ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT
Cast of characters:
Abdallah (1882-1951): was the second son of the Sharif of Mecca; Amir (commander in
Arabic) of Transjordan (present day Heshemite Kingdom of Jordan); killed in 1951, as he was
regarded to have been collaborating with the British and the Israelis to undermine the
creation of the state of Palestine
Abu Jihad (Khalil al-Wazir): was Palestinian guerrilla leader next to Arafat, and also the
founder of Fatah
Arafat Yasser (1929-2004): was a Palestinian guerrilla fighter and became a politician in
1956; a founding member of Fatah; commander in chief of the Palestinian guerrilla forces in
1970; first Palestinian president (1996)
Al-Assad Hafez: was a Syrian officer and commander of the Syrian Air Force who led coup
d’etat in 1966 and became president in 1971 (Al-Assad family ruling Syria since then)
Begin Menachem: was a head of the militant underground organization called Irgun and the
founder of the Herut Party; resigned after Sabra and Shatilla massacres
Ben-Gurion David: was the chairman of the Zionist Executive and Jewish Agency in
1935,before the creation of the state of Israel; after creation of Israel he became the first
prime minister; also declared the creation of the state of Israel
Bernadotte, Count Folke: was the Un appointed mediator for Palestine who recommended
merging of Palestine with the Kingdom of Jorda; assassinated in 1948 by (possibly) Irgun
members
Dayan Moshe: was an Israeli military leader who led the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) to
victory in the Sinai campaign; held various ministerial position within the government until
1967
Dulles John Foster: was the US politician who wanted to create a Middle east defence
organization and who played the decisive role in establishing the US foreign policy to the
Middle East
Farouk, the King of Egypt: deposed in July 1952 in the coup by the Free Officers
Gemayel Bashir: : was a Lebanese politician and military leader who was in charge of the
Lebanese military and its operations throughout the Israeli invasion of Lebanon; became the
president of Lebanon, but assassinated before he could assume the position
Herzl Theodor: was regarded as the founder of the modern Zionism (wrong, he was the
founder of World Zionist Organization); famous for his work “The Jewish State” where he
declared that the Jewish people ought to have a free independent state in Palestine
Hussein, the King of Jordan: crowned in 1953; expelled the PLO from Jordan in 1970; signed
peace treaty with Israel in 1994
Al-Husseini Hajj Amin: was a Palestinian religious leader who headed the anti-Jewish
demonstrations in the 1920’s and became the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in the following
years; led Arab revolts in Palestine and later escaped to Germany where he worked as a Nazi
propaganda officer; famous for his support of the Holocaust
Meir Golda: prime minister of Israel, however held various ministerial position in the
government; met secretly with King Abdallah in an attempt to establish peace with Jordan in
1947
Nasser Gamal Abdel: was an Egyptian politician who participated in the coup to overthrow
king Farouk, and was elected president in 1956;’strong promoter of the Arab socialism
doctrine
Peres Shimon: was an Israeli defence minister for 4 terms, and was acting as a prime
minister after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin; current Israeli president
Pyrlin Evgeny: head of the Egyptian department in the Soviet Foreign ministry which was in
charge of supplying Egypt with arms during the 1967 June war
Sadat Anwar: succeeded Nasser after his death in 1970; signed peace with Israel in 1979 and
assassinated by Islamists in 1981
Sir Samuel Herbert: was a British statesman who helped prepare the ground for the Balfour
Declaration
Sharett Moshe: was a chief Zionist spokesman to the British and the Arabs;Chariman of the
Zionist and Jewish Agency executive
Sharon Ariel: was an Israeli general, regarded as a really violent one and a promoter of
violence to crush the Arab revolts throughout the occupied territories; strongly disliked by
the Arabs and the majority of the Israeli general public
Wazir Khalil: was the Fatah leader upon the establishment of the resistance movement in
1957
Weizmann Chaim: famous chemist and a Zionist leader; first president of Israel; supported
the partition of Palestine on the grounds of parity
Glossary:
Aliyah: mass migration of Jewish people from all parts of the world, mainly Europe, to what
then was Palestine and what now is Israel
Arab Higher Committee: institution established under Hajj Husseini which was outlawed in
1936 Arab Revolt
Arab League: united nations of the arab world, which were established by Egypt in 1945 and
included Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Transjordan and Yemen in order to
promote Arab unity and later Pan-Arabism
Arab Liberation Army: part of a few Arab organized armies which fought in the 1947-48 war
against Israel
Bar Lev Line: name for Israeli fortresses build on the Egyptian border along the Suez canal
during the War of Attrition
Black September: conflict between the Jordanian Army and the PLO in which PLO was
expelled from Jordan and went to Lebanon
DFLP: Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
DOP: Declaration of Principles which is also known as the Oslo Accords
Fatah: Palestinian political party founded in Kuwait and led by Arafat
Fedayeen: Palestinian suicide bombers/guerrilla fighters
Green Line: Armistice frontiers in 1949 (conflict on this as Israel bushed the boundaries after
the 1967 war)
