GAZA

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Everything You Need To Know About The Israel vs. Palestine Conflict"
-by Chad Harris
I sincerely beg of all of you to find some time out of your schedule to read this. If you pay
any attention to social media at all, I am sure that most of you have heard that Israel and
Palestine are currently involved in an extremely gruesome war. Some of your friends have
voiced their support for Israel, and some have voiced their support for Palestine. You may
think you know what is going on, but if you are honest with yourself, have you really taken
the time to do independent research on your own behalf? I hadn't until recently. After many
sleepless nights and countless hours of in depth studying I learned so much that I cannot live
another day without sharing what I believe is knowledge that no one can afford not to know.
I know this post is long but I have tried very hard to make it engaging and easy to read.
Introduction:
First of all, it is critically important to understand that contrary to popular belief this is not a
war between religions. This is not Jews vs. Muslims. It is Israel vs. Palestine. Religion has
nothing to do with the war. I have many friends who have quickly jumped on the
bandwagon of supporting Israel solely because they associate Israel with Christianity and
Palestine with Terrorism. Americans are quick to post a, "God Bless Israel" but I believe if
they knew the truth behind the war they would not be so quick to support Israel and their
real motives.
The History:
The history behind how this war started is very important. Most people assume that Israel
has been under Jewish rule for hundreds of years. This couldn't be further from the truth.
The Jews haven't controlled Israel since they were conquered by Babylon in 567 B.C.
Babylon was in turn conquered by Persia, who was then conquered by the Greeks,
(Alexander the Great) who were then conquered by the Roman Empire who then ruled for a
very long time. Eventually, the land we call Israel was conquered and controlled by the Arabs
and has stayed in their control (through the crusades) since the 7th century A.D. (Over 1200
years). Furthermore, if you look at every geographic map from the 7th century until 1948,
you will find that there is no Israel on any map. In it's place you would find an Arab territory
called Palestine. Israel did not exist between their exiling and 1948. So what happened in
1948?

The Jews Come To Palestine:

In 1947 there were roughly a million Arabs living in Palestine compared to about 175,000
Jews (most of who had flew Europe during World War II). The Arabs were a very peaceful
community consisting of mostly farmers, with little to no military power. Technically at the
time they were part of what was called the Ottoman Empire, meaning they were a
providence that was controlled by the British government. At the end of World War II there
were so many Jews who had fled the European countries in the war for fear of persecution
from the Nazi's that there was no place for them to go. To put it simply, the United States
pushed the United Nations to relocate all Jews to Palestine and give them their own state,
called Israel, using British military support. In addition to military force, they took the land
that was controlled by the Palestinians and actually sold it to the Jews! Palestinians could do
nothing against the powerful military of England and the Jews, backed by the UN, quickly
took over the key cities of Palestine. At the end of 1947 the British announced that they
would be evacuating their military support now that the Jews had settled in by May 15th,
1948. What do you think happened after all British military left? Today the Israelis allege
that the Palestine war began with the entry of the Arab armies into Palestine after 15 May
1948. But that was the second phase of the war; they overlook the massacres, expulsions
and dispossessions which took place prior to that date and which necessitated Arab states
intervention. Please read the following paragraph carefully.
The Deir Yassin Massacre Of Palestinians By Jewish Soldiers:
For the entire day of April 9, 1948, Jewish soldiers carried out the slaughter in a cold and
premeditated fashion...The attackers lined men, women and children up against the walls
and shot them,...The ruthlessness of the attack on Deir Yassin shocked Jewish and world
opinion alike, drove fear and panic into the Arab population, and led to the flight of
unarmed civilians from their homes all over the country. Israeli author, Simha Flapan, The
Birth of Israel. This cold, dark, bloody day was the birthday of modern day Israel. In almost
every village occupied by us during the War of Independence, acts were committed which
are defined as war crimes, such as murders, massacres, and rapes...Uri Milstein, the
authoritative Israeli military historian of the 1948 war, goes one step further, maintaining
that every skirmish ended in a massacre of Arabs.
As a result of this 700,000 Palestinians, having literally no military whatsoever, fled
Palestine. Israel, wanting not a single Arab in their newly found nation completely destroyed
every Palestine village, In the winter of 1949, the first winter of exile for more than seven
hundred fifty thousand Palestinians, was cold and hard...Families huddled in caves,
abandoned huts, or makeshift tents...Many of the starving were only miles away from their
own vegetable gardens and orchards in occupied Palestine the new state of Israel...At the
end of 1949 the United Nations finally acted. It set up the United Nations Relief and Works
Administration (UNRWA) to take over sixty refugee camps from voluntary agencies. It
managed to keep people alive, but only barely.
Fast forward to today. Palestine has been almost completely wiped out. As of today their
providence of Gaza numbers at 1.7 million (which is about 1/5th of the population of New

