# The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict



## S.M. grimbldoo (Apr 13, 2012)

One of the most popular ongoing acts of intolerance happens in Israel. The Jews and the Palestinians constantly fight over the land known as Israel or Palestine. Neither side is willing to give into the other and the violence only escalates for both groups. The main reason behind the stubbornness is a religious one. Both the Jews and the Palestinians believe that Israel or Palestine was promised to them by God, and therefore is rightfully theirs.

            The Hebrews captured the land of Canaan and inhabited it until they were finally expelled by the Roman Empire which left the land open to invasion by Muslim Arabs. The main reason that the Jews constantly returned to Israel after each diaspora was that they believed that it was promised to them by God. Abraham was the man that this promise was given to, Reich wrote:
According to the Bible, Jewish history began with the patriarch Abraham, his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob. The book of Genesis relates how Abraham (Abram) was summoned to be the founder of the new people in a new land (Genesis 12:1) with a new belief in one God. God made a covenant with Abraham, promising to protect, aid, and support him and his descendants. (1)
This is why the Jews believe that they are entitled to the land of Israel. The prophet Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and into to the desert. Joshua successfully led the Israelites and captured the land of Canaan. The Israelites inhabited the land for over fifteen hundred years and were occasionally expelled from the land for short periods of time until they were finally fully expelled in the Jewish diaspora by the Roman Empire and they could not resecure control for long periods of time. When the Romans expelled the Jews, they renamed the land Palestine, but the empire fell shortly after and the land was open to invasion. After the Jews were expelled, Arab speaking Muslims conquered the land and inhabited it, “In the two thousand years after most of the Jewish population was killed off by the Romans or forced to leave, Arabic-Speaking Muslims became the dominant ethnic group” this is expulsion was also slightly different than the others as the Jews were killed in large numbers and violently forced to leave (“The Israeli-Palestine Conflict”). Palestine became the homeland for many Arab Muslims for about two thousand years, but the Jews never stopped returning.

            Ever since the Jews were expelled, they had been slowly immigrating back to Palestine, especially during and after World War II, which made Palestinians afraid that they might lose their homeland. Jews had never stopped returning to Palestine because it was the center of Jewish worship and much of Jewish culture (Isseroff). The cultural and religious connections are what fed the constant stream of immigrants, but oppression increased the number of travelers. The increase occurred because the, “oppression of Jews in Eastern Europe stimulated emigration of Jews to Palestine” the greatest oppression towards Jews was in Europe and most of came from the Roman Catholic Church (Isseroff). One event that the Jews fled from was the Spanish Catholic Inquisition, even during the crusades the Jews were killed by the crusaders in their own homeland. There were also Zionists, or radical Jews seeking to return to the “holy land” who constantly immigrated and thought up ways for the Jews to officially move back. World War I also caused more Jews to flee to Palestine, but what made the largest surge of immigration was World War II. World War II held possibly the worst event in the history of the Jews, the Holocaust. Millions of Jewish people were slaughtered in the Holocaust and many fled into Palestine as a result. This surge in immigrants worried the Palestinians and caused problems. Many solutions for the problem were looked, and one was chosen.

            As other countries looked upon the conflict, they decided that the best solution was to give a part of Palestine to the Jews for and Israeli state, many Palestinians did not agree with this. After World War II, Britain and France divided the Middle East, Britain took Palestine. British Foreign Minister, Lord Aurther Balfour, declared that Britain supported the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine (Binen “The British Mandate in Palestine”) One of the reasons that Britain supported this was to have an ally in the Middle East. They believed that there would be great benefits from this and they were afraid that Germany might step in before they did, and take the benefits. The only problem with this was that while the Zionists were in favor, the Palestinians were not. The Palestinians felt that they were in danger of being expelled and they did not like the idea of being under Jewish rule (Isseroff). Eventually, the Jewish people were given part of Palestine, which did not sit well with the Palestinians nor the neighboring countries.

           Because the Jewish people were given part of Palestine for and Israeli state, several of the Arab countries went o twat against the Jews in order to get back to the land. The Jews argued that the land was rightfully theirs because it was promised to their forefather Abraham, but the Palestinians claim that they are also descendants of Abraham so the land was equally their and that they could not be exiled for that reason. Nevertheless, the Jews moved in to their section of Palestine and the residing Palestinians were forced to move. This even also angered neighboring countries as well as the Palestinians and actions were taken against the Jews. The action taken was to go to war, “On May 15, 1948, Palestinians, aided by Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iran launched a war to prevent Jewish independence and to secure control of Western Palestine” Since Britain had already pulled out of the area, the Arabs went to war against Israel in an attempt to take back the land, the only problem was that Israel’s military was aided by the U.S. and therefore, more difficult to defeat (Salvato). The support from the U.S. was very helpful as the Israelites were able to defend themselves and push back the Arabs. The Arabs lost and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled as they were expelled (“The Israeli-Palestine Conflict”). This event holds some irony in the fact that now all of Palestine was under Jewish control because the Arabs attacked Israel, when only a portion of Palestine was originally given to the Jews. This may have been the war that allowed Israel to have all of Palestine, but it was not the last one.