Gush Emunim (Bloc of Believers in Hebrew): Zionist (religious) movement which prophesized
the establishment of Israeli settlements in the territories won after the 1967 war
Haganah: underground organization established in the 1920 after the British failed to
protect Jews; it became the core of the IDF upon the establishment of the state of Israel
Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement): organization which was based on Islamic religious
principles which calls for the destruction of Israel
Hezbollah (Party of God in Arabic): Lebanese Islamic resistance movement which was
established upon invasion of Israel in 1982; influenced strongly from the government of Iran
Intifada (Shaking off in Arabic): given to the 1987 Palestinian uprising against Israel which
lasted 6 years until the signing of the DOP
Irgun (National Military Organization): jewish extremist underground organization which
directed its actions against the British; famous for the King David Hotel killings
Jewish Agency: established in 1929 to help Jewish immigrants settle in Palestine and to
advance Hebrew language and Jewish Culture
Kibbutz: collective agricultural settlements in Israel which are founded on the Marxist
principles
An-Nakba (the Disaster in Arabic): term for the Arab defeat in 1948 war and the
establishment of the state of Israel
PFLP: Popular front for the liberation of Palestine
PLA: Palestine Liberation Army
PLO: Palestine Liberation Organization
PNA: Palestine National Authority
PNC: Palestine National Council
PNM: Palestine National Movement
UNSCOP: United Nations Special Committee on Palestine
Wailing Wall: also known as the Western Wall, place for religious worship of Jewish people
Yishuv: the name for jewish settlements prior to the establishment of Israel
Yom Kippur: jewish holiday which is marked by fasting and prayers; also name given to the
1967 war
Zero sum: the belief that if one party, be it Israel or the PLO/Hamas, pursue their wants the
other party loses which makes compromise difficult
Background to the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Background to the Arab-Israeli conflict remains unclear up to this point. It could be traced
back to the Biblical times with the separation between Isaac and Ismael, it could be traced
back to the Mohammad’s quarrel with the Jews of Medina, it could be traced with the first
grand migration of Jewish people to the soil of Palestine in 1881, or it could be traced back
to establishment of the state of Israel in May, 1948. These examples show how unclear the
conflict is, and leave us only with assumptions. However, the Arab hatred towards Jewish
people intensified with the First Aliyah of 1881 when large numbers of Jews escaped the
prosecution, torture and discrimination they were experiencing in Europe. Historians have
regarded this mass migration to the area of Palestine, which was under the control of the
Ottoman Empire, in two ways: first being that the Jewish people were only returning to their
homelands after being constantly exiled from it by the Romans, and other conquerors, and
the second being that they were colonizing Palestine with the help of Western powers. The
wave of Aliyah intensified with the publication of Theodor Herzl’s book/pamphlet called
“Der Juden Staat” (The Jewish State). Jews were always living in Palestine, but were mainly
Sephardic, the Aliyah brought in the Ashkenazim Jews who were well educated, and were
full of ideas to develop the area. They settled in the Jewish yishuvs and quickly set up an
agency which would aid the influx of Jews. Migrating Jews would have to buy land off of the
Muslim Palestinian landlords for high price, and would therefore have the right to settle
there. The land they bought was often very bad for irrigation and was filled with swamps, so
therefore they had to unite with other Jewish migrants and collectively work on the land
purchased. This laid the foundation for the creation of the Kibbutz. Upon realizing that the
Jewish immigrants have flooded the Area of Palestine, they became rioting against the influx
as they thought they were going to be colonized by the Jewish and they would lose their
identity. They appealed to the Effendi of Damascus who briefly banned the Jewish migration
to Palestine. With this act, the official first Aliyah ended. Although, the mass wave of
migration stopped for a brief period of time, it continued in 1904-1914 where
approximately 40000 Jews came to Palestine. However, the First World War came and the
Ottoman Empire dissolved and the British came to administer the Area. Over the course of
the First World War, in order to gain Arab sympathy to side with the Western powers in the
attempt to defeat the Central Powers, Sir Henry McMahon promised the Arab leader
Hussein bin-Ali that Britain would support the Arab independence in the Area if the Arabs
agreed to fight alongside them against the Ottoman Empire. This exchange of promises
came to be known as McMahon-Hussein correspondence*. Many Arabs claim that this
promise included Palestine; however the British have ever since declined so. These waves of
migration and the idea of creating a free independent Jewish state resulted in the rise of
Jewish nationalism which can be called Zionism. The rise of Zionism encouraged the rise of
Arab nationalism, and the conflict between the two camps was inevitable. The years which
followed the end of the First World War resulted in mass killings of both Jews, and the
Arabs. There were many attempts of peacefully resolving the conflict within the
communities, but it was unsuccessful and it resulted in creation of Haganah, a paramilitary
organization with its main aim of protecting the Jewish population.