York City). They control a territory called the Gaza Strip with Israel surrounding them and
their backs to the Mediterranean Sea. There is little to no military and almost the entire
population are innocent citizens. In addition to this they have many citizens scattered
throughout what is called the West Bank.
But What About The Terrorists?
Yes, there is a small group of Palestinian terrorists called the Hamas who were founded in
1987 and who have committed acts of terrorism towards Israel. The majority of them state
their reason is to avenge their loved ones who have been brutally raped and murdered
before their eyes. Can you see now why they hate Israel so much? I do not support their
means at all, but throwing all of the blame of this war on Palestine because of these
terrorists is wrong. If you would like to see real terrorism than I invite you to watch the video
I have attached to this post. Israeli women and male children ages 5-12 are interviewed
about what they want to do when they grow up. All of them respond by saying they hope to
kill as many Arabs as their fathers, and with smiles and laughter on their faces. Israel
shockingly resembles a modern day Nazi Germany. (See Video)
Want To Hear Even Worse News?
The United States Government is helping Israel. U.S. support for Israel emerges in several
ways: financial, military and diplomatic. While most Americans believe that U.S. foreign aid
goes to the poorest people in the poorest countries, Israel (wealthier than a number of
European Union member countries) receives 25 percent of the entire U.S. foreign aid
budget. Since 1976 Israel has been the highest recipient of U.S. foreign aid in the world. The
congressional aid comes to about $1.8 billion a year in military aid and $1.2 billion in
economic aid, plus another $1 billion or so in miscellaneous grants, mostly in military
supplies, from various U.S. agencies. Tax-exempt contributions destined to Israel bring up
the total to over $5 billion annually.
Here is another scary statistic for you. Israel has the 11th most powerful military in the
world, while Palestine isn't even in the top 100. The United States uses the American media
to twist the truth and make Israel look like the oppressed and Gaza as an evil terrorist group.
It is easy to do since they are an Arab nation and it supports America's anti-terrorist agenda.
Yet, it is the opposite of the truth!
In Conclusion:
Some still might argue that Israel acted defensively. To those I would respond with this. How
does a defensive action result in the total conquest of someone else's lands? The answer is
that it does not. Israel is the aggressor. The maps of Israel then and now prove it. (See
Attached Picture)
The only thing that you and I can do is spread awareness so that one day enough of us can
stop our own government from supporting Israel. It is the only chance for Palestine's
survival. A good portion of my research has come from "Jews for Justice in The Middle East"

and "Jewish Voice For Peace" which are groups of Jews who do not support the evil of Israel.
There is a staggering amount of Jews who actively oppose the wrongdoings of Israel and the
number is growing daily.
Thank you all so much for your time in reading this. All links I used to support this post are
attached below next to their appropriate paragraph. Please refrain from commenting below,
all comments will be deleted except for those tagging friends in an effort to share. If you
wish to interact with me please either like and share this post or message me directly.
Free alestine

Source:
History: http://ifamericansknew.org/history/origin.html
The Jews Come To Palestine: http://ifamericansknew.org/history/origin.html
The Deir Yassin Massacre Of Palestinians By Jewish Soldiers: http://ifameri
cansknew.org/history/origin.html
But What About The Terrorists? http://vidmax.com/video/72125-Very-young-Israeli-children-areinterviewed-about-their-future-in-the-war-against-Arabs
Want To Hear Even Worse News? http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=173
http://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-listing.asp
In Conclusion: http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/mapstellstory.html
http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/
Attached Picture: http://www.peterloud.co.uk/palestine/

