Can someone explain the Israel-Palestine conflict?

Question

Can someone explain the Israel-Palestine conflict? Why exactly are they fighting?

Answer 1

basically some of the arabs can't deal with the fact that israel exists, so they do whatever they can to destroy israel. wars didn't work so now they try propaganda.

there were no people calling themselves arab palestinians prior to 67. their whole existence is part of the arab attempt to destroy israel. anyone who doesn't realize that has fallen for the propaganda.

there was never an arab country of palestine there. never.

Answer 2

When Israel declared independence from the UK, the surrounding Arab nations and Iraq and Saudi declared war on Israel. Half the Arabs in Israel sided with the enemy and left the country.  After the war they found themselves stateless and living in refugee camps due to the Arab countries not wanting them.

So it basically comes down to traitors("Palestinians") being soar losers and jealous at the winning side.

Answer 3

As others have explained, Israel won the land in wars they didn't start.  They are still fighting in self-defense, NOT for any religious reasons concerning the land!  

Palestinians were offered half of the Palestinian Mandate in 1948 but refused it; Arabs controlled the West Bank and Gaza from 1948 to 1967, yet no Palestinian political entity arose in either place, not even provisionally.  Now Palestinians completely control Gaza, but rather than building a state there, they claim that they are under Israeli occupation.

The common explanation is that the Palestinians want a state encompassing the entire former Palestinian Mandate.  But a more likely explanation is that the Palestinian national movement is not and has never been a national movement in the ordinary sense of the term.  It was for a long time the vanguard of the Arab nationalist movement and is today the front line of aggressive Islamism.  The establishment of a state is not the goal.  The elimination of a state is not the goal.  The elimination of a foreign, non-Arab, non-Muslim entity is the goal.

\Are Palestinians the first refugee population in history? Hardly. But they are surely the first refugees who, as a group, have categorically RESISTED RESETTLEMENT, instead living for decades as wards of the international community.   Indeed, in Gaza today, years after Israel renounced any territorial claims, there continue to be refugee camps. Why? Why -- other than to serve as incubators for hatred that produce recruits bent on martyrdom and mayhem -- are there Palestinian refugee camps in Palestinian territory?

http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/middlee...

The trust deficit is exacerbated by the fact that after Israel quit the Gaza Strip in 2005, Palestinians, instead of building Singapore there, built Somalia and focused not on how to make microchips, but on how to make rockets to hit Israel.  Thomas Friedman

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/opinio...

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Answer 4

Let's start with a basic definition:

zionist - person who believes Israel has the right * to * exist *

The term 'Palestinian' has always referred to both Jews and Arabs. The region used to be called Judea, and was the home of the Jews since biblical times. Then the Romans conquered the area and renamed it after the ancient, sea faring Philistines.

The Jews were exiled, scattered over the globe. But some remained in the region now called Palestine. There has always been a Jewish presence in the region of Palestine.

Let's now fast forward to 1948:

The region is now controlled by the Brits, who hold the mandate. The Brits have promised BOTH the Jews and the Arabs that they shall have a new state in the region. Thus the fair solution was deemed to be PARTITION. One Jewish state - and one Arab state.

KEY POINT: remember, by this time, the Brits had already given 82% of Palestine TO the Arabs; we call it JORDAN.

The Jews accepted Partition.

The Arab world rejected it.

The Jews established Israel. They had been fleeing the horrors of n**i Germany, of course. No other country would let the Jews in, and so many European Jews had been arriving in Palestine. They joined with the Palestinian Jews who were already there, and they turned the desert into a beautiful, viable, homeland. From sand dunes, they built Tel Aviv, for instance.

But less than 12 hours after Israel declared independence, SIX ARAB ARMIES attacked her. They publicly vowed to 'cleanse' and 'conquer' Israel.

Of course, this placed all the Palestinian Arabs in an impossible position. The Israelis publicly begged them to stay. Arab leaders publicly ordered them to flee, ahead of the conquering Arab armies.

Most of the Palestinian Arabs fled. Those that remained, became full Israeli citizens.

Those that fled, were then put in refugee camps that were controlled by Jordan and Egypt.

Israel managed to hold her own against the six Arab armies, and in DEFENDING herself,  acquired a bit more land. No other country on earth has ever been asked to return land to enemies that have attacked it. Yet Israel was told to do just that.

