Senior Paper
For the past month I have been studying the conflict in the Middle East. This research paper goes back in time and traces the development of the problems that have been happening for decades. I will be looking at political, social, religion issues, moral code and many other things that prevent peace in the Middle East. Most of the citizens have never experienced a peaceful life without violence.
Looking at the Middle East conflict you have to go back to the beginning with a look at there the politics. There are monarchies, theocracies, and democracies in the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands of their citizens continue to protest in anger to over throw the rulers of these governments. The civil unrest has been growing bigger in numbers each passing day. It’s all about pro-democracy. These days people want to have freedom and are willing to die in order to get it. Even if police riot personnel are put on the front line or the military it wont even stop a single thing it just inflames the situation. With this entire thing happening rebel groups have formed from frustration and anger and the Internet has become a great source. Using web pages like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter posting videos, messages, and blogging word got out and people started to hear about the protesting and wanted to get involved. This helped them launch big protest and keep them well organized to rally the youth and anyone who wanted to get involved in the political process. They took it far until the government found out and tried to block all communications systems to stop civil unrest and bad things from happening. In reality if someone has the desire to accomplish something it will get done. This is because they want to see their country prosper for the betterment of their people. By all means they will find a way for it to happen.
Muammar Gaddafi once ruled countries like Libya with an iron fist. But Gaddafi’s iron hand came under threat when demonstrations started rising for the end of his regime and broke out in several places in Libya. The people that were protesting destroyed any symbols, posters, portraits, and government buildings that had to do with his rule. This angered him and he started attacking anyone who went against him. Gaddafi used his military, helicopters, and his vicious plans of destruction to stop the uprisings against his power. Time passed and the bloodshed was seen all over the place. But the people fought till they got what they wanted. Gaddafi knew his time was coming to an end and it did. He was captured and killed in the fight to stay in power and for his hometown. He’s not the only one that has fallen; many more have the same luck.
Egypt is a very popular country in the Middle East and it also went through its own revolution not too long ago in 2011. The people wanted to get a man named Hosni Mubarak out of power. Citizens wanted a change and have democracy. It became a battle and the country went into crisis and everyone felt it. It usually broke down into three groups the Muslim brotherhood, the Islamic party, and the young liberals. The young liberals created a strong group who started the revolution and welcomed anyone that wanted to be a part of a new beginning in history. After two weeks of civil unrest the brotherhood got hold of power and elected a man named Mohamed Moris to run for power. He won taking Hosni Mubarak out of the picture. But the fight didn’t stop there. They kept at war with surrounding neighbors to get what they wanted and get what they thought was fair to balance out things for Egypt.
Violence with the increasing threat associated with the winning and losing of the Middle East conflict has been changing politics for the people. Most of the leaders in power underestimate what the citizens are capable of doing to take them out of power. They realize it too late and end up dead of missing with a destroyed city at the end. With all this war going on there always have to be an alliance with someone else to survive. For example Israel has the United States to back them up. But by doing that the relations that the United States has become a problem, causing anger and frustrations. One major problem has been that the government of the United States interfered with the Palestinian and Israeli conflict. This has become a tricky situation because all wars in the Middle East are over politics or religion.
One the problems that started the conflict was the issue between the Palestinians and the Israelites over land. It started after World War Two and the Holocaust, in which six million Jewish people were killed. All that the Jewish people wanted was to have their own country. They were given a big part of Palestine, which the Jewish people considered their traditional home. But the Arabs who already lived there and the surrounding countries felt that it was unfair and didn’t accept the new country. In 1948 the two sides went to war. At the end of the war, Gaza was controlled by Egypt and the West Bank by Jordan. Thousands of Palestinians fled to the West Bank, but it was also the new home of the Jewish people called Israel.