            The war that was caused by the creation of the Israeli state is still ongoing and has left many Palestinians as refugees. The fighting has now been raging for a long period of time. The wars have been going on for over sixty years and the death toll and acts of terrorism only make either side more willing to fight, or less willing to give up (‘The Israeli-Palestine Conflict”). This, obviously, has been come a never ending spiral that only gets worse. The deaths and terrorism add to the tension and hate, which fuel the fighting, which causes more deaths and more acts of terrorism. This pattern simply repeats and repeats and it will not be stopped until one side decides to take an alternative action towards peace. The Palestinians also have great trouble with being refugees.  The biggest problem that the refugees have is that, “The Arab countries refused to permanently house the Palestinian Arab refugees” the reason behind this is that the Arab countries believe that Israel rightfully belongs to the Palestinians, so they will not be defeated by allowing the Palestinians to live anywhere else than Israel (“The Arab-Israeli Conflict”). On top of not having permanent housing, the Palestinians are not able to have many or the privileges that they had before. An example would be that they are not allowed to form their own independent governments in areas that have been annexed by Jordan or Egypt. On the contrary, they are allowed to form terrorist groups so that they may fight back against the Jews. This growing conflict only ever worsens and does not seem to have an end.

            Neither the Jews nor the Palestinians are willing to let the other have the land of Israel, locking them into an eternal conflict. The tension between the groups grows daily and never lightens, only worsens. Both groups have fought for a long period of time and have experienced no change in their statuses. The wars continue on strongly and the two groups cannot come to a conclusion, the end is still not in sight.


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## S.M. grimbldoo (Apr 13, 2012)

*Works Cited*

“The Arab-Israeli Conflict.” _Isra__ël–Palestina Informative_. Israel-Palestina Informative, 16 Jun.      2008. Web. 24 Mar. 2012. <http://israel-palestina.info/arab-israeli_conflict.html>.

Binen, Joel and Lisa Hajjar. “Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Primer.” _MERIP_.    Middle East Research and Information Project. n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. <http://www.merip.org/palestine-israel_primer/intro-pal-isr-primer.html>.

“The Israeli-Palestine Conflict.” _Historyguy.com_. Roger A. Lee and HistoryGuy Media. 6 Feb. 2012. <http://www.historyguy.com/israeli-palestinian_conflict.html>.

Isseroff, Ami. “Israel and Palestine: A Brief History - Pat I.” _MEW_. MidEastWeb for Coexistence RA. 10 June 200-. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. <http://www.mideastweb.org/briefhistory.htm>.

Reich, Bernard. _A Brief History of Israel: Second Edition_. New York, NY: Checkmark Books, 2008. Print.

Salvato, Nancy. “A Brief History of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.” _The New Media Journal_. The New Media Journal.us, 4 June 2010. Web. 24 Mar. 2012. <http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/nsalvato/2010/06042010.htm>.


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## S.M. grimbldoo (Apr 13, 2012)

This is my research project for English Honors 10


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## Kevin (Apr 13, 2012)

Is this a draft? Did you want some feedback? Does this kind of thing interest you? I mean, uh, world history/ current conflicts etc.? (I love this stuff, myself..) Anyway, very nice.


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## Divus (Apr 13, 2012)

Some light is shown down a dark hole, the problem is that the dark hole is too deep for the light to reach the bottom.


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## S.M. grimbldoo (Apr 13, 2012)

Kevin said:


> Is this a draft? Did you want some feedback? Does this kind of thing interest you? I mean, uh, world history/ current conflicts etc.? (I love this stuff, myself..) Anyway, very nice.


 It is actually my second draft. All feedback is accepted, but I already have the final draft that I will turn in when I get to school today. I do love this stuff as well, mostly the learning part but teaching it is also fun.



Divus said:


> Some light is shown down a dark hole, the problem is that the dark hole is too deep for the light to reach the bottom.


 Very profound.


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## bazz cargo (Apr 13, 2012)

Hi S.M.,
A clear statement of the historical reasons behind the current conflict. There are a few typos, I don't know if you have corrected them in your master copy.


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## S.M. grimbldoo (Apr 13, 2012)

bazz cargo said:


> Hi S.M.,
> A clear statement of the historical reasons behind the current conflict. There are a few typos, I don't know if you have corrected them in your master copy.


 Thanks. I fixed some typos, but I think there were a few left.


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## bazz cargo (Apr 14, 2012)

> Thanks. I fixed some typos, but I think there were a few left.


Only Amber Leaf is perfect...


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## jakebarrington (Apr 16, 2012)

I think it's good, not a whole lot of writing. But it's good content.


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## S.M. grimbldoo (Apr 16, 2012)

jakebarrington said:


> I think it's good, not a whole lot of writing. But it's good content.


It was rushed a bit. I didn't get to read my sources as much as I would have wanted to.


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## Divus (Apr 18, 2012)

A Grim History,

The  issue, namely the Jewish versus Arab right to occupy Palestine, is one which can  leave an uninformed reader mystified.        The  dispute has been running  almost since organised life began.        Even today there is no sign  that the two parties will ever come together in lasting agreement.         Somehow neither side can see themself  living in harmony and sharing the territory.       Inevitably ongoing and mutual hate has become engraved  indelibly in the minds of both sides, as your list of historical facts records.

As yet no impartial statesman has ever come up with  a solution acceptable to both sides.       The danger is  that one day this dispute might be the spark to light a  world war which would not only leave the contested land of Palestine as a derelict wasteland but which would reverberate around the world.

What your article lacks is any conclusion as to  the current  situation  yet you have researched the subject and read the books.      Maybe one day you ought to visit the tortured region yourself so as to meet with the personalities involved.          Perhaps you can make some sense out of all the intolerance.

Sadly it is noticeable then when religions play a central part in any  fundamental dispute then there might be no conclusion because the next generation will pick up the baton wherever the previous generation dropped it.


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