The Role of Intra-party Opposition in National Liberation Movements By and large, in the latter half of the twentieth century a regime change has meant the victory of a leftist national liberation movement over an oppressive power; whether the new regime makes good on its stated purpose of delivering justice to its people has not evidenced such a standard pattern, however. While liberation movements such as the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa were able successfully to convert their role as revolutionary “freedom fighters” into democratic participation in the state (Connell, 9), movements such as Castro’s Cuban Revolution, while accomplishing regime change, failed to deliver a successful state. This paper suggests that …show more content…
Radical Islamic Palestinian nationalist groups, the most prominent of which is Hamas, adamantly resist any concessions to the state of Israel and maintain that the PA should not be negotiating with the Israeli government. While there is little question that Hamas and similar organizations have had both the intent and the effect of erecting impediments on the road to a peace in the Middle East, this paper aims to dispel the notion that Palestinian opposition groups have completely derailed the peace process. Instead, I will argue that the presence of such vehement dissent is a necessary part to a lasting peace accord and to a stable two-state solution, as this intra-party opposition is often the most difficult hurdle to surmount for a national liberation movement that is attempting to rise to state power. To be clear, I argue that a critical first step to running a peaceful democratic state, before territory or infrastructure, is to pacify radical parties in a non-dictatorial fashion; a process by which a new political regime proves itself capable of state governance by tying together the moderate with the extreme.
I further assert that the notion is incorrect that because the PA is born out of the PLO, an organization that employed guerrilla tactics to spoil peace efforts, the new Authority is necessarily an untrustworthy body. I will argue that in the majority of cases, as exemplified by South Africa,
Cuban history, like many other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean which have experienced colonial subjugation and imperial interference, is highlighted by tumultuous rebellions. Ever since the revolt of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes in 1868, who took up arms with his slaves to liberate Cuba from Spain’s colonial grasp, the existence of insurrectionists and adamant government opposition in Cuba has flourished. Social revolution and a strong will and practice of nationalism has indelibly characterized Cuban history. Nevertheless, the outcomes of particular movements and struggles for social justice have consistently frustrated revolutionary and radical leaders. Government regimes throughout
During the 1950’s, Cuba was on the brink of revolution. The nation, which had suffered numerous corrupt and oppressive governmental regimes, fell victim to yet another when Fulgencio Batista seized power under a military coup in March of 1952. A cry for a just Cuba, that was economically, politically, and socially free continued to echo throughout the island. In 1959, a group of radical revolutionaries, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, overthrew the Batista dictatorship and put in place the political and social structures that exist in Cuba to this day.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has proven to be one of the most complex and “intractable” conflicts of modern history – or as some may even add – of all time. And after many decades of failed attempts at peacemaking in this region, there still seems to be no conceivable end to the conflict. During those same decades, most of the parties involved as well as the international community have embraced the idea of a two-state solution, but the question we pose today asks whether this solution is still a viable option considering the present context, and if not, is it finally time to consider a one-state solution? This essay will argue that although a two-state solution remains the more
Any reference to conflict turns history into a reservoir of blame. In the presence of conflict, narratives differ and multiply to delegitimize the opponent and to justify one’s own action. Narratives shape social knowledge. The Israeli Palestinian conflict, both Jews and Muslims, view the importance of holding the territories through religious, ideological, and security lenses, based on belief that Palestine was given by divine providence and that the land belongs to either the Israelis or Palestinian’s ancestral home. Understanding these perspectives is required for understanding Palestinians’ and especially Israel’s strategy and role in entering the Oslo peace process. Despite
The Israel-Palestine conflict is one of the most long-term, pressing, and largely confounding social, political, and national quandaries of our age. Since we have been moving with surprising velocity into the vast horizons of globalization, the conflict has built up tremendous momentum and has called into question the adequacy of our current attempts at coming to a peaceful resolution that can simultaneously and successfully address both sides of the struggle. The purpose of this paper has been to understand the prospect of a two-state nation solution for Israel and Palestine. The discussion arises a retrospective view of the context behind the present analysis. We begin with a discourse that informs the reader of the historical narrative between the Jewish inhabitants of Israel and the Palestinians who also seek to live in the lands which comprise Israel. At the forefront of the discussion are some key issues such as trends in Israeli settlement expansion over time, the manner in which these settlements create political challenges towards the prospect of a two-state solution, and the fragmentation of power within Palestinian political parties which inhibit the opportunity for proper negotiations amongst the two parties. Finally, we delve into a discussion on nationalism, it’s importance in the discussion of a two-state solution, and the challenges posed when trying to formulate US Foreign Policy towards the matter.
