Arabs And The Jews example essay topic

The conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis erupted after the partition made by Great Britain on November 29, 1947. Immediately after the decision to make Israel a separate, independent state, there were massive attacks on both sides. Upon reading the first set of articles, I felt that the Palestine's unnecessarily attacked the Jews and that they deserved the land being given to them. But the first set of articles I read were incredibly biased toward the Jewish perspective and, I think that because of this, I presented a distorted view of the situation. Now that I have read the second packet, I understand that many of the Arabs must have felt helpless about the situation, and even startled by the numerous attacks and massacres by the Israelis. I now believe that the reason that the fighting started was because both sides felt that they had an obligation to uphold their religious beliefs and, also, justification to do what they did.

Both the Arabs and the Jews felt that it was their sacred duty to keep or regain their land. The Arabs thought of the partition as an automatic declaration of war against them. Therefore, they thought that they had to counter-attack the Jews in order to keep their land. One of the biggest massacres that the Jews waged on the Arabs was the attack on Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948, when 250 men, women, and children where killed. The first set of articles that we read did not mention anything about the ruthlessness of this massacre.

Since the articles were biased toward the Jews, I do not think that they wanted the reader to know what really happened. In the first set of articles, they never really gave a set explanation of why so many Arabs fled their homes so quickly. If the Jews were as inadequately equipped as they claimed to be, I do not think that as many Arabs would have emigrated so readily. On the other hand, the second set of articles was biased toward the Arabs, so they might have exaggerated the facts a little bit.

According to the Arabs, it was the most barbaric and 'calculated massacre' yet. It caused many of the Arabs to flee their homes in terror; which is exactly what the Jews wanted. The Jews made themselves out to be the 'helpless ones,' but I believe that they were the most ruthless, and that is why many of the Arabs fled instead of fighting for their country. The worst part about the massacre was that it was planned and carried out by former Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin. After committing such a terrible deed, he was allowed to reign over Israel for years after that. The massacre at Deir Yassin terrified the Arabs of Palestine.

Part of the reason that so many Arabs fled was due to the announcement made about the massacre by Dr. Hussein Khalid i, Secretary General of the Arab high committee. He announced the massacre in such a frantic way, that all the Arabs in range of Jewish attacks panicked and were instigated to leave their homes. It was the combination of the Deir Yassin massacre itself, and all the hype, which caused many Arabs to flee their homes in terror. After summarizing both packets, I still cannot clearly say who was more at fault in this situation. The Arabs were simply defending the land that had belonged to them for so many years.

And the Jews were fighting for that same land because it was given to them by a partition that remained unrecognized by the Arabs. Both sides felt that they were right about the situation, and, therefore, massive fighting broke out. The fighting sparked as a result of the partition so I think that the British are largely to blame for the fighting. The United Nations should have thought about the results of such a partition resolution. They never took into account that, obviously, the Jews would want to regain their land immediately.

The lesson to be learned from all of this is that even though something sounds good on paper, it should be well thought out before actually being put into action.