In 1967 after another war was fought, Israel used Palestinian areas where Israeli soldiers stayed for many years. Israel hoped they might be able to trade the land they gained for the Arab countries, so they could acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and then end the fight. A few years later Israel decided to leave Gaza in 2005. As soon as they did a group called Hamas took advantage and ran for elections. They won and gained control of the situation. But most of the world looks at the group called the Hamas as a terrorist organization. When they were in power they refused to recognize the land of Israel as a country and wanted the Palestinians to be able to return to their old land. The Hamas were firm on their decision and were willing to use violence to achieve victory.
For Jewish Israelis and religious Muslim Palestinian, both sides believe that God for them called Jehovah by the Jews and Allah by the Muslims gave them the land. To give it away or to give it up to another person is an insult to God and a sin. The religious part is a very important part of the story and the history of the problem. These two countries have been fighting for more than 60 years, and each war, death, and each act of terrorism, only deepens the hate they have for each other and are not willing to given in to the other side.
From the beginning the Jews called their land Israel, Canaan, Judea, Samaria, Galilee. Modern Jews and a few Christians believe that in the beginning of the Bible and the Torah, God had given that land to the ancient Jews also known as the Hebrews. Men like Abraham, Moses, David led them, and others named in the Bible. About 2,000 years ago the Roman Empire controlled the area and tried putting an end to most of the Jewish rebellions the Romans destroyed the Jewish temple in the city of Jerusalem, killing many Jewish people. Then forced many others to leave their homeland in a mass departure called the Diaspora, which means Jewish people living outside of Israel. But some remained in their homes and many of them didn’t return back home until the 19th and 20th century, primarily after World War Two and the Holocaust.
This is where the whole problem began between the Jews calling themselves Israelis, after their old name of their ancient homeland of Israel, and the Arab population who knew them as Palestinians after the old Roman or Greek name for their area. In the few thousand years after most of the Jewish population was killed off by the Romans or were forced to leave, Arabic peaking Muslims became the dominant ethnic group. According to records of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled Palestine for several centuries, in the year 1900, the population of Palestine was 600,000 of which 94% were Arabs. While many Arabs were willing to sell land to the incoming Jews, many other Palestinian Arabs were worried about becoming a minority in a country they considered their own.
In the 1930s, the Great Arab rise in rebellion took place against the British, who ruled Palestine after 1918. The Arab rebellion was directed at both the British and the growing Jewish population. Had movement called Zionism began in the late 1800s, which influenced many Jews from around the world to move to Palestine to reclaim their old homeland of Israel? By the 1930s, the numbers of Jews had risen to a point that alarmed many Palestinian Arab leaders. The British calmed the rebellion with the help of Jewish militaries, but the fighting and the unfriendly behavior never really ended between the Jews and Arabs. From that point on, both the Jews and the Palestinians formed militias to fight each other and to prepare for the day when the British would leave.
In 1948, the British did leave, and the Jews in Palestine declared the independence of the new state of Israel. The other states around Arab nations of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded Israel to aid the Palestinian Arabs who were fighting to create their own nation. The Arabs lost that war and the Palestinian disturbing of the peace began. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled the new nation of Israel and moved to the neighboring Arab nations to live as refugees, waiting for the day when they could return to their homeland. This loss and the banishment of these Palestinians are known in the Arabic world as "al-Nakba," the Arabic word for the event in 1948 when many Palestinians had to leave from their homeland by the creation of the new state of Israel.
Two important parts of the old Palestine did not become part of the new state of Israel; the small crowded area around the city of Gaza, which is now known as the Gaza strip and the West Bank. The West Bank was a section of old Palestine on the west side of the bank of the Jordan River. The Arab nation of Jordan sits on the east side of the bank of the same river. After the war ended in 1949 Egypt took control of the Gaza strip and Jordan took control of the west bank. In the 1950s and 1960s the Palestinians started doing cross border raids into Israel with the help of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. These attacks caused Israel to react with military force and the whole Gaza Strip and the West Bank was often seen in warfare.