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40 Maps that explain the middle east
http://www.vox.com/a/maps-explain-the-middle-east

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A Brief History of Palestine
By Kirk Bailey

Palestine was a common name used until 1948 to describe the geographic region between
the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. In its history, the Assyrian, Babylonian, Roman,
Byzantine, and Ottoman empires have controlled Palestine at one time or another.
After World War I, Palestine was administered by the United Kingdom under a Mandate
received in 1922 from the League of Nations. The modern history of Palestine begins with
the termination of the British Mandate, the Partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel,
and the ensuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Partition of Palestine
In 1947, the United Nations (U.N.) proposed a artition lan for alestine titled United
Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (II) Future Government of Palestine. The
resolution noted Britains planned termination of the British Mandate for alestine and
recommended the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, with the
Jerusalem-Bethlehem area protected and administered by the United Nations.
The resolution included a highly detailed description of the recommended boundaries for
each proposed state. The resolution also contained plans for an economic union between
the proposed states and for the protection of religious and minority rights. The resolution
called for the withdrawal of British forces and termination of the Mandate by August 1948
and establishment of the new independent states by October 1948.

First Arab-Israeli War (1948)

Jewish leadership accepted the Partition Plan but Arab leaders rejected it. The Arab League
threatened to take military measures to prevent the partition of Palestine and to ensure the
national rights of the Palestinian Arab population. One day before the British Mandate
expired, Israel declared its independence within the borders of the Jewish State set out in
the Partition Plan. The Arab countries declared war on the newly formed State of Israel
beginning the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
After the war, which Palestinians call the Catastrophe, the 1949 Armistice Agreements
established the separation lines between the combatants: Israel controlled some areas
designated for the Arab state under the Partition Plan, Transjordan controlled the West
Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip.
The Six Day War
The Six Day War was fought between June 510, 1967, with Israel emerging victorious and
effectively seizing control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West
Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. The U.N. Security
Council adopted Resolution 242, the land for peace formula, which called for Israeli
withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 and the termination of all claims or states of

belligerency. Resolution 242 recognized the right of every state in the area to live in peace
within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.
The 1973 War
In October 1973, war broke out again between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai and the Syria in
the Golan Heights. A ceasefire was achieved (U.N. resolution 339) and U.N. peacekeepers
deployed on both the fronts, only withdrawing from the Egyptian front after Israel and Egypt
concluded a peace treaty in 1979. U.N. peacekeepers remain deployed in the Golan Heights.
Rise of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
In 1974, the Arab League recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole
legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and relinquished its role as
representative of the West Bank. The PLO gained observer status at the U.N. General
Assembly the same year.
In 1988, the Palestinian National Council of the PLO approved a Palestinian Declaration of
Independence in Algiers, Tunisia. The declaration proclaims a State of alestine on our
alestinian territory with its capital Jerusalem, although it does not specify exact borders,
and asserts U.N. Resolution 181 supports the rights of Palestinians and Palestine. The
declaration was accompanied by a PLO call for multilateral negotiations on the basis of U.N.
Resolution 242.

The Intifada (1987 to 1993)

Conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Jerusalem, after more than 20 years of
military occupation, repression and confiscation of land, contributed to a Palestinian
uprising called the intifada in December 1987. Between 1987 and 1993, over 1,000
Palestinians were killed and thousands injured, detained, imprisoned in Israel or deported
from the Palestinian territories.
The peace process
In 1993, the Oslo Accords, the first direct, face-to-face agreement between Israel and the
PLO, were signed and intended to provide a framework for the future relations between the
two parties. The Accords created the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) with responsibility
for the administration of the territory under its control. The Accords also called for the
withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Implementation of the Oslo Accords suffered a serious setback with the assassination of
Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister and signer of the Oslo Accords, in November 1995.
Since 1995, several peace summits and proposals, including the Camp David Summit (2000),

Taba Summit (2001), the Road Map for Peace (2002), and the Arab Peace Initiative (2002
and 2007), have attempted to broker a solution, with no success.
The drive for recognition of Palestinian statehood
In a speech on September 16, 2011, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National
Authority, declared his intention to proceed with the request for recognition of statehood
from both the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council. On September 23,
2011, President Abbas delivered the official application for recognition of a Palestinian State
to the United Nations Secretary General. Numerous issues remain to be settled by Israelis
and Palestinians, however, before an independent state of Palestine emerges. Negotiations
are ongoing.

