Introduction
The conflict between Israel and Arab community is a continuing dispute within the long-term frame of conflict that engaged the Gaza and the Israeli in the Gaza strip territory.
Palestinians’ vigorous resistance to the occupation of the armed forces in Gaza went sky high in the Gaza terrain after the election that was irresistible to the government that belonged to the political party of the Islam, the Hamas, in the years 2005 and 2006.
The study presents this one main problem (the Gaza blockade conflict between the Arab and the Israeli) as a matter that needs to be addressed. The major fuels of the conflict include the Arab nationalism and Zionism paradigms.
The terrain that was considered by the Jewish community as their historical motherland was as well considered historical by the movement of the Pan-Arab.
Its current ownership by the Arabs who took it from Palestine has never been accepted as legal by the latter country thus making the conflict take so long to be settled.
As the study reveals, three main solutions that are possibly needed to settle the conflict include ceasefire, provision of security, and the rescinding of the intention of the Hamas to destroy the state of the Jewish society.
Background
History of the Arab-Israeli Gaza Blockade Problem
The Arab-Israeli Gaza Blockade problem started in the year 2007 when a national unity government of the Palestinian authority was initiated by Fatah and Hamas to be ruled by Ismail Haniya.
It was not long when the Hamas took hold of the Gaza strip in June during the course of the skirmish that was taking place in Gaza together with the capturing of the organizations of the government and the restoring of Fatah and further government bureaucrats.
From the proposed theories and concepts that were put in place, three of them were essential to address the issue. After the conquest, according to Worth (2006), Israel and Egypt closed their border passages with Gaza for the reasons that Fatah had escaped and was providing no defense to the Palestinian area.
Israeli and the Palestine were the main parties that were involved in the problem.
One of the theories was the formation of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) with the aim of demolishing the Jewish nation of Israel by Palestine that founded as an Arab state.
The Israeli maintained that the blockade was essential to restrict Palestinian rocket assaults on its cities coming from the Gaza Strip and to stop the Hamas from getting hold of other weapons.
Secondly, the formation of Zionism was formed as a strategy to get hold of the Jewish state in the terrain of the Israeli. Lastly, there was the concept of power balance between the two conflicting nations.
Key Issues raised in the Arab-Israeli Gaza Problem Blockade
Despite the ceasefire deal that stood out as one of the significant issues that were brought up in the making of the peace deal, there were still doubts that peace will not last for long.
Both nations gave warnings that they would avenge by hitting back hard supposing the deal was breached and that the hostility resumed, and or if by any chance the truce agreement offered interpretations that differed. Following the scores of lives that were lost, the conflict turned out to be an international concern.
Every international community (the UN, Red Cross, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) got involved in talks with the main agenda being how the violence could be ended.
According to Bickerton (2009), the activists located in Gaza had mentioned the barrier and the inhabiting of the West Bank as among the key causes for their endless assaults that they witnessed on the Israeli terrain from the time when they withdrew in 2005.
Despite the carrying out of a number of air strikes from corner to corner of the Gaza’s terrain, Israel had not succeeded to bring its rocket attacks to a stop. This issue brought about the military of the Israeli to start a chief ground offense in 2008.
Podeh (2002) mentions that the ‘Operation Cast Lead’ was a stern blow to the ability of the militant groups from the Gaza side since it destroyed a number of infrastructures of the civilians. However, the latter slowly recovered to mark the start of rocket-fire.
A number of Israelis and Palestinians see the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as satisfactory sites of the supposed Palestinian nation. According to Worth (2006), the two-state strategy was another key issue to bring together the two conflicting states.
In addition, the two-state envisions the founding of a self-governing Palestinian state in conjunction with the Israeli state in the terrain of the previous Palestine British Mandate.
Research and Analysis
Three Complications witnessed in the effort to fight the Problem
The WHO (World Health Organization) mentioned that the blockade resulted to a general deterioration of health provisions of the inhabitants as it speeded up the falling apart of the health scheme. Israel generally allowed the bringing in of medicine supplies in Gaza.
The World Health Organization presented the inadequacy of medicine a key complication based on the evidence almost a third of important medication could not be availed to the needy patients in 2009.
