Politics in the Arab world - Essay Example

According to Bennis, the Israel-Palestinian crisis started in 2000 after the collapse of Camp David summit. However, Ariel Sharon’s decision to match with Israeli troops sparked an uprising. The Israelis stepping-up of their weapons has increased the intensity of the crisis while Palestinians have also escalated the weapons they used from during the first intifada. Although Israel has every right to arrest anyone who threatened citizens, there is no justification for military occupation. On the other hand, while most Palestinians do not participate in the attacks, the few who attack civilians meets the definitional criteria for terrorists (Bennis).

Nevertheless, can we justify that Palestinians are just fighting for their freedom from Israels occupation, which is akin to colonialism? As descendants of native Palestine, some Palestinian Arabs remained in Israel while some fled during the creation of Israel. However, their rights in the country are not at par with the Jews though some serve in the Knesset (Bennis). On the other hand, Israelis constitute the Jewish community, which is about 80% of Israeli population, while the rest of Israelis are descendants of Palestine Arabs.

It is crucial to point out that, the Jewish led to the creation of the state of Israel, which Bennis noted defines “itself as a state of the entire Jewish people.” Therefore, a Jew is a very different person from an Israeli. The Jewish people came from various parts of Europe after running away from persecution, which resulted to Zionism. Using military occupation, which is a “complete Israeli control over every facet of Palestinian civil and economic life” the Israelis occupy some territories meant for Palestinians (Bennis).

In this case, these territories are 22% of the land formerly under the British Palestine Mandate (Bennis). It is crucial to point out that,