Arab Forces Against Israel example essay topic

The Arab-Israeli conflict is one of the most prolonged and bloody conflicts in not only modern history, but in the ancient world as well. The roots of the conflict, as well as the arguments on both sides, are as diversified and complicated as the conflict itself. The Israelites started to conquer and settle the "land of Canaan", which is present day Israel, in 1250 B.C... King Solomon ruled the Israelites and the land of Israel from 961-922 B.C... Following his reign, Israel was split up into two kingdoms. The southern kingdom, Judah, was conquered by the Babylonians, who drove its people, the Jews, into exile and destroyed Solomon's temple in 586 B.C...

After seventy years or so, the Jews began to return to Israel and the temple of Solomon was gradually rebuilt. By 333 B.C., Alexander the Great and his army brought the area under Greek control. By 165 B.C., a revolt in Judea established the last ancient Jewish state. Then, in 63 B.C., Judea was incorporated into the Roman province of Palestine. By 70 A.D., A revolt against Roman rule was put down by the Emperor Titus. Shortly after, the Temple of Solomon was once again destroyed.

This marks the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora. From 118-138 A.D., during the Emperor Hadrian's reign, Jews were allowed to return to Israel. However, after another Jewish revolt in 133 A.D., Jerusalem was completely destroyed and its occupants, the Jews, banished and / or sold into slavery. Then, in 638 A.D., the Arabs came onto the scene in a major way with their conquest of the area. By early in the 8th century, the second Caliph of Islam, Omar, had built the Al-Asq a Mosque on the site in Jerusalem, or Al-Q ods as the Arabs called the city, where they believe the prophet Mohammad ascended into Heaven. Except for the period of the Crusades, the area remained under Muslim rule under the Ottoman Empire until the United Nation's mandate which gave the land over to the Jews to establish Israel.

Zionism is the international movement to establish a Jewish state in the land where Israel once stood. The first Zionist Congress met in Basle, Switzerland, in 1897 to discuss Theodore Herzl's 1886 book, The Jewish State, in which he discussed establishing a Jewish state, primarily in response to European anti-semitism. The Congress issued the Basle program to establish "a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured by public law". They thus set up the World Zionist Movement to work for that goal. However, by 1897, the Palestinian culture and people had been firmly integrated into Palestine. In this, lays the underline problem between Arabs and Israelis.

They both claim the same country as theirs. Although Zionist immigrants had already started to move into Palestine before 1897, they came in full force in the coming years. In 1903, 25,000 Jewish immigrants moved into Palestine. Most of them were from Eastern Europe. Between 1904 and 1914, a second batch of 40,000 Jews migrated into the area.

They lived alongside half a million Arab residents. Palestine was under the control of the Ottoman Turks until Arab forces, backed by Britain, drove them out by the end of World War I. Britain occupied the region by the end of the war in 1918. The League of Nations assigned Britain as the mandatory power there on April 25, 1920. During this period, three key "agreements" or pledges were made. In 1916, the British commissioner to Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, promised the Arab leadership post-war independence for the former Ottoman provinces.

At the same time, the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which was signed in secret, divided the region under the joint control of Britain and France. However, in 1917, in a letter to head Zionist Lord Roth child, British foreign minister Arthur Balfour, committed Britain towards "The establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". This became known as the Balfour declaration. The great Zionist migrational movements from the 1920's to the 1930's, in which thousands upon thousands of Jews entered Palestine, instigated anger and unrest in the Arab community. By 1922, a British census showed the Jewish population had risen to about 11% of Palestine's 750,000 residents. About 300,000 more immigrants arrived in the next 15 years.

The first "battle" of the Arab-Israeli conflict occurred in August of 1929 when violent clashes left 133 Jews killed by Palestinians and 110 Palestinians killed by the British forces. The Arab discontent and anger was once again displayed when they held a general strike in 1936. By that time, a militant Zionist group, Irgun Z vai Leu mi, was planning attacks against Palestinian and British targets with the goal of "liberating" Palestine and Trans-Jordan, which is modern day Jordan, by force. In July of 1937, Britain, in a commission headed by Lord Peel, recommended partitioning the land into a Jewish state and a Arab one. In this recommendation, the Jews would of gotten a third of Palestine including Galilee and the coastal plain. Arab and more specifically Palestinian representatives objected to this proposal and demanded an end to the Jewish migration and the establishment of a single, unified, arab, state with provisions to protect minority (Jewish) rights.

