The Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be justly mentioned among the most long-lasting and heated ones in the history of humanity. Its modern history is considered to begin in the early twentieth century; however, the conflict between Muslims and Judeans inhabiting the area counts for more than a few thousands of years. Among it’s the most difficult issues are territorial claims including mutual recognition, Israeli settlements, Palestinian freedom of movement, security, borders, water rights, refugee legalities and the eternal struggle for the control in the city of Jerusalem (Frisch 2004).
The issues related to economy, security, territorial claims and religious matters including Islam and Judaism are going to be discussed on the basis of historical, juridical and sociological arguments in the following paper. Generally, it appears that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is mainly resulted by international, economical and governmental issues along with territorial claims which if unsolved will let it to continue for unlimited period in the future with the sad outcomes similar to those existing nowadays including terrorism, incessant military actions and the other ways shattering hopes for peace in the “Promised land”.
First of all, discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it should be mentioned that one of the most significant issues as well as one of the most critical reasons behind this conflict is historically caused by the issues related to territorial matters such as mutual recognition, Israeli settlements, Palestinian freedom of movement, security, borders, water rights, refugee legalities and the eternal struggle for the control in the city of Jerusalem. Thus, it appears that the problem exists on a state level, first of all. In his article, Frisch develops the argument proving the fact that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is mainly caused by nationalist matters and, therefore, occurs on the second level of analysis (2004).
Reveling the history of the conflict, the article provides sufficient examples supporting the argument of this conflict being due to nationalist supremacy, but also condones that the theocratic concepts for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be found concealed in the fight for national sovereignty. “Extremist Palestinian elements, such as Hamas, are unwilling to recognize Israel’s very right to exist, and continue to violently act against Israel, against the moderate Palestinian leadership and against the peace process” (Israel, the Conflict and Peace: Answers to frequently asked questions 2007, par. 59). This big issue includes a row of minor ones. Among them is the one of Israel settlements such as those adjacent to and including Ariel. Territorial subcomponents of the conflict are so complicated that the world’s community interferes to this problem including Europe and the United States (Frisch 2007).Yet, as it often happens, the territorial issues are the most difficult ones to solve, and despite numerous efforts on the part of the representatives from the world society, are not solved by the present moment.
In addition, the problem of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is also connected to the position of Israel and its diplomatic and political strategies. Israel’s strategy in the conflict appears to be ambiguous. Many claim it as unwise and showing a measure of weakness on Israel’s part. According to Frisch, the country’s behavior shows “the severe asymmetry that exists between Israel’s small size, meager resources, and lack of strategic depth compared to the superiority of numbers, territory, and potential resources on the Arab side “ (2007, p.16). Such position may be caused by some concealed reasons as it often happened in the case of this nation. There exist opinions that in this way Israel is trying to dispose the support from the international community on its side (Frisch 2004). In addition, in the beginning of 2000s Israel showed the other drawback in its strategy in the conflict resorting to the use of significant military forces. “Israeli military strategy, as opposed to its political grand strategy, follows the well-known maxim that “if you want peace, prepare for war,” or even more specifically, that offense is the best form of defense” (Frisch 2004).
And yet, this strategy appeared to be more than unsuccessful. As a result, the cases of terroristic attacks became ever more frequent. Responding to Israel’s military attacks extremists started committing “suicide bombings, resulting in tit-for-tat or loop-like and repetitive violence and counter-violence without meaningful, let alone decisive results for the stronger side” (Frisch 2005, p. 45). The connection between Israel’s military actions and Palestinian suicide bombings is evident from a row of experiences including the al-Ibrahimi Mosque’s massacre in Hebron in 1994 and a row of terroristic acts committed in the beginning of 1996 by the Islamists as a response to opening of the tunnel next to the Temple Mount (Frisch 2004). Thus, military and terroristic actions by Arabs are motivated by an unsuccessful strategy chosen by Israel. On the contrary, when Israel changed its aggressive military strategy to the more peaceful one under the pressure of the world’s society and the United States, in particular, Arabs appeared to be calmed down. This can be observed in 2003 in an exceptional way. According to Frisch, “in September 2003, Arafat bowed to international pressure and agreed to create the new position of prime minister for Mahmoud Abbas, who had been both a serious opponent of a violent uprising and an ardent dove” (2007, 13). Thus, a wise strategy motivated by peace observation is important in order to progress in the solving of the conflict.