Source: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/a-brief-history-of-palestine.html

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From JewishVirtualLibrary.org
Origins of the Name "Palestine"
Though the definite origins of the word "Palestine" have been debated for years and are still
not known for sure, the name is believed to be derived from the Egyptian and Hebrew word
peleshet. Roughly translated to mean "rolling" or "migratory," the term was used to describe
the inhabitants of the land to the northeast of Egypt - the Philistines. The Philistines were an
Aegean people - more closely related to the Greeks and with no connection ethnically,
linguisticly or historically with Arabia - who conquered in the 12th Century BCE the
Mediterranean coastal plain that is now Israel and Gaza.
A derivitave of the name "Palestine" first appears in Greek literature in the 5th Century BCE
when the historian Herodotus called the area " alaistin" (Greek - ). In the 2nd
century CE, the Romans crushed the revolt of Shimon Bar Kokhba (132 CE), during which
Jerusalem and Judea were regained and the area of Judea was renamed Palaestina in an
attempt to minimize Jewish identification with the land of Israel.

Under the Ottoman Empire (1517-1917), the term Palestine was used as a general term to
describe the land south of Syria; it was not an official designation. In fact, many Ottomans
and Arabs who lived in Palestine during this time period referred to the area as "Souther
Syria" and not as "Palestine."
After World War I, the name "Palestine" was applied to the territory that was placed under
British Mandate; this area included not only present-day Israel but also present-day Jordan.
Leading up to Israel's independence in 1948, it was common for the international press to
label Jews, not Arabs, living in the mandate as Palestinians. It was not until years after Israeli
independence that the Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were called Palestinians.
In fact, Arabs cannot even correctly pronounce the word Palestine in their native tongue,
referring to area rather asFilastin.
The word Palestine or Filastin does not appear in the Koran. The term peleshet appears in
the Jewish Tanakh no fewer than 250 times.

The Origins of the Palestinian Arabs

by Daniel Pipes

No "Palestinian Arab people" existed at the start of 1920, but, by December, it took shape in
a form recognizably similar to today's.
Until the late nineteenth century, residents living in the region between the Jordan River
and the Mediterranean identified themselves primarily in terms of religion: Moslems felt far
stronger bonds with remote co-religionists than with nearby Christians and Jews. Living in
that area did not imply any sense of common political purpose.
Then came the ideology of nationalism from Europe; its ideal of a government that
embodies the spirit of its people was alien but appealing to Middle Easterners. How to apply
this ideal, though? Who constitutes a nation and where must the boundaries be? These
questions stimulated huge debates.
Some said the residents of the Levant are a nation; others said Eastern Arabic speakers; or
all Arabic speakers; or all Moslems.

But no one suggested "Palestinians," and for good reason. Palestine, then a secular way of
saying Eretz Yisra'el or Terra Sancta, embodied a purely Jewish and Christian concept, one
utterly foreign to Moslems, even repugnant to them.
This distaste was confirmed in April 1920, when the British occupying force carved out a
"Palestine." Moslems reacted very suspiciously, rightly seeing this designation as a victory
for Zionism. Less accurately, they worried about it signaling a revival in the Crusader
impulse. No prominent Moslem voices endorsed the delineation of Palestine in 1920; all
protested it.
Instead, Moslems west of the Jordan directed their allegiance to Damascus, where the greatgreat-uncle of Jordan's King Abdullah II was then ruling; they identified themselves as
Southern Syrians.
Interestingly, no one advocated this affiliation more emphatically than a young man named
Amin Husseini. In July 1920, however, the French overthrew this Hashemite king, in the
process killing the notion of a Southern Syria.
Isolated by the events of April and July, the Moslems of Palestine made the best of a bad
situation. One prominent Jerusalemite commented, just days following the fall of the
Hashemite kingdom: "after the recent events in Damascus, we have to effect a complete
change in our plans here. Southern Syria no longer exists. We must defend Palestine."
Following this advice, the leadership in December 1920 adopted the goal of establishing an
independent Palestinian state. Within a few years, this effort was led by Husseini.
Other identities - Syrian, Arab, and Moslem - continued to compete for decades afterward
with the Palestinian one, but the latter has by now mostly swept the others aside and reigns
nearly supreme.

