With the establishment of the Jewish and Arab states in Palestine militias for both states began campaigns to control their borders. Egyptian, Jordanian, Iraqi, Syrian, and Lebanese troops invaded Palestine in hopes to attack and destroy the Jewish state. Israel fought back and expelled 2/3rds of the population’s Palestinian Arabs. Peace treaties with Israel were only signed by two nations, Egypt and Jordan and the war finally ended when the Rhodes Armistice was signed.  The next war between the Arabs and the Jews was in the War of 1956, Suez War. The Suez War combined Israel, British and French forces in an attempt to stop attacks on Israeli civilians. Other major goals of the war were to regain control of the Suez Canal from Egypt and to destroy and Egyptian blockade. The forces eventually withdrew because of U.S. pressure after the capture of the Suez Canal. Eventually however, the canal was brought back into Egyptian control. The war of 1967 took place for only six days.  The war started when the state of Israeli attacked Egypt because of an Egyptian blockade of the Straits of Tiran. The Israeli air force destroyed most of the Egyptian air force while it was still on the ground and immobile. Israeli forces helped take out Egyptian targets and when fired upon by Jordan troops even captured the West Bank of Jordan. Probably the second shortest war fought with Israel was War of Attrition, which started in 1968. The opposing sides in the war were Egypt and Israel with Egypt’s main goal to recapture the Sinai. Each country signed a treaty to cease-fire in 1970. No side advanced from their original frontiers.In 1973 Israel fought against Egypt and Syria in the Yom Kippur War. The main goal for the Egyptians and Syrians one again was to recapture Golan Heights and the Sinai. Israeli troops destroyed the Syrian army and had the Egyptian army surrounded after 3 weeks. The war finally ended when the Soviets intervened and another cease-fire treaty was eventually signed.Israeli started the Lebanon War in 1982when Israel attacked Lebanon. The Israelis sought to destroy or remove Fatah militants. The war was criticized after over 20,000 Lebanese died in the Sabra and Shatila massacre. The attacks made by Israel resulted in Yasser Arafat being forced into exile. Many militias attacked Israeli troops until they eventually had all withdrawn from Lebanese territory in 1985.An uprising of mostly young Palestinians led to the First Infitada in 1987. They were focused on the Israel occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank. The singing of the Oslo Accords by the PLO and Israel ended the fighting. The second Infitada more widely known as the al-Aqsa Intifada took action when Israeli body guards visited a sacred temple and declared it as Israeli territory forever. Riots and anger broke out all through Jerusalem. The Infitada ended with death of Yasser Arafat.Many political leaders rose throughout the history of the conflict. Many of them made sincere efforts to help stop the conflict although no one ever really succeeded.  Moshe Arens was an active political leader throughout the still-existing conflict. Moshe Arens was the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1988 to 19990. He never made any direct attempts to circulate peace by did support many other things with the same intention. He also strongly pushed for a peaceful resolution between Israel and Syria.Peace treaties, speeches and pleas have been heard throughout the conflict, some highly effective while others, not so effective. Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization met for a series of meetings and agreements called the Oslo Accords. The main discussion of the accords was to decide the future of the Gaza Strip and West Bank after Israel’s power of those two section of land was lifted. About 30% of the Israeli population believes that the Oslo Accords will bring peace.    A major peace treaty in the Arab-Israeli conflict was the 1949 Armistice Agreements. The Armistice Agreements sought to end the Arab-Israeli War in 1948. It was signed by Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The main issues it sought to identify were the ending of the Arab-Israeli war and to establish the armistice lines which would further identify geographical property of neighboring Israel countries.Resolution 242 was an action taken by the United Nation’s Security Council following the Six-Day War. It sought to deescalate the situation that arose from the war and rid the conflicted areas of Israeli armed forces. Another UN Resolution was Resolution 338 which sought to stop the fighting in the Yom Kippur War and to discuss the selected problems.The Camp David Accords were a series of meetings and negotiations between Israeli and Egyptian leaders with U.S. President Carter overseeing the meetings. The Accords cited many issues including geographical points and Israeli right to free travel of certain water passes. The treaty did raise the peace level and decreased many hostile situations. Peace was possible through diplomatic reasoning as proven by the Accords.The Taba summit was another attempt to resolve the issues regarding land by the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Israeli and Palestinian leaders met an agreement and with Bill Clinton as the key witness signed the agreement, however, none of the agreements policies or actions were ever implemented.The Arab peace initiative was a major proposal in ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. It was proposed and published and the year 2002 and suggested that Israel realize the presence of the Palestinian Authority and to extract all troops out of neighboring lands. The Initiative unfortunately has not been gaining much recognition by either nations. The initiative to end the Al-Aqsa Intifada was called the Sharm el-Sheikh Summit of 2005. The four major nations involved were Palestine, Israeli, Egypt, and Jordan. A cease-fire agreement was signed by all parties involved and took almost immediate action. The Sharm el-Sheikh Summit is the most recent proposal to peace to be made. The Arabs and the Israelis have all made efforts to resolve the problem. Both Arab leaders and Israeli leaders have made modest proposals and signed numerous peace treaties to help stop the ever-occurring violence. Although some leaders could and should have made more of an effort all did at least try. To argue that one side has not made a sincere effort for peace is ludicrous because both sides have signed peace treaties proving that they are willing for change. For a plan for peace to take good effect it must first be composed by both sides of the conflict. A major reason why many previous suggested plans for peace have gone unrecognized is because they were drawn up by only one side. If both leaders were to meet and discuss until an agreement was met and then propose it to their people and judge their response, a greater action might occur. This idea involves not only both sides openly suggesting their terms but also asking for the approval of those leader’s nations in a democratic approach. A peaceful outcome of the Arab-Israeli conflict is possible if both sides work together for peace.