Secondly, territorial issues are inseparably connected with the issues of security. Being motivated by their nationalistic ideas and radical Islamic beliefs, Muslims formed a row of terroristic organizations including Hamas and Fatah which are responsible for innumerable terroristic acts constantly taking away the lives of hundreds of people. According to official data, in March 2002 alone, 135 Jewish civilians were killed; in the closing days of the month thirty people attending a Seder night ceremony in Netanya hotel were killed by a suicide bomber (Frisch 2004). In addition, “from 2003 to 2004 mortars and qassam rockets increased by fifty percent, mortars by twenty, with declines registered for other types of violence” (Frisch 2007, p. 14). These are just a few facts related to the safety issues mentioned here. Looking at the evidences concerning the means of violence employed by the Palestinians in the sector of Gaza along with the West bank territories and the rest of the region’s area, a conclusion can be made that the issues of security raised in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are by far the most severe ones both on the local and global scales.
Thirdly, the issues related to economy are also to be taken into consideration in connection to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Especially, Israel can be mentioned as the one suffering great losses on the reason of a variety of problems caused by the conflict. According to Frisch, “the Israeli economy rebounded only when Israel succeeded in stemming the rise of terrorism in 2003, soon followed by a spurt of growth of four percent in absolute terms, and three percent on a per capita basis in 2004” (2007, p. 11).Of course, the Palestine autonomy is also affected. Economical condition in the sectors belonging to the Palestine autonomy is much more complicated than in Israel. The population there suffers of unemployment, and low levels of official financial support to the needy ones (Frisch 2005).
And finally, religious matters are related to the nationalistic ideas of Palestinians. Starting from the year 1980, when Fatah extremists killed five yeshiva students in Hebron, the homogeneous religious character in the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation became evident. Still the connection between religious and nationalistic issues is very close. For example, in 1994 29 Muslim worshipers were killed by a Jewish in the Cave of the Patriarchs which is a holy place for both religions (Frisch 2004). Thus, religious matters are also used by the Palestinian nationalists as a cover-up for their deeds. Furthermore, the other serious felonies on an individual level of analysis are related to the strategy of the negotiations between the countries which are the parties of the conflict. The moral principles lying behind the problem are one of the main issues which require deep understanding along with professional approach form diplomatists in order to achieve progress in the pursuit for peace in this region. Unless, the leaders of both adversary parties would come to a compromise in religious and territorial issues, the conflict cannot be solved.
Reasoning on the problem form on the international level, it should be stated that it is connected to an abundance of the most serious issues mainly related to the confrontation between Muslim and Non-Muslim world which are, first of all, nationalistic issues between the Israeli people and Palestinian people. Massive Palestinian terrorism has presented one of the most severely stated issues which are rife in connection to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Frisch 2007). This conflict developed a precedent for Muslim extremists to follow. In order to evade the sad consequences of such outcomes, a wise peace strategy on the international level is to be developed and implemented. In this vein, during the history of the conflict international representatives were actively participating in resolving the issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including the United States, Great Britain, Russia, and many more. A successful period in the peace negotiations has occurred when Arabian party of the conflict spoke the language of peace and demonstrated willingness to perform particular actions in order to develop comfortable conditions for mutual coexistence in the problematic territory. Such Arab leaders as the president of Egypt Sadat and Jordanian King Hussein made their significant contribution into resolving a row of complicated issues.
Reflecting on the issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including religious, territorial, economical and security ones, it is important to mention that they are too complicated to try to solve them in an aggressive way. The whole course of the conflict’s history has demonstrated the success of peaceful strategies along with the breakdown of aggressive actions. Thus, active, well-developed and respectful measures are to be developed in the individual, state and international level in order to overcome the problem; and as the problem mainly occurs on the state level it should be, first of all, approached from this perspective.
References
Frisch, H. & Sandler, S. (2004). Religion, State, and the International System in the Israeli– Palestinian Conflict. International Political Science Review, 25(1), 77-96.
Frisch, H. (2005). Has the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Become Islamic? Fatah, Islam, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. United States: Taylor & Frances Inc.
Frisch, H. (2007). (The) Fence or Offense? Testing the Effectiveness of “The Fence” in Judea and Samaria. Democracy and Security, 3(1), 1-19.
Israel, the Conflict and Peace: Answers to frequently asked questions. (2007). Web.