Help me! jews and palestinians, can someone explain the reasons for the fighting? ?

Question

I´m British, and obviously I know that we gave the jews Israel as a homeland because the palestinians abandoned it. Last night, someone brought it up, and told me that everything I´d read was completely wrong. Obviously, I´ve been going by British history. I´m not seeking to offend anybody, I would just like to know what other countries learn about this war.

Answer 1

You are right.  When war broke out immediately after the creation of the State of Israel, most Palestinians left in order to fight with neighboring countries against Israel.  When Israel accomplished the impossible by winning that war, they wanted to return.

Many Arab Palestinians did not leave during the war and are still living peacefully inside Israel.  Ask them if they are being persecuted and want to leave.  None of them would leave Israel to join their Arab neighbors.

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.

“We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”   Golda Meir 1957, before the National Press Club in Washington

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 2

The term 'Palestinian' always referred to  both Jews and Arabs. Both have always lived in that region. It was JUDEA, the home of the Jews, until the Romans conquered it and renamed it after the already vanished Philistines.

The British had the mandate over the region of Palestine. They gave *82%* to the ARABS, and we know this as the country JORDAN.

That left 18%. The British decided the fair thing was to partition it, between the Jews and, again, the Arabs. So there would be two states, Jewish and Palestinian Arab, side by side.

The Jews said yes.

The Arabs said no and threatened war.

In May 1948, the armies of SIX Arab nations attacked the new Jewish state of Israel. The Higher Arab Commission broadcast on the radio and told the Palestinian Arabs to flee, as the armies were invading. The Jews asked the Palestinian Arabs to stay - and some did. Today, they are full Israeli citizens.

Sadly, many fled. They were then put in terrible refugee camps by Egypt and Jordan, and left there to rot and garner world sympathy.

At the same time, over a million JEWISH REFUGEES arrived in Israel - they'd been kicked out of the ARAB states  and had lost everything. Israel absorbed them straight away.

These are all objective, verifiable, historical FACTS.

http://www.ajewwithaview.com

Answer 3

Us english made it happen, they were ok till we went and stuck our noses in, we separated them...

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli-Pal...

Better read that link. It's a long complicated conflict without an easy solution. There are many wars going on that go back 1000 years or so. I remember there was a little town outside of Rome that was still complaining about what the ancient Romans did to them.

Answer 5

The Jews abandoned the land shortly after the time of Christ.  The Palestinians moved into the territory which was now vacant.  

In the 1940s, the Jews wanted it back, so they went in and took it from them by force.  In the same way the white man took the land from the Indians in North America.

Answer 6

Because half-brothers never get along well.

Answer 7

The problem is Jewish nationalism. Prior to the 19th Century very few Jews were nationalistic and did not seek a return to the so called "holy land". Zionism as a movement took off in the mid to late 19th century, it's leader Theodor Herzl encouraged Jews to emigrate to the region known as Palestine. Zionism however didn't really become popular among Jews until the growth of anti semitism in Europe

Palestine has never been a country. It has always been a region within an empire. The most recent empire to control this region was the Ottoman Empire. When the allies defeated the Ottomans in the first world war, Britain and France carved up the former territories between them. Britain got palestine and promised to give the jewish nationalists their state. They also promised to respect the rights of the arabs there, but of course in British style that never happened. They partioned the land giving Jews the most land. The arabs rejected it and waged a war against Israel. Israel won.

That would have fine but later the arabs and Israel went to war again in the 1967 six day war. After that Israel controlled the gaza strip and west bank. Most arabs now only want a return to the borders before 1967 but Israel has rejected this despite repeated UN mandates. Israel did give up the Gaza strip recently but still control's its airspace and  so it does not have sovereignity.

Another solution would be to have a mixed arab and jewish state but the jews reject this in case the jews there become a minority.

It is important to note a few things. The jews living in israel have nothing in common with the jews who lived there during roman times. The jews who live there now are mostly american and european jews who are connected to each other through religion only. Some dont speak hebrew.

The palestinians are a new entity too. Prior to Israel the arabs living there did not call themselves palestinians, rather just referred to themselves as arabs. In the roman times, they didn't even call themselves arabs.

So the conflict was started by Jewish nationalism which in turn gave birth to arab nationalism. The problem will never get sorted until the palestinians give up terrorism and Israel stops being so nationalistic.

Answer 8

The British sowed the seed of every war in this world. See India -Pakistan, Iran- Iraq-Kuwait etc.

Answer 9

If you ask me it's all about that spit of land Israel, it's the "Holy Land" for the three major religions in the world. Jew's are fighting because they no longer have a homeland (other than Israel) and the Palestinians are fighting because it's their holy land too. The "Christian West" is helping out Israel because of our decision at the end of WWII, and perhaps from some misguided attempt of getting on their God's good side. But all in all it's a hosing down the floor with testosterone kind of thing. Both sides refuse to live peacefully and it's all about some stupid peace of land.