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LT6: I can explain the causes,

progression, and current state of

the Arab/Israeli Conflict.

Arab = Palestinian / Palestine

Jew = Israeli / Israel

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Since the late 1800’s, Jews across Europe fled from anti-Semitism to the Holy Land. Jewish settlements grew within Arab communities. In response, Arabs rose up against Jewish immigration.

Causes

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In 1947, the UN voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab sectors, leaving Jerusalem as an international city, neither wholly Jewish nor wholly Arab.

Causes

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The Jews accepted the terms of the resolution, but the Arabs rejected them. They were outraged that the Jews, who at the time comprised only a third of the Palestinian population, should be awarded more than half the land.

Causes

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After the UN resolution passed, Jewish and Arab forces fought in multiple wars, with the Jewish state being victorious. Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq fought on the Palestinian side and lost land to Israel. The Palestinian State was reduced in size.

Causes

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Causes

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Jewish and Arab nationalism, or pride in one’s country or nationality, fueled the conflicts.

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Tell the story of the causes...

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Demoralized by the decisiveness of the Israeli victory, some Palestinian Arabs joined the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PLO, which was chaired by Yasser Arafat, rejected Jewish claims to any of historic Palestine and called on Arabs to wage an “armed struggle.”

Progression of the Conflict

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There was a momentary thaw in 1978, when U.S. president Jimmy Carter brokered successful negotiations between Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin. In exchange for Egyptian recognition of the Jewish state, Israel returned land under Israeli occupation to Egypt.

Progression of the Conflict: Peace Attempt

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But any positive momentum generated by the agreement was soon disrupted: Egypt was quickly ostracized by the other Arab states, President Sadat was assassinated in 1981, and an Arab intifada—or uprising against the Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank—broke out in 1987.

Progression of the Conflict

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Israeli president Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn to conclude the deal, which involved trading land for peace—Israel withdrawing from parts of Gaza and the West Bank, and the PLO limiting its claims to those territories while accepting those of the Jews to the rest of historic Palestine.

Progression of the Conflict

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But again, optimism gave way to pessimism and even despair, particularly after the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin by a Jewish extremist opposed to Oslo-style concessions.

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Hopes were revived in 2000, when U.S. president Bill Clinton invited new Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat, now the Palestinian president, to Washington for more negotiations. Barak went further than any previous Israeli leader by offering the Palestinians all of Gaza and most of the West Bank.

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Two months after the failed talks, the second Arab intifada broke out, apparently in response to a visit by Ariel Sharon—a man many Arabs considered a war criminal—to a Muslim (and Jewish) holy site in Jerusalem. Sharon became the new Israeli prime minister in January 2001, the same month George W. Bush became the new U.S. president.

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Hopes flickered in April 2003, with the publication of the Road Map, the official guide to peace in the Middle East. It called on the Palestinians to end terrorism and the Israelis to stop building settlements on Arab land. It did not however draw the borders of the two states.

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Both Israel and Palestine lost their leaders which caused instability and setbacks in the Peace process.

Current State

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But then a series of events set the Middle East alight. On June 25, 2006, Hamas militants captured an Israeli soldier in Gaza, prompting Israel to bomb strategic targets in Gaza, killing many civilians, and to arrest several Hamas politicians. In 2007, Hamas won elections Parliamentary elections among the Palestinians living in Gaza; it is viewed as a terrorist organization by many in the west, yet is valued by many Palestinians for providing basic social services.

Current State

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With trust between Israel and the Palestinians at such low levels, there appears little hope in the short term for a revival of the peace process. Israel’s massive separation barrier encircling the West Bank provides a powerful physical reminder of all that divides the Israelis and Palestinians.

Current State

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