Israel-Palestine Conflict

See also: Arab-Israeli Conflict

(PD) Map: CIA World Factbook
Map of Israel, showing the Palestinian territories (The West Bank and Gaza Strip) and parts of the surrounding Arab states.

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, is an intermittent and ongoing series of clashes between the Jewish nation of Israel and the Arab Palestinians, allied with some of the surrounding Arab countries. The conflict has, in some form or another, lasted the whole of the 20th century, and a solution still remains elusive.

Robert Kaplan has suggested the two sides are, under present circumstances, unable to find a solution and are each driving to more extremism. He writes that the most recent Israeli government, while the most recalcitrant to date, accurately reflects the mood of the Israeli electorate, tired of not being to find a credible Palestinian negotiating partner as Hamas, officially committed to the destruction of Israel, cannot agree with Fatah, now the minority party.

The Yom Kippur War and the Rise of the PLO

The Six-Day War shocked the Arab world. For the Palestinians, nothing could hide the fact that, twice, their Arab allies had gone up against Israel only to suffer resounding defeats. A new militancy began to spread among the Palestinians, calling for them to fight Israel themselves, rather than leave it to the other Arab states.

In 1964, the Arab countries had brought together a collection of Palestinian parties into an umbrella group, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), dedicated to the military destruction of Israel. For most of its early years, however, it had been controlled by individuals influenced by Nasser and had not led an independent existence.

In 1969 however, a charismatic Palestinian politician, Yasser Arafat, manuvered himself into the PLO presidency. He placed members of his own party, Fatah, in control at the expense of the now, to many Palestinians, discredited Egyptians and Syrians. The PLO began, increasingly, to take on an independent existence.

The organization, however, suffered a major setback. In September 1970, the government of Jordan, concerned that the PLO was becoming a threat to its power, moved against the organization and suppressed it. The PLO leadership and many of its members fled to Lebanon, where they established a new base in that country's many Palestinian refugee camps.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, Nasser died in 1970 and was replaced by Anwar Sadat, who advocated continued war with Israel, and made plans with Syria for another surprise attack. On October 6th, 1973, the Egyptian and Syrian armies, supported by Iraq, launched a surprise attack on Israel, during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. At first, the Arab armies did well, with Egypt advancing into the Sinai and Syria retaking parts of the Golan Heights. Then, the war swung back in Israel's favor. By the second week, the Golan Heights had been retaken. On October 15th, an Israeli force under General Ariel Sharon pushed through a week point in Egyptian lines and crossed the Suez canal. On October 26th, the parties agreed to a UN-brokered cease-fire. Farther peace negotiations, however, failed.

The PLO, meanwhile, began to turn to terrorism. Since moving to Lebanon, the PLO had waged a terrorist campaign against Israel, exploding bombs in Israeli cites, infiltrating soldiers across the border to attack Israeli civilians, and infamously murdering eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich. In 1978, PLO terrorists operating from Lebanon hijacked an Israeli bus and eventually killed most of its passengers, prompting Israel to invade Lebanon to root out the PLO. For a history of Israeli and PLO struggles in Lebanon, see here. For the rest of the 1970's and into the 1980's, the Arab-Israeli conflict was dominated by the Israel-PLO struggle in Lebanon and acts of PLO terrorism-some of them quite deadly.

The First Intifada

Meanwhile, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, known since 1967 as the Occupied Territories, the next chapter of the long conflict was unfolding Since their takeover by Israel in the Six-Day war, Palestinians in the territories had been, essentially, second class citizens, subject to arbitrary actions such as Israeli house demolitions. The territories' bad economies' and high unemployment, and the failure of PLO terrorism to do anything other than add more names to the tally of innocent deaths, grab headlines, and lead to massive Israeli retaliation all contributed to a growing sense of frustration and disillusionment.

In 1987, riots broke out in Jabalia refugee camp, in response to the earlier deaths of several Palestinians in an accident at Erez border crossing. The riots soon spread throughout the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Palestinians launched strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience actions, and most famously, threw rocks at Israeli soldiers. The events soon became known as the Intifada, an Arabic word which literally translates to "shaking off", but in has the same meaning as "uprising" in English. Although the Intifada was at first mostly spontaneous, the PLO quickly sponsored the disturbances and soon established its leadership.

The Intifada continued for years. Palestinians often rioted violently, and were brutally suppressed by Israeli troops. Between 1987 and 1993, over 1000 Palestinians were killed by Israelis, as opposed to about 160 Israelis killed by Palestinians. The UN condemned Israel for its violence against the Palestinian population.

After 1993, the Intifada gradually petered out. Earlier, the PLO had begun negotiating with the Israelis, on a possible final end to the conflict. In 1993, the two sides reached a breakthrough that, at last, offered hope of a permanent solution.