Ever since 1948, the Palestinian Arabs have been left in refugee camps, to garner world sympathy.

http://jew-with-a-view.blogspot.com

Answer 5

I agree with Crystal.

Answer 6

After the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler kicked the Jews out of Germany and Europe they fled to Palestine. The Palestinians welcomed the victims and even allowed them to own lands and other properties in Palestine by the virtue of goodwill. But as the Jewish population increased from the refugees from Europe they decided to evacuate native Palestinians forcibly by either killing them or driving them away to make room for themselves. More than a million Palestinian people were forcibly evacuated, those who resisted were promptly killed by the Jewish terrorist gangs like Hagganah, Stern Gang and Irgun etc. The Western history books and media fail to mention these gangs and people are unaware of their brutalities. The Palestinians who are very peaceful and noble never expected the victims of the Holocaust to become aggressors themselves so they were not prepared to deal with the well equipped Jewish terrorist & criminal gangs. They had no potion but to flee their ancestral lands. The Jews engaged in house demolitions so that the Palestinians would not later lay claim to their houses and other properties.

Some Palestinians however resisted fiercely and there were many reported clashes in which many more Palestinians and a few Jews were killed. Finally as the situation was starting to get out of control, the British which was in control of Palestine (called as British Madate of Palestine then) decided to hand over the fate of Palestine to UN. The British were unable to keep up their promises to both the Palestinians and the Jews which they made to encourage them to help the British against n**i Germany. After the outbreak of WW2, n**i Germany overran most of Europe and were in a commanding position. The Fuhrer now turned his attention to the British,  the Germans were launching a blitz against Britain and in the process British troops from all over their colonies were called on to help protect the homefront. The British colonial rule was weakened significantly which helped Gandhi and other leaders to gain momentum for their independence. Gandhi's non-violent struggle against the British led to the Indian freedom and similarly most of other British colonies.

Oops I am getting a littler off track. Back to Palestine

After handing over the situation of The British Mandate of Palestine to the UN, it was decided to partition Palestine with the Palestinians having no say in that. The British themselves voted against the injustice towards the noble Palestinian people. The overwhelming (55%) of Palestinian land was given to the Jews with the majority of the resources to form the "State of Israel" in 1948. The Palestinians were not happy and they sought to fight the invading foreigners and the fight continues to this day. The fighting has been fierce because the Jews have further engaged in land acquisition forcibly and many Palestinians have become refugees.

The loss of Palestinian land can be seen here. Any sane person can understand why the Palestinians continue to resist the occupation of their lands

http://cryptome.org/palestine-lost.htm

Seeing is believing.

Hamas was formed late 1980s (I think in 1989) to fight the Jewish occupation of their land and the exceptional brutality of the Jewish military against the native Palestinians. Hamas also is at the front of the Palestinian social services and runs a lot of charities, schools, hospitals and other social services. Hamas has an overwhelming support among the Palestinians, some polls have shown the support to be as high as 89%. Hamas has taken a hard stance against the murderers of their people have engaged in t*t-for-tat retaliation for killing of Palestinians and hence have been labeled as "terrorists" by the US and "Israel". What is not reported extensively is that the British & the EU only consider the military wing of the Hamas movement as a "terrorist" group and not Hamas itself. In 2006, until now just a resistance movement, Hamas contested the Palestinian elections and won in a landslide. This democratic results were not acceptable to the Jews and they promptly declared the Gaza Strip (where Hamas is based) an "enemy entity" and closed all it's borders and everything to isolate Hamas. A year later Hamas - due to it's grassroots support - maintained it's grip on Gaza and was even consolidating it's rule on the Gaza Strip and the Jewish policy to isolate Hamas appeared not to be working. Hamas refuses to recognize "Israel" and has vowed never to recognize it.

Answer 7

In the late 19th century, a group of European Jews known as Zionists decided to form a Jewish state in Palestine. Palestine at the time was 97% Muslim and Christian.  These Zionists decided they would have to get rid of the Palestinian Arabs in order to make way for the Jewish state.  At first they tried buying land, and made some attempt at trying hide their real intent from the native people (For example from http://www.palestineremembered.com: in October 1882 Ben-Yehuda and Yehiel Michal Pines, few of the earliest Zionist pioneers in Palestine, wrote describing the indigenous Palestinians:

   ". . . There are now only five hundred [thousand] Arabs, who are not very strong, and from whom we shall easily take away the country if only we do it through stratagems [and] without drawing upon us their hostility before we become a the strong and papules ones.")