From this we observe that Mandela coordinated and led people to fight apartheid. As it can be concluded from the preceding information, Martin Luther King's actions and Nelson Mandela's actions justify their similarity.
The big question we ask ourselves today is, will Israel and Palestine ever agree to stop fighting? The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been traced all the way back to 1948 through 2005 in The Israel Palestine Land Settlement Problem, written by Charles Rowley and Jennis Taylor. However, this conflict did not end in 2005. This article was written in 2006, so anything within the last 10 years is not included. The conflict between the two counties still continues to this day and still remains a major problem. Israelis and Arabs have been fighting over Gaza on and off for decades now. The three issues laid out in this article are the four major wars that took place, the refugee problem, and the conflict between religions. It concludes with the road map to peace. Throughout his whole book, The Israel-Palestine Conflict, Gelvin speaks of the same historical events that occurred between Israel and Palestine, while the article reveals there are still other conflicts, the land settlement problem has been the major conflict between Israel and Palestine since 1948.
This essay will focus on how theorists of peace and conflict have analysed the conflict in recent history. Especially, the peace process after the first Palestinian intifada and the 1993 Oslo-agreements will be analysed. In addition, this essay will shed light on the involvement of the United States in the
“A revolution is not a bed of roses ... a revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.” – Fidel Castro, 1961. This statement was certainly true for Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries during the Cuban Revolution, an armed revolt that took place between July 26th 1953 and January 1st 1959, which ended successfully. During this revolt, many of Fidel Castro’s fellow revolutionaries were killed in this process of violent revolution (My Life, p133, 2006). However, Castro and his accompanying revolutionaries, of which he was the leader, also caused their fair share of deaths using brutality in the name of revolution and political justice. Using various combat tactics, the most prominent being guerrilla warfare, the
The topic of peace has been on the mind of historians, political leaders, and the general public for as long as our history has been recorded. Will there ever be peace in the Middle East? Will the age old battles, both foreign and domestic ever end? This question, pondered on throughout decades of Western civilization, has both a simple answer and a complex reasoning. To even begin to uncover the answer, one must understand the conflict and its deeply rooted origins to even draw a hypothesis of the outcome. We must first venture into the guarded minds of radical Muslims, our coalition forces, and the minds of the non-violent Muslims who seek liberation from the grip of evil. We must delve into the history of the Islamic world, the tales of
HAMAS, an Arabic acronym meaning “Islamic Resistance Movement”, is the name of the socio-political organization currently in power over the Gaza Strip. For decades Jews & Muslims and Israelis & Palestinians, often one in the same, have fought for control over the region. Each have killed thousands of the other, destroyed infrastructures and used underhanded tactics to gain an advantage. Nations such as Japan, the European Union, the United States and (of course) Israel classify the group as terrorists, while nations such as Turkey, Russia and Switzerland do not. (King, 2010) Many factors are taken into consideration before a Nation-State denounces an organization as a “terrorist group”. A profile of HAMAS may help make clear why it is
Both of these approaches would pave the way for Hamas’ seemingly bipolar tenure in Palestine. By the 1970’s, the Palestinian population was disillusioned by secularism, Westernization and materialism, and many looked toward the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic revival as an alternative . A drastic turn of events led to niche in Palestine that a more violent facet of the Muslim Brotherhood was willing to fill.
For many centuries, Judaic and Arabian societies have engaged in one of the most complicated and lengthy conflicts known to mankind, the makings of a highly difficult peace process. Unfortunately for all the world’s peacemakers the Arab-Israeli conflict, particularly the war between Israel and the Palestinian Territories, is rooted in far more then ethnic tensions. Instead of drawing attention towards high-ranking officials of the Israeli government and Hamas, focus needs to be diverted towards the more suspect and subtle international relations theory of realism which, has imposed more problems than solutions.
After more than 50 years of war, terrorism, peace negotiation and human suffering, Israel and Palestine remain as far from a peaceful settlement as ever. The entire Middle Eastern region remains a cauldron waiting to reach the boiling point, a potent mixture of religious extremism, (Jewish, Christian and Islamic), mixed with oil and munitions.
The PA resembles a classic authoritarian regime under the reign of Mahmoud Abbas even though it is supposed to be democratic. The PA government remains relatively stable under this structure. However, militant groups like Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad could be a credible external threat to the established governance of the PA. Since 2003, conflicts between the two major factions, the traditional dominant party, Fatah, and its subsequent electoral rival, Hamas, have fractured the Palestinian side. “After the Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, the territory controlled by the PA was split between Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.”[1] The estrangement between the parties has led to “the fall of bipartisan governance of the PA”[2].