Summary Of A Bitter Prize By Gershom Gorenberg

For ages the Jewish population did not have a place to call home. They had been wandering around deserts, were once slaves in Egypt, but didn’t have any land to their name. Following the Holocaust, after many Jews had been persecuted by Hitler and the Nazis, a good portion of the overall amount of Jews in the world let alone Europe had been exterminated. As a result, Harry Truman and the UN suggested Israel, a homeland for the Jews. Tensions had been growing throughout the beginning of the 20th Century regarding the Palestinian area in the Middle East. This area was off to the side of Asia, near Africa. When the Jews and Arabs were offered part of this land, war broke out and still continues today. Even though a war happened as a result

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.

Chapter three of Eyal Press’ Beautiful Souls follows Avner Wishnitzer, an Israeli combat soldier serving in the occupied territories during the Second Intifada. In the 6-Day War of 1967, Israel captured the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and has since kept the land under an Israeli military occupation. In 1987 to 1991, a Palestinian uprising involving resistance and civil disobedience, known as the First Intifada, occurred in the occupied territories. Consequently, Israel deployed many soldiers into the occupied territories, and an estimated 1,674 people were killed in total. The Second Intifada, a much more violent Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories, transpired from 2000 until 2005. In response, Israel enacted Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale military operation, in 2002 to stop the terrorist attacks and suicide bombings of the Second Intifada. An approximate 4,426 people were killed in the Second Intifada. Avner Wishnitzer’s public refusal to serve in the occupied territories was worth getting kicked out of Sayeret Matkal and being disgraced by Israeli society because it made people question the occupation and the treatment towards Palestinians. Even if Avner had been my father, I would have condoned his choices because I could create my own reputation in the military. Additionally, the current controversy over the Israeli occupation legitimizes his stance and actions for many Israeli citizens.

On Friday night, the University of Washington played host to three of today’s greatest historians concerning the Israel/Palestine issue. Professor Anita Shapira, known for her contextual history of Israel ignited the room with her powerful comments about the circumstances for Arab removal from Israeli lands. Professor James Gelvin tiptoed on several touchy subjects, reiterating his concentration with causality history, nevertheless his historical background gave insight to nationalistic movements both groups have. The third historian, Professor Ilan Pappe concentrated the bulk of his talk on explaining the movement of Palestinian refugees while advocating for the acknowledgement of Israeli brutality in some Arab villages. Naturally, as it was the first time all three sides had come head-to-head, the debate got heated. This was especially true when comparing ideas of what the occupied territory should be described as. History of Modern Israel/Palestine student Erika Arias was able to mediate the debate, defuse tensions and at times draw laughs from the audience.

Israel’s dominance of Palestine affected the country itself and its inhabitants. Through the entire process of Israel seizing Palestine, millions of lives have been changed forever, for reasons that will never be

Israel is undoubtedly a country for the history books with its great conflicts, victories, atrocities, and deep necessity which makes it quite unique from any others and there are perhaps no better words to describe its history than with “tragedy” and “triumph.” After this semester, I feel that I have a pretty clear viewpoint on these ideas. The triumph of Israel is its very existence both in general and specifically as a place for Jewish people that saved thousands and harbored refugees in times of great peril and horror for Jews. On the other hand, its tragedy is clearly the intense, seemingly unending conflict which is deeply ingrained within the region and that its very existence necessitates with the Arabs, as well as more specific

In considering the Arab Israeli conflicts there were many disputes issues and turning points in the 20th century. Wars broke out such as the 1948-1949 Arab Israeli war in order for Israeli state to emerge . Many other wars followed such as the Suez war the 6 day war all conflicts had major consequences. However the war that changed the Middle East for ever was the War of Yom Kippur. The consequence of this dispute lead to the Camp David agreement never before was there such a significant agreement made. The Camp David accords effectively ended the Israel–Egypt conflict never before had any of the sides publicaly considered a peaceful agreement. The Camp David accords truly were the begining of a new era in the Midle East . However the agreement had an unseen consequence the Palestinian people were now more reluctant to fight for their freedom using radical tactics supporting the PLO furthermore using terrorism as a means of expressing their demands . Also the Olslo accords of 1993 that ended the 50 year war could be considerd a more s

