posted on Mar, 3 2004 @ 04:15 PM
OK DONT CARE POSTING ANYWAY
HAHAHHAHA..im bored
Palestine or Israel?
Searching for an Unbiased History of the Arab Israeli Conflict
The Arab Israeli Conflict is one of the longest lasting and most heavily disputed conflicts in history. Spanning for hundreds of years, the land
now known as Israel has been fought over, conquered, and ruled by alternating nations and religions. Many believe the struggle to be strictly over
land, and others see it as a religious battle. Nearly every book, website, or speaker has a bias toward either the Israelis or Palestinians, making a
clear view of the conflict almost impossible. Zionist movement, the many wars, and the many unsuccessful peace talks have all made this conflict such
a fierce and inclined one. Hopefully, with time the Arab-Israeli Conflict will be solved somewhat and we will be able to prevent this from happening
in the future.
The Arab-Israeli conflict has stretched for hundreds of years. The once Jewish controlled land was taken over time and again by different empires
until finally a steady people lived there, the Palestinians. However, in 1882 the Zionist Movement came about. The principles of Zionism were that the
Jews needed to claim Palestine and create a Jewish nation. The Jewish reasons for obtaining Palestine are their strong hold and belief in their
biblical promise that the holy land around Jerusalem was theirs and that they must, as a young Jewish boy named Gunter David states, �Go with God.�
The Jews also hold a strong claim on the land as reconciliation for the Holocaust and other acts of anti-Semitism. The Palestinians dispute this,
saying that they have inhabited the land for many years without interruption and they hold the demographic majority. But the Zionist movement pressed
on, and by 1914 the Jewish population in Palestine was 60,000. The movement was more momentous than expected; when out of the 60,000 Jews in
Palestine, over 33,000 of them were immigrants who became residents in only the past 10 years. However, the majority of orthodox Jews who had lived in
Palestine before the movement were very anti-Zionist. They believed that only God could bring them together and there was no sense in moving to a
foreign land just because someone said it was promised. Yet after World War II, many anti-Zionists supported the movement or kept secret in fear of
being persecuted for anti-Semitism. Some may see the migration and conquering of Palestine to be unsupported, but the Israelis strong motivations give
their efforts of creating a Jewish nation a valid background. Redrose, the pseudonym for a young Israeli girl, believes that Israel is in fact their
promised land and that the Jewish people must �stick to the fight more than ever.� It was a time of martyrs and soldiers for the Jews, but the
Palestinians merely saw the cruel treatment of their people. The Palestinians saw the Israelis come into their land and destroy everything that was
once Palestine. The Zionism that was sweeping the land was a brushfire engulfing their nation, and as put by a young Palestinian girl by the name of
Ibtisam S. Barakat, �our lives, and all things Palestinian, were marked for destruction by a fire that would not be put out.�
The conflict brought about many struggles within the past century alone. Four major wars, the 1948 War of Independence, the 1956 Sinai War, the 1967
Six Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and the daily battles between the Israelis and Palestinians have all taken countless lives and accomplished
little ceasefire. The Israelis, showing their great defensive superiority to the Palestinians, won each war yet the Palestinians stay strong and bring
upon a new wave of attacks, showing their relentlessness. The nations, despite endless attempts of peace, cannot end the battle. The constant peace
treaties seem to act as the calm before the storm, as they merely delay the fighting. The fighting always returns until a new treaty is signed and the
vicious cycle repeats itself. Even during periods of peace, Wadad Saba, a Palestinian girl, remembers seeing �Israeli soldiers kicking Arab boys,
overturning fruit carts, beating up children to the point of breaking their bones, forcing Palestinian shopkeepers to close their shops, and
bulldozing and wrecking Arab homes.� The Palestinians fought back however, most well known by Yasser Arafat and other individuals leading violent
attacks on Jews that spanned for decades. But alongside the endless terror is the endless struggle for peace and harmony within the nation. Probably
the most popular hope for peace was the secret talks in Oslo between Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres. The treaty they signed, the
Declaration of Principles, won the three men the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize. But even after this historic treaty, violence ensued. Redrose was also
recalled saying that she was still �trying to think positively,� through the danger but that the peace was just being thought of �naively� and would
not last. Pessimistic but true, this na�ve sense of hope seems to have been present in this warring nation for centuries, and treaty after treaty does
not seem to be able to end the battle.
The Arab-Israeli conflict is a historic battle of religion, land, and culture. Yet this historic battle is being lived out before our very eyes, as
history repeats itself without ceasing and without and conclusion to be seen in the distant future. This war has waged for centuries in the past and
hopefully not for centuries in the future. The path is an uncertain one, as we must study and understand the mistakes taken in the past and strategize
how to avoid them in the future. The conflict in itself is inevitable, a classic story of man versus man in a struggle who�s purpose has become more
unclear with time. As long as the Israeli and Palestinian youth are raised in a society taught to hate the other, the conflict will never come to a
peaceful closure. Once an unbiased knowledge and understanding is reached, the new generations from these nations will be able to come together and
hopefully create a beacon of peace to restore justice and union the torn land of Palestine and Israel.
sorry, i know its long but yeah whateva