What is the current conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis?

Answer 1

A:The current conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis is not really about religion, but about land. The Jews claim a historical right to Israel, at the same time continuing to encroach on the remnant Palestinian Territories. The Palestinians have no choice but to accept the presence of Israel within defined borders, but think of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Territories as the theft of land and a continued humiliation of their people.

The League of Nations gave Britain a mandate to govern the lands west of the Jordan River after the end of the First World War. The League of Nations disintegrated as a result of the Second World War and was eventually replaced by the United Nations. When the Jews realised that Britain was moving towards granting independence to the Palestinian Mandate on a democratic single-state basis, the Jews began a program of terrorism designed to drive Britain out of Palestine. Britain handed the "problem" over to the United Nations, which initially favoured a division that provided approximately equal shares of the land to each side. After initiating a civil war in which many of the Palestinians fled the future state of Israel or were actually driven out, Israel unilaterally declared independence. For one day, 11th May 1949, Israel consented to negotiate United Nations proposals, during which time Israel was accepted as a member of the United Nations, then Israel reneged on any further discussions. The Palestinians did not accept this situation, but Israeli military power has forced a change of position on the part of the Palestinian leaders.

There are no doubt some Palestinians who would like to see Israel destroyed, just as there are Jews who would like to see the Palestinian Territories destroyed, but most Palestinians who continue to fight would settle for a secure territory behind secure borders. Time is on the Israeli side, as Israelis can continue to build Jewish settlements on Palestinian land as long as Israel remains the colonial power in the Territories.

Answer 2

Answer 1

The nation of Israel was formed in 1948. Several nearby and surrounding nations and smaller political groups never formally acknowledged Israel's right to exist, maintained an official state of war, and did little to influence public opinion in any other direction. Their massed national military forces attacked Israel on at least four occasions after 1948, and rocket launchings and suicide bombings all aimed at Israeli civilians were continuous for periods of years. One of the main purposes of any government, and every government's responsibility, is to protect and defend its civilian population. Israel's military forces have acted to repel military attacks, and they periodically act to neutralize the other side's ability to launch rockets and to stockpile weapons. Even though the "Palestinian" people and their "host" countries maintain an officially declared state of war, Israel doesn't launch unprovoked military maneuvers across their borders, doesn't capture territory, and admits their citizens across Israel's borders to work and worship, after appropriate examination and clearance.

Answer 2

None of Answer 1 is accurate. Israel had no claim to Palestinian land and they routinely engage in violence and force the Palestinians to live in occupied land. People need to educate themselves instead of listening to American media.

Commentary on Answer 2

The above-contributor seems to claim that Israel was not formed in 1948, that the surrounding nations acknowledged its right to exist, that none of their military forces have attacked Israel at any time in the 60 years since, and that there have been no rocket launches or suicide attacks aimed at civilians. He further implies that the protection and defense of the civilian population is not the responsibility of government, that Israel's defense forces attack across international borders just for the heck of it and capture territory whenever they can, and that no Palestinians enter, work, or worship in Israel. He closes by claiming that all such reports are fictional figments of the American media.

Just wanted to summarize the positions presented above.

Answer 3

It is a conflict over land, each claim the right for it.

Answer 3

Which Palestinian conflict is the question referring to?

Is it the Arab-Palestinian Conflict? -- which began in 1948, but became much more violent in the 1970s and 1980s, killing between 5,000-25,000 Palestinians depending on the estimates used.

Is it the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict? -- which began in the 1920s, but became much more widespread in 1947 with the Jewish-Arab Engagement and the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9. Approximately 13,000 Palestinians have died in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Is it the Palestinian Civil War? -- which began in 2006, but most violence took place in 2007 with approximately 600-1000 deaths.

See the Related Questions below for the different Palestinian Conflicts.

Answer 4

The wording of this question is confusing.

If this question is asking for the Causes of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, please see the Related Question below.

If the question is asking what is the name of the general conflict of which the recent Israeli-Palestinian War in Gaza (2008-2009) is a part, that general conflict is the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Answer 5

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an ongoing dispute between Israelis and the Palestinians. It forms part of the wider Arab-Israeli conflict. Though the State of Israel was established in 1948, the term is usually used also in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Zionist pioneers and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or British rule.

Answer 6

Answer 1: Pro-Palestinian

Zionists created their country in Palestine when the British forces withdrew from the mandate. When they created the country they forced the people of the land to leave.

Answer 2

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict has had numerous stages, but they are generally broken up into four major periods (whose names are my choice): British Mandate Period (1920s-1948), 1948-9 War and Armistice (1948-1967), Expansive Israeli Period (1967-1987), Palestinian Intifada and the Palestinian States (1987-Present).

