Israeli – Palestinian Conflict
the news of israel’s invasion of the gaza strip after the cease fire ended ( following rockets fired into israel) sparked a renewed fire in my husband to convince me how ruthless and greedy israel was and how my government not only lets it all happen, but encourages it.
now i can’t get away from it:
friends joining “the cause” “if americans knew” on facebook which claims that americans don’t get told how israel uses US funding to break international law and occupy land that doesn’t belong to them;
my best friend from HS (who is 1/2 israeli with family in israel) forwarding me photos of the israeli army helping palestinians out of the collapsed tunnels and offering medical assistance;
heck, even my brother forwarded me an article explaining how israel follows international law and hamas doesn’t.
so i figured i could spend at least a couple hours reading up on the subject…is israel as evil as so many are claiming because their attacks have claimed more lives? or are the intentions behind attacks rather than the body count what makes them wrong?
after following a couple links from a google search it was even more clear than the mixed messages i was already getting (see above from husband and friends) that it is close to impossible to get “facts” about this conflict that aren’t surrounded in a context supporting one or the other side.
here’s the scoop in an oversimplified nutshell as i understand it:
the land was occupied mostly by islamic people and under islamic rule for over 1,000 years (post roman rule) until the british took control from the ottomen empire in WWI. at the time of the british mandate, the area was “predominantly Muslim Arab, while the largest urban area in the region, Jerusalem, was predominantly Jewish” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel)
the british then “promised to establish a Jewish state in Palestine in exchange for the Jewish financial support to the British in their war against Ottomans and Germans” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine). thus began a few waves of modern immigration of jewish people to the area.
at the end of WWII the jewish population had grown to about 33% in the area and for various reasons the british didn’t want continue ruling the region so turned the area over to the UN. the UN proposed separating the area into an arab and jewish state but the arabs (the majority in the area) refused to recognize this. regardless the jewish agency proclaimed independence the day before the british mandate ended and named the country israel. all of the surrounding nations disagreed and invaded ensuing the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
since then there has never been peace.
just looking at this history i think – here we go again – european countries come in, draw lines in the sand without taking into consideration the people who live there – conflict ensues and they bail.
i am a believer in democracy – why couldn’t the people of that area decide their future? why couldn’t the jewish people settle there (as they had been) as long as they had the blessing of the leaders there? i mean, we would never condone people moving into some country and declaring that it was their country now, would we? isn’t another word for that “invasion”?
so, if you want to play the blame game, i think the arabs that were living there and the majority were well entitled to be pissed, call foul, and defend their land.
but – i don’t want to play the blame game – we should learn from our mistakes and never set up an area for certain disaster as was done in this instance in the future, but what’s done is done. now how do we stop the bloodshed?
well, neither side should be hell bent on destroying the other. for this reason i don’t think hamas should be allowed to be in power. to rectify the situation at least somewhat i think israel should allow the return of as many palestinian refugees that they created (about 80% of the arab population was pushed out as a result of the war that ensued after israel declared independance) as they possibly can. the main argument against this that i found was that if they were allowed to return, they would become the majority and it would no longer be a jewish state. well, again – that’s how democracy works – so be it. i don’t think they should persecute the jewish minority and would condemn it strongly if they did (which they most certainly will after the 60 years of bloodshed that they’ve endured – no excuse but not unthinkable) but being an american where all sorts of cultures, religions, etc. live together, i believe it should be possible.
unfortunately israel will never agree to allowing the refugees to return and the palestinans will never agree to anything other than their people being allowed to return to their home. looking at a map i think, at the very least, isreal should offer to split the nation in 1/2 – they took the vast majority of land and if they want peace, i think it’s going to take a 50/50 compromise. an israeli state would still exist but it doesn’t have to hold the majority of the land and power.
so, my conclusion is that i feel for israel – it was created without much thought for the consequences or the people who occupied the land and now they have had a huge mess on their hands since. now hundreds of thousands have made tehir homes there and built families there for the last 60 years so it would be horrible to see them all displaced as they displaced the arabs that were there before them. countries and people surrounding them have come to despise them so much that their only goal is to destroy them. since the whole premise of the country’s existance is flawed, they would have to accept the possibile dissolution of israel in order to make peace in the area.
i also feel for the palestinians – they were forced off thier land and not given any say so in the matter and subsequently called the difficult party in any negotiations because they aren’t offered anything usually but the land isreal took from them during the war. but, the way to go about peace certainly isn’t attacking civilians.
if israel wants peace, it’s going to have to bring more to the table as a compromise – relinquish more land and power and offer more refugees to return and/or be compensated. if the palestinians want peace, they are going to have to agree to live peacfully with some form of an israeli state and bring that resolution to the table rather than seemingly having an all or nothing attitude.
lastly, i wish everyone who gets all riled up about the situation would stop and realize that neither side is completely justified in any of this – obviously neither one wants peace enough and shame on them for continuing to allow their people do die because they can’t seem to compromise enough.
*as an aside, i want to note that yesterday evening, before writing this post, i had a heated debate with my husband where i spent the majority of my energy trying to understand/explain/empathize with israel’s actions yet, after all the reading it prompted me to do today and putting my thoughts down here in writing, i feel less empathetic. it’s amazing what some research and writing it all down can do. HOWEVER, this does not in any way mean i condone the actions of hamas (if you’ve slipped into thinking i am for one side or the other, read above again how it think both sides are at fault)
most information i got fom wikipedia and http://www.mideastweb.org
also some from http://www.masada2000.org/historical.html
http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/6daywar.htm
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/