Yasir Arafat: The Palestinian Liberation Organization

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

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.

This tension came to a climax in 1936 during Arab Revolt, leaving 300 Jews and 5,000 Arabs dead, and over 15,000 Arabs injured. After WWII, large amounts of Jews were left as refugees, and on the eve of the expiration of the League of Nations Mandate, Israel announced its independence. A day latter, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon joined forces in order to stop Israel from becoming a state. There were a total of around 15,000 killed. A Palestinian’s journal explained the brutality when they wrote, “They took about 40 prisoners from the village. But after the battle was over, they took them to the quarry where they shot them dead and threw their bodies in the quarry” (10). Almost one million Palestinians were forcibly relocate. The war ended in 1949 in a ceasefire.

This Israeli-Palestinian conflict stems from both groups dissension over land, by the Jews and by the Palestinians, who seek self-determination.Various acts done by the Israelis have resulted in a lack of trust amongst themselves and the Palestinians. This lack negatively affects the prospects of a peaceful settlement.

Israeli forces defeated the Palestinian militias and Arab armies in a vicious conflict that turned 700,000 Palestinian civilians into refugees. The UN

A popular and most recent debate has been whether Israel should exist as a state. Currently, Israel is the only country in the world that has a relatively extensive Jewish population. More recently, Israel has been combatting against Palestinian soldiers in Gaza to prevent attacks on Israel coming from the Palestinian Government. This war has gone on for quite some time now; for years, actually. But how did this conflict develop? It certainly didn’t happen overnight.

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,

HAMAS became active in both the citizenry and politics after the first intifada or uprising , against Israeli soldiers for control. The catalyst of which began after an Israeli struck and killed several Arabs in a car accident. (Lockman & Beinin, 1989) HAMAS began operating in the West Bank and Gaza in 1987 as the local political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), which was an Islamic politico-social movement established as far back as 1928.

On March 1, 1922, in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, a man named Itzak (Yitzhak) Rabin was born. He became the country's first native-born prime minister in 1974, but served as Israel’s military chief before stepping into politics. Rabin was a peaceful man, and aimed for tranquility between Palestinians and Israelis. His peaceful attitude and actions--such as negotiations with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat--led to his winning of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. Although many believed he was peaceful, some considered him a traitor for keeping peace by going along the Oslo plan with what some would consider one of his greatest political enemies: Yasser Arafat. Speculation of Rabin led to his murder by a Jewish law student named Yigal Amir. He

The Hamas participate in things such as large-scale suicide bombings, continuous attacking on the country of Israel, small-arm attacks, roadside explosives, and numerous, way too many to count, rocket attacks.

Menachem Begin, the prime minister of Israel, changed Israel because he made peace with Anwar el-Sadat, sacrificed the Sinai Peninsula, and shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Egyptian President, Anwar el-Sadat.

The Arab-Israeli conflict has sparked massive controversy because of many characters that have terrorized countless cities. Some are crazy and do whatever to help their country and some like Menachem Begin have the wisdom to make wise choices. It isn't very wise to strike terrorism in a country but rather make both sides agree to end the conflict or else the cycle starts over again. Leaders like Menachem Begin have became wise and know that violence is not the answer to solving a problem. Menachem Begin was a Leader that had a dark past but now knows that peace is the way to solve a country’s problem.

During the ceasefire Israel reported that 270 terrorist attacks were committed by the Palestinians against Israel. Frustrated by the attacks Israel and Minister of Defense Sharon looked for a reason to declare war and clear out the PLO from Lebanon. They got their wish when a Palestinian group led by Abu Nidal and with the assistance of Iraq against the wishes of Arafat attempted to assassinate Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom on June 3, 1982. The victim Shlomo Argov was seriously wounded. Israeli’s believed that all Palestinian groups were under the PLO, and even though Arafat denied PLO involvement. Israel bombarded the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps killing 200 and the PLO responded with an attack of its own on Israel. The First

The War of 1948, also known as the War of Independence, was fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The war began May 15, 1948 when units from the armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq invaded Israel launching a war that lasted until December 1948.# The war resulted in the defeat of the Arab forces and the success of Israel as a newly established state. It is evident that the Arab forces were not successful in the first Arab-Israeli war because the Arab army lacked motivation, education, and proper equipment.# Despite the support from Arab states outside of Palestine, the Arabs were unable to gain enough strength to overcome the Israeli forces. In contrast, the Israeli army was able to succeed because they had

in mosques with social and welfare services, delivered through a network of clinics, schools, charities, drug treatment centers, and even sports clubs . However, since 1988, with the onset of the fist intifada, Hamas has followed an oscillatory pattern of violence and social charitable work. During the first and second intifada, Hamas inspired the greater Palestinian public to support violent means to incite change in the region. Conversely, during the Oslo peace process, when the majority of Palestinians did not condone the level of violence that was seen during the first intifada, Hamas dedicated more time towards their social roots, ultimately increasing their grassroots support. During these lulls in violence with Israel, Hamas successfully institutionalized Islamism in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. According to Sarah Roy, by 2000, 10 to 40 percent of all social institutions in the West Bank and Gaza were Islamic . Arguably, these expanded new areas of Islamic social