Peace in the Middle East?
Once you have done the reading on the formation of Israel and its aftermath, give your thoughts on the ongoing situation between Israelis and Palestinians. In particular, what opportunities for peace might have been missed since 1948, and what chances are there for peace in the foreseeable future? You might consider events of the last week or so. Keep in mind that this is a fairly sensitive issue for many people, so give your opinions, but try to keep them rooted in fact.
posted by Mr. Hess at 1/30/2006 07:07:00 AM
15 Comments:
The roots of the conflict go back to the time of the Mesopotamians. This conflict is essentially a stalemate because both groups have logical and well-founded claims to the area. The current method of achieving peace is to establish two separate states which is beginning to happen. I believe tha this may solve the problem short term but will not end up brining peace to the region. The Arab nations supporting the Palestinians have shown their belief that nothing less than the whole region will be good enough for the Palestinians and their hatred for the Israelis will keep fueling Palestinian attacks. They are not looking out for the Palestinians, but are simply looking out for their own personal gain in the region. The area is important to the economics of the region and the Israelis are currently in control of the resources. They are flourishing where some arab nations are floundering and until some of the gaps between israel and other nations are closed, peace will not come easily in the region.
It seems to me like the peace process was going along fine until Hamas started the bombings on Israeli civilians. This caused an increased fear in the already uneasy Israelis causing them to vote for Benjamin Netanyahu who was more focused on Isreal's safety than their peace with the rest of the middle eastern world. Everything just snowballed from there, resulting in the closing off of certain areas such as the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This was like taking away all the steps that the Israelis, Palestinians, and Arabs had taken towards peace and now who knows how long it will take before they get back to the stage they were at before the bombings. It may take even longer considering that Hamas is the group that was just elected to rule the Palestinians. If they were the ones who started the bombings because they were objected to the peace process what would cause them to want to negotiate now?
Since I began to understand even the smallest piece of what has been happening between the Israelis and Palestinians there have been suicide bombings. The book relayed the information that Hamas really began the uncontrollable suicide bombings on Israelis that we see on the news each night. It seems now that they have a place of power in the government there really could be no hope for peace on both sides. The only opinion I have on this is a hope that Hamas denounces their terrorism as a valid way to win anything, and will focus on the government. The denouncement of terrorist tactics has happened before as the P.L.O.C. gained power several years ago.
I think the major reason that Palestinians and Israelis outright refused the division offer in 1948 was becuase they wanted to occupy the entire region as their ancestor's right fully had. Back then, it was more of the preservation of tradition and ancestral right that kept them from agreeing to the proposal. But today, many people can argue whether the cause of their hostility and fighting is still this very reason, or if it's solely on the desires of revenge for the past 50 years that is causing them to perservere in their beliefs. I personally believe that peace is possible in the future, but at the moment it does not seem probable, because the newer generation of Israelis and Palestinians have been influenced strongly by and have grown up learning about the hositilites of one group against another.
I believe that Israelis and Palestinians both realize that they need peace but the problem is, like Shamita said, both sides want to occupy the entire region. This is an impossible goal because they could never, independently, occupy the same area. I think that the violence needs to cease which will eventually lead to coexistance which will lead to peace.
Although the conflict over land and who should rightfully control it still exists, I think that the issue has moved more toward engrained prejudices. This conflict started off as being over who should justly control the area of present day Israel according to ancestral rights and so on, but negotiations and compromises have been reached in regard to this aspect. I think this shows that the leaders of both the Palestinians and Israelis understand that neither side can have sole control of the area, so compromises will continue to be made. However, they won't have any affect if the new issue of prejudices isn't addressed. Like Shamita said, the latest generations have grown up dealing with and learning the hostilities of each group. These new learned prejudices and the sense of revenge that exists because of them must be turned aside somehow if peace is going to be reached.
I agree with Kate. I believe that the prejudices and the issues each group has against eachother is going to make peace a far off thing. Each generation for countless years has been taught to hate the other group. From each side's perspective, the other group doesnt have any meaning and the prejudices are now fought out through dangerous violence that is harming many innocent bystanders of this war, creating more hate and terror against the opposing group. In fact, this is so set and stone into tradition and culture, I am sure that peace is in a very distant place from today.