The writer is director of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum

Jewish Claim To The Land Of Israel

by Mitchell Bard

A common misperception is that the Jews were forced into the diaspora by the Romans
after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D. and then, 1,800
years later, suddenly returned to Palestine demanding their country back. In reality, the
Jewish people have maintained ties to their historic homeland for more than 3,700 years. A
national language and a distinct civilization have been maintained.

The Jewish people base their claim to the land of Israel on at least four premises: 1) God
promised the land to the patriarch Abraham; 2) the Jewish people settled and developed the
land; 3) the international community granted political sovereignty in Palestine to the Jewish
people and 4) the territory was captured in defensive wars.
The term "Palestine" is believed to be derived from the Philistines, an Aegean people who,
in the 12th Century B.C., settled along the Mediterranean coastal plain of what is now Israel
and the Gaza Strip. In the second century A.D., after crushing the last Jewish revolt, the
Romans first applied the name Palaestina to Judea (the southern portion of what is now
called the West Bank) in an attempt to minimize Jewish identification with the land of Israel.
The Arabic word "Filastin" is derived from this Latin name.
The Twelve Tribes of Israel formed the first constitutional monarchy in Palestine about 1000
B.C. The second king, David, first made Jerusalem the nation's capital. Although eventually
Palestine was split into two separate kingdoms, Jewish independence there lasted for 212
years. This is almost as long as Americans have enjoyed independence in what has become
known as the United States.
Even after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the beginning of the exile,
Jewish life in Palestine continued and often flourished. Large communities were
reestablished in Jerusalem and Tiberias by the ninth century. In the 11th century, Jewish
communities grew in Rafah, Gaza, Ashkelon, Jaffa and Caesarea.
Many Jews were massacred by the Crusaders during the 12th century, but the community
rebounded in the next two centuries as large numbers of rabbis and Jewish pilgrims
immigrated to Jerusalem and the Galilee. Prominent rabbis established communities in
Safed, Jerusalem and elsewhere during the next 300 years. By the early 19th century-years
before the birth of the modern Zionist movement-more than 10,000 Jews lived throughout
what is today Israel.
When Jews began to immigrate to Palestine in large numbers in 1882, fewer than 250,000
Arabs lived there, and the majority of them had arrived in recent decades. Palestine was
never an exclusively Arab country, although Arabic gradually became the language of most
the population after the Muslim invasions of the seventh century. No independent Arab or
Palestinian state ever existed in Palestine. When the distinguished Arab-American historian,
Princeton University Prof. Philip Hitti, testified against partition before the Anglo-American
Committee in 1946, he said: "There is no such thing as 'Palestine' in history, absolutely not."
In fact, Palestine is never explicitly mentioned in the Koran, rather it is called "the holy land"
(al-Arad al-Muqaddash).
Prior to partition, Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as having a separate identity.
When the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919
to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, the following
resolution was adopted:

We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any
time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and
geographical bonds.
In 1937, a local Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, told the Peel Commission, which
ultimately suggested the partition of Palestine: "There is no such country [as Palestine]!
'Palestine' is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was
for centuries part of Syria."
The representative of the Arab Higher Committee to the United Nations submitted a
statement to the General Assembly in May 1947 that said "Palestine was part of the
Province of Syria" and that, "politically, the Arabs of Palestine were not independent in the
sense of forming a separate political entity." A few years later, Ahmed Shuqeiri, later the
chairman of the PLO, told the Security Council: "It is common knowledge that Palestine is
nothing but southern Syria."
Palestinian Arab nationalism is largely a post-World War I phenomenon that did not become
a significant political movement until after the 1967 Six-Day War and Israel's capture of the
West Bank.
Israel's international "birth certificate" was validated by the promise of the Bible;
uninterrupted Jewish settlement from the time of Joshua onward; the Balfour Declaration of
1917; the League of Nations Mandate, which incorporated the Balfour Declaration; the
United Nations partition resolution of 1947; Israel's admission to the UN in 1949; the
recognition of Israel by most other states; and, most of all, the society created by Israel's
people in decades of thriving, dynamic national existence.
Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/