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians reached a new level of intensity and complicated in 1964, with the first al-Fatah raid into Israel from Lebanon. Al-Fatah is a Palestinian political and military group formed in the late 1950s with the aim of retaking Palestinian land from Israel. Led by Yasser Arafat, the group joined the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in June of 1964.
The Arab alliances such as the PLO were established for the purpose of controlling Palestinian nationalism. The Arab defeat in the 1967 war caused younger, more aggressive Palestinians to take over the PLO and gain some independence form the Arab regimes. The PLO includes different political and armed groups with many different ideas within the organization. Yasser Arafat was the leader of the al-fata, the largest group that has been in the PLO organization since 1968. The other major groups are, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and, the Palestine Peoples Party (PPP). Even though they have their differences they all represent the same thing.
The PLO base of operation was Jordan. In the 1970-1971, fighting with the Jordanian army drove the PLO leadership out of the country, forcing them to relocate to Lebanon. When Lebanon had a civil war in the 1975, the PLO became a party in the conflict. After Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 the PLO leadership was banned from the country and had to relocate again to Tunisia.
In 1993, Israel did not acknowledge Palestinian national rights or recognize the Palestinians as an independent party to the conflict. Israel refused to make a deal with the PLO, saying that they just were nothing but a terrorist organization. They rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state, insisting that all Palestinians should be placed in already existing Arab states. This ended when Israeli representatives started secretly negotiations with the PLO and led to the to the Oslo Declaration of Principles. This was an agreement that Israel and Palestine signed in 1993 that was supposed to stop the fighting between them.
In doing the research for this paper, it always comes back to asking myself can there actually be peace in the Middle East. Its not impossible but I highly doubt that it could happen any time soon. In American politics we discuss foreign issues in only two points of views the democratic and republican way. But there is another perspective we can take a look at the one of the founding fathers of America. This was that Americans should not intervene in other affairs of other nations. Most of the world looks at America and assumes that they are the leading role in trying to find a solution for issues of others.
Presidents like Jefferson, Madison, and Washington knew the importance of not involving our government in a foreign conflict. The problem between the Palestinians and Israelis is almost like a schoolyard fight. America and the world standing around watching but nobody wants to give in for fear of seeming weak to other countries. But down inside the people who have to live in these violent places desperately want it to end. But they don’t really need solutions from nations who don’t understand the situation. It’s more easy for outside governments to sit back safe in their countries and try to give aid and talk tough, but aren’t the ones who have to go through all the suffering.
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/palestine-liberation-organization.html
http://www.economist.com/topics/middle-east-conflict
http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/israeli_palestinian_conflict_historical_experiences_and_perception
http://www.globalissues.org/article/119/the-middle-east-conflict-a-brief-background
http://www.mideastweb.org/nutshell.htm
Looking at the Middle East conflict you have to go back to the beginning with a look at there the politics. There are monarchies, theocracies, and democracies in the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands of their citizens continue to protest in anger to over throw the rulers of these governments. The civil unrest has been growing bigger in numbers each passing day. It’s all about pro-democracy. These days people want to have freedom and are willing to die in order to get it. Even if police riot personnel are put on the front line or the military it wont even stop a single thing it just inflames the situation. With this entire thing happening rebel groups have formed from frustration and anger and the Internet has become a great source. Using web pages like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter posting videos, messages, and blogging word got out and people started to hear about the protesting and wanted to get involved. This helped them launch big protest and keep them well organized to rally the youth and anyone who wanted to get involved in the political process. They took it far until the government found out and tried to block all communications systems to stop civil unrest and bad things from happening. In reality if someone has the desire to accomplish something it will get done. This is because they want to see their country prosper for the betterment of their people. By all means they will find a way for it to happen.
