Israel, Palestine Border Conflict

A look into both sides of the argument

Israel

“It does not take much insight into world affairs to predict that the cauldron of animosities in the Middle East will continue to boil.” Thus said scholar Noam Chomsky in 2003; the Israel-Palestine conflict had not yet included such developments as the creation of separation barriers, the siege of the Gaza strip and Israeli assaults on aid shipments from Turkey, a historically close ally of Israel. Of the struggle between the two peoples, Palestinian and Jewish, much has been said, but little has been done, or what has been done offers little in the way of peace.

On Nov. 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly agreed to a plan to split the area of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The unnamed Jewish state would be small, fractured and nearly half the population would remain Arab. The following summer, civil war raged throughout the territory, and what exactly this entailed has been a highly debatable topic among historians and scholars. What can be known for certain is that this conflict resulted in a population of refugees who still, decades later, are in the same regions or are now much more constrained by Israeli settlement expansion.

From the Israeli perspective, the current outgrowth into Greater Jerusalem is the expression of a vibrant and technologically advanced economy; the extension of Jewish success into the uncompromising desert even while surrounded by hostile states. Such a view should be tempered by the fact that the Israeli military, the Israeli Defense Forces, currently wields enormous power far outstripping its Muslim neighbors, thanks to the virtually unparalleled military aid granted by the United States. Israel also refuses to admit or deny it has nuclear weapons, maintaining an opaque nuclear posture that does little to calm fears in the region of a nuclear offensive and is an overwhelming reason why Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons as well. Although the current peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders are presided over by the United States, the early messages from them are unerringly familiar and disheartening. The animosities, it would seem, may have to boil a little longer.

Palestine

The war in 1948 created two things, the state of Israel and millions of displaced Palestinians, including an estimated 750,000 refugees, according to United Nation sources. Arab sources invariably put the number higher whereas Israelis tend to downplay the number. The Palestinian problem, ongoing for over half a decade, still represents one of the most pressing humanitarian crises facing the United Nations and world aid organizations.

The number in need has grown to an estimated four million Palestinians which remain displaced and over one million live that in refugee camps, mainly based in Gaza, the West Bank and the surrounding countries of Lebanon and Jordan. Immediately following the war, Palestinians villagers fled their villages seeking temporary refuge from the fighting; most of them were never to see their homes again.

In standard commentary on the subject—especially in the United States—Palestinians are described as being leaderless, violent and unresponsive to Israeli offers of peace, which are usually described as fair and genuine. The United States plays the role of a neutral negotiating partner between the two conflicting parties that, unfortunately, cannot agree on much of anything. This perspective, while helpful to Israeli designs in the region, lacks substance and cannot be sustained by facts. Palestinians, live in horrid conditions and abject poverty, with most arable land and water resources being intruded upon by settlers backed by the most robust military presence in the region. When Palestinians do elect a government, as they did in 2006 when Hamas won substantial gains, they are disregarded as a terrorist group and listed as an official terrorist organization.

The United States’ posturing as a neutral arbiter cannot be taken seriously when the United States supplies virtually all of the high-tech military hardware used to patrol and repress Palestinians. The Israeli Defense Forces use American planes flown by Israeli pilots, American tanks for Israeli soldiers. As a constructive starting point in the current negotiations, perhaps the United States should take heed of the Arab League proposal which, much like the rest of the world, agrees on a two-state solution based on 1967 borders. Although this would weaken a key ally in the region, perhaps world peace should be placed above strategic wartime planning; the Palestinians have seen enough of war.

Posted by Michael Russell on Sep 24 2010. Filed under Close Up, Special Sections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.