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If Americans Knew:
The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict By Jews for Justice in the Middle East
Published in Berkeley, CA, 2001
Source: http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/origin.html

Two peoples fighting for the same thing: examining the Israel-Palestine conflict, from
66AD to today
The roar of rockets, The bark of rifles, The din of angry mantras. Its hard to make sense of
whats going on in alestine and Israel amid such a cacophony. But heres a try. Blasts of
anger and wails of grief sounded the push of a dispossessed people to reclaim their lost land
back as far back as the 1930s. Today the same sounds are still being heard same place,
same reason, but from a different people.
The Jewish people believe this is their holy soil, given to their forefathers Abraham,
Moses and David as a gift by God himself. The alestinians believe the same thing: Its just
their religion diverged from that of the current form of Judaism several times over the past
four thousand years. Over the millennia its been called Canaan, Judea, Samaria, Galilee and
the Holy Land. Israel is an ancient name for the Jewish homeland carved out last century,
proudly asserted by settlers streaming into their new territories.
Palestine is a new word invented by the West, derived from the Roman and Greek names for
the region. Its since become a name synonymous with Arab refugee camps, rock-throwing
resistance and terror attacks.

WHEN THE KILLERS ARE CHILDREN

Their causes seem incompatible. Their differences seem intractable. The fight seems eternal.
Each blames the other for being the one who started it all.
The fresh Israeli army offensive in Gaza has killed more than 80 Palestinians in just two days.
The rockets being lobbed by Hamas fighters into Jewish settlements remain mostly
ineffectual. Many more are set to die in the days to come.
Its just another move in a decades-old cycle of revenge and reprisal, which is being
embraced by a new generation. The three Jewish teens whose brutal murder sparked this
current round of warfare were aged between 16 and 19. The Palestinian boy burned to
death in revenge a fortnight ago was just 16. The suspected killers of the Jewish boys are
mostly under 30. Those being held for attacking the Palestinian boy are between 16 and 25.
How can such a conflict become so ingrained in their respective cultures that children are
not only being killed, but are killers themselves?
The participants

Jewish Israel: Its a largely Western enclave in the heart of the Arab world. Some 75 per cent
of the population of almost eight million identify themselves as Jewish ethnics. It is a
parliamentary democracy without a constitution, but with a nominally secular flavour. Like
Sparta of old, its a nation which finds itself forced to be constantly prepared to fight. It
walks a fine balance between what it deems as necessary displays of strength, and the
accusation of disproportionate and unjust collective punishment of its opponents.
Arab Palestine: At the turn of the 20th century, what was the Holy Land was 96 per cent
Muslim and Christian. Emigration from Europe, the United States and North Africa has
significantly altered these figures. The four million Arab Palestinians now in the West Bank
and Gaza strip have been living under occupation or blockade since 1967. Some 4.5 million
Palestinians are classified as refugees huddled in camps in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, as well
as Gaza and the West Bank. Nobody and nothing has been able to get in or out without
Israeli permission for decades. Equally, the refugee camps have been breeding grounds for
jihadist fighters, resentful at what they see as Western injustice.

AT THE EXTREMES, BOTH SIDES ARE GUILTY

Both sides seek to hide it, but both sides are guilty. There are extremist factions which will
not be satisfied until their opponents are completely eradicated.
On the Jewish side are the successors of the Zionists of a century ago: Small groups of
religious fundamentalists who assert their interpretation of the Old Testament is
incontrovertible fact. The Holy Land belongs to the Jews by right of Gods word. Any who
doubt this are heretics. Any who oppose this must be defeated. Their goal: To establish a
new kingdom of heaven, to be crowned with the rebuilding of the long-destroyed Temple of
Jerusalem.