The Arab nations were trying to eliminate Israel and take away the shame they felt after they were defeated a few years earlier when they fought Israel. The countries against Israel united together and planned out the war thinking it would be a piece of cake. Moreover, Israel fended off the countries and won the war in six days hence the name the Six-Day War. General Mordechai Hod, who was a commanding general for the Israeli Air Force, said about the Six-Day War, “The dangers of Israel’s extermination was hardly present before the Six-Day War” (Dodd and Mead Co). The Six-Day War increased the number of terrorist attacks that Israel has now, this is because many countries are not fans of Israel and are upset about the way they lost the war. The countries that fought Israel used a billion dollars worth of supplies during the war, causing serious debt. The Six-Day War changed the events that happened in Israel and the ones that are still occurring in Israel. Israel gained some respect because of how they won the war against all the countries facing them in the Six-Day War. Furthermore, Israel gained respect from some of the countries. Even though Israel had a small population they put up a tough fight. Israel showed resilience during the Six-Day War, and since the war they have been able to protect their

In the 20th century the Middle East countries of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan were all powerful countries who believed the time would never arise when a young country like Israel would ever militarily defeat Egypt. To these powerful nations, such a thought was comedic, but ultimately came into existence at the conclusion of the six-day war in 1967 (June 5- June 10) where Israel defeated Egypt. This victory by Israel ultimately led to the Jewish nation multiplying in size dramatically as it was now four times larger than it was prior to the war. The main acquisitions through winning the war for Israel was the strip of Gaza along with the nearly 24,000 square miles Sinai Peninsula but also included East Jerusalem, Jordan’s West Bank, and the

Following the Six-Day war of 1967, it was clear peace treaties needed to be established. The Arabs refused to agree to these peace treaties, so the tension was left hanging in the air. In the view of the Israelis, the post-war state was just fine, but the Egyptians and Syrians saw the need for war (Tal). The Arabs and Israelis reached a stalemate

For hundreds of years prior to this, the land was inhabited by a large multi-cultural population, however, the Zionists wanted to create a Jewish homeland in that area. In the beginning the migration did not cause much of a problem, but as more and more Zionists immigrated to Palestine, the current population became wary and defensive. As many of the Zionists migrated to that land with the express desire to take over the land and convert it to a jewish state, fighting broke out with the indigenous population. The violence continued for years, and when Hitler began to rise up in Germany, many Jews fled their European countries and headed for safety in Palestine. With the ever increasing Jewish population, the fighting and violence continued to increase as well. In 1947 the United Nations decided to try and bring an end to the violence by dividing up the land, giving fifty-five percent of Palestine to the Jews. Since the Jewish people only owned about 7 percent of this land, even more fighting broke out. This evolved into the Arab-Israeli war, where Zionist forces took on several Arab armies. The Zionists greatly outnumbered the Palestinians, and when the fighting was done, Israel had taken about seventy-eight percent of Palestine. In 1967, Israeli forces were able to take the remaining twenty-two percent of Palestine that they were not able to take during the Arab-Israeli war.

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

Throughout the period of World War II, many Jewish people had fled to Israel seeking a place for sanctuary due to Hitler’s reign of terror, but who knew that one of the most largest movements in the history of Europe would cause one of the biggest renowned issues that still remains today. We can easily conclude that both Palestinian and Israeli people both believe that Israel is a land of sacred, where both religions had made history in this land. Although one of the biggest issues that still remains today is who really deserves the land the most. The Palestinian people currently live in the land of Israel before the Jews had made their movement, but after letting in countless Jewish refugees into their land, the Jewish people had realized

 This conflict is among Jews and Arabs. Palestine for the Arabs is a land whose Oil has been cultivated by them for generations. Israel, as later called by the Jews, is a land of inspiration that is destined for them, since many Jews had been living in Israel and emigrating previously (Fraser,1). This shows the Socio-Political and religious roots of the conflict. The Arabic population is currently located in Jerusalem, but the Jewish Population in Israel has a strong desire of relocating to Jerusalem someday, and have been fighting for this to happen