By 1947, the British gave the UN the responsibility of handling the conflict and coming up with a resolution. The area was infested with fighting against the native Arabs and the immigrant Jews. Jews owned about 6% of the land at that time. The situation further escalated with the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing the Nazis. The UN set up a special committee to deal with the issue. The committee recommended splitting the territory into two separate states.

A Jewish one and a Arab one. The Jews accepted this, their Arab counter parts did not. The partition gave 56.47% of Palestine to the Jews and 43.53% of the land to the Arabs, with an international enclave around Jerusalem. On November 29, 1947, 33 nations voted for the partition, 13 against, and 10 abstained. The plan was rejected by the Palestinians and never implemented.

Britain then announced it would terminate its Palestinian mandate in May 15, 1948. The English people did not approve of the British presence in Palestine. Britain resented the fact that America was pressuring it to allow more Jewish refugees into Palestine, which was to foreshadow American support for Israel. Arab and Jewish forces knew a confrontation was coming, and thus mobilized their forces. A Jewish "clearing force" started wiping out Palestinian villages by December of 1947. On May 14th 1948, Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv.

The declaration would come into effect the following day when the last of the British troops would pull out of Israel. 1948 had begun with Arab and Jewish forces striking attacks on each other's territories. Jewish forces, backed by the Irgun and Lehi militant groups, made more progress than their Palestinian counter parts. They conquered substantial land allocated to a Palestinian state. Irgun and Lehi massacred the inhabitants of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem on April 9, 1948. Word of the massacre spread and fear of the militant Jewish group drove thousands of Palestinians to flee to Egypt, Trans-Jordan, and Lebanon.

Jewish armies won battles in Galilee, Negev, and all of the coastal plain. One day after the state of Israel was declared, five arab armies consisting of Syrian, Iraqi, Egyptian, Lebanese, and Jordanian forces invaded Israel. They were quickly crushed by the Israeli army. Armistices establish Israel's borders on the frontier of the British mandate Palestine. Egypt took the Gaza strip while Jordan annexed the area around East Jerusalem known as the West Bank. However, these two areas only made up 25% of British Mandated Palestine.

Ever since 1948, Arab leaders had engaged in competition to see who would lead Arab forces against Israel. Palestinians had merely been onlookers. Thus, in January of 1964, Arab governments created a Palestinian governmental body- The Palestinian Liberation Organization, or the PLO. Yasser Arafat wanted a genuinely independent Palestinian body, which the PLO was not when it was created. He made this his goal when he took over the organization in 1969. His Fatah movement, which was created in 1964 in secret, had gained acclaim among the Arab world for its armed resistance against Israel.

They had become widely known when Fatah troops inflicted heavy casualties in Karam eh, Jordan in 1968. Tensions between Arabs and Israelis escalated into a war which lasted six days, appropriately called the Six-Day War, from June 5-11, 1967. Israeli forces seized Gaza and the Sinai from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria. They were also able to push Jordanian forces back in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Egypt's powerful air force was destroyed on the first day of fighting when Israeli jets bombed them in a pre-emptive strike. The territorial gains doubled Israel's size.

The UN issued Security Council Resolution Number 242, stressing, "The admissibility of the acquisition of territory by war". Resolution 242 called on Israel to "Withdraw Israeli forces from the territories occupied in the recent conflict". According to the UN, another 500,000 Palestinians were displaced by the war. Egyptian and Syrian diplomats tried to gain their lands back, with no success. Thus, Egyptian and Syrian forces launched an offensive against Israel on the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur, 1973. Initially, the Arab forces made advancements into Sinai and the Golan Heights.

These were lost after 3 weeks of fighting. Israel eventually made gains beyond the '67 cease fire lines. In Egypt, Israeli forces regained territory and advanced to the western side of the Suez Canal. The USA, USSR, and UN all made efforts to stop the fighting.

This war left Israel more dependant on the US for military, diplomatic, and economic support. Soon after the Yom Kippur war, Saudi Arabia led a oil embargo on the United States and The Netherlands for their support of Israel during the war. The embargo was disastrous in the US. It lasted until March of 1974. In the 1970's, under Arafat's leadership, PLO factions and other militant groups carried out terrorist attacks on Israel. During the 1972 Olympiad, a militant Palestinian group known as Black September, held Israeli athletes hostage and ended up killing 11 of them.

In 1974, Arafat made his first appearance in the UN proclaiming, "Today I come bearing an Olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the Olive branch fall from my hand". A year later, Harold Sanders, a US State Department official, acknowledged "Palestinian interests must be taken into account if we are to achieve peace". In 1977, Israel's right wing He rut party (now Likud) came into power. They were established by the militant groups which were instrumental in establishing Israel in 1948. Once in power, their goal was to put "facts on the ground" to prevent any more compromises with the territorial gains Israel had made in the 1967 war.