On the alestinian side are the jihadists: Groups of Muslim holy warriors mustered from
around the Middle East and the world. Their jihad or holy war rejects Israels right to
exist. It seeks to reclaim the lost lands of their Arab brethren and return the holy shrines of
Islam to their rightful owners. This includes the Temple Mount of Jerusalem now
occupied by the 1300-year-old Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque which is regarded
as the third most holy site in Islam. Then there are those who want to establish a new
kingdom of heaven, to restore the long-lost caliphate to reign over the entire Middle East.
IN THE BEGINNING
The origins of this conflict are lost in history. The Old Testament as we know it wasnt
compiled until the seventh century BC, and theres very little in the writings of Egypt or
other Middle East nations referencing Israel before this time. For decades archaeologists

have been digging. But theyve found scant evidence of the Kingdom of Solomon, or David,
which was said to mark the creation of a prehistoric stand-alone Jewish state.
We know more about the New Testament era from the records of ancient Greece and
Rome. An uprising by Jewish Zealots between 66 and 74AD was at first successful with the
occupying Romans successfully expelled from Jerusalem. Emperor Nero then ordered the
rebellion crushed in a manner that would serve as an example to the rest of the Empire. The
foundation stone of the Jewish faith the Temple of Jerusalem was soon toppled and
more than 100,000 Jews dispersed among the Empire as captives.
It was an event they called The Diaspora . the Scattering. The last remnants of the
kingdom of Israel was soon reduced to rubble.
SKIP FORWARD 1874 YEARS
In the late 1800s, a Zionist movement was formed in Europe campaigning to reclaim the
long-lost homeland for the Jewish race. It was a migration which rapidly gathered
momentum, coming to a head shortly after World War One. Amid the shattered remains of
the Ottoman Empire which had been managed as a rotectorate by Britain after the
end of the war the onrush of Jewish settlers from Europe and elsewhere triggered fears
among the majority Arab population.
In the 1930s, this erupted into revolt. The Arabs feared such large-scale immigration would
mean becoming a minority in their own land. The uprising was suppressed by the British
and Jewish militias. This was the start of the cycle of clashes that continues to this day. Then
came World War Two and the outpouring of shock and grief at the Holocaust inflicted upon
the Jewish race by Adolf Hitler and his Nazis. Six million Jewish people had been murdered.
The United Nations set out to make amends: The floodgates were opened for dispossessed
and displaced Jews around the world to build a new state in their ancient holy land.
But many resented occupying power Britains attempts to balance Jewish, Arab and its
own needs. Among their leaders were future Prime Ministers Menachem Begin and Ariel
Sharon.
Israeli Expansion

Crimes attributed to their cause include the assassination of Lord Moyne, a barrel-bomb
being rolled into a civilian bus at the Jaffa Gate, an attack on the Palestinian village of Deir
Yassin which killed 107 men, women and children, and the bombing of the King David Hotel.
The United Nations Partition Plan arbitrarily carved out new borders dividing the region
between Jews and Arabs in what it hoped would prove to be a suitable compromise once
the British withdrew.
It satisfied neither side.
THE CATACLYSM: ARAB WAR ON ISRAEL
The Jews declared their independent state on May 14, 1948. The Palestinian Arabs felt
dispossessed and fought to lay claim to their own independent state. The neighbouring
nations of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq soon rallied to the cause
of their religious and blood cousins and moved their forces into the new Palestinian lands.
Backed by financial and material support from benefactors in the United States and Europe,
the Jewish settlers had quickly formed a fighting force far larger and stronger than that of all
of their neighbours combined. The war was soon over. Egypt took control of Gaza. Jordan
took the West Bank. Israel tightened its grip on its newly-won territories.

