The History of Israel and Palestine

The History of Israel and Palestine

The history of Israel and Palestine is as a long and troublesome one. Israel is slightly larger than Massachusetts and lies at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Egypt on the west, Syria and Jordan on the east, and Lebanon on the north. It is home to Arabs as well as Jews. It was a land established in ancient biblical times in conflict, and in recent year's conflict in that land has been waging on. For nearly 90 years between the both Jewish and Arab factions. Theses conflicting grounds are what gave root to the organization known as Hamas.

The Making of an Israeli Palestine

The Zionist Movement

The Zionist movement in started in the late 19th century and was caused by nationalist currents in Europe, as well as the need to secure Jewish life in Eastern Europe. This led many Jewish intellectuals to seek a new Jewish national life. One of these intellectuals was Theodore Herzl, a Viennese journalist who wrote that there needs to be a Jewish State formed as a solution to the Diaspora, which was the dispersion of Jews outside of Israel from the 6th century B.C. , when they were exiled to Babylonia, until present time. This was also a response to growing anti-Semitism. In 1897 Herzl called the first World Zionist Congress at Basel, Switzerland, which brought together diverse pro-Zionist groups into one movement. The meeting helped found Zionist organizations in most countries with large Jewish populations.

The debate on whether or not Palestine was essential for a Jewish state was the first issue to split the Zionist movement. A majority of the delegates in the 1903 congress felt that Palestine was essential for establishing a new Jewish state and rejected the British offer of a homeland in Uganda. After Herzl's death in 1904, the Zionist movement came under the leadership of Chaim Weizmann, who tried to restore the "practical" wing of the movement, which was to further Jewish settlement in Palestine, and its "political" wing, which stressed the establishment of a Jewish state. A the time the Turkish sultan, who ruled Palestine, and held little regard for Weizmann.

However, in 1917, Great Britain, then at war with Turkey, issued the Balfour Declaration which promised to help establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Great Britain was given a mandate of Palestine in 1920 by the League of Nations, in part to implement the Balfour Declaration. Jewish colonization greatly increased in the early years of the mandate, but soon the British limited their interpretation of the declaration in the face of Arab pressure. There were disputes in the Zionist movement on how to counter the British position. The right-wing Revisionists, led by Vladimir Jabotinsky, favored large scale immigration to Palestine to force the creation of a Jewish state. The most appealing group was the General Zionists (representing the original national organizations), who generally remained friendly to Great Britain.

King Faysal of Syria, the foremost Arab leader at the time, and Chaim Weizmann, the leading proponent of the Zionist movement went into negotiations. The two sides managed to reach an agreement, declaring that the Jews would work together with Arabs to develop Palestine economically, and, in return Syria would acknowledge the Balfour Declaration and permit Jewish immigration, assuming Palestinian Arab rights were protected and the demands for an independent Greater Syria were met. In 1920, at the San Remo Conference, Britain was awarded the mandate for Palestine. Throughout the period of Jewish immigration to Palestine, wealthy Zionist organizations purchased land for colonization from absentee Arab landowners.

After World War II the Zionist movement intensified its activities. The suffering of the European Jews at the hands of the Germans demanded the opening of a place of refuge. At this time the World Zionist Congress was divided, the Revisionists demanding all Palestine and the General Zionists reluctantly accepting the United Nations plan to partition Palestine. A Jewish state was proclaimed on May 14, 1948. The Zionist movement was now forced to reevaluate its goals.

Most Jews in the United States and other Western democracies seemed content to support the Zionist movement as a means of supporting Israel. This is a way of showing a personal commitment without living there. The Zionist movement today facilitates migration to Israel and supports Jewish cultural and educational activities in the Diaspora.

Fatah and The P. L.O.

The Predecessors of Hamas

Arab-Israeli conflict is rooted, in a clash between two nationalist movements. Palestine became an issue of greater Arab concern in the late 1940s, and remained at the center of inter-Arab politics for decades to come. In the crisis that developed in Palestine over the Balfour Declaration, heightened Jewish immigration, and ultimately, the creation of the State of Israel, the Arab states assumed responsibility for the Palestinian cause within the framework of pan-Arabism. As a result, the Palestinians relied mainly on the Arab states to defend their rights, and during this time, uniquely Palestinian organizations, parties, and leadership were subordinated to a myriad of larger Arab political movements. Between 1948 and 1967, then, Palestinian nationalism was relatively dormant, and the struggle for Palestine was dominated by the Arab states. In its earlier conceptions, Palestinian nationalism lacked a momentum of its own, and was merged in the general Arab nationalist movement.

Fatah's was founded by Palestinian students from Gaza, studying primarily at Cairo University, who, in late 1952 set up the Union of Palestinian Students in Egypt. It was there that Yasser Arafat gained his nationalist career. The Palestinian students, under Arafat's leadership, were affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, then in its prime, and by far the most active organization on the Cairo campus. The ideology of the Muslim Brothers and the Palestinian national movementÐ'--as represented by Abd al-Kader al-Husseini, the primary leader of the Palestinian armed groups fighting Israel, appealed to the disenchanted Palestinian youth. They had suffered exile and persecution in Egypt, only to realize that the Arab regimes were unable or unwilling to come to the aid of the Palestinians.

In January 1964, Egyptian president Nasser organized the first Arab summit. The only far-reaching resolution adopted at the summit was that the "Palestinian people must play a part in liberating its country, and in achieving