However the native people soon got wind of Zionist intent to take over their land and kick them out and objected, getting the Ottomans then ruled Palestine to restrict Zionist purchase.  

To make a long story short, some of the Zionists were wealthy and influential and managed to get backing for the plan from Britain.  When Palestine fell under British rule after WWI, Britain fully supported the Zionists, helped them set up militias, establish government institutions while forbidding Palestinian development of governing bodies, and brutally repressing Palestinian rebellion against these policies.

The Zionists adopted policies to deny Palestinians employment in any businesses they set up and placed covenants on land they purchased making it belong to Jews in perpetuaty.  By 1947, however, the Zionists had only managed to purchase between 6% and 7% of the total land area, Palestinians still owned most of the rest.  Because of the n***s, the number of Zionists had grown to about 1/3 the total population.  Getting rid of Palestinians by buying up their land and evicting them and denying them employment in Zionist-owned businesses wasn't working.

The British empire was breaking up and they turned the matter of Palestine over to the UN. The Zionist lobbied for all of Palestine for their state, and the UN was dominated by European countries which felt somewhat guilty over the n**i holocaust.  In November 1947 the UN recommended over the objections of the Palestinians was to devide Palestine giving about 54% for a Jewish state, around 45% for an Arab state, and a small international zone encompassing Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

The Palestinians reacted by holding some demonstrations and riots in major cities, but these soon died down. As noted, the British had helped the Zionist form a quasi-military.  They began attacking Palestinian villages and employing terrorism against Palestinian urban centers and laying siege to the cities.  The Palestinians tried to put together a militia, but it was woefully behind.



Until they left in 1948, the British did very little to prevent the massive campaign of ethnic cleansing the Zionists started against the Palestinians. Palestinians, their leadership fragmented and destroyed earlier and with little native military, were left largely defenseless against attacks on their villages and towns by the Zionist armed forces. When they did mount a defense, the Zionists used it as and excuse to execute those who had fought even after they had surrendered, and many Palestinians were executed in mass.  The Zionists had already destroyed dozens of villages by the time the Arab armies entered the war, immediately after Israel declared itself a state in May 1948.

In fact, the Arab states who declared war on Israel mostly had relatively poor armies except Jordan, which had a private agreement with the Zionists not to attack it.  The Jordanian army never entered that part of Palestine designated by the UN partition plan for the Jewish state, and only fought when the Zionist forces attacked it.  Only Egypt entered Palestine in major way, and only in the lightly populated, mostly desert southern part.  The Zionists initially operate in that part because there weren't many Jewish settlements there.

As the war progressed, the Zionists consolidated their plans to "clean up" Arab villages, and began systematically to expel the Palestinians with more massacres, threats of massacres, and ordering people out of their homes at gunpoint. As a result, about 750,000 Palestinian Arabs became refugees. The Zionists (now Israelis) confiscated land, property and funds left behind by the refugees and used it for Jewish-only development, and demolished well over 400 villages to prevent the return of the inhabitants.

With the majority who probably would have voted against the creation of a Jewish state driven out (there were about 650,000 Jews in Palestine in 1948), Israel declared itself a democracy and a "light unto nations".  Israel demolished some 400 villages to prevent the return of the refugees, confiscated the land, property, businesses and much of the funds left behind, turning them over to be used only by Jews.  

The refugees mostly went to live in camps set up over the border of an armistice line that was negotiated between Israel and the neighboring Arab states, often within sight of their farms.  Many tried to get back, especially as there was a lot of people going hungry without their farms and incomes, but the Israelis killed them or tried to.  The armistice line became sort of recognized as the border of Israel.

