The History of the Conflict between Israel and Arab - Term Paper Example

Arab – Israel Conflict Table of Contents Introduction 3 Sykes - Picot Act and the Palestine Man 4 The Idea of Partition and the Effects 5 The State of Israel 7 Conclusion 10 References 11 Bibliography 13 Introduction Since the early days of human civilisation, war and battle have been part and parcel of human lives. Though it is the fact that any war or battle does not bring in any positive impact upon the life of any people, yet it has occurred throughout human civilisation since ages. In the early days of kings and monarchs, the battles and wars were basically because of the power show – offs among the conflicting parties and expansions of their territories. But as the civilisation progressed and the modern forms of countries came into being, the international relations became guided by international treaties and agreements that significantly reduced the number of wars and battles. With the formations of international forums and peace keeping organisations like that of United Nations, the number of conflicts reduced further and even if there erupted any conflict, the international community of the present day initiates abrupt measures to pacify such moments of heat. One important observation that can be made, based upon the international happenings, is that the world today operates on the basis of consensus and discussions rather than one sided expansions and attacks. The concerned quarters view such developments are the result of the two world wars that the global community faced and the huge losses that all the participating nations had to incur. Even though the numbers of conflicts reduced considerably in the latter half of the twentieth century, yet few of the issues of international conflicts are far away from being resolved. Among those cases, Arab – Israel conflict undoubtedly tops the list. The other conflicts include that of India – Pakistan and many of the conflicts among the European nations. Sykes - Picot Act and the Palestine Mandate In order to trace the history of the conflict in between Israel and Arab, one has to revert back to the Sykes – Picot Agreement that was signed on 16th of May of 1916. This agreement was very special in the zonal politics and international relations in the area that was previously ruled by Ottoman Empire. As the Ottoman Empire was no more prevalent, with the help of this agreement, the areas were divided among the then European super powers i.e. Great Britain, France and Russia. Among the imperialist powers, it was Great Britain that gained access where the present troubled states are located (Hobby, 2003). In order to avoid confusions regarding the administrative and geographical differences in between the allied powers like that of Great Britain and France that had closed boundaries in various areas of Arab, they came up with draft mandate to settle various technical issues. The imperialist nations achieved approval of the League of Nations to make the mandate binding. The mandate known as Palestine Mandate (or with the names of British Mandate of Palestine or the British Mandate for Palestine) is regarded as the legal instrument that decided on the administration of Palestine. Most importantly, the mandate did not grant sovereignty to the Arabs which was the popular demand of the area and also contrary to the popular belief, the mandate was not prepared by the League of Nations as the organisation latter confirmed, “Mandates were not the creation of the League, and they could not in substance be altered by the League. The Leagues duties were confined to seeing that the specific and detailed terms of the mandates were in accordance with the decisions taken by the Allied and Associated Powers, and that in carrying out these mandates the Mandatory Powers should be under the supervision — not under the control — of the League” (League of Nations, 1922). The Idea of Partition and the Effects Soon after the Great Britain was granted the ruling rights of the Middle-East, several parts of Arab society got involved against the opposition of the British rule as sovereignty was the main demand. With the Nazis led by Hitler in the power of Germany during the period, Jew population in the mandated Palestine increased considerably. Arabs, the original inhabitants of the area did not take this as a welcome move by the Jews as the Jews were observed to purchase land and property of the area, thanks to their better purchasing powers. Also, Jews grabbed almost of the job opportunities and that made the Arab populace further downtrodden and backward. The situation went almost out of the hand of the Britishers when the famous religious leader Shaykh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam was killed by the British Police. The Arabs almost went on rampage against the British administration and the Jewish populace of the region. In the mean time, also many of the Jewish followers were returning to their home land and that added fuel to the fire (Gilbert, 1994). The political and the law and order situations worsened further and the Peel Commission proposed to partition the mandated Palestine. The British rulers of the mandated land recruited and trained both the Jews as well as the Arabs for their army in the mandated Palestine for the purpose of World War II. It led to free flow of arms and ammunitions among both the conflicting hostile groups. But as the war ended, it was observed that British administration tried many of the Arab under the court of law which further revoked the tension. With the tension and conflicts building up with every passing day, the all powerful General Assembly of the United Nations came up with a partition plan. According to the proposal, a new state for the Jews was supposed to erupt in the disturbed land and the Arab state was to be attached with the Jordan. The division of territory was never accepted by the Arabs as they had majority of the population but was offered smaller portion of land while Jews were quite happy though officially they maintained the partition plan to be ‘the indispensable minimum’ (El-Nawawy, 2002). According to the partition plan, because of the religious significance of Jerusalem, it would become a Corpus Separatum that would be administered by the United Nations. The partition plan was celebrated widely by the Jews as they gained international recognition and a new state was to be formed with the approval of the United Nation. The Jews regarded it as their ‘independence’. On the flip side, the fellow citizens of the mandated Palestine and in fact the majority of the population were too depressed and infuriated. Soon, the anger and the hatred among the two communities resulted in civil war with the country from the end of 1947. As the civil war commenced from the last week of November of 1947, within a month it took the shape of more military rather than being civil. Armed forces from all