Essay Arab-Israeli Conflict - Reasons for conflict

Submitted By Centrey
Words: 2068
Pages: 9
Open Document
CAUSES FOR CONFLICT
There are a myriad of reasons underlying and undergirding the Arab-Israeli Conflict in recent times and it is important to evaluate all of these rationales. However, it is important to note that the actual military conflict is an international one with set international players. The spiritual conflict is much more pervasive. At the core for this difference is that Jews and Arabs see their communities as being brethren in the same way that all Americans see each other as brethren. There is a saying among Arabs that goes "If an Arab falls in the desert and nobody hears him, everybody still feels him."
NOTE: Jews are an ethno-religious group, while Arabs are merely an ethnic group with an incredible variety of religious difference (similar to the way that White connotes a race with an incredible variety of religious differences). These days, Jews do not typically target Moslems with faith-based issues (i.e. we abhor you because of the false prophecy of Mohammed) and Moslems similarly do not target Jews on faith-based issues (i.e. we abhor you because you say that Isaac was taken to Mt. Moriah instead of Ishmael being taken to Saudi Arabia).
NOTE 2: Reasons cited for the conflict therefore vary from participant to participant and observer to observer. A powerful example of this divide can be found in opinion surveys of Palestinians and Israelis.
Causes for the Arab-Israeli Conflict:
1) Hallowed Land: The Jews consider the Land of Israel (which is not necessarily all in the borders of the State of Israel) to be a holy piece of land in that God promised it to the Jewish people as an eternal inheritance. Thus, some Jews, especially Religious Zionists see resettlement of the Land of Israel by Jews to be part of God's plan and mandate and therefore do everything in their power to settle it. In addition, it contains specific religious and historical sites such as the Western Wall and the Old City of Jerusalem, the Cave of Machpelah, the Old City of Jaffa, and the Sanctuary of Shiloh among others. Muslims also consider Jerusalem holy because of Mohammed ascending to Heaven on the Buraq over Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Both cultures want to ensure maintenance and access to the sites which they feel have been limited by the other. (Jews claim that Jordanians used the Western Wall as a landfill and Arabs argue that Israelis arbitrarily close off access to Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
2) Zionism: A number of Jews in Europe began to feel that they were being permanently and deliberately excluded from parts of European society because of the prevalent racial and pseudo-scientific forms of Anti-Semitism. They believed that there was no possible equality between European nationals and their Jewish residents and were disinterested in the Andalucían Solution because they did not want to be second-class citizens. They believed that the Jewish people needed to form a political apparatus (an Independent State) to defend themselves and their civil rights. Zionism originally had purely secular connotations, but with the advent of Religious Zionism, the powerful secular cause of Zionism joined with the Hallowed Land idea to provoke conflict. Zionism is strongly opposed by many for many different reasons. See the link at the bottom of the page for Anti-Zionist arguments and rationales.
3) Halutzim & Jewish Land Acquisition: In the First Zionist Congress in 1897, the main resolution was to acquire, by any means, a piece of land to be made a country for the Jews. Early Zionists tried to figure out how to attract Jews to leave their country of origin and come to build this Jewish State. The general consensus always revolved around building a State in the Land of Israel/British Mandate of Palestine since that would make attraction easiest. (The idea of the Jews Returning to Israel had a very romantic notion to Jews at the time and still does today.) As a result, politically influential Jews began purchasing tracts
Show More

Related Documents: Essay Arab-Israeli Conflict - Reasons for conflict

Essay on Palestinian Israeli Conflict

121 Nov. 8th, 2012 Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: Unit 2 “The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is one of the most enduring and complex in the modern world and continues to entangle and engage the international community to this day.” (Milton-Edwards 2). It seems as though every super power and any international affairs controversies are constantly enveloped in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as you know. Why is such an important matter, like this conflict, in politics around the world…

Words 2267 - Pages 10

Clash Of Civilization Analysis

International Implications By: Meidina Felita Alifandra 016201400183 IRE 2014 Diplomacy 2 Semester 7 I. Introduction As being stated by Samuel P. Huntington, the Clash of Civilization is a hypothesis in which the primary sources of conflicts in the post-cold war era are more dominant to the people’s cultural and religious identities. Civilization has three attributes which are the objective elements – language, history religion, customs, and institution; the subjective elements – variable…

Words 2070 - Pages 9

The Conflict In Israel

The recent affair in Israel seems to be escalating everyday as the Israelis and Palestinians are clashing over the costs of past events and the conflict has been one of the most unstable and constant wars in modern world history. The Israeli military have continued to occupy Palestinian Territories and on a daily basis, inhabitants of those lands have been killed, injured or kidnapped. Despite recent major Israeli violence, Palestinians have created pacific marches and demonstrations in the West…

Words 2557 - Pages 11

Who Should Control Jerusalem

Who Should Control Jerusalem? The Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting over who should control Jerusalem for years. Throughout these years, a lot of agreements and contracts have been proposed by the U.N. and other countries, but nothing has solved this major issue. Many people question who should control Jerusalem. The Israelis and Palestinians both have acceptable and worthy reasons as to why they should control Jerusalem. While The Jerusalem Conflict has been a problem for a long time…

Words 645 - Pages 3

Israel Conflicts

All three major religions in Israel can agree that Jerusalem is the Holy land. These religions are Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. In the area surrounding Jerusalem, however, Arabs and Jews cannot agree on the land that they are now not so equally sharing. During the first century, the Romans were in charge of Palestine, and the Romans forced the Jews to leave and not come back. This dispersion of Jews outside of Israel is known as diaspora. For thousands of years, Palestinians had been living…

Words 1647 - Pages 7

Iris Young Paper

yearlong conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, two entirely different plans have been proposed numerous times as solutions to the conflict. The first solution, being the more popular and widely accepted, is commonly referred to as the two-state solution. This proposal calls for the establishment of a separate, sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza, and in some cases East Jerusalem which would live alongside the state of Israel. The second proposed solution to the conflict called…

Words 2307 - Pages 10

Global Politics Research Paper 2

Michael Gallo & Kenny Meagan Professor Stevens Global Politics 25 November 2014 Two-State Solution Will Lead to Peace The Israelis and the Palestinians have been in a conflict for many years now. With every peace treaty and solution they have come up with, nothing has worked. There was a possible breakthrough in 2000 where Bill Clinton nearly succeeded in creating a peace settlement, but no solution has come close since. The solution Bill Clinton had was two separate states with definitive borders…

Words 1481 - Pages 6

Iron Cage Essay

In order to do so, the narrative begins in 1948, following the eviction of more than half of the Arab Palestinian population as a result of the Arab – Israel conflict of that year. Khalidi goes on to enumerate a few of the respective differing Arab and Israel accounts of how it was that a people that once constituted the majority of the population of a land, became the minority. Revisionist Israeli historians have attempted to debunk traditional accounts that absolve Israel of any wrongdoing, such…

Words 2039 - Pages 9

The Importance Of Peace On The Middle East

ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Our teacher introduced the topic by showing a mini-documentary to the class to get opinions from the students. An Israeli girl, well dressed and well mannered, first appeared on the screen. Innocently, she described how terrible fighting was. She feared that every day, upon returning from school, that she would find not her home and parents. Sometimes, she said, her fear was that she would never make it home without being lost in the darkness of the conflict. The…

Words 428 - Pages 2

Essay on Camp David - Case Study

culminate sixteen months later in the Egypt-Israeli Peace Treaty. The pivotal point in this process came in September 1977 when President Carter brought Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem…

Words 6050 - Pages 25