Muammar Gaddafi once ruled countries like Libya with an iron fist. But Gaddafi’s iron hand came under threat when demonstrations started rising for the end of his regime and broke out in several places in Libya. The people that were protesting destroyed any symbols, posters, portraits, and government buildings that had to do with his rule. This angered him and he started attacking anyone who went against him. Gaddafi used his military, helicopters, and his vicious plans of destruction to stop the uprisings against his power. Time passed and the bloodshed was seen all over the place. But the people fought till they got what they wanted. Gaddafi knew his time was coming to an end and it did. He was captured and killed in the fight to stay in power and for his hometown. He’s not the only one that has fallen; many more have the same luck.
Egypt is a very popular country in the Middle East and it also went through its own revolution not too long ago in 2011. The people wanted to get a man named Hosni Mubarak out of power. Citizens wanted a change and have democracy. It became a battle and the country went into crisis and everyone felt it. It usually broke down into three groups the Muslim brotherhood, the Islamic party, and the young liberals. The young liberals created a strong group who started the revolution and welcomed anyone that wanted to be a part of a new beginning in history. After two weeks of civil unrest the brotherhood got hold of power and elected a man named Mohamed Moris to run for power. He won taking Hosni Mubarak out of the picture. But the fight didn’t stop there. They kept at war with surrounding neighbors to get what they wanted and get what they thought was fair to balance out things for Egypt.
Violence with the increasing threat associated with the winning and losing of the Middle East conflict has been changing politics for the people. Most of the leaders in power underestimate what the citizens are capable of doing to take them out of power. They realize it too late and end up dead of missing with a destroyed city at the end. With all this war going on there always have to be an alliance with someone else to survive. For example Israel has the United States to back them up. But by doing that the relations that the United States has become a problem, causing anger and frustrations. One major problem has been that the government of the United States interfered with the Palestinian and Israeli conflict. This has become a tricky situation because all wars in the Middle East are over politics or religion.
One the problems that started the conflict was the issue between the Palestinians and the Israelites over land. It started after World War Two and the Holocaust, in which six million Jewish people were killed. All that the Jewish people wanted was to have their own country. They were given a big part of Palestine, which the Jewish people considered their traditional home. But the Arabs who already lived there and the surrounding countries felt that it was unfair and didn’t accept the new country. In 1948 the two sides went to war. At the end of the war, Gaza was controlled by Egypt and the West Bank by Jordan. Thousands of Palestinians fled to the West Bank, but it was also the new home of the Jewish people called Israel.
In 1967 after another war was fought, Israel used Palestinian areas where Israeli soldiers stayed for many years. Israel hoped they might be able to trade the land they gained for the Arab countries, so they could acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and then end the fight. A few years later Israel decided to leave Gaza in 2005. As soon as they did a group called Hamas took advantage and ran for elections. They won and gained control of the situation. But most of the world looks at the group called the Hamas as a terrorist organization. When they were in power they refused to recognize the land of Israel as a country and wanted the Palestinians to be able to return to their old land. The Hamas were firm on their decision and were willing to use violence to achieve victory.
For Jewish Israelis and religious Muslim Palestinian, both sides believe that God for them called Jehovah by the Jews and Allah by the Muslims gave them the land. To give it away or to give it up to another person is an insult to God and a sin. The religious part is a very important part of the story and the history of the problem. These two countries have been fighting for more than 60 years, and each war, death, and each act of terrorism, only deepens the hate they have for each other and are not willing to given in to the other side.
From the beginning the Jews called their land Israel, Canaan, Judea, Samaria, Galilee. Modern Jews and a few Christians believe that in the beginning of the Bible and the Torah, God had given that land to the ancient Jews also known as the Hebrews. Men like Abraham, Moses, David led them, and others named in the Bible. About 2,000 years ago the Roman Empire controlled the area and tried putting an end to most of the Jewish rebellions the Romans destroyed the Jewish temple in the city of Jerusalem, killing many Jewish people. Then forced many others to leave their homeland in a mass departure called the Diaspora, which means Jewish people living outside of Israel. But some remained in their homes and many of them didn’t return back home until the 19th and 20th century, primarily after World War Two and the Holocaust.
