Territorial Disagreements between the Jewish People and the Palestinian Arabs - Research Paper Example

The Modern Middle East I. The political and military conflicts between the Arabs and Israelis were started towards the end of the nineteenth century.The major reason for the conflict is related to territorial disagreement between the Jewish people and the Palestinian Arabs. The general idea was that Israel was founded in the aftermath of the World War II to return to the Jews something concrete as compensation for the inhuman treatment of the Jews by the Germans and other Europeans during the war. However, this was a misconception since it was in 1917 that the Balfour Declaration was signed. According to this Declaration, the British government supported the Zionist movement which demanded for a territory in Palestine exclusively for the Jews. This territory would provide all the legal and civil rights to the Jews. With the Balfour Declaration, the British government established a national home for the Jews without violating the rights of the existing non-Jews in Palestine or the rights of the Jews in any other country (Gelvin, 2005). Both the communities asserted their legal claim on Palestine. While the Jews demanded that they have historical rights over the territory, the Arabs have claimed that they have inhabited Palestine for many centuries (Khater, 2010, p.143). It is only political stubbornness that is causing hindrance to peace between the Israelis and the Arabs. There has been already a proposal that dictates that the two sides should accept division of the territory into two states. This proposal has been advocated globally, and even by majority of ordinary Israelis and Palestinians. It now remains that the leaders on both sides come to a common agreement. Even though proposals from both sides are very close, still the current Israeli Prime Minister shows no sign of relent claiming that the conflict cannot be solved (Hill, 2012). As another possible solution there can be one-state solution by which Jews and Arabs will stay together with common political and social rights. However, seeing the murderous hatred between them even this cannot be a viable solution as this can only probably cause another holocaust. II. The World War I had a very significant effect in shaping the framework of the current Middle East. It can also be said that the war ended and the Middle East related conflicts started. The impact of the World War I can be long lasting on the Middle Eastern region. The most important event is Turkish war of independence which occurred after the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in the WWI. The defeat of Ottoman led to Turkey getting conquered and divided by the Allies. Hence, the Turkish War was fought by the Turkish nationalists against the Allies. Millions of Turkish men died during the Turkish War of Independence. The population of Ottoman took a sharp decline as a result of massive deaths caused by combat, disease, Armenian genocide which was believed to have been planned by the highest officials of the Ottoman government and eviction of people during population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Most of the current political upheavals in the Middle Eastern region have their origins in the WWI. The continuing conflict between Armenia and its neighboring countries like Turkey and Azerbaijan is because of Turkey’s refusal to take responsibility of the Armenian genocide. The treaties signed towards the end of WWI gave way to mandatory periods that resulted in various political and social issues. Impacts of those events have been civil wars in Lebanon, the current conflicts in Syria as well as in Iraq. Finally, the Arab-Israeli dispute has been enhanced by promises made during WWI and the policies thereafter (Gelvin, 2005). The WWI as a single event has been responsible for transformations and changes on global scale. It practically market the dawn of a new era, and this is especially true in the Middle East. Considering the strong impacts of the war on the Middle East it can be stated that these impacts were unavoidable. III. In the aftermath of the Great World War II, United States exerted significant influence on the Middle East from outside. There were three major concerns which were the Persian Gulf oil, Israel which was a newly formed nation required support and protection and containment of the Soviet Union. All these issues became difficult to tackle because of the growth of Arab nationalism, the conflicts between the Arabs and the Israelis, and an Arab oil embargo (Gelvin, 2005). Oil has been the most important matter of consideration for the United States in relation to the Middle East. Just before the World War II came to an end, President Roosevelt discussed oil with the Saudi king, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Another basis for US policies in the Middle East is Washington supporting the state of Israel. In 1948, after the First Palestine War, Israel proclaims independence and US was one of the first nations that acknowledged Israel as an independent state although US advocated the division of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. In the year 1953, the US along with Great Britain participated in overthrowing the Iranian government. This creates a high degree of mistrust for US in the Arab world (Gelvin, 2005, p.322). One mistake made by the Bush administration was that his advisors exaggerated regarding the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack, Bush administration identified al-Qaeda as the principle criminal behind the attacks and so convinced the common Americans that invading Iraq will be reasonable and inevitable in order to protect America’s interests. The attacks were termed by the neo-conservatives as war of terror aided by rogue states (Khater, 2010, p.348). IV. In the past few decades, conflicts between regions within nations or conflicts between nations with violence between revolutionaries and political parties have become a recurring theme. Conflicts and disagreements are nowhere more prominent and permanent than the Muslim and Arab world. In the Arab world, the issue of conflict is the rights and privileges of the Islamism and Nationalism, and also about the harmony and oppositions of ideology of each other. Over the last century, the most popular and pervasive ideology has been the nationalism. Many of the nationalists follow common ideology, language, religion, social and cultural traditions. There are still others who consider it as historical concept based on racial and hereditary factors. Nationalism is just not a theory but is also an active idea that acts as deciding factor for the direction of actions and policies of social and political units. The intrinsic characteristic of nationalism is to enforce uniformity in cultures and traditions between different races of people living within specific geographical boundaries (Gelvin, 2005). Nationalism is the concept by which citizens get the opportunity to have identical if not more scope to participate in politics (Khater, 2010, p.142). In a larger part of this world, there are different nations with different economies, political backgrounds, language, heritage and culture. However, the one thread the binds all these countries is the common religious belief, and one example is the Islamism. For Muslims, Islamism is not just a religious belief but is a world of its own with rich culture and traditions. The followers of Islamism disregard any kind of distinction between them even if they are of different color and race or stay in different countries or speak different languages (Khater, 2010, p.142). There is a complex relation between Islamism and nationalism although there is a common ideology between the two. Both induce common bonds to create a bigger community. V. The constant growth of globalization with its heavy Western impact has a strong negative impact in the Middle East. The conservative outlook of this region is its identity and it is getting robbed as the culture is becoming consumption- driven (Khater, 2010, p.268). Globalization demands compromises in social, economic and political fields so as to be integrated into the global arena. In short, globalization promotes unity between different countries thereby removing all socio-cultural barriers. For the conservation Arab nationalists this is not acceptable as they cannot abide by the globalized concepts. According to them, globalization means domination of one culture over the others and in this case Western culture will dominate the others (Gelvin, 2005). The technological impact has been on the thought and planning process of the Arabs aided by scientific methods. Science and technology has brought logic in their words, declarations and behaviors (Khater, 2010, p.226). In the Middle East, democracy has never prevailed and one reason for this may be that it is not compatible with the region’s values. Secondly, for centuries the region has been ruled by the Ottoman Empire, British and the France thereby not letting democracy to evolve. To solve this problem, the need is to build an unbiased middle class, attain a specific stage of economic prosperity and advocate a democratic culture. Although with financial help from the Western countries the Middle East is progressing in terms of women empowerment and strong political parties, the need is to have a comprehensive and aggressive program advocating democracy. References Gelvin, J.L. (2005) The Modern Middle East, Oxford Univ. Press Hill, M. (2012) The Israel-Palestine problem has a simple solution, The Telegraph, retrieved on February 28, 2014 from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/9703026/The-Israel-Palestine-problem-has-a-simple-solution.html Khater, A.F. (2010) Sources in the History of the Modern Middle East, Cengage Learning Read More