Some 750,000 of Arabs were forced out of their homes and had their lands seized. They fled
to nearby nations to live as refugees. It is an event the Arabic world calls Al-Nakba the
Cataclysm.
Attempts by Arab nations to rectify this situation and rid themselves of the annoyance of
Israel collapsed in 1967 with their resounding defeat during the Six Day War. Gaza and
the West Bank were now occupied by Israel, and new territories were annexed as its own.
WHY FIGHT OVER THE WEST BANK AND GAZA?
Out of the ashes of 1948 came names such as West Bank and Gaza strip. These are the Arab
enclaves being fought over today. The cross-border raids which spark so much outrage today
began in the 1960s. These attacks regularly prompt Israeli military responses often
embodied as violent incursions into Gaza and the West Bank.
Exiled Palestinians formed their own militias to forcefully reclaim their lost homeland.
One of their leaders was future President Yasser Arafat, and the militias soon evolved into
the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Crimes attributed to their fight include the
hijacking of a tourist bus near Haifa resulting in the death of 35 passengers, the Munich
Olympics attack on the Israeli team which killed 11, the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille
Lauro and many more. Eventually the cycle of attack and counter-attack sparked a general
uprising. The first Intifada (or resistance) of 1987 to 1993 represented a rebellion by the
general Arab populace against occupying Israeli forces. It ended with the Oslo Peace Accords
which saw Arafat elevated to the legitimate leader of the Arab West Bank and Gaza strip.
It was supposed to be the solution to the problem: Palestine now, for the first time, was its
own independent nation state with its own lands and borders.
It satisfied neither side.
HAMAS RISES TO POWER
Israel continued to confiscate Arab lands. Settlements continued to be built in alestinian
territory. Rockets and mortars continued to be lobbed into Jewish towns and cities which
Arabs considered their own. Seven years later a second Intafada arose as a response to a
punitive cycle of Israeli / Hamas clashes. But the main spark is generally regarded as being a
visit by Israeli leader Ariel Sharon backed by 1000 soldiers to the Muslim-occupied
Temple Mount, which he declared to be Israeli territory.
Construction of the infamous concrete Security Fence began in 2002 nominally to
prevent terrorist attacks, but it also served to separate many Palestinians from their most
fertile fields. The Israeli occupation ended shortly after the death of President Arafat in
2004, who had been besieged in his Ramallah compound for more than two years.
Since then, Palestine has essentially been a nation in name only. The electoral victory of the
resistance and terrorist organisation Hamas made it the successor of the LO in alestines

legislative council. The election produced a complete cessation of political compromise

between the warring states. The cycle of war and tenuous peace continues, unabated. Its
been an ongoing story of suicide bombings and targeted assassinations, of rock-throwing
and rocket-firing, occupation and infiltration.

TODAY: STILL FIGHTING TO EXIST IN MIDDLE EAST MELTDOWN

The renewed Jewish state is still fighting to exist. Some factions still want to expand. And the
fundamental frictions remain. Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees still live in the
surrounding states of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan waiting for a chance to return to their
homes. Tens of thousands of Jewish settlers have been streaming in from Europe, Russia,
North Africa and the United States. So many, in fact, the tiny Jewish state is struggling to find
space for them all. This population pressure is part of the problem behind the ongoing
contentious confiscation of land and illegal settlements in territory earmarked for the
Palestinians by the United Nations.
Gaza remains blockaded. Large Jewish settlements in the West Bank continue to expand.
Flurries of suicide and rocket attacks continue to be flung at Israel. The current battle is just
another act in the latest chapter of this eternal war.
WHEN KNIGHTS AND CALIPHS RULE: Behind the jihadist uprising
The horrific murder of three Jewish teenagers late last month two of whom belonged to
more extreme sects was met with an immediate and violent retaliation. Israeli warplanes
and helicopters began bombarding Gaza and the West Bank.
Hamas which continues to style itself as the fighting front for the alestinians desire to
return home responded in kind: Firing unguided rockets blindly into Jewish territory. But
looming behind this current clash is the political and religious turmoil in the nations
surrounding the ancient Holy Land. Syria has become the melting pot in the battle between
Sunni and Shia jihadist groups with the United States being the unlikely ally of the likes of
Hamas and even al-Qaeda in their bid to overthrow President Assad.
These battle-hardened jihadists are now turning their eyes elsewhere, in particular Iraq. But
Jordan and Israel now fear a future dominated by black-clad tribal warriors streaming
over their borders to revive the medieval caliphate that arose after the death of their
prophet, Mohammed.
History, it seems, is doomed to always repeat.
Source: http://www.news.com.au/world/two-peoples-fighting-for-the-same-thingexamining-the-israelpalestine-conflict-from-66ad-to-today/story-fndir2ev-1226985449546

7
The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Brief History (a flash video)

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/flash/0,,720353,00.html