Jewish Settlements in Palestine,
1881-1914
The Jewish State was published in
1890 in Vienna, and was strongly
influenced with Alfred Dreyfuss’s
hearings in France
Theodor Herzl, born in Pest, parents
from Serbia, the author of “The
Jewish State
First Aliyah (1840’s) settlers in
Palestine usually inhabited lands
with swamps which they made
arable by planting eucalyptus trees
Kibbutz (settlement in Yiddish) was founded on
Marxist principles of communal cooperation in
production. Each member of the Kibbutz was
given a job to do, some were farmers, some
were teachers, some were in charge of taking
care of the children and so on…
Typical land bought from Arab land
absentees in Palestine during the
First Aliyah.
*Hussein-McMahon Correspondence letter
October 24, 1915.
I have received your letter of the 29th Shawal, 1333, with much pleasure and your expression of
friendliness and sincerity have given me the greatest satisfaction.
I regret that you should have received from my last letter the impression that I regarded the question
of limits and boundaries with coldness and hesitation; such was not the case, but it appeared to me
that the time had not yet come when that question could be discussed in a conclusive manner.
I have realised, however, from your last letter that you regard this question as one of vital and urgent
importance. I have, therefore, lost no time in informing the Government of Great Britain of the
contents of your letter, and it is with great pleasure that I communicate to you on their behalf the
following statement, which I am confident you will receive with satisfaction. The two districts of Mersina and Alexandretta and portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of
Damascus, Homs, Hama.and Aleppo cannot be said to be purely Arab, and should be excluded from
the limits demanded.
With the above modification, and without prejudice to our existing treaties with Arab chiefs, we accept
those limits.
As for those regions lying within those frontiers wherein Great Britain is free to act without detriment to
the interests of her ally, France, I am empowered in the name of the Government of Great Britain to
give the following assurances and make the following assurances and make the following reply to
your letter:
(1) Subject to the above modifications, Great Britain is prepared to recognise and support the
independence of the Arabs in all the regions within the limits demanded by the Sherif of Mecca.
(2) Great Britain will guarantee the Holy Places against all external aggression and will recognise their
inviolability.
(3) When the situation admits, Great Britain will give to the Arabs her advice and will assist them to
establish what may appear to be the most suitable forms of government those various territories.
(4) On the other hand, it is understood that the Arabs have decided to seek the advice and guidance
of Great Britain only, and that such European advisers and officials as may be required for the
formation of a sound form of administration will be British.
(5) With regard to the vilayets of Bagdad and Basra, the Arabs will recognise that the established
position and interests of Great Britain necessitate special administrative arrangements in order to
secure these territories from foreign aggression to promote the welfare of the local populations and to
safeguard our mutual economic interests.
I am convinced that this declaration will assure you beyond all possible doubt of the sympathy of
Great Britain towards the aspirations of her friends the Arabs and will result in a firm and lasting
alliance, the immediate results of which will be the expulsion of the Turks from the Arab countries and
the freeing of the Arab peoples from the Turkish yoke, which for so many years has pressed heavily
upon them.
I have confined myself in this letter to the more vital and important questions, and if there are any
other matters dealt with in your letters which I have omitted to mention, we may discuss them at some
convenient date in the future.