However, it held responsible the sequence that dealt with production not forgetting the gap that separated Hamas and Fatah.
In addition, it added by stating that the blockade was a central contributor of the terrible state of several of the medical equipment of Gaza with hindrances in the endorsement of spare parts and machines.
Before the ‘Operation Cast Lead’, according to Bickerton (2009), Gaza had merely 133 beds in its hospitals per a population of 100,000 contrary to 583 beds in Israel. From all the hospitals, six of them underwent smashing up.
At that time, as per the view given by Podeh (2002), Gaza was not prepared to deal with any kind of severe case. The finding obtained from the Israeli in 2009 said that 10,544 sick people together with their close friends fled the Gaza Strip for the purposes of seeking and obtaining health checkups in Israel.
However, “in 2009, the WHO said that 21% of the patients were denied or delayed permission with 27 others passing on during the year while they were waiting to obtain referrals to Israel” (Bickerton 2009, 16).
Only one problem made the story wrong: there was no fuel blockade. The Israeli initially dispatched petroleum to Gaza via the Nahal Oz passage. Following attacks from the terrorist on that passage, Israel switched fuel dispatch to the Kerem Shalom passage. The capacity was even made twice as much as the initial dispatch.
According to Tucker and Roberts (2008), Israel dispatched the product in Gaza endlessly within one week in November the year 2010 until it realized that it had already dispatched liters of fuel that were adding up to 1.7 million.
According to Eisenberg and Caplan (2010), the only drawback on cookery gas fuel, power plant fuel, and other necessities were the demands of the Palestine. All of a sudden, the demand disappeared in January 2011. The Hamas began to decline the fuel shipments that came from Israel.
The most important reason behind this case was that the smuggled fuel that came from Egypt was much more affordable since the price of fuel in Egypt was subsidized and that saving the commodity was passed to Hamas by the smugglers.
In return, the Hamas imposed a tax of 150% on the fuel that was smuggled making it a kind of business that was of benefits.
After a few weeks, Egypt began to crack down the smuggling of fuel since the locals suffered scarcities of butane cylinders and fuel in the northern part of Sinai that contributed to severe unrest among them.
The smuggling business was logically cut down by the Egypt despite it being a business that was relied upon by the Hamas for the essential purpose of working in Gaza.
Eisenberg and Caplan (2010) state that, even after the crisis began, Egypt gave an offering of transferring fuel to the Hamas via the pipeline at the Kerem Shalom crossing because the Rafah passage was not having the capacity of handling massive loads of fuel that were shipped daily.
The Hamas declined the offer and instead insisted that the fuel should come directly from Egypt passing via Israel. Hamas then held hostage its own citizens. The use of the specter of health facilities and water handling plants went mysterious as an emotional blackmail of obtaining low-priced fuel from Egypt.
During this period, Israel was ready and available to dispatch any quantity of fuel that was needed by Gaza. The conflict also resulted to health issues that were based on the environmental. The drinking water that was known to be good for human consumption was now contaminated.
The water that was available only made it possible for people to catch waterborne diseases. Additionally, the conflict also had a negative impact on vegetation. Growing of food was a challenge to farmers of the region.
Since there was a food shortage, it was then revealed that people in the area suffered from diet deficiency. Newborns and toddlers suffered chronic malnutrition. Moreover, women who fell in the reproductive age category became anemic.
Possible Solutions to the Problem
One on the key solutions to the problem was that there had to be ceasefire for the purposes of ending the bloodshed. The ceasefire agreement that involved the two parties of both sides indicated that they should end the attacks to one another. Egypt played the role of negotiating the truce.
A number of the details contained in agreements, not forgetting the end of the blockade by the Israeli in the region of its boundary with Gaza, needed to be battered out. The solution included Israel stopping every kind of hostility attacks on the Gaza Strip by air, land, and sea, not forgetting the aiming of persons and night raids.
Every Palestinian faction should stop any kind of hostility that was against Israel, for instance, boundary and rocket attacks. Egypt was to be given declarations from all sides that it would stick to the deal and that would make follow ups supposing any of the parties breached the agreement.