They started a program of building settlements throughout "Palestinian lands". Ariel Sharon, as agricultural minister, was in charge of this until 1981.1978 turned out to be a monumental year for the Middle East. Egyptian president Anwar Saddat amazed the world when he flew to Israel and delivered a speech to the Knesset November 19, 1977. Saddat became the first Arab leader to recognize Israel. Saddat joined the Israeli prime minister in Camp David, Maryland, along with US president Jimmy Carter, to hammer out a peace plan. In September of 1978, the Camp David Peace Accords were signed.

It included some autonomy for the Palestinians. A joint Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty was signed by Saddat and Israeli prime minister Menachem in March of 1979. The Sinai was returned to Egypt. Arab states boycotted Egypt for making peace with Israel. Saddat was assassinated in 1981 by militant Islamists who were opposed to peace with Israel. Many were arrested for the assassination, one of those being Ayman Al-Zawahiri who went on to terrorize Americans on September 11, 2001.

Also in 1979, a revolution in Iran occurred. Israeli prime minister Menachem said, "We " ve lost our greatest ally in the middle east". The Israeli army launched a major incursion into Lebanon in the summer of 1982. Operation "Peace for Galilee" was intended to wipe out Palestinian guerilla bases near Israel's northern border. However, under Ariel Sharon, who was then defense minister, the Israeli army pushed all the way to Beirut and expelled the PLO from the country.

The invasion was triggered by the attempt to kill the Israeli ambassador to England, Shlomo Argo vs. by the Palestinian group Abu Nida l. Israeli troops reached Beirut by August. A cease-fire agreement allowed for the departure of PLO fighters from the country, leaving Palestinian refugees defenseless. The leader of the Christian Phalange Militia was killed by a bomb planted in their headquarters in September of 1982.

From September 16-18, the phalangilists, allied to Israel, killed hundred of Palestinians in the Sabra and Sha tila refugee camps as they were encircled (and thus unable to flee) by Israeli troops. Ariel Sharon resigned from his post as defense minister because of the criticism he received due to the massacres. In 1987, the Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, began. Mass protests in streets, boycotts, terrorist strikes, were all part of the Intifada.

Israeli forces responded. There were almost 1,000 deaths until it ended in 1993. By 1988, the PLO sought peace, or so they said. Israel, with all its military might, was unable to totally silence in the intifada. The PLO, which had headquarters in Tunis since its expulsion from Beirut, feared it would loose its role as a main player in the Palestinian "revolution" as focus shifted away from the Palestinian diaspora situation to the occupied territories ordeal.

The Palestinian Nation Council convened in Algeria in November of 1988 and voted to accept a two state "solution" based on the 1947 UN partition resolution (181), renounced terrorism and seek negotiations based on Resolution 242. The US thus began dialog with the PLO. However, Israel continued to view the PLO as a terrorist organization with which it would not negotiate. Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir proposed elections in the occupied territories and promised to negotiate with the government of the winner of the elections. The elections were internationally monitored to make sure of no foul play. Yasser Arafat won.

In 1991, after the US drove Saddam's Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, US attention focused heavily on the middle east. Then US secretary James Baker made several visits to the area to prepare the groundwork for a summit. Syria agreed to attend, wanted to negotiate for the Golan Heights. Jordan also accepted. However, Shamir refused to talk directly to the PLO "terrorists". Thus, a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation was formed with prominent Palestinian figures, who were not from the PLO.

The summit was to be held in Madrid, Spain. In a rare show of discord with Israel, the US withheld 10 billion dollars worth of aid because Israel had built more settlements in the occupied territories just days before the summit. The historic summit began on October 30, 1991. Each side was given 45 minutes to discuss their case. After the summit, the US set up bilateral meetings in Washington between Israel and Syria. With the election of left-winger Yitzhak Rabin in 1992, a period of peace was ushered in.

Israel immediately lifted the ban on PLO members from the bilateral Washington meetings. Foreign minister Shimon Peres and his deputy Yossi Berlin explored the possibility of activating a secret "forum" for talks, facilitated by Norway. The Washington talks were going nowhere so the secret "Oslo Track" opened on January 20, 1993 in the Norwegian town of Sarpsborg. There was unprecedented harmony between the two sides. The PLO agreed to recognize Israel in return for Israel to begin dismantling its occupation. Negotiations eventually culminated in the signing of the Declaration of Principles, signed in the White House Lawn and sealed with a historic handshake between Rabin and Arafat.

