Did Britain's Failure To Respond To The Conflict Between Israel And Israel

The Middle East has been a conflict ridden area due to clashing religions, and political and territorial disputes for centuries. Although deep-seated religious and political differences can easily cause violent rivalry, territorial dispute frequently causes long lasting tension and fighting between those involved. Specifically the area occupied by modern day Israel and Palestine and due to the area being a hub for religious pilgrims of Jewish, Catholic, and Islamic faith there has been controversy for centuries. Most importantly though, is the presence of Britain having control of the land beginning in 1917 due to the growth of Zionism. Eventually the United Nations created their partition plan as a way to try to have peace between the Arabs and Jews but as time went on it seemed less and less likely for peace to prevail (Fisher 5). Similarly, this view of the conflict being impossible to solve is present in Yasmina Khadra’s writings. Khadra in his novel, The Attack, suggests that a peaceful solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is not possible through the extremist behavior of Sihem which correctly reflects that of the actual hatred of Israelis found in current

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the one of the world’s oldest conflicts, and it is still an ongoing problem in the world. Zionists and Arabs: two groups with conflicting beliefs who both claim Israel as their own. In wake of the Holocaust the U.N decided to gift the Jews a homeland for the lives lost in the genocide. In 1947, the U.N Partition divided the land of Israel (Historic Palestine) into two separate states: Arab and Jewish. Since then, the state of Israel has been the center of conflict between the Arabs and the Zionists. As time passed the Zionists gained more land from winning the Six-Day War, and consequently the Palestinians had to live as refugees in other Arab countries. Additionally, more than 75% of the land belonged to

in 1918 britain aided by the arabs captured palestine from the the ottoman turks but britain had now made too many promises that hey couldn't keep . Many Arabs opposed British troops because of England's failure to fulfill its promise and were also getting angry about the increase of jewish migrating to palestine. Arabs became concerned that Jewish immigration would threaten their position in Palestine which lead to large scale attacks on the jews. At the time of Hitler's dictatorship in Germany, Jewish immigration increased dramatically in 1933. An Arab revolt started which Britain suppressed with the help of Zionist militias. Zionist settlements climaxed in 1936. In 1947, Britain forbid Jewish refugees from nazi concentration camps to land in Palestine to prevent war between Jews and Arabs, which resulted in worldwide criticism of Britain. Britain withdrew itself from the situation handing over the mandate over Palestine, leaving the United Nations to deal with the situation. The United Nations proposed that Palestine was divided into two states, one for the Arabs and one for the Jews, however the Arabs opposed this idea claiming that the UN plan allotted too much territory to the Jews. the arabs thought it was unfair that the jews should get more land because the arabs were by far the larger population but because of the holocaust the was a lot of sympathy for the jews and this may be why the got more land.

During World War I, the Ottoman Empire began to crumble, with skirmishes breaking out throughout the Middle East. During this turbulent time, Great Britain saw an opportunity to take advantage of Arabs as well as the land that they controlled. In some cases, their policies and treaties actually aimed to help specific groups like when they drew up the Balfour Declaration, supporting the Jews receiving Palestine as a sacred land. However, some of the documents drawn up during this period were disguised as giving aid to Arabs while the British used the treaties to gain political influence in Arabia.

Despite current misconceptions of the tensions between Muslims and Jews, the current political conflict began in the early 20th century. The Palestinians, both muslims and christians, lived in peace for centuries. Control of the city had historically, since 637 AD, been under Muslim control with guarantee of Christians’ safety, right to property, and right to practice religion. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire led to European nations colonizing many of its former lands, and the British gained control of Palestine. Social and political issues prompted European jews to flee from political unrest from their homes in Europe, and migrate to Palestine. Seeing the influx of Jews as a European colonial movement, the Arabs fought back. The British couldn’t control the violence, and in 1947 the United Nations (UN) voted to split the land into two countries. The continued political unrest in the Middle East is the cause of United States involvement.

