A History of Conflict

From the moment of Israel’s creation, its territory has been the site of intense violence and hostility. Shortly after the nation declared its independence on May 14, 1948, it was attacked by an Arab coalition including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Israeli military forces succeeded in repelling the assault and went on to negotiate cease-fires with neighboring states to
establish its borders. During this conflict, many Palestinians living in Israel either fled or were driven from their homes by the advancing Israeli army. One UN agency places the number of displaced Palestinians as high as 957,000. Many of these settled in the West Bank and Gaza strip, while others fled to neighboring Arab states.

For the Middle East, this fighting only marked the beginning of a long and intense conflict. Although Arab states had negotiated armistice agreements, they did not consider Israel a legitimate state. In 1967, Egyptian President Nasser organized an alliance of Israel's neighbors and mobilized for war. Israel, in turn, launched a preemptive strike against Egypt in what became known as the Six-Day War. During this campaign, Israeli forces seized the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank from neighboring countries. These areas contained about one million Palestinians, and become known as the Occupied Territories, governed by military rule. An additional 300,000 Palestinians fled the region, settling mostly in Jordan. In 1973 Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against on Israel along the Suez Canal and an area to the northeast known as the Golan Heights. Israel was eventually successful at fending off the attack, but incurred heavy losses. Despite these and other hostilities, Israel and Egypt were finally able to come to terms on a lasting peace settlement in 1978 signed at Camp David and brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. As part of the settlement, Israel agreed to return the Sinai Peninsula, including irrigation systems installed during the occupation, to Egypt.

Recent Peace Efforts

The end of the Cold War marked the end of a world that was divided into two spheres, and many hoped that a lasting Arab-Israeli peace could be achieved. In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin met with Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), a group dedicated to the creation of an independent Palestinian state. That year Rabin and Arafat signed a document known as the Declaration of Principles, which proposed limited Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho. They established Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to govern these regions. Violence on both sides, however, delayed the implementation of this agreement. Further negotiations finally lead to Israel’s full withdrawal from these areas in 1994. The following year, an Israeli student who was opposed to the transfer of land to the Arabs assassinated Prime Minister Rabin. Despite this setback, Rabin’s successor, Shimon Peres, was committed to continuing on with peace negotiations, and he continued to withdraw Israeli troops from the West Bank.

Terrorist attacks and bombings in Israel, however, caused the impetus for peace concessions to lose momentum from the Israeli public. Benjamin Netanyahu won the next election for prime minister by assuring Israel’s security and promising to pressure the PNA to meet its obligations to stop terrorism. Peace negotiations stalled for the most part despite U.S. pressure. An agreement was eventually reached in 1997 to withdraw Israeli forces from 80 percent of the Holy City of Hebron, but Palestinians became angry when Israel proceeded with a new housing project in East Jerusalem. In 1998, Netanyahu agreed to withdraw 13 percent of forces from the West Bank, but later froze the agreement claiming that Palestinians were not living up to their end of the bargain. Israel’s Labor Party was angered by what they saw as a stalling of the peace process, and their candidate Ehud Barak was able to defeat Netanyahu in the next elections.

Yet, Barak was unsuccessful in negotiating a peace agreement with PLO chief Arafat or Syrian President Assad. This failure, along increased violence and terrorist activities caused him to lose February 2001 elections to Ariel Sharon, a member of Netanyahu’s party. Sharon won election by pledging not to negotiate for peace without guaranteeing security. Many observers, however, question whether this is a realistic goal. Prime Minister Sharon recently announced that he and Peres are heading a team that will negotiate a settlement with the Palestinians.

Issues at Stake

In addition to questions of land rights and military occupation, there are also a number of other issues that are major factors affecting Middle East peace. Among these are concerns about Palestinian citizenship, Right of Return, and U.S. arms support. For Palestinians living in Israel and Israeli-occupied territories, citizenship and nationality are both defining elements in society. The nation distinguishes between citizens of Arab nationality and those of Jewish nationality in establishing individual rights and restrictions. An Arab-Israeli citizen cannot, for example, enlist in the national armed forces. There are restrictions on how often he or she can travel outside the country while maintaining residency. Land ownership is also subject to regulation on the basis of nationality. Furthermore, many Palestinians in Israel complain that they can only find undesirable jobs that Jewish citizens do not want (although some Arab Israelis have become prosperous within Israel’s system).

Another issue of controversy involves the Right of Return that has been denied to Palestinians living abroad. Some have argued that Israel should allow displaced Palestinians to return to their homes within its borders. Although this movement has received some backing from UN, the Israeli government insists that it cannot accept the return of millions of Arabs. This is because it would create a serious demographic shift that wipe out the Jewish majority, and hence the world’s only Jewish state. In contrast, Israel has granted automatic citizenship to Jewish immigrants upon their arrival since the 1950s.

Finally, another serious issue has concerned the U.S. arms support of Israel. Since the 1950s, the US has provided more than $46 billion in grant military aid to Israel. By the mid-1990s, Israel was importing more than ninety percent of its arms from the United States. For 2001, Israel’s arms financing is expected to approach $1.9 billion (In contrast, President Bush’s total aid proposal to Afghanistan is only $320 million). Critics argue that the U.S. is “meddling” in the region by making Israel the military powerhouse of the Middle East. Yet it is also argued that Israel must have such an army to defend itself in a region so hostile to its existence.

One Solution: The Creation of a Palestinian State

Creating a fully autonomous Palestinian state has been suggested as a long-term solution to conflict in the Middle East. Such a state might help solve the problem of Palestinian citizenship and repatriation, as Palestinians would have some of their former territories to administer with full autonomy. The creation of such a state was even supported by former Israeli Prime Minister Peres, who noted, “For Israel to remain a state, both morally and demographically, it needs a Palestinian state.” Only a few weeks ago President Bush gave support to such an idea in a tentative form. He called it “part of a vision” if Israel’s legitimacy was fully respected. Establishing such a state, however, is not as simple as drawing lines on a map. As Peres also observed, a Palestinian state must be economically successful and prosperous if the region is to establish stability. Furthermore, to even gain initial support from Israel, the Palestinians would have to convince the nation that aggression and terrorism would be definitively stopped with this measure. Only if such concerns are addressed can any proposal succeed in establishing a delicate balance of peace in the region.