By 1995, after a year of Palestinian self rule in Jericho and Gaza, there were still terrorist attacks against Israel and discord among everybody involved. Israel continued building settlements and assassinated militants. Opposition to the peace grew in the Israeli right wing and nationalists. However, on September 24, 1995, the so called "Oslo II" accords were signed in Taba, Egypt, and countersigned on the 28th in Washington. Oslo II wasn't liked among Palestinians, while the Israeli religious right was furious about giving up "Jewish lands". Rabin was assassinated by a militant Israeli on November 4, 1995.

Shimon Peres became prime minister. The conflict returned in full force in 1996 with a series of suicide bombings carried out by militant Islamic groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It was countered by a three week bombardment of Lebanon by Israeli forces. Peres narrowly lost the election to right wing Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, who campaigned against the Oslo accords. Netanyahu inflamed Arabs by allowing more settlements to be built in arab lands occupied by Israel. He also gave the go ahead for the a tunnel, for "Architectural purposes", to be built under the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Under US pressure, Netanyahu did hand over 80% of Hebron in January 1997. He signed the Wye River Memorandum on October 23, 1998, which further outlined Israeli withdrawals from occupied territories, specifically the West Bank. The five year interim period defined by Oslo I for a final resolution was passed on May 4, 1999. Ehud Barak became prime minister after Netanyahu. Barak concentrated on peace with Syria, which was also unsuccessful. He did however fulfill his campaign promise to end Israel's occupation of Lebanon.

Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000. Hezbollah, the Shia Islamic militant group dedicated to fighting Israelis in Lebanon, rejoiced. President Bill Clinton invited Arafat and Barak to Camp David for peace talks to hammer out a final deal. Barak made many concessions, but Arafat refused.

He said it did allowed Jewish settlements to remain in Arab lands, and that's why he refused- according to him. The Israeli public did not take kindly to Barak's concessions, and thus voted in hardliner Ariel Sharon into office. Sharon had instigated another intifada when he visited the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. His history with settlements and the Lebanese massacres triggered outrage. He has also said he should have killed Arafat when he had the chance in the 80's.

Sharon's policy was and is harsh. Suicide bombing continues. No end to the conflict is in sight. Both sides have arguments to back their claims. The Israelis argue that they were in that land since ancient times and that it is their ancestral home. Also, they site the Torah and Bible which claims that Israel is the eternal home of the Jewish people.

From the start of the Zionist movement, their goal was to migrate into Palestine as much as possible. Once Israel was formed, the Israelis were fighting for survival. They wanted to be recognized and live in peace after 1948. The Palestinian argument is just as sound as the Israeli one. They too had a presence in the land in ancient times, just not as "numerous" as the Jewish had. They made the land their sovereign home with the Arab conquest 638 A.D...

Israel's argument for the occupied lands it has today is that it won them "fair and square". Well, Palestinians argue that they won the land which is now Israel "fair and square" in 638 A.D. and that it was stolen from them. They have no "country" per se. They want a place to call their own. The current status of the peace talks is... there are no talks. The US spearheaded the effort to try to calm the violence.

US special envoy George Mitchell led an inquiry into the intifada scouring for its causes. Mitchell submitted a plan, called the Mitchell Plan, to end the violence and get both sides back on the negotiating table. CIA director George Tenet negotiated a cease-fire, but that, just like the Mitchell plan, failed to stop the cycle of death and violence. Saudi Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al- Saud has issued his "plan for peace".

It calls on Israel to withdraw to its pre-1967 borders in return for full diplomatic relations, normalized trade, and security guarantees from Arab countries. On February 26, 2002, European Union foreign minister chief Javier Solana announced he would be going to Saudi Arabia on the 24th of February to discuss the plan with the crown prince. In the press release proclaiming the visit, Solana said he had discussed it with Ariel Sharon and said he thought the plan was "Interesting and wanted to hear more". White house spokesman Ari Fleischer said in his daily press briefing that President Bush applauds the Saudi initiative. However, he did say the Bush administration will stand behind its own Mitchell plan. In conclusion, the Arab-Israeli conflict is the bloodiest one of the 20th century, and it isn't slowing down.

On the contrary, tensions seem to be heating up. Israel blockaded Arafat's compound and would not let him leave recently. Only two days ago did they allow him to leave the compound but will not let him leave the city of Ramallah. Peace can and will prevail, but not under Sharon and Arafat.