Since the Sykes-Picot Agreement at the beginning of the war, Palestine had taken on increasing strategic importance for Britain at this time. The British kept troops in Palestine because of its proximity to the Suez Canal and its location in the Ottoman Empire. The Zionists, who lived there, appeared as a potential ally that could provide a safeguard through the canal region. It was also felt that supporting Palestinian Jews would mobilize the Americas Jewish community and bring a stronger American support to the war. Furthermore, Although the British had committed to helping the Abrab motive in gaining independence, the much smaller Jewish community had strong political intellectuals that were incredibly persuasive. In November of 1917, one year before the end of the war, the British publicly declared their allegiance to the Zionist Jews with the Balfour Declaration. Among much surprise, the British in doing this pledged their allegiance to the Jewish State of Israel, which at the time was home to around 657,000 Muslims and only 59,000

The Balfour Declaration in 1917 had been proposed to "favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, but that nothing should be done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine." (8 IMFA) In 1916 many Arab areas including Palestine were under British control which excited the Jewish population about having settlements on either side of the Jordan River, yet at the same time worried the Arab population with the incredibly quick advancements being made on their land. It seemed as though no matter who was being pleased, the other party would continue to grow uneasy with the advancements made by the other. Jewish immigration to Palestine continued to grow significantly while the British mandate remained in effect primarily due to the mass of anti-seminisitc feelings spreading throughout

In 1917 the British government started to bring their own ideas on how history of Palestine should emerge. For gaining Jews support they issued “Balfour declaration”, which promised establishment of Jewish people in territory of Palestinians. Which meant developing state for Jews. Of course we can see that British government were over promising, because at that time results of First World War were unknown and unseen for participants. Palestine was still under the Ottoman Empire. British government was confident about wining in war, so they started to dream about what they will do after it and how they will divide territories. This emerged in there communication with France. A year before they issued “Balfour declaration” they already deviated

The United Kingdom expended great effort to give the appearance of neutrality and maintaining a balanced approach during their administration of the British Mandate of Palestine. Notwithstanding, an examination of British Policies during the period of 1917 to 1947 shows that they greatly contributed to the defeat of the Arabs and emergence of the Jewish homeland- the State of Israel, in 1948. The pre-Mandate actions of the British showed a clear preference for the Zionist agenda, and directly influenced the creation of the Mandate. During the mandate, the British claimed, “that Jews and Arabs would live in harmony together.” They openly resisted Jewish designs for the establishment of a home state, but their policy was inherently favourable

The Jews seem to have more support over the arabs in terms of re-establishing their national homeland than the Arab’s protecting their land even if the Great Britain protects their faith and rights as citizens in Palestine.

I believe that British diplomacy in Palestine was consistently indecisive and hypocritical but at the same time the British wanted to keep their hands in Palestine’s economy and goods. The reasoning behind this statement is because of the events that played out during the Hussein-McMahon correspondence, the Sykes-Picot agreement, and the Balfour declaration.

A number of world powers played a part in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Britain, USA, Germany, Russia and the UN all had a role to play in the conflict. The intervention of these world powers was extensively significant. However, the roles of President Sadat and Nasser were also quite significant.

Smith explained that colonization had meant an existing state, and Zionism was unique in the sense that Jews had no state. He brings up that leaders like Ben Gurion and Jabotinsky, two very different political Zionists, recognized the existence of Palestinians in Palestine at the time they were pushing for the promises of the Balfour Declaration. The Zionist vision was to ally itself with British ambitions and become a state against barbarism in a region with “backwards people.” Dr. Smith brings up the other promises made by the British alongside the Balfour Declaration in 1917. The Hussein-McMahon deal promising Arabs a united state if they revolted against the Ottoman. Yet also promising the French land in the region through the Sykes-Picot Agreement. However, these promises were unrealistic given that the British had their own interests in mind. Weizmann, one of the leaders of Zionism, had strong relations with the British government. Him and Balfour saw a Jewish state as an outpost of European superiority over the region in the Middle East. The Balfour Declaration had several drafts and the final draft called for the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish national home. The Balfour Declaration served a great deal at the peace conference later on, which worked in obligation for the Jews. Recognizing that Palestine was a unique situation when it came to the mandates, there was a plan to turn the 10% Jewish minority in Palestine to a majority that would lead to a Jewish

In 1948, the British mandate announced their intentions to terminate its mandate in Palestine due to the conflict between the Palestinians and the Jews. Britain faced difficulties trying to bring peace to Palestine. After the British mandate left Palestine, the Jewish people declared the establishment of a Jewish state (Israel). On the same day, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq intervened and this marked the first Arab-Israeli war. After this war, over 800,000 Palestinian Arabs became refugees as a result of the independence of Israel. Also, Jews in the Arab countries were made to abandon their properties and flee.

Since the early 20th Century, Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting over the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. With the assumption that Palestine is a state to facilitate discussion, this report sketches out the most significant elements of the conflict on the three levels defined by Kenneth Waltz, and applies the Realist theory of international relations (IR) to the “Two-State” solution.