Sides Israelis And Arab example essay topic

After World War Two there was great sympathy for the Jewish peoples and the Zionist quest for a homeland received world wide attention. It was decided that the Jewish homeland should be found in Palestine. However this intended solution to the Zionist struggle and the Palestine conflict ended up doing more harm than good. It sparked a whole new wave of conflicts which up to this day still exist in the middle east, and remain a constant cause of economic, political, and religious turmoil in world affairs.

The land of Palestine has been subject to conflicts for centuries due to the different world religions coming together there. The struggle here between the Jews and Arabs goes far back to ancient times; the Jews claimed that it was there "promised land" which was given from God to Abraham, the Arabs on the other hand claimed it to be the land of their forefathers which they had long before the Jews. After World War One the League of Nations assigned Palestine to Great Britain as mandated territory with the assignment to create a Jewish homeland there. The British government proposed the idea of a binational state of Palestine, one Jewish the other Arab, to the United Nations in February 1947. This proposal was voted on in November that same year by the U.N. General Assembly, and was passed with a 2/3 majority. This proposal however was very improbable, as it not only proposed to take a large portion of land away from the Arabs and give it to their most hated opponent, forcing them to flee, but it also gave 54 percent of the land to the Jews although they were outnumbered three to one.

Clearly this "solution" was all but acceptable for the Arabs, and they prepared to fight back. Although a large portion of the land given to the Jews was desert, it is still very likely that this "unjust" division was the result of post-World War Two sympathy for the Jews and the world wide call for a homeland. On May 14th 1948 the state of Israel was announced, the Arab League Secretary, General Azz am Pasha declared "jihad". He said, "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades" and the Arabian states Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt attacked Israel.

Although the Jewish people were hugely outnumbered, they managed to fight back the Arabs and even increase there territory by 50 percent towards the U.N. plan when the war ended 1949. This extraordinary victory can be explained by the facts that the Jews who had before been scattered around the world and persecuted throughout history now had a "homeland" and this spawned a new sense of nationalism. The Jews however were also much better organised and had received military equipment from other countries. After the conflict both nations blamed each other for the conflict, according to Israel, the war resulted from Arab rejection of the U.N. plan, Arabs claim that Israel intended to expand its territory past that assigned by U.N. In 1956 the Suez War erupted, after the Egyptian president Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal and established a blockade of the Straits of Tiran and thus Israel's access to shipment there. The War began as a combined Israeli-British-French operation, in which the British and French hoped to remove Nasser whom they had been growing increasingly impatient of and recapture the Suez Canal since both had stakes here. The Israelis aimed to stop attacks upon Israeli civilians which had been lauchened from Fedayeen camps in Egypt (upon others), and reestablish trade through the canal.

The conflict Ended in a agreement in which Israel reached its objective of stopping terrorism, but the Suez Canal was left in Egyptian hands. Israel even managed to conquer large areas of Sinai, however agreed to withdraw under U.S. pressure, in return for the installation of U.N. separation forces and guarantees of Israeli shipment and a seizing of Egyptian terrorist attacks. This conflict again increased the tension and hatred between the Jews and the Arabs and the willingness of both to fight out conflicts whereever necessary. Although this was not attack upon Israel, and the Israeli's were now fighting an "attacking" war, it did originate from Arab actions. A side effect of this conflict was that the Cold War conflict was further filed, since the U.S. had supported the Israelis and the U.S.S.R. had supported Nasser and the Egyptians. After the Egyptian-Israeli front had been relatively peaceful after the Suez War, and the consequential agreement of the Egyptian Arabs to stop terrorist attacks on Israel, war again broke out again in 1967.

This Six-Day War was a "preemptive" strike by Israel, against Egypt following the "Egyptian preparation for war" as it was claimed by Israel, which it justified by Nasser ordering the leave of U.N. peacekeepers from the Sinai. After having received American blessing to an operation against Egypt the attack of Israeli forces against the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip commenced. After having destroyed the complete airforce capacity of Egypt in one devastating airstrike, Israel had established perfect conditions for its invasion of these territories, and it captured the West Bank and the complete Sinai Peninsula. Against Israel's request to Jordan to refrain from attacking it, both Jordan and Syria began to attack Israeli targets. In response Israel captured the West Bank and the Golan Heights. This Six-Day War was the most catastrophic for the Arab nations, as Israel had now not only proven its ability to fight and defend itself, but also to aggressively strike against Arab countries on its own.

