Overview of the Israel-Palestine conflict - Essay Example

The conditions got exacerbated due to violent tradeoffs between both sides in their short span of history. Right from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, to the 1967 six-day war, and recent spate of suicide bombings from Palestinian side, in response to Israeli disregard to basic human rights needs of Arabs in the country. In this whole uncharacteristic mess, if there is light at the end of the tunnel, it is due to the number of peace treaties signed between the two sides, at the mediation of third parties like the United States and EU.

The United Nations, on the other hand, has been the most important stabilizing force and this addresses the central question raised in the essay: What are the different sister organizations of the UN, instituted specifically for the Palestine problem What are their roles in relation to providing aid, relief and succor to bedraggled Palestinian civilians due to the never-ending nature of the problem What should be the future course of action, for the UN, and its sister organizations, in the era of changing global geopolitics, particularly the change in Government in Iraq, US stand-off with Iran, and the general climate in the Middle East The United Nations influence, however, has often been sidelined by major powers in the Security Council, especially the United States from time to time.

A chapter in the UN peacekeeping guidelines handbook, contains harsh provisions with respect to "threats to the peace, breaches to peace, and acts of aggression", but often drastic measures taken by the UN are subjected to Veto disapproval (Zacarias, 1999). Under these provisions, the UN established its first UN Emergency Force (UNEF I) in 1956, and in 1965 again, a framework of peacekeeping was formed (Zacarias, 1999). But, a bipolar world then, and reverse ideologies made it impossible for the UN to act at its own discretion, as a peacekeeper in the Palestine problem (Zacarias, 1999).

Whenever the strategic interest of a superpower was at stake, it was easy to ignore the UN mandate (Zacarias, 1999). However, since the end of the Cold War, there has been a resurgence in the UN's actual "powers" vis--vis International disputes resolution. It was the UN that facilitated Soviet troop withdrawal in Afghanistan, led to a peace agreement in Central America, led to political transition in Namibia, and undertook aid and peacekeeping efforts in many other places such as Gulf War Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq in recent times (Zacarias, 1999).