For a while it seemed that there was a chance for peace in Israel with the cession of the Gaza Strip and the elections. However, with Hamas in control, peace may be impossible. Abbas, the old president wants to conduct peace talks independently, but he has little support compared to Hamas. When the world goes over their head refusing to recognize them and talking to Abbas instead, the new government will probably resort to its old millitant tactics. Unless they change their platform to remove the annihilation of Israel, peace is unlikely. Personally I do not see this happening anytime soon, nor how exactly the change could occur.
It seems to me that Palestinians and Israelis are like children who want something but don't really know exactly what they want. Both groups quarrel amongst themselves. The Palestinians are split between Hamas and Abbas. The Israelis are in constant conflict with their own settlers. Both sides need to work on getting a detail goal that their own people can agree with. AS long as they don't agree with themselves then they can't possible agree with eachother.
One of the most crucial parts towards creating peace between the Palestinians and Israelis is to have smart, and responsible leaders. Sadat helped develop peace between Egypt and Israel, aomething which at the time di not seem likely since Egypt was strongly involved with every war with Israel. If Israel can elect a leader, or maybe they already have one, who is willing to make some sacrifices for the country and the Palestinians can find a leader who finally understands that the Arab countries and not Israel are the ones srewing them over, then there is a chance for peace.
The people though need to make an effort to create peace. If the citizens are not willing to try it will never happen. The two closest times they came to peace was with the camp David accords and when Rabin was making progress with the peace negotiations in 1994. Both times a leader was killed by his own people. Sadat was killed by egyptian military forces after he signed a treaty with Israel and Rabin was killed by an Israeli student who did not want peace to be made with the neighboring countries. If peace has a chance each group must elect a strong and good leader and the people must understand that they have to help as well. Hopefully soon there will be peace.
I know that this won't be a popular argument, but religion is a huge part of this issue. According to Islam, a man who dies fighting for Islam will go immediately to heaven. Both the Muslims and the Jews think that they, and they alone are God's chosen people. Therefore, God's chosen people should get whatever they want. This religous aspect is probably the biggest factor in the region, even though both sides say they are beyond religous fighting.
I think that peace could have been achieved back when the UN partitioned it in 1948 if Palestine had been willing to compromise. Instead they rejected it and ended up with nothing. Israel was willing to compromise, they would have been happy with anything. Peace is still achieveable if both sides are willing to compromise. Allready Israel have given the Palestinians the Gaza strip, and peace between the Palestinians and Israeli's will happen when the Palestinians realize that Israel has given them a homeland and are not as much of an enemy as they thought.
I think all of this conflict could of been avoided several times if Palestine didn't listen to there "Arab brothers". It's becuase of their Arab brothers why there is even conflict in the 1st place. If Palestine just accepted the land that was given to them by the UN in 1949. There would be no war going on between Palestine and Irsael. They (Palestinians) said all of nothing and they still have nothing.
I agree with Will, religion is the main issue between these two cultures. If their religion wasnt feeding them false suopiriorty then they could work out an agreement and hopefully live togethter in the same land. Their religion looks so similar that we question the motifs behind their conflict. However they believe that they deserve more land and the conflict rages on.
I believe that the main opportunity to create peace came in the division of present day Israel. The Jews were content with the offer being made for land because they wanted a home land (a belief created by the Zionist peoples) and this division presented them with one. However, the Palestinians and otherwise Arab world refused the offer saying that there should be no Israeli state and the Palestinians should gain control of the entire territory. This led to later conflicts which continue today. Palestinians are also fighting a war and losing lives in order to gain territories much smaller in size and value than the land that they would have acquired if they had accepted the original division. Today, I believe the only hope for peace can be found in the increase of knowledge, alteration of youth views, and a recognition that much of the war is not necessarily being fought for an overall cause but instead it is being fought because ones loved ones were killed by the “enemy”. The knowledge comes from the fact that the Arabs told Palestinians not to accept the original division, and now they have much less. Perhaps the Palestinians do not have the best of allies. Another problem is the youth. Each family has grown accustomed to fighting, just as their grandfathers did. Seemingly hereditary hate for the opposition is put into the youth, even though many youth do not yet have “reason to hate the enemy” If the youth were to stop the chain of ideals being passed on, perhaps they would be able to see alternative views and solutions. The most prominent aspect of the war is revenge. Many of the attacks come as direct results of individuals wanting to get “even” with the enemy. The problem is, no one will admit to serving the first blow and therefore, neither side will let the other have the last attack. Each new attack aimed at an individual kills other individuals whose family members are then brought into the conflict; wanting to get revenge for the first attack. Over all, a better understanding of the true necessity to fight the war must be gained.
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