Israel was now a lot more capable of military action and was not dependent on help from western powers. It should be noted that this war again was started again by Israel -although Arab nations took aggressive actions they did not attack- and it now controlled around three times the land that was originally intended for it by the U.N. plan. It can be said that this conflict also marked the peek in conflict between, as no other war has had such shaping impact on the geography of the region. Although Israel continuously claims that it is fighting every conflict only for its protection and out of defensive motives, this does seem quite doubtful when one considers that it now occupies a territory threefold of its own assigned land.

However, the Six-Day War also had positive sides to it, it laid the foundation for future peace negotiations in the region. On November 22, 1967, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 242, the "land for peace" formula, which called for the establishment of a just and lasting peace based on Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967. This was to end the dispute in the region, respect the sovereignty of all states in the area, and the right to live in peace within secure, recognized boundaries. This resolution was hoped to be a big step towards lasting peace in the region, and it was seen to be a practical base of future diplomacy and not military aggression. Nonetheless peace was short-lived, only six years after resolution 242 was put to action war broke out again between the Arabs and Israelis. The Egytian president Nasser had died in 1970, and his successor Sadat was said to be more rational and peaceful, however he was under pressure by his own government and other Arab nations to do something about the (for the Arabs) unacceptable situation in Sinai.

Sadat made several attempts to convince Israel to retreat from the 1967 occupied territories. However this was less in diplomatic but more in a threatening way and did not yield any results. Nasser abandoned politics now and together with Syria and under the support of numerous Arab or Arab friendly nations devised a plan to return the territories to pre-1967 borders (and possibly more). Although Nasser had threatened to use force in order to regain the "stolen" land, the Israeli forces did not take this seriously, probably because they had become numb to the constant threats which were not followed by actions, the Israelis clearly under sti mated the danger and ignored the eminent war, feeling safe and invulnerable after the 1967 war. On October the 8th Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a joint strike, the Syrian forces attacked fortifications in the Golan Heights and the Egyptian forces attacked fortifications around the Suez Canal and on the Sinai Peninsula. After initially suffering heavy losses the Israelis managed to recover and fight back the aggressors to pre-war boundaries, before a armistice was signed again.

This is how the situation more or less remained until the Egytian President Sadat and Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, met with Jimmy Carter, at Camp David from September 5 to September 17 1978. During the twelve days of secret meetings they agree on a "framework for peace in the Middle East". The basis that was agreed upon therefor is the U.N. Resolution 242 in all its parts, thus the Camp David Accords were a great step toward a peaceful future in the region and restored faith into a future without constant threat and terror for both sides Israelis and Arab. The next steps toward continues peace were made at Madrid 1991, Oslo 1993, and Wye River 1998. Madrid was the first meeting which saw almost all affected Nations of the Middle East present and willing to negotiate however little was actually accomplished because the expectations of the different groups were staked to high. Peace talks continued at Oslo two years later, here a lot more was achieved, such as the negotiation "Declaration of Principles" which was signed and then later celebrated in Washington with Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin.

Tragically however this was the last time Rabin made an appearance in peace politics as he was assassinated by a right-wing extremist of his own people, who did not want to accept the fact that Israel was going to give lady to Palestinians. This was a great throwback for peace-talks as Rabin had been among the more cooperative politicians in Israel, and it also showed that even if peace were to exist on a political basis, the hatred between the people was still much deeper routed. The next attempt at grounding a basis for peace which is acceptable for both sides was the Wye River Memorandum of 1998. This agreement, signed bye Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu and P.L.O. Chairman Arafat, has probably had the biggest impact and been the most succesful peace agreement since the Camp David Accords. In it was stated that Israel retreats from 13 percent of the occupied territories, and the P.L. O stop the terrorist attacks, partially disarm, and refrain from hostile actions towards Israel. However a lot of the agreed upon terms were not bound to by both sides, this may be due to the "confusing nature" of the Memorandum which has been claimed by international critics (even being compared to swiss cheese).

Nonetheless it was still a overall successful advance towards lasting accord. It is undeniable that hostilities from the Arab nations never seized to threaten Israel, and vice versa. However with the amount of hatred and distrust in the region this is not suprising. The aversion of both nations for another is routed to deeply as that it could ever be solve through politics. This is why the future looks pretty grim for both sides, since neither will be willing to put down their weapons. A quote from an unknown Jewish source exemplifies this feeling well: "If the Arabs put down their weapons today there would be no more violence.

If the Israelis put down their weapons today there would be no more Israel". The initial issues that lead to the first war in 1948 are still very well present today, and even with numerous wars and countless many "peace solutions" the fact still remains that both sides see themselves as the rightful owners of the land. From this perspective it can be said that almost a century of fighting has changed nothing. However something must be done, and the only thing possible is to hope that the people themselves realise that the fighting is not going to solve the conflict and will find a peaceful solution.