“A Century of Strife: The Burning Israeli-Arab, Palestinian Conflict

The Israeli-Arab-Palestinian conflict has been a hot-button issue that has become a major source of regional and international tension for decades. The war is complex and has multiple layers of ethnic, religious, political, and economic issues that have deep roots in history and have continually ruptured relationships. The most widely accepted way of looking at the conflict on a timeline begins in 1917. This was the year the British issued the Balfour Declaration, which opened the door to establishing a Jewish nation in Palestine. The British forces were occupying the region as part of the aftermath of World War I when they issued the statement. For the next three decades, conflict between the Arabs and Jews bounced back and forth in Palestine as each group fought for control, culminating in the 1947 UN Partition Plan which sought to segregate the land between two distinct entities. This plan was rejected by Arabs, leading to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The war resulted in a decisive victory for Israel and the creation of the state of Israel. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Arab nations attempted to recapture the territory that had been taken from them, resulting in two more wars in 1956 and 1967. The 1967 Six-Day War was perhaps the most consequential war in Israeli-Arab history. It was here that Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem). This created a massive refugee problem and altered the demographics of the region. In the 1970s, attention shifted toward the Palestinian Liberation Orgnaization (PLO), which was founded in 1964 as a way to resist the Israeli occupation. In 1974, the PLO gained international recognition as a legitimate political organization and began to engage in diplomatic negotiations. In 1978, Egypt and Israel reached an agreement known as the Camp David Accords which established a framework for ending the sporadic violence that had plagued the area for years. Peace was eventually attained in 1993 with the signing of the Oslo Accords. This agreement established a framework for peace between Israel and the PLO, creating a self-governing entity known as the Palestinian Authority. This agreement was met with much criticism, especially from the Hamas movement, which was founded in 1987 and was opposed to any peace talks. Since the signing of the Accords, tensions have remained high with a cycle of violence that has kept the region on edge. The majority of peace talks since then have failed to bring about lasting resolution, though stakeholders have recently expressed optimism that a genuine, two-state solution is on the horizon. The decades-long Israeli-Arab-Palestinian conflict has resulted in countless deaths, displacement, and a slew of human rights violations that have yet to be addressed. The only hope for a lasting resolution is for all stakeholders to come together in a meaningful way to finally bring an end to this decades-old conflict. Only time will tell whether such a resolution is possible. The Israeli-Arab-Palestinian conflict has been a hot-button issue that has become a major source of regional and international tension for decades. The war is complex and has multiple layers of ethnic, religious, political, and economic issues that have deep roots in history and have continually ruptured relationships. The most widely accepted way of looking at the conflict on a timeline begins in 1917. This was the year the British issued the Balfour Declaration, which opened the door to establishing a Jewish nation in Palestine. The British forces were occupying the region as part of the aftermath of World War I when they issued the statement. For the next three decades, conflict between the Arabs and Jews bounced back and forth in Palestine as each group fought for control, culminating in the 1947 UN Partition Plan which sought to segregate the land between two distinct entities. This plan was rejected by Arabs, leading to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The war resulted in a decisive victory for Israel and the creation of the state of Israel. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Arab nations attempted to recapture the territory that had been taken from them, resulting in two more wars in 1956 and 1967. The 1967 Six-Day War was perhaps the most consequential war in Israeli-Arab history. It was here that Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem). This created a massive refugee problem and altered the demographics of the region. In the 1970s, attention shifted toward the Palestinian Liberation Orgnaization (PLO), which was founded in 1964 as a way to resist the Israeli occupation. In 1974, the PLO gained international recognition as a legitimate political organization and began to engage in diplomatic negotiations. In 1978, Egypt and Israel reached an agreement known as the Camp David Accords which established a framework for ending the sporadic violence that had plagued the area for years. Peace was eventually attained in 1993 with the signing of the Oslo Accords. This agreement established a framework for peace between Israel and the PLO, creating a self-governing entity known as the Palestinian Authority. This agreement was met with much criticism, especially from the Hamas movement, which was founded in 1987 and was opposed to any peace talks. Since the signing of the Accords, tensions have remained high with a cycle of violence that has kept the region on edge. The majority of peace talks since then have failed to bring about lasting resolution, though stakeholders have recently expressed optimism that a genuine, two-state solution is on the horizon. The decades-long Israeli-Arab-Palestinian conflict has resulted in countless deaths, displacement, and a slew of human rights violations that have yet to be addressed. The only hope for a lasting resolution is for all stakeholders to come together in a meaningful way to finally bring an end to this decades-old conflict. Only time will tell whether such a resolution is possible.