It was with very great relief and satisfaction that I heard of the safe arrival of the Holy Carpet and the
accompanying offerings which, thanks to the clearness of your directions and the excellence of your
arrangements, were landed without trouble or mishap in spite of the dangers and difficulties
occasioned by the present sad war. May God soon bring a lasting peace and freedom of all peoples.
I am sending this letter by the hand of your trusted and excellent messenger, Sheikh Mohammed ibn
Arif ibn Uraifan, and he will inform you of the various matters of interest, but of less vital importance,
which I have not mentioned in this letter.
(Compliments).
(Signed): A. HENRY MCMAHON.
1948 War of Independence
The debate surrounding the events of 1948, the creation of the state of Israel, the Arab
defeat and the Palestinian refugee problem, becomes apparent with the way the war is
referred to in Israeli and Arab historiography. For Israelis it was the War of Independence, as
they proclaimed statehood afterwards in May,1948, and for Palestinians it became known
as “the disaster” or Al-Nakba.
In 1937, the British set up what was known as the Peel Commission or the Royal Palestine
Commission which was headed by Earl Peel, which attempted to solve the issue of the
British Mandate of Palestine following the 1936-37 outbreak of Arab revolt led by Hajj
Husseini. The Commission came up with the conclusion of partitioning the area into two
separate states, but the idea was immediately rejected by the Arabs who thought the British
were being sympathetic to the Jews and allotted them with more territory.
Up until the end of the Second World War, Palestine was controlled by the British who
administered the area. They have trained both Jewish and Arab population to fight
alongside them against the Fascists. After the Second World War, the British gave up
Palestine to the United Nations who were going to do the voting whether or not to establish
the state of Israel. World community, being sympathetic to the Jews after they suffered the
holocaust voted in favour of the creation of Israel. First nation to accept Israel as a
legitimate state was the United States, followed by a 15 minute delay of the USSR.
Immediately following the General Assembly vote, both Jews and Arabs started to arm
themselves. The Arab Higher Committee called a strike for 2-4 December which sparked off
the first inter-communal clashes. The British mandate authorities were biding their time
until the complete withdrawal as they were unable and unwilling to curb the ensuing civil
war or implement the partition which was attempted by the UNSCOP which failed like the
1937 Peel Commission in their attempts to solve the conflict by listening to both Arabs and
the Jews. The months before complete end of the mandate saw bitter fighting on both
sides- like Deir Yassin massacre by the Irgun (Newly set up underground organization by
Jewish extremists), the Arab Ambush on a Jewish medical convoy and the Arab siege of
Jerusalem, ultimately resulting in a mass exodus of Palestine’s Arabs which fled homes
thinking they would come back to them once the fighting was over. On 14th of May 1948*
the Jewish Agency declared the territory allotted to the Jews as the new state of Israel. The
next day Egyptian, Lebanese, Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi troops attacked the fledgling Jewish
state to, as they called it, “Liberate Palestine”. The contest for Palestine and conflicting
communal aspirations had turned into what is now known as the Arab Israeli conflict. An
estimated 6000-7000 Arab volunteer constituting the Arab Liberation Army achieved a
number of early successes. Up until June 1948 Israel was fighting for survival. They had
massive issues with the arms supply, difficulties of coordinating an army consisting of local
and migrant Jews, and above all the numeric inferiority. The Arabs controlled the major
roads and therefore prevented the supply of distanced Israeli armies. It was due to this that
the Haganah came up with the infamous Plan Daled (D in Hebrew) which said that if they
were going to defeat the foreign invading troops they had to defeat the local and foreign
irregulars . This meant that Haganah had to either destroy the Arab villages or depopulate
them. It is argued that Plan Daled was a blue print for the expulsion of the Arabs from
Palestine and the beginning of Israeli imperialism.
The official aim of the intervention by the Arab troops was to liberate Palestine, but at a
closer look it seems as if each of the Arab states was pursuing its own political agenda and
territorial claims. The Arab armies were uncoordinated and were badly equipped and poorly
trained which led to low morale and only a month after the invasion the Arab liberation
campaign had lost its momentum.