This is where the whole problem began between the Jews calling themselves Israelis, after their old name of their ancient homeland of Israel, and the Arab population who knew them as Palestinians after the old Roman or Greek name for their area. In the few thousand years after most of the Jewish population was killed off by the Romans or were forced to leave, Arabic peaking Muslims became the dominant ethnic group. According to records of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled Palestine for several centuries, in the year 1900, the population of Palestine was 600,000 of which 94% were Arabs. While many Arabs were willing to sell land to the incoming Jews, many other Palestinian Arabs were worried about becoming a minority in a country they considered their own.
In the 1930s, the Great Arab rise in rebellion took place against the British, who ruled Palestine after 1918. The Arab rebellion was directed at both the British and the growing Jewish population. Had movement called Zionism began in the late 1800s, which influenced many Jews from around the world to move to Palestine to reclaim their old homeland of Israel? By the 1930s, the numbers of Jews had risen to a point that alarmed many Palestinian Arab leaders. The British calmed the rebellion with the help of Jewish militaries, but the fighting and the unfriendly behavior never really ended between the Jews and Arabs. From that point on, both the Jews and the Palestinians formed militias to fight each other and to prepare for the day when the British would leave.
In 1948, the British did leave, and the Jews in Palestine declared the independence of the new state of Israel. The other states around Arab nations of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded Israel to aid the Palestinian Arabs who were fighting to create their own nation. The Arabs lost that war and the Palestinian disturbing of the peace began. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled the new nation of Israel and moved to the neighboring Arab nations to live as refugees, waiting for the day when they could return to their homeland. This loss and the banishment of these Palestinians are known in the Arabic world as "al-Nakba," the Arabic word for the event in 1948 when many Palestinians had to leave from their homeland by the creation of the new state of Israel.
Two important parts of the old Palestine did not become part of the new state of Israel; the small crowded area around the city of Gaza, which is now known as the Gaza strip and the West Bank. The West Bank was a section of old Palestine on the west side of the bank of the Jordan River. The Arab nation of Jordan sits on the east side of the bank of the same river. After the war ended in 1949 Egypt took control of the Gaza strip and Jordan took control of the west bank. In the 1950s and 1960s the Palestinians started doing cross border raids into Israel with the help of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. These attacks caused Israel to react with military force and the whole Gaza Strip and the West Bank was often seen in warfare.
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians reached a new level of intensity and complicated in 1964, with the first al-Fatah raid into Israel from Lebanon. Al-Fatah is a Palestinian political and military group formed in the late 1950s with the aim of retaking Palestinian land from Israel. Led by Yasser Arafat, the group joined the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in June of 1964.
The Arab alliances such as the PLO were established for the purpose of controlling Palestinian nationalism. The Arab defeat in the 1967 war caused younger, more aggressive Palestinians to take over the PLO and gain some independence form the Arab regimes. The PLO includes different political and armed groups with many different ideas within the organization. Yasser Arafat was the leader of the al-fata, the largest group that has been in the PLO organization since 1968. The other major groups are, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and, the Palestine Peoples Party (PPP). Even though they have their differences they all represent the same thing.
The PLO base of operation was Jordan. In the 1970-1971, fighting with the Jordanian army drove the PLO leadership out of the country, forcing them to relocate to Lebanon. When Lebanon had a civil war in the 1975, the PLO became a party in the conflict. After Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 the PLO leadership was banned from the country and had to relocate again to Tunisia.
In 1993, Israel did not acknowledge Palestinian national rights or recognize the Palestinians as an independent party to the conflict. Israel refused to make a deal with the PLO, saying that they just were nothing but a terrorist organization. They rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state, insisting that all Palestinians should be placed in already existing Arab states. This ended when Israeli representatives started secretly negotiations with the PLO and led to the to the Oslo Declaration of Principles. This was an agreement that Israel and Palestine signed in 1993 that was supposed to stop the fighting between them.