across the Arab world were sent to fight the Jews in the land of mandated Palestine. At the initial days of the war, it was found, that the Arab forces got hold over the Jews but soon the Jews retaliated. The experts of the Middle – East geo politics felt that the Jews were victim of their wait and watch policy in the initial days rather their weakness. With the war in its optimum phase, the United States withdrew its support from the partition plan and the Great Britain further lobbied for including the Arab populated area with Jordan. The influential neighbour of the mandated Palestine, King Abdullah I of Jordan, who had been later accused of playing double game during the disturbed period by the experts, tried to keep friendly relationships with both Arab as well as Jew leadership as he aimed to include larger areas from the mandated land into his territory. It was on the 14th of May of 1948, Israel was declared independent amidst such hostile environment and series of failed talks as the term of the British Mandate for the Palestine was over. The State of Israel On the very next day of David Ben – Gurion’s declaration of Israel to be an independent state, the country was attacked by at least five Arabian nations namely Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. The three other major countries of the Arab fraternity i.e. Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen also sent their troops to attack Israel in order to demolish the newly born state with in the days of inception. The scheme of happenings was known as the Arab – Israeli War of 1948. After almost a full year of fighting, cease fire was declared which was later known as Green Line (NPR, 2002). Though ceasefire was signed, the dominance of Egypt and Jordan was far from being over as they conquered the disputed areas of West Bank and Gaza Strip respectively. As the United Nations had estimated in the year of 1949 that almost 80% of the Arab population of the area that was formed as Israel was rendered refugees as they were either expelled because of the conflict or they, themselves fled away from the area (United Nations, 1951). Though into the ceasefire, the nationalist leaders of Arabian world led by that of Jordan, Syria and Egypt sent troops near the Israeli borders to block the country’s access to the all important Red Sea in 1967. Israel got involved with the Arabian nations in a war that existed for six days and had massive win over the Arabian forces that strengthened Israel’s supremacy in the area. As a result of the war, Israel conquered the disputed Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and the West Bank (Smith, 2006). It was in the year of 1973, when again the Arabian nations of Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. It was a sort of surprise attack but still Israel could successfully fight back the invaders with its advanced arms and army. Another major happening in the history of wars and conflicts in between Arab and Israel was that of the formation of Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). PLO believed that only armed struggle can liberate their ‘homeland’ from the ‘invasion’ of Israel (James, 2005). PLO had been responsible for series of attacks on Israel since the end years of the decade of the 1960s. PLO not only attacked Israel, it also attacked Israeli populace and assets in different parts of the world. The Palestine Liberation Organisation had been often on engaged into peace talks and ceasefires with the Israeli government on behest of the international community but almost every time it yielded unsuccessful results. Conclusion The Oslo Accord that was initiated in the year of 1993 in between Yitzhak Rabin, the then Prime Minister of Israel and the head of PLO, Yasser Arafat under the mediation of the then United Stated President Bill Clinton resulted in the formation of Palestine National Authority or simply Palestine Authority. PA was provided with the opportunity to administer the areas of Gaza Strip and West Bank. This move had brought a sense of ending to the long existing conflict but soon it was found that even the establishment of Palestine Authority could not end the age old mutual distrust that conflicting parties. The cost of the conflict has been huge for both Israel and the Arabian world and it can be said that the formation of Israel in the year of 1948 had been a major turning point in the series of conflicts and it never meant to end the war for which the partition was intended. In the recent past, various moves of the Israeli government had been criticised by the international community like that of building establishments in the disputed areas of Gaza Strip and West Bank. PA has declared that it would have any more talks with Israeli authorities until they stop constructing the establishments. It is increasingly felt that the international community can only help the conflicting parties to sit for peace talks or have cease fires but it is only the mutual trust that can stop the age old conflict. The onus lies upon both the leaderships of Israel as well as that of Arab nations to restore the mutual trust and faith among each other. References El-Nawawy, M. The Israeli-Egyptian Peace Process in the Reporting of Western Journalists. Praeger, 2002. Gilbert, M. Atlas of the Arab – Israeli Conflict. Oxford University Press, 1998. Hobby, J., 2003. What is the Sykes - Picot Agreement? Wise Geek. [Online] Available at: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-sykespicot-agreement.htm [Accessed March 22, 2010]. Bennet, J., 2005. The Interregnum. The New York Times Magazine. [Online] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/magazine/13PALESTINIANS.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2 [Accessed March 22, 2010]. League of Nations, 1922. Palestine Mandate. Official Journal. [Online] Available at: http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/b08168048e277b5a052565f70058cef3?OpenDocument [Accessed March 22, 2010]. EPR, 2002. The Mideast: A Century of Conflict. Part 3: Partition, War and Independence. [Online] Available at: http://www.npr.org/news/specials/mideast/history/history3.html [Accessed March 22, 2010]. Smith, D. Deterring America: Rogue States and the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Cambridge University Press, 2006. United Nations, 1951. General Progress Report and Supplementary Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine. General Assembly. [Online] Available at: http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/93037e3b939746de8525610200567883 [Accessed March 22, 2010]. Bibliography Eisenberg, L. Z. & Caplan, N. Negotiating Arab-Israeli peace: patterns, problems, possibilities. Indiana University Press, 1998. USA Today, 2001. The Arab-Israeli conflict, 1947 - Present. World. [Online] Available at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/mideast/timeline.htm [Accessed March 22, 2010]. Read More