1) British Mandate Period:

This period was characterized by a British Mandatory Government controlling the area called the British Mandate of Palestine. Some of the major events during this period were the increased Jewish Immigration to the Mandate of Palestine and their modernization of the territory. This brought in Arab immigration from neighboring territories who wished to live in the more sanitary and developed conditions in Palestine. This combined immigration led to massive population increases. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Jewish population was becoming more significant and Arab leaders and militias urged the British to prevent further Jewish immigration. This resulted in the British rescinding Jewish immigration rights to the territory and culminated with the 1939 White Papers permitting only nominal Jewish immigration. During World War II, Palestine remained off-limits to Jews wishing to flee the Holocaust. This, combined with the White Papers, led many Jewish leaders to openly resist the British Occupation. In 1947, the British relented and brought the Palestinian and Jewish question to the United Nations. The slaughter of the Holocaust and American and Soviet pressure galvanized the world to provide for a Jewish State and an Arab State. The Palestinian Jewish population (who could anachronistically be called Israelis) approved of the Partition whereas the Palestinian Arab population refused further territorial concessions. The previously formed Jewish militias began to confront Arab militias in the Jewish-Arab Engagement as early as mid-1947. When Israel Declared Independence in 1948, the War became an international conflict involving Arab Armies from seven additional nations.

2) 1948-9 War and Armistices

This period was characterized by the forced emigrations of large numbers of endemic Arabs from Palestine and endemic Jews from elsewhere in the Middle East to Arab countries and Israel respectively in the wake of mass Arab Anti-Semitism. There was also a semi-viable State of Israel and remaining Palestinian territories were occupied by other Arab Nations. As a result of the 1948-9 Arab-Israeli War, Israel now occupied 78% of the Mandate of Palestine. During this period, Israel was considered weak by both allies and enemies and was treated to belligerent treatment from its neighbors (even during the "peace"). Syrian missiles rained down on the Galilee lowlands periodically, Egyptians cut off Israeli shipping through the Suez Canal (leading to the Suez Crisis of 1956), skirmishes in the water occurred, and the Old City was forcibly cleansed of its Jewish inhabitants by Jordanian forces. Palestinian rights were also suppressed by the Arab States as Jordan militarized the West Bank and Egypt openly annexed Gaza after watching its Palestinian Puppet State fail. The Egyptians openly taunted Israel and amassed troops at the Israeli border in 1967 in order to eradicate the country.

3) Expansive Israeli Period

This period is characterized by an Israeli State that acquired (through war) numerous additional territories from Arab States. During this period, most Arab States (Egypt excepted) refused to negotiate with Israel and therefore did not successfully reacquire these lands. The Six Day War completely changed the dynamic of Arab-Israeli relations. Israel was now negotiating from a place of strength and ceding territories for peace. Arab States refused to negotiate at first, but after the stalemate from the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, some Arab countries were willing to negotiate. Egypt and Israel signed a Peace Accord in 1979, giving the Sinai back to Egypt in return for mutual recognition and peace. Israel also effectively stopped Syrian peacetime attacks and reunited Jerusalem (against international law). Several of the Palestinian refugee camps were opened and a minority of Palestinians began to commute to work in Israel. In the 1981 and 1982, Israel was pulled into Lebanese Civil War and fought alongside the Christian Falangists against Sunni and Shiite Arabs. Israel withdrew to the Litani River after the Syrian intervention stabilized the conflict and back to Israeli borders in 2000.

4) Palestinian Intifada and the Palestinian States

This period is characterized by the creation of the Palestinian Authority and beginnings of a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza Territories. This period is defined the "Roadmap to Peace". The Palestinian Uprising began to show Palestinian dissatisfaction with the continuing Israeli military occupation of the territory and lasted from 1987-1993. At that point the Oslo Accords were signed, granting recognition to a new body called the Palestinian Authority which would be responsible for governing Palestinian affairs. Israel ceded discrete pieces of land to the PA, but refused to give up large chunks of land until 2005 when it ceded all of Gaza to the PA. In the wake of this new accord, Jordan finalized a Peace Treaty with Israel in 1994. Earlier, in 1991, as a sidenote, Iraq launched skud missiles at Israel in an attempt to shatter the American-Arab Alliance to liberate Kuwait, but following American instructions, Israel stood down and did not enter the fighting. In 2000, the Second Palestinian Intifada began in response to Palestinian anger over perceived Israeli intransigence in devolving more power. This intifada lasted until 2005 and was considered a loss by Palestinians. In 2007, the Palestinian Elections sparked a civil war between Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, leading to the former controlling Gaza exclusively and the latter controlling the West Bank exclusively. Hamas continued to exhibit bellicose behavior, bothering both Israelis and Egyptian Military leaders (who termed the territory Hamastan). Responding to constant civilian bombardment, Israel invaded Gaza in December of 2008 in what resulted in nearly 1400 Palestinian Civilian casualties.