In doing the research for this paper, it always comes back to asking myself can there actually be peace in the Middle East. Its not impossible but I highly doubt that it could happen any time soon. In American politics we discuss foreign issues in only two points of views the democratic and republican way. But there is another perspective we can take a look at the one of the founding fathers of America. This was that Americans should not intervene in other affairs of other nations. Most of the world looks at America and assumes that they are the leading role in trying to find a solution for issues of others.
Presidents like Jefferson, Madison, and Washington knew the importance of not involving our government in a foreign conflict. The problem between the Palestinians and Israelis is almost like a schoolyard fight. America and the world standing around watching but nobody wants to give in for fear of seeming weak to other countries. But down inside the people who have to live in these violent places desperately want it to end. But they don’t really need solutions from nations who don’t understand the situation. It’s more easy for outside governments to sit back safe in their countries and try to give aid and talk tough, but aren’t the ones who have to go through all the suffering.
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/palestine-liberation-organization.html
http://www.economist.com/topics/middle-east-conflict
http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/israeli_palestinian_conflict_historical_experiences_and_perception
http://www.globalissues.org/article/119/the-middle-east-conflict-a-brief-background
http://www.mideastweb.org/nutshell.htm
Reading
The Boy In The Striped Pajamas
This book is about a young boy named Bruno that lives in a wealthy lifestyle in prewar Germany along with his mother, elder sister, and SS Commandant father. The family relocates to the countryside where his father is assigned to take command at a prison camp. A few days later, Bruno becomes friends with another young boy, strangely dressed in striped pajamas, named Shmuel who lives behind an electrified fence. Bruno will soon find out that he is not permitted to be friends with his new friend because he is a Jew, and that the neighboring yard is actually a prison camp for Jews awaiting extermination.
The Devils Arithmetic
This novel begins with the main character, Hannah, in modern times at Passover with her family. She is tired of her grandfather's stories about his time spent in a concentration camp. However, when she opens the door to symbolically greet Elijah, she is whisked away to a unknown village in Poland during WWII. After some weak attempts to explain who she is, she gives up and accepts that she is now Chaya, a Jewish girl. As her adventure continues, she realizes she is in the year 1942 and about to be taken to a concentration camp. After many trials, she ends up offering her life to save another girl. In the next instant, she finds herself back at home staring blankly out the door she had opened for Elijah. She now understands the heartache and pain her grandfather had experienced.
The Secret Life of Bees
Set in Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life Of Bees tells the story of Lily Owen's, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racist in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Triburon, South Carolina- a town that holds the secret to her mothers past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black keeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a novel about how females can be powerful in everything they do.
THE OUTSIDERS
The Outsiders is about two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy. The novel tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider.
Ponyboy and his two brothers — Darrel Darry, who is 20, and Sodapop, who is 16 — have recently lost their parents in an automobile accident. Pony and Soda are allowed to stay under Darry's guardianship as long as they all behave themselves. The boys are greasers, a class term that refers to the young men on the East Side, the poor side of town. The greasers' rivals are the Socs, short for Socials, who are the "West-side rich kids.
Ponyboy and his two brothers — Darrel Darry, who is 20, and Sodapop, who is 16 — have recently lost their parents in an automobile accident. Pony and Soda are allowed to stay under Darry's guardianship as long as they all behave themselves. The boys are greasers, a class term that refers to the young men on the East Side, the poor side of town. The greasers' rivals are the Socs, short for Socials, who are the "West-side rich kids.
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
The Catcher in the Rye is set around the 1950s and is narrated by a young man named Holden Caulfield. Holden is not specific about his location while he’s telling the story, but he makes it clear that he is undergoing treatment in a mental hospital or sanatorium. The events he narrates take place in the few days between the end of the fall school term and Christmas, when Holden is sixteen years old.