What are the basic issues in the Arab-Israeili conflict and why is the problem so difficult to resolve? What do you think of the current peace process, can it succeed?

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict : Old Complications , New Problems

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Date Introduction

When the twin towers fell , aside from horrifying images from the sight we were also bombarded with news of those who celebrated their destruction . A great many of these images were broadcast from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip . At first glance many might ask how people could celebrate such a terrible incident . Yet , American involvement in the Middle East , most specifically its economic and military support of Israel , has garnered considerable

resentment within the area 's nations Nowhere is this resentment so great as with the Palestinian people , who see American support as key to Israel 's very existence and detrimental to the Palestinian push for self-determination . So to many Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip , when the towers fell , symbols of their oppression also crumbled to dust

While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has proved to be one of the longest standing in recent centuries the rise in terrorism parallel to America 's interest in the region has stirred the pot to the boiling point . Yet , in this era of heightened tensions between Islam and America , the United States continues to be the principle mediator of the Israel-Palestine conflict . While there is no doubt that the conflict is long standing and has produced many contradicting variables that hinder its solution - Jewish settlements , the issue of Jerusalem , and refugee camps to name a few - the purpose of this essay is to highlight how a new path can be forged by making important policy shifts within American foreign policy

The Key Issues

Many people see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the key detriment to peace in the Middle East . Since Israel first began to lay its foundations at the close of the First World War , Jews and non-Jews around the world have supported its creation as a means to atone for historical injustices and prevent future ones . Theodore Herlz is the best known early supporter of the creation of a Jewish state and claimed that assimilation and emancipation could not work , because the Jews were a nation . Their problem was not economic or social or religious but national . It followed rationally from these premises that the only solution was for the Jews to leave the diaspora and acquire a territory over which they would exercise sovereignty and establish a state of their own (Shlaim , 45

At the close of the Second World War the solution of a Jewish homeland built on land that historically and biblically was seen as Jewish was a concrete one , in addition to being supported by the newly created U .N The resulting move of large numbers of Jews to the area resulted in the displacement of Arab peoples that also had claims on the land dating back to biblical times . The conflict over rightful ownership can to a head with consecutive conflicts between Israel and its neighbors that culminated in the Yom Kippur War (1967 ) and left Israel in...