In 1956 and again in 1967, Israel attacked Egypt.  Jordan and Syria had mutual defense pacts with Egypt in 1967, and they also entered the war in a minor way.  The result was that Israel occupied the Gaza Strip (part of Palestine administered by Egypt until then), the Sinai (Egyptian territory), the Golan Heights (Syria), and the West Bank including East Jerusalem (then part of Jordan).  They exiled some 300,000 more people, and demolished over 100 more villages.  They imposed a harsh military rule on the Palestinians living under occupation, using imprisonment without trial, torture, beating to quell any expression of Palestinian nationalism or dissent, and confiscated more land to build Jewish-only settlements.  They require permits for Palestinians to live in their own homes, and if a Palestinian leaves his/her home in occupied East Jerusalem for any period (say to go away to college), that permit can be revoked permanently (of course they encourage Jews to live in East Jerusalem).  They collected taxes which mostly benefited Israelis, and exploited the water resources of the occupied territories for Israeli benefit, Palestinians in the occupied territories use about 1/4 the amount of the settlers who have pools and landscaping, the Palestinians get less water on average than the minimum recommended for health.  Some of the settlers are fanatic Zionists who vandalize Palestinian property and destroy their farmland, shoot and occasionally kill Palestinian civilians.  The Israeli army guards and protects them, and often lets them kill Palestinians freely.

Note that the settlements are illegal under international law, as is aquisition of territory by armed force.

The Sinai was given back to Egypt in a peace deal.  Bear in mind, the rest of the occupied territories were within the original boundaries the Zionists had envisioned for their propoesed state.  But of course they didn't want all those Palestinian Arabs.

In 1987 the Palestinians under occupation staged a rebellion known as an Intifada.  Largely this was strikes and demonstrations, and a few stones thrown at tanks.  The Israeli army distributed truncheons to the soldiers who beat up demonstrators, occasionally to death, and imposed round-the-clock curfews lasting days and weeks (with breaks of a few hours for geting necessary supplies), closed schools, set up checkpoints preventing people from getting to work, markets, health services.  

However, with the Intifada bring attention to what Israel was doing i Intifada did bring Israel to the negotiating table with exiled Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat, and eventually the Oslo accords were assigned, which were supposed to have lead negotiations which would lead to a Palestinian state within 5 years.

The Palestinians were overjoyed.  However, in the following years while Oslo negotiations were proceding, Israel radically increasted the number of settlers, imposed more checkpoints that control Palestinian movement, and decreased access to East Jerusalem and employment in Israel.  

In 2000 Ariel Sharon marched with hundreds of Israeli troops on the Haram al-Sharif, an Islamic holy cite, and claimed it for Israel.  Demonstrations by Palestinians followed, the Israelis used both live ammunition and rubber-coated steel bullets to quell them.  Ariel Sharon had been responsible for massacres involiving the deaths of thousands of helpless men, women and children going back many years.  Anyway, after a month or two of this Israeli shooting spree which killed hundreds, most of them innocent bystanders, the Palestinians began attacking Israelis in Israel with suicide bombers.

So the short of it is, the Palestinian refugees would like their land and homes restored to them, the Palestinians under occupation would like freedom.  The Israelis want "security" i.e. to keep most of the land they took from the Palestinians in peace (including large sections of the occupied territories that Israel took by war) as well as most of the water. That's basically what they're fighting over.

Answer 8

The conflict is over terrotory, and this site should give you excellent basic info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Ara...

Answer 9

Lots of people all a little right and a whole lot wrong.  Read your Bible.

Don't you hate it when people can't form an opinion and rely on something as undependable as Wiki, like it's all verified fact instead of gossip.

Answer 10

There are some very good explanations of what is REALLY happening in Israel.....L'Chaim, Kosherninja, and Ms. Miche to name three.  Basically, the Arab people in the land calling themselves "Palestinians" need to resettled in Arab lands where they actually belong and would feel more comfortable.  If/when that happens, then there will be peace.

Answer 11

Oh I like wiki it's a good source of info I gave kismet thumbs up.

Because Israel is fighting off terrorism!

History shows that palestinians have no claim to the land they got their roots in PLO as a political movement spoon fed by Egypt to overtake Israel by force. The PLO charter even signed off ALL rights to ANY land and expressed they would make an army to do such.  Jordan expelled them because they went to overtake Jordan which was their half of the palestine region. Then they were expelled from Lebanon.  Egypt abandoned their infant. And now Hamas overthrew more moderate Fatah.

They are even admitting what they are doing:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa. While as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan." -- PLO Executive Committee member Zuhayr Muhsin, March 31, 1977, interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw."