Bassiouni and Ami (2009) give an argument that the ongoing tensions between the Arab and the Israeli have held on to a profoundly mistaken idea. Rumors have it that the conflict will never be solved until the time that the blockade of Gaza will be lifted by the Israel.
According to Israel, it was deceitful for the Arabs to demand Israel to unblock the border generously to an administration that was responsible for declaring that it had plans of demolishing it.
It was also deceitful for such kind of stipulations to be made when it is well known that boundaries are channels for the distribution of weapons to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas from Iran.
A realistic solution would need the rescinding of the pledge of the Hamas to the demolition of the State of the Jewish people.
This strategy stands out as the view that other countries together with Israel have for a long time required of Hamas in substitute for lifting permits and moving to helpful relations. That solution would have played a major role in helping the people of Gaza.
Recommendations
The best solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict would be the involvement of the military. Deploying military forces in the conflict zone would restore peace among the conflicting parties.
In addition, in support to this recommendation, the strategy has been witnessed in several parts of the world as a proof that the military can restore peace.
For instance, during the Afghanistan war, the United States deployed its solders to restore peace and capture or end the life of the most wanted terrorist in the world: Osama Bin Laden. According to Bassiouni and Ami (2009), this mission was completed successfully.
Positive reactions were witnessed all over the planet with congratulatory sentiments being sent to the troops of the United States. The action of the military can be a solution that is possible to put to practice.
The military can also play a key part in the helping of ceasefire since the serious weapons that are in possession of the Hamas were obtained from Iran and that the issue of smuggling of arms should be looked at and even be brought to an end.
Despite the reality that there was ceasefire upon declaration, the blockade intensified further. Israel did a malicious act of preventing the importation of the basic materials to be utilized in construction to Gaza such as concrete. This inaccessibility barred the homeless Palestinians from reconstructing their shattered lives.
In addition, only a minimal aid was permitted to arrive at the strip. According to researchers, the need for military action can be of benefit if put into consideration considering that there can be possible breaches of the ceasefire agreement among the two conflicting parties.
According to them, the situation can gradually return to normalcy following the presence of the military.
Expected Outcome of the Situation after the Solution
Supposing that peace prevails and the two parties come to an agreement, they can build constructive relationships among them that will be of mutual benefits. Security will be enhanced. As such, problems like diffidence and the smuggling of arms will be history.
The displaced persons will return to their homes to pick up from where they left with the help of the government and the international communities in the setting up of temporary homes for them as they work to find permanent places to dwell.
Since the conflict that was witnessed in the region resulted to destruction of work places and hospitals that left many people jobless with the sick being unattended to, the government would be expected to reconstruct the destroyed facilities in the area.
It would seek constructors to do the constructions hence opening job opportunities to many. The international community would play a central part by providing food and medical supplies as the state picks up.
Food supply will be adequate in the region since citizens from the two governments would be conducting their own farming and supplying of food across the Strip. People from Palestine who lived in Gaza had been obsessed into deep harassment.
They lacked even the essential goods. Numerous aid groups had acknowledged the condition of affairs as adversity of the humanitarian nature. 80% of the population in Gaza would be malnourished to fatality if it were not for the limited assistance they got from the international support.
How would the avoidance of permitting necessities like food, medication, toys for the children, books, and essential materials of the building be a concern of security?
This case was a communal penalty of a whole population that reveals the disregard of Israel for the fundamental Human Rights of guiltless Palestinians. However, it would be nowhere should the conflict end.
Reference List
Bassiouni, Cherif, and Ben Ami. 2009. A guide to documents on the Arab Palestinian/Israeli conflict, 1897-2008. Danvers, Mass: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
Bickerton, Ian. 2009. The Arab-Israeli conflict: A history. London: Reaktion Books.
Eisenberg, Laura, and Neil Caplan. 2010. Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, problems, possibilities. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Podeh, Elie. 2002. The Arab-Israeli conflict in Israeli textbooks, 1948-2000. Westport, Ct: Bergin and Garvey.
Tucker, Spencer, and Mary Roberts. 2008. The encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli conflict: A political, social, and military history. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.
Worth, Richard. 2006. The Arab-Israeli conflict. New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark.