Jewish Nationalism And The Zionist example essay topic

The study of international relations is very broad and complex. It is the study of nations and states and how they are formed. It is also the study of measures, such as revolutions and wars, that create different nations and states and the reasons behind such measures. One important concept in international relations is the view of nationalism. Nationalism is a part of every nation and state and thus is relevant to each country. An important geographical area where nationalism relates directly to the events occurring today would be in the Middle East where nationalistic views of two different nations, that of Jews and Arabs, coincide to create a very volatile conflict that has run its course for nearly a whole century.

A "nation" is defined as a group with a common culture, language, folkways, and values. A "state" refers to a government in control of territory and population. For example, Israel is a state and a nation since it consists mainly of Jews. However, Palestine is a nation because it consists of Arabs with a common culture, but not a State, since the International community does not recognize it as one. Nationalism is the view that a nation and state in a specific area should coincide.

It is the view that says that a specific group with a common culture should be allowed to form its own state and thus its own form of government to govern itself. Thus, nationalism is related to every country and so is very important in the study of International relations. The most damaging weakness in Nationalism is that Nationalism may cause a culture to consider itself superior to all other cultures. This in turn may be used as a justification to eliminate other groups. A prime example is that of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. But, on the other hand, this superior attitude towards other cultures could cause severe tension between whoever is involved, and in turn cause the inferior country to lash out causing a conflict or in this case war.

Thus, nationalism is one of the important causes of revolutions, borders, and wars even in the world today. An important geographical area where the affects and causes of nationalism can be seen with clarity is the Middle East. The history of the Middle East is long and very complex relating back to more than three thousand years. The main conflict in the area today is between Jews and Arabs.

This is a long-run conflict that has many problems to overcome. However, to understand these problems, we must first try and understand the history of how the problems came to be. The current problems in the Middle East relate back to more than an entire century. In the year 1895, a Jewish captain in the French army named Alfred Dreyfus was tried for spying for the enemy Germans. The French newspapers proclaimed Dreyfus as, 'the Jew traitor'. Dreyfus after being tried and convicted, was sentenced to Devil's Island prison to serve his sentence.

However, only after his conviction did the truth come out that Dreyfus was framed and completely innocent. Eventually, Dreyfus was acquitted and set free. During and after the trial a young journalist who was sent to cover the trial, named Theodor Herzl, noticed something that he felt very frightening. He saw mobs of angry French citizens standing outside the courthouse chanting 'death to the Jews'. Herzl was perplexed as to why many French citizens were ready to lynch all Jews for the perceived actions of a single Jew. To young Theodor Herzl, this was the turning point.

Herzl became interested in a Jewish movement called the Zionist movement and thus joined the Zionists. In 1987, he wrote a book entitled "The Jewish State", urging the settlement of Jewish agriculturists and artisans in Palestine to form their own state. This was the beginning of the Jewish Nationalism in the Middle East. In the Zionist movement, Jews felt that they could no longer live as a minority in other people's countries. The Dreyfus affair proved to them that no matter what country or situation, there would always be non-Jews who hate Jews. Many of them felt that they could no longer expect the non-Jewish governments to protect them.

Living in constant fear of the next bloodshed or atrocity was no longer bearable. Because of these reasons, a large number of Jews had a strong desire to have a state of their own in order to escape persecution, and thus the strongest nationalistic movement among the Jewish culture began. The question of where to have a state for their nation was an important one among the Zionist Jews. Many of them felt they had a Biblical obligation to live in and populate the Land of Israel, the land they were exiled from two thousand years ago, and only in Israel could Jews achieve their full potential and create a state for their own security. For them, Israel was the land of promise, the land of Jewish roots and religion.

Jews needed a country of their own to fulfill their national and religious aspirations. For this reason, close to four hundred thousand Jews immigrated to Palestine between 1881 and 1937 and made Jewish settlements by purchasing Palestinian lands from wealthy Arab landlords. In 1917, the British issued a proclamation pledging to establish a, "national home for the Jewish people", in Palestine. This was the first conflict between Jews and Arabs. As the Jewish immigrants influx continued and became stronger, the Arabs felt alarmed and uneasy about the Jewish nationalism and felt threatened that their homes were being invaded and taken over. The Jewish nationalism and the Zionist nationalistic ideals became immensely stronger during World War II during the reign of Hitler in Germany.

Hitler was strongly against Jews and truly believed them to be the mortal enemies of all Germans. His systematic and inhumane extermination of the Jews caused widespread panic among the Jews in Europe. Hitler's massacres strengthened the nationalistic desire among the Jews, who truly believed the only way to guarantee their own safety was to create a state of their own. Withholding this view, a very large number of Jews looked to flee outside Europe to protect themselves from the Nazi occupations and fled towards Palestine. Thus the Jewish immigration in Palestine soared dramatically during World War II and thus escalated the conflict between Arabs and whom they perceived to be invading Jews. Bitter fighting erupted between the two and the British, unable to restore the peace, handed the issue of Palestine over to the United Nations.

The United Nations, taking into consideration the nationalistic desires of both nations, proposed partitioning Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Jewish, with Jerusalem held as trustee of the United Nations. The proposition, welcomed by the Jews, was angrily denied by the Arabs who felt that Palestine was their un divisible homeland for centuries and they should have full rights on all of it. However, the Arabs did not succeed in their pleas and the United Nations council voted in favor of the partition resolution, thus infuriating the Arab community. The Arabs and Jews, unable to come to a compromise, prepared for war. Meanwhile, on May 14, 1948, Israel declared statehood and the U.S. and Russia recognized the new state.

The two nations built up their armies and bought more arms in an effort to force the other side to give. The Arab forces consisted of armies from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. On May 15, the Arab armies invaded the newly formed state of Israel and fighting erupted between the Israeli and Arab armies. After several months, at the end of the fighting Israel was left in possession with an area somewhat larger than the area that it had been allotted in the partition resolution of 1947. The Palestinian state mentioned in the partition resolution was never born. Almost one million Arabs were rendered homeless by the conflict and had to enter the neighboring countries.

These factors thus fortified the Arab sense of nationalism and their desire to have their own independent state similar to that of the Jews during World War II. In this way, Israel's bloody birth set the stage for the continuing problems between the two manifestations of nationalism of Arabs and Jews. The Palestine War of 1948 was not the only major conflict between the two nations in the Middle East. Since then, there has been the Six Day War of 1967, the October War of 1973, the Palestinian Uprising of 1967, and perhaps more recently going on at this very moment the newest surge of Palestinian uprising in Israel that began in September of 2000. There are still tough issues to resolve between the two sides, issues such as Jerusalem, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims.

Since both nations want full sovereignty over the Holy City and nothing less, this has become an important issue in their nationalistic views. Violent conflicts over such continue to spill blood, both Jewish and Arab, and bring more fear and pain into the already desperate situation. These conflicts are a continuing reminder of how nationalism, in this case both Jewish and Arab, can cause revolutions, uprisings, and wars in order for the creation of states. It is a continuing reminder of how nationalism relates to international relations and its importance in each individual country in the world.