Current Events: Middle East Gaza Israel Conflicts The Gaza-Israel conflict came from within another conflict known as the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The Israel-Palestinian conflict began with the Jewish immigration policy created after World War I. The Jewish immigration policy promoted the immigration of European Jews into Palestinian occupied territory. The Palestinians took a hostile approach towards the policy and started to attack Jewish occupied areas. Due to multiple carvings of the Palestinian occupied area by the international community, area control by the State of Palestine has been reduced to the west bank and a separate isolated strip of land on the east side of Israel, called the Gaza Strip.
As the Hamas became the elected political party of the Gaza strip, they began to launch rocket attacks against Israel in early 2006. Israel then retaliated by blockading the Gaza strip. Besides controlling Gaza’s airspace and coastline, Israel is also a major provider of necessities such as water, electricity, and communication to Gaza. As the conflict continued to rise and fall, Israel has controlling power over Gaza. The United Nation recognizes Gaza as part of the occupied Palestinian territory. The international community has tried to resolve the conflict between Gaza and Israel. Unfortunately for both sides, all of the attempts ended in failure, yet the two-state solution continued to be the only topic that brings them closer.
The strict control by Israel over the border of the Gaza strip has severely damaged Gaza’s economy. People who live in the Gaza strip live without proper health care, education, and basic human needs. “More than 40% of people in Gaza – nearly 50% of youth – are now unemployed and 80% of people receive international aid.” (vox) People without jobs or education are more easily swayed by the ideologies of the extreme military groups controlling the Gaza strip. The unemployment situation will only continue to encourage more extremist views towards Israel. With the creation of new radical Islamic groups, such as ISIS and Hezbollah, it is critical that Israel, Gaza, and Palestine keep peace. “Peace between Israel and the Palestinians and the resulting stability in the region would help to deprive the extremists of the chaos in which they thrive.” (Boston globe) By creating peace in the region, the United States government can concentrate its effort on other groups of extremist outside of that region as well as their own.
Besides trying to bring peace for both the United States and the Middle East, both should at least consider the economic impact of a peace agreement within the Israel-Gaza area. The world economy has been oil dependent for a very long time. Even with the movement toward a greener society, there is still a significant dependency on oil. The most powerful Western countries such as the United Sates, Great Britain, and France, all purchase large amounts of oil from the Middle East. Therefore, there is a vested interest by the western society to promote peace between Israel and Palestine, especially Gaza and Israel. “Consider, for instance that a large portion of the known oil reserves are in the region, and the continuing supply of that oil remains vital to most of the world’s advanced economies…” (Boston Globe) With creating peace between Gaza and Israel, the new stability may spread to the rest of the Middle East.
The recent conflicts between Gaza and Israel started in July of 2014. After seven weeks of fighting and the death of more than 2,000 people, both sides agreed upon a temporary truce. The international community welcomed the peace with the full backing of the United States government. Both sides proclaimed victory; however Palestine took a much bigger human toll than Gaza. “At least 2,140 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry… The Israeli authorities say 64 Israeli soldiers have been
