The Arab-Israeli Conflict

Paper Summary:

This paper presents an interesting look into the Arab-Israeli conflict. It covers the conflict from the early 1900s, up to and including the current Intifada that began in 2000. It also discusses such subjects as the historical background of European Zionism, the emergence of Zionist terrorism during the ill-fated British Mandate and the birth of Israel as the result of a UN vote. According to this author, it is the continued Israeli occupation and not, the refusal of many Arab countries, or of the Palestinians, to recognize the right of Israel to exist, that is at the root of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

From the Paper:

"Since 1967, the Palestinians have become bitterly reconciled to the existence of the state of Israel. They have no choice but to do so: Israel is the only power in the region with nuclear weapons. It also has the US for its major backer. (Each year Israel receives between $4 billion and $5 billion a year, mostly in military aid, from American taxpayers.) What Palestinians have demanded since 1967, and are still demanding, is that
Israel withdraws from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, so that the Palestinian state envisaged in the UN resolution of 1947 can be created. In the meantime, they live in a "protracted state of political subjugation and economic dependence" (Morris 568).
The most critical development in recent years is the Israeli policy of settling the occupied territories with Jewish families. Settlement expansion into the occupied territories was first advocated by the Movement for the Whole Land of Israel and has been official policy in Israel since the rise of the Menachem Begin's Likud (Revisionist Zionist) party to power in May 1977. Between 1977 and 1984, one hundred new settlements were built on occupied land (Morris 567). By 2001, as many as 400,000 Israelis had been settled in areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem and its environs. As a result of the illegal settlements, public opinion in many countries has grown much more sensitive to the Palestinians' plight. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Palestinian cause was not always highly regarded outside the Muslim world on account of its resort to sensational acts of terrorism. However, by the mid-1980s, the PLO was viewed increasingly as representing the victims of the conflict. Many informed people have since come to the conclusion that the well-armed and financed Israelis are no longer simply defending the right of their tiny little state to exist, but are actively using their powers to oppress the Palestinians and prevent them from founding the state to which they are entitled."

More papers on The Arab-Israeli Conflict:

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• Analytical Essay # 112631 : "The Arab-Israeli Conflict"
• Persuasive Essay # 145214 : "The Arab-Israeli Conflict"

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