Israel Is A Small Democracy At The Eastern End Of The Mediterranean

By the year 1967, the Israeli state shocked the world when it seized the remaining Palestinian territories. These territories

All this caused sympathy for the Jews. In 1947 United Nation General Assembly issued resolution #181 according to which Palestine was divided into three parts: an Arab state, a Jewish state and an International

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

The Arab/Israeli conflict is a conflict between the Arabs and the Jews over a small piece of land known as the holy land which is an area in the Middle East of the Arab world. The Arabs call the land Palestine, the Jews call it Israel but both religions have strong religious links with the land. There is conflict between the two religions because they both believe that the land belongs to them.

The country of Palestine has a unique history that distinguishes it from other nations. In 1948, Israel became an independent nation, covering a large portion of another country called Palestine. Eventually, as time continued, Israel seized the rest of Palestine by 1967. This dominance resulted in the Palestinians lack of a homeland. Due to this, various altercations between both groups of people, the Israelis and the Palestinians, arose. The prospects for a peaceful settlement between both, Israelis and Palestinians, are minimal.

Since the UN partition of Israel and Palestine in 1947, Israel has been placed in many instances of conflict between the Jewish migrants to the region and the Palestinian natives. Several conflicts resulted in open, declared war, such as the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948-1949, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. In addition, Israel has been involved in the occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of the Gaza Strip. After the last open war, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank has been marked by the military governorate, taking political and institutional control of the region that is ethnically and religiously different than the population that resides in the Jewish state of Israel.

“The problem is, simply put, a dispute over real estate” (Gelvin 3). This conflict has resulted in major wars during the period of time following World War II. The 1948-1949 Arab Israeli war began when Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded Palestine. The second war that occurred, was the 1956 Suez Canal War, at the end of this war Israel agreed to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza strip

In 1948, Zionist forces, due to their military pre-eminence, gained control over the territory which the UN designated to the Jews in the failed partition plan. On 14 May 1948, they declared Israeli independence and established the Israeli state (Fawcett, 2005; 221). The US recognised Israel quickly as a state and soon after that the Soviet Union did the same. The Arab League, formed out of six Arab states, did not recognise Israel as a state, because they felt the land belonged to the Arabic state of Palestine, not to the Jews. Subsequently, the six Arab forces (Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria) attacked the Israeli military. The Lebanese, Syrian, Iraq and Saudi Arabian forces did not produce many offensive operations, but they managed to block the Israeli’s march. The ‘real’ fighting came from the Egyptian and Jordan forces. In the beginning, the Arabs had an advantage of weapons and air-power, whilst Israel had problems with their strategy. However, after a few months Israel was provided with war supplies from Czechoslavakia. This included both weapons for using on the mainland and aircrafts. Due to these supplies,

Palestinians and Israelis fight over Jerusalem, both wanting the holy site as their capital. The U.N. split Palestine asunder, and the adjoining Arab states declared war on the new country. After months of vehement brawling, Israel and her contiguous Arab states acquiesced ceasing the war. Palestine and Israel differ in multifarious ways. Israel has attained land throughout years and has been identified as a country since 1948, whereas Palestine lives in Gaza Strip and West Bank forthwith, and does not classify as an autonomous country. Palestine’s common language is Arabic, however, Israelis speak Hebrew commonly. Also, they practice different religions, Palestinians practice the Islamic religion, while Israelis practice Judaism. This clash

Zionists and Palestinian Arabs wanted individual nations and both felt they had a claim to Palestine. Shortly after in 1947, the United Nations General Assembly Resolution (UNGAR) called for a partition, which divided the country so that each state would have a majority of its own population. This divide meant that some of the Jewish settlements would fall within the proposed Arab state while an extremely large number of Palestinian Arabs would become part of the proposed Jewish state. (Beinin and Hajjar 2014). A year later in May, Israel unilaterally declared their independence and the State of Israel was established. This of course started a war, and neighboring Arab states invaded Israel almost immediately. During this war about 750,000 Arab Palestinians fled to Lebanon, the West Bank, and the Gaza strip. (http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/%E2%80%9Cpalestine-refugees-unresolved-question-time-syria-crisis%E2%80%9D) Also during this fight, Israel expanded its borders far beyond the UN partition lines, leaving Egypt to take hold of the Gaza Strip & Jordan to control the West

There were other conflicts of varying degrees over the borders and in 1967 Israel took over the Gaza Strip, again displacing Palestinian Nationalists. (Higgins, 2009) These conflicts were focused on the national borders while not much attention was given to the religious developments from the Israelis. The political entity that rallied the Arabs and opposed the Israelis was called the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). They were driven from Gaza after the 1967 War with Egypt, while the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic group with Egyptian roots flourished in the strip. Varying degrees of Palestinian political entities arose, cease fire agreements, and truces were formed and broken between Israel and Palestine over the next two decades.

The nation of Israel was originally a nation of nomadic people who were isolated and oppressed. After the horrific events of the Holocaust some Jewish people made homes in Israel. The people who made their homes came to be known as Israelites. They were given this name because the nation was named after Israel who was originally known as Jacob (Fisher, 2005). The nation of Israel has always been in a state of disorder and confusion, and in 1947 the United Nations gave Israel to the Jewish people who declared it an independent state in 1948. Israel’s Arabic neighbors did not support this decision and war followed. Battles are still being fought today. Tension also exists within the Jewish community in Israel. There have been many Jewish people who have settled in Israel. These settlers have diverse backgrounds. Some are orthodox and some are not which can bring tension. Even

Although Intifada continued unabated after Jordan’s Declaration, the Palestinians made a significant overture on the Political front. In November 1988, Yaris Arafat renounced terrorism and recognized the State of Israeli on the basis of UN resolutions 242 and 338. After the 1967 war, the UN passed Resolution 242 calling for withdrawal from territories occupied in the recent conflict and Palestinian acceptance of 242 implied acquiescence to the concept of “land for peace” (Farsakh, 2011). Furthermore, the resolution called for the recognition of the “sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every state in the area” suggesting mutual recognition by Israelis and Palestine’s, which officially occurred in 1993.

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.

The conflict between Israel and Palestine is just one of the many facets that have shaped modern day politics in the Middle East. It is a conflict rooted in generations of violence, discrimination and prejudice that is complicated by a history older than any of the modern day superpowers. Ever since the creation of the state of Israel by the 1947 UN partition of Palestine