So why does anyone want to give land to a political movement that has resorted to terror tactics to force their way. The avoidance of war isn't an answer to give someone land when they don't care about the land they just want to get rid of Jewish Israel to begin with.

They got Gaza.  If I had my say it is all they get and they should be thankful to Israel they got that much which was more than any other Arab or Muslim country was willing to give.  They just always wanted more. They had opportunity to make home state (one more time how many opportunities they had.)  Just look at history there is massive  preponderance of facts that points to such that they don't want a palestinian state, they have always wanted all of Israel.

Black September Jordan

http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-r...

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTI...

Answer 12

it's like this:

jews: this land is our's

arabs: no it's our's

jews: we lived here long before you did

arabs: we've lived here for more than a thousand years. we're converted jews/indigenous people etc etc.

jews: afasfafakhrakjrkaj torah

arabs: jfkaskkafhkkhagn quran

jews: shalom/chosen people/god gave it to us

arabs:allah/jihad/islam

...................................... ................................. .............................. .................. ..................................... ........................................... zZZZZZZZZZz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz................. ............................

Answer 13

People can't agree on who is more responsible for the Israel-Palestine conflict, as they are both to blame for some things.  However, there was no problem there before Israel got there, so that says a lot.  

Try to imagine this in your own life:  Half your country is given to those known as 'vikings' because they were there before you.  If you live on the piece of land that is given away, and your family has been there for generations, and you have buildings, etc on it, it doesn't matter.  You won't be compensated.  Would that be unjust?

Crystal is right.

Answer 14

After the Holocaust, Jews from Europe moved to the Middle East.  They wanted their own country.  The UN agreed to split Palestine in half for this purpose.  The Palestinian people refused to give the land; so the Zionists took it by force.  For 60 years, Palestinian people have been fighting to free their land from these occupiers.

Additional information.

zionists were able to build and maintain the 4th most powerful army in the world due to military aid from America.  This is despite zionist actions being ruled as illegal by the World Court.

America funds ersatz israel for political reasons of destabilization in the region.

Historically no country has ever been able to maintain occupation.  After 60 years, the cost has crippled ersatz israel.  It is expected that the zionists will need to pull out of the region withing the next 20 years.

Answer 15

Hello Roger,

When Israel became a state in 1948, a state of "palestine" was also offered to the Muslims who live in Judah and Samaria.  Unfortunately, they turned it down because the Jerusalem mufti told them to flee, while neighboring countries will fight off Israelis.  After the supposed conquest, the Muslims would have been able to regain all of "palestine."  

For obvious reasons, it did not work out that way, and Muslims lost their land all together.  Having no place to go, they became "refugees," which they have imposed upon themselves by not accepting their share of the land in the first place.

When Jewish people began moving into Israel, which was voted for by the U.N. in 1947, they pushed away the Muslims who were living in Israel proper, and into the territories which were designated for Muslims.  

Even though those territories are Judah and Samaria, Jewish people were still willing to share with Muslims.  

Because Muslims living in "palestine," (which was a territory and not a country, always ruled by one empire or another,) have no clue how to run a country or develop it, they have always relied on others for provisions and leadership.  That is the core reason why they turned down their share of the land in the first place - they had no clue what to do with their freedom.  It is very clear to me that Muslims living in these parts only know how to live under other people's rule, and whine about it.  It is the only way they know how to live.

As a result, Israel has to deal with constant threat to her existence, which is denied by many Muslims, and the constant retaliation, which is condemned by Muslims - as if they are innocent little lambs who cause harm to no one.

The final solution would be to move all Muslims living in Judah and Samaria into Muslim countries where they belong, where they will fit in much better and be much happier.  Muslim countries would set them straight from the very beginning, and will not tolerate the terrorism and assault Israelis have had to endure for the past 60 years.

Peace will come when we all face up to the fact that we cannot live together, and agree to disagree, knowing that we cannot, should not, must not live within the same "house" - just like any other divorce.

Sincerely,

Ms. Miche ; })

Answer 16

It is a colonial conflict by all means. It is native people VS. colonists.

Answer 17

The Middle East conflict came about as a result of the supposed sibling rivalry between Ishmael and Isaac, sons of Abraham.

Answer 18

Watch the Zohan!