The turning point of the war came in June, 1948 with the first truce ordered by the UN. The
truce basically saved Israel as it was clearly losing the war for its existence. Before the truce
IDF had 65000 troops, and by the end of December they managed to mobilize 96441 troops
and import significant amount of rifles, machine guns, tanks, armoured cars and
ammunition despite the UN embargo. This was the turning point of the war as when the
fighting continued in July, and up until the second truce, Israeli forces seized Nazareth.
During the second truce, both sides violated the terms. By December of 1948, Israel
managed to seize most of the Galilee in the north-east, and break the Negev blockade, and
to cross into southern Lebanon. It was by now clear that the Arab states have lost the war
and the armistice negotiations began in January 1949. The post 1948 war regional changes
were drastic. Israel increased in size and made its borders defensible; it increased 21 per
cent in its size. The war of 1948 had demographic changes as well, as 150000 Palestinian
Arabs came under Israeli control and became Israeli, 450000 came under Jordanian control,
and 200000 came under Egyptian control. The total number of Palestinian refugees was
estimated between 550000-850000 by the end of the war. The refugee problem was
created at the beginning of the war as middle and upper class Palestinian families decided
to leave their homes and avoid the fighting, however they could not return back to their
original homes as they were being occupied with Jews or they were simply not allowed back
into, what became Israel. Thus ended the 1948 war with Israel being established as a state,
and Arab defeat which became known as Al-Nakba. The results of the war were momentous
for the creation of the various Arab na
Transition of the state of Israel
between 1946 and 1999. The map
of 1947 is prior to the war.
At the beginning of the war, the Arabs had
better equipment and they had an
advantage of being well armed, whereas
the Jews had virtually no arms and were
left to either die or flee
*The Declaration of the Israeli Statehood
ERETZ-ISRAEL [(Hebrew) - the Land of Israel, Palestine] was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here
their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood,
created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book
of Books.
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion
and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political
freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to
re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses.
Pioneers, ma'pilim [(Hebrew) - immigrants coming to Eretz-Israel in defiance of restrictive
legislation] and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages
and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace
but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants,
and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl,
the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth
in its own country.
This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, and re-affirmed in
the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic
connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to
rebuild its National Home.
The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people - the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe
- was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by reestablishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to
every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the comity
of nations.
Survivors of the Nazi holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued to
migrate to Eretz-Israel, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers, and never ceased to
assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their national homeland.
In the Second World War, the Jewish community of this country contributed its full share to the
struggle of the freedom- and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi wickedness and, by the
blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the right to be reckoned among the peoples who
founded the United Nations.
On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for
the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of
Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that
resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their
State is irrevocable.
This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other
nations, in their own sovereign State.
ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH
COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISRAEL AND OF THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT, ARE HERE ASSEMBLED ON THE
DAY OF THE TERMINATION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER ERETZ-ISRAEL AND, BY VIRTUE OF OUR
NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED
NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HEREBY DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL.
WE DECLARE that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight,
the eve of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar, 5708 (15th May, 1948), until the establishment of the elected,
regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the
Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the 1st October 1948, the People's Council shall act as a
Provisional Council of State, and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the
Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called "Israel".
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will
foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on
freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of
social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee
freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of
all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United
Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and
will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel.
WE APPEAL to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building-up of its State and to
receive the State of Israel into the comity of nations.
WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab
inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on
the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent
institutions.
WE EXTEND our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good
neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the
sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a
common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.
WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in
the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization
of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel.
PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE "ROCK OF ISRAEL", WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS
PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE
HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL-AVIV, ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE 5TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14TH
MAY,1948).
The Declaration of Independence was read by David
Ben-Gurion who became the first prime minister of
Israel on the 14th of May 1948.
* 1937 Peel Commission Report
“…The advantages of Partition to the Jews may be summarized as follows:-(i) Partition secures the establishment of the Jewish National Home and relieves it from the
possibility of its being subjected in the future to Arab rule.
(ii) Partition enables the Jews in the fullest sense to call their National Home their own; for it
converts it into a Jewish State. Its citizens will be able to admit as many Jews into it as they
themselves believe can be absorbed. They will attain the primary objective of Zionism--a Jewish
nation, planted in Palestine, giving its nationals the same status in the world as other nations give
theirs. They will cease at last to live a minority life.
