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The Conflict Of The West Bank And Gaza Strip

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One State, Two States Few, if any, modern conflicts are as complex as the Arab-Israeli conflict. Specifically, the political situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has led to bloodshed, political high wire acts, and cycles of hope and disappointment for decades. Consensus has generally leaned towards advocated a two-state solution for the conflict, in which the Israel remains a Jewish state, and the Palestinian Arabs establish their own country carved from currently Israeli-occupied territories. This solution has become more infeasible, not more attainable, efforts to find a lasting peace have occurred. The main alternative, a one-state solution, in which one nation takes full control of the Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, …show more content…

While UN Security Council Resolution 242 called for Israel to remove itself from these areas and return to its pre-1967 War borders (Farsakh 2005), Israel continued its presence in the region. In the years that have followed, numerous solutions have been proposed to solve the crisis and to bring a lasting peace and sense of stability to the area. The solution most supported up to now has been the two-state solution. In this solution, parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (likely the full area in the latter) would become part of an independent, self-governing Palestinian state, while the rest of the area would become Israeli territory. With this, Palestinians would have a nation-state and could chart their own political and cultural course. Most nations and international organizations have lent their support to this idea, including the US, the UN, and Israel and Palestinian Authority (Sanger 2016), forming the basis for most peace talks aiming to resolve the conflict. The question that now remains is why has this solution not yet been achieved? The disagreement on the borders of each state remains one of the primary roadblocks to achieving the two-state solution. There exists no consensus on which land would belong to Israel and which to an independent Palestinian state. One complicating issue in

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