Answer 7

There is no question here. (How did the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict do what? -- start, sustain itself, affect world policy, change people's opinions of Israelis/Jews/Palestinians/Arabs...etc.)

If the asker wishes for a proper answer, please resubmit the question.

Answer 8

The answer for this below is very complex. There are also additional information in the Related Questions and Links below to give more insight into the issue.

Mandate Period
Though it is a very complex issue the conflict essentially comes down to the problem of Israeli occupation of the British Mandate of Palestine where Arabs had been living for centuries. In the last years of the Ottoman Empire many Jewish people who were being persecuted in Europe sought to create a country of Israel and so bought land from the Ottoman rulers of what was then known as Palestine.

Over the next few decades many more Jewish people arrived in Palestine, largely due to their persecution in Europe climaxing with the rise of Nazism in Germany and the Holocaust. By this stage the former Ottoman territories had been divided up between the allied powers of the First World War, notably Britain and France, in the Sykes-Picot Agreement with Britain having control of Palestine. As there was a push to create a state of Israel the British introduced the Balfour Declaration which stated the intention to create a national homeland for the Jewish people; this was opposed by the local Arab population who were losing a great deal of their land. Arabs openly refused further Jewish immigration because the balance both of population and land ownership was beginning to swing to the Jewish immigrants. This led to the British White Papers beginning and for the British to begin preventing further Zionist immigration.

This conflict between the Jews wanting to establish a Jewish State and the Arabs wanting an Arab State (each with minimal presence of the other) resulted in the 1947 UN Partition Plan. Both sides were disappointed by the plan as they each desired the lion's share of the territory. The Jews, however, were anxious to receive a State in light of the remaining Jewish refugees in post-Holocaust Europe, and accepted the proposal. The Arabs, counting both on their numbers and neighbours openly rejected the proposal believing that a Jewish State should not exist. The UN Proposal was accepted by a General Assembly vote by a two-thirds majority and this prompted the establishment of the State of Israel. Palestinians refused to make a similar declaration as that would infer that the Jewish State had any legitimacy.

Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9
During the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9, many Palestinian people, Muslims and Christians were expelled from the territory of Israel. In addition, many fled due to the possibility of attack and/or being encouraged to do so by their own leadership which claimed that Israel's destruction was imminent and that they could resettle later. These three reasons resulted in many Arabs fleeing to neighboring Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the West Bank and Gaza. Estimates put this number at around 700,000 individuals. Similarly in the Arab World, massive numbers of Jews fled the Arab States to Israel from 1950-1955 because of anti-Semitic persecution (at its most extreme) to second-class citizenry (at its least extreme). Estimates put the number of fleeing Jews at around 850,000 individuals (of which 500,000 immigrated to Israel).

Israeli State Period
Following the War of 1948-9, Jordan and Egypt occupied the West Bank and Gaza respectively as Israel, preventing those regions from declaring Statehood. In addition, there was still the atmosphere that Israel had just won the first round but that it would not be lucky in the next engagement. Leaders like Nasser made Ahmadinejad-type threats about wiping Israel off the map and when Israel would be destroyed, Palestine would come into existence. However, following subsequent wars between Israel and its Arab neighbors Israel gained control of the territories of the West Bank, Golan, Gaza and Sinai.

As concerns many Palestinians, this meant they came under the control of the Israeli state primarily through military administration. As a corollary there continued to be settlement of Jewish communities in areas originally set aside for Palestinian people, mainly Gaza and the West Bank, which is in contravention of a range of international laws. The issue of settlement is a divisive one in Israel as many see the settlers as the primary source of the tensions between Palestinians and Israel, with the "settlers" as a small minority of the Israeli population.

Additionally many Israelis feel threatened by statements and actions of many Palestinian and Arab governments that essentially call for the destruction of Israel and the return of the entire territory to the Palestinian people who lost their homeland with the creation of a Jewish homeland. To further the cause of Palestinian nationalism various groups, both political and paramilitary, ordinarily a combination of the two, operate to destabilize Israel by attacking Israeli military and terrorist attacks on the Israeli civilian population. In retaliation the Israeli military caries out what could arguably be called terrorist attacks on the Palestinian population; and exacerbating this is the ever present militaristic/terrorist actions of many of the Israeli settler populations.

Related Links and Related Questions:
Wikipedia: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
What are the causes of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?
What are the events of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?
Why do Jews and Arabs hate each other?
What are the causes of the Jewish-Arab Conflict?

Answer 9

It may surprise you, but the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is between the Israelis and their supporters on one side and the Palestinians and their supporters on the other side.

Answer 10

the main conflict is over the division of Jerusalem