To both Arabs and Jews Partition offers a prospect--and there is none in any other policy--of
obtaining the inestimable boon of peace. It is surely worth some sacrifice on both sides if the quarrel
which the Mandate started could he ended with its termination. It is not a natural or old-standing
feud. The Arabs throughout their history have not only been free from anti-Jewish sentiment but
have also shown that the spirit of compromise is deeply rooted in their life. Considering what the
possibility of finding a refuge in Palestine means to man thousands of suffering Jews, is the loss
occasioned by Partition, great as it would be, more than Arab generosity can bear? In this, as in so
much else connected with Palestine, it is not only the peoples of that country who have to be
considered. The Jewish Problem is not the least of the many problems which are disturbing
international relations at this critical time and obstructing the path to peace and prosperity. If the
Arabs at some sacrifice could help to solve that problem, they would earn the gratitude not of the
Jews alone but of all the Western World.
There was a time when Arab statesmen were willing to concede little Palestine to the Jews, provided
that the rest of Arab Asia were free. That condition was not fulfilled then, but it is on the eve of
fulfilment now. In less than three years' time all the wide Arab area outside Palestine between the
Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean will be independent, and, if Partition is adopted, the greater
part of Palestine will be independent too.
As to the British people, they are bound to honour to the utmost of their power the obligations they
undertook in the exigencies of war towards the Arabs and the Jews. When those obligations were
incorporated in the Mandate, they did not fully realize the difficulties of the task it laid on them.
They have tried to overcome them, not always with success. The difficulties have steadily become
greater till now they seem almost insuperable. Partition offers a possibility of finding a way through
them, a possibility of obtaining a final solution of the problem which does justice to the rights and
aspirations of both the Arabs and the Jews and discharges the obligations undertaken towards them
twenty years ago to the fullest extent that is practicable in the circumstances of the present time.”
The Peel Commission Report was
rejected by all sides as regarded for
being too biased and sympathetic to
either Jews or the Arabs
David Ben Gurion reading out the
declaration of Independence before
the members of the Knesset
People celebrating on the streets as
the state of Israel is being born
Arab-Israeli Conflict in Scholarly work and the press:
Syrian columnist Khayri Hama:
"... the conflict with the Zionist enemy has never been a border issue, nor an interstate conflict but
rather a total confrontation concerning the survival of our [Arab] nationalism . . . against threats
posed by the Israeli entity."
From Syrian daily Al-Ba'th, July 26, 1994
Bias in the press regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict is commonplace on both sides of the conflict.
They almost always use:
Diction: using killed as compared to died, using occupied territories as opposed to the disputed
territories, using security fence versus the apartheid wall, and so on…
Concerning the Security fence built
by Israel to prevent terrorist attacks
Egypt's gonna get one, too
Just to use on you know who
So Israel's getting tense
Wants one in "self defense"...
-Tom Lehrer on the state of the
conflict as of the early 60s, Who's
Next?.
Pro Palestinian cartoon showing the
capture of general Gilad Shalit
DryBones cartoon portraying the
reaction to the kidnapping of the
BBC reporter Alan Johnston in Gaza
and the boycott of Israeli goods
Graph claiming that Reuters news
company is being too sympathetic
to the Palestinians
Photo seems to portray the brutality
of the Israeli police when in fact the
policeman was saving the person
from being lynched
Bibliography:
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Letters_between_Hussein_Ibn_Ali_and_Sir_Henry_Mcmahon
http://www.corbisimages.com/images/HU052682.jpg?size=67&uid=27b809fa-1c49-49d3-a1fb476258b9b2af
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-gk4kcIO8-M/RcIbyME1MHI/AAAAAAAAAH4/xPBYSI--k3I/s320/house.jpg
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/Declaration+of+Establish
ment+of+State+of+Israel.htm
http://www.neve-ilan.co.il/images/old_kibbutz_cows.jpg
http://www.passia.org/images/pal_facts_MAPS/jewish_Yishuv_settlement_1881_1914.gif
http://israelvets.com/picts/nation_reborn/full_size_images/HerzlFPO.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/First_aliyah_BILU_in_kuffiyeh.jpg
http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/images/10007784-p.jpg
http://www.letstalkisrael.com/images/democracy/farm2.jpg
http://www.science.co.il/arab-israeli-conflict-2.asp
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/peel.html
http://www.gregfelton.com/middle/2007_11_05_Palestinemap.gif
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http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/peel1.html
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ce.png
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alit.jpg
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East.jpg