History

Israeli Arab conflict in the Middle East

For many years, the land of Israel had been subdued by many empires one of them being the Romans. They captured the Jews and sold them to slavery then named the Land Palestille. The land was inhabited by Arabs who were Muslims but there were remnants of Christians and Jews. In the nineteenth century, a certain movement wanted to redeem Israel land for Jewish people. As a sign of this demand, they started migrating back to Palestine but some changed their minds after the thought of the holocaust. Unfortunately, their dream did not go far because Palestine was captured by the Great Britain in the First World War. Palestine was later handed over to League of Nation and split in 1922. Since the British had assured the land of Palestinians would be given back to them, part of the split was given back.

The initial Arabs who had settled in Palestine before it was split, were not comfortable with the return of the Jews. The Arabs started violence towards the Jews and the reign of the British. Hundreds of Jews were killed in this revolt and some Arabs as well. The Zionists started groups with the aim of defending themselves and then retaliated towards the Arabs because of attacking them. All these fights made the British to put measures on the immigration of Jews to Palestine but the Jewish made their way into the land illegally. USA tried to persuade the British to allow the Jews back to Palestine but it failed. Infact, those found illegally there were either sent back or locked up in Cyprus. This practice did not stay for long because it did not please neither the Arabs nor the Jews.

Eventually this matter was handed over to the United Nations and they came up with a plan of dividing the land to avoid conflicts. This plan did not work out because there was very big enmity. Palestinian Arabs invaded the Jews and they declared that the Jews would not form a state. The Arabs made sure they have conquered the land that had been allocated to the Jews. Eventually the Jews won the battle because they had better intelligence; they were organized and had a dense force that had been newly trained. Israel took over the areas near River Jordan and the sea of Mediterranean. Most Arabs escaped because they were chased by the Jews since most of the land is under Israeli authority. Most of this Arabs went to settle in USA and France but still believed that they had a right to return to Palestine. Unfortunately, the Israel rejected the claim of Arabs returning because they might turn out to be a larger population than Jews are. This issue of Jews refusing the Arabs to return has been the main hindrance to solving the conflict between the two nations.

This conflict went on and the Arabs tried using some talks because they wanted the refugees to return and parts of Israel land to be handed back to them. The Israelites did not yield to this so the Arabs went ahead and attacked Israel by use of some resistant groups. Egypt also cut links with Israel by barricading shipping from Israel. This made Israel to attempt negotiation with Egypt but failed. Israel attacked them and took over part of Egypt. Israel was ready to give back land to Arabs and in return, there would be peace but Arabs were too determined to destroy Israel so they were reluctant.

After America’s mediation, Israel made peace with Egypt and returned their land. Israelites and Gaza Palestinians were not able to make peace because Palestinians were not comfortable with the kind of limitation done at the Gaza Strip by the Israelites. The Oslo peace process became difficult because the two nations: Palestines and Israelites were not abiding to the agreements they had made before and the leaders were not committed either. In 2000, President Clinton proposed some parameters about Gaza and said that there would be right of return for the Arab refugees. Israel agreed but Palestines remained undecided. That was the best proposal of an agreement that was so far made. There has never been peace between the two nations because they have different determinations that they do not agree to compromise with.