Arab-Israeli Conflict

Introduction
The Arab-Israeli conflict was a result of the two populations fighting over whose land Israel rightfully was. The Arabs believed that the land was rightfully theirs and saw the Jews as intruder’s .The Jews that were migrating there from various different countries believed that Israel was the Holy Land and that it was their homeland. After 1900, more and more Jews began to arrive in Palestine because of the increase in Zionism among the Jewish population. The increase was slow but after the 1930’s the increase began to grow faster because of Nazism and Anti-Semitism along with the Holocaust. British Imperialism then took over Palestine with the British government taking over the government in Palestine, the Arabs and Jews were both offered agreements from the British which allowed them to blindside Palestine in their takeover of the country. Between 1947 and 1949 there was a war between the Jews and the Arabs which ended with Arab being defeated by the Jews and the Jews were able to take control of most of the majority of Palestine, making many thousands of Arabs refugees in their own country.

Paragraph 1
The force of Zionism caused the increase of Jewish migration to Palestine in the 1900’s. The founder of the World Zionist congress, Theodore Herzl, was also a major part in the beginning of the migration of Jews to Palestine as he helped Jews believe that they should have their own nation and their own place to call home. He was part of the Dreyfus affair in France which was a largely followed anti Semitism case where he was finding out why Jews were hated so much. He found out a lot of information surrounding the feeling toward Jews which led to his founding of the Zionist organisation that would allow Jews all around the world to have a nationality and have a place to call home. The Jewish people before 1897 were unable to have one nationality to call their own in order to support each other in the horrific situations that they had to go through. In 1882 there were 14 Russian Jewish settlers who landed in Jaffa. They belonged to an organisation called Hoveivei Zion. (Lovers of Zion) These few settlers began the migration to Israel which would become a much larger situation and gave hope to the Jews that could see no hope of getting away from the cruelty and discrimination that they endured so much of. Although they began this move they would not be allowed to live freely in Israel until they had their own nation state which made it a much more difficult situation. As many Jews began their trip to the Holy Land they encountered the rise of Anti Semitism that came from the rise of imperialism and self determination. Just as Jews thought they were getting away from Anti Semitism they it came right back to hit them. The Holocaust was also a big factor in the migration to Palestine as the Jews that had survived it saw Palestine as a place that was theirs and already had many Jews there that they could identify with.

Paragraph 2
British imperialism paved the way for Jewish migration into Palestine in the 1900’s. When the British government moved in to Palestine they began with making agreements with the locals and the Jews that were just arriving in Palestine. The agreement they made with the Arabs entailed that the Arabs would revolt against the Ottoman Empire in exchange that the British would allow Arab independence in Palestine. This was called the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence. The agreement they made with the migrating Jewish was that they would allow them to build a Jewish state in Palestine and allowed the British Zionists to create a Jewish home, with the support of the government. By 1917 the British were falling behind in the fight in WW1.

Paragraph 3
The Holocaust was a major factor of the Jewish migration into Palestine along with Nazi persecution of the Jews in the 1930’s, leading to the creation of Israel in 1948. The Holocaust was a terrible time for the entire world but it was most definitely a horrific time if you happened to be Jewish. The Jewish race was a targeted race in WW2 and were tortured and killed without a second thought. This pain that they went through encouraged them to never again be put in a situation like that and led them to desperately flee to other countries, including Palestine where they would create a new homeland. The hatred toward Jews in Germany was quite a regular thing among Germans but when Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany (between 1933 and 1939) the Jews would then begin to be persecuted by the Nazi party and its followers. The Jews were blamed for the loss of WW1 and the German economic depression; they were also seen as an inferior race in Germany opposed to the Germans who Hitler saw as a racially superior race. This caused propaganda against the Jews all around Germany leading the Germans to hate them which would eventually lead to new laws and restrictions amongst Jews. The Jewish people of Germany were trying every way to flee from this terrible country and they saw Palestine as a good place to start a new life where they could be free from anti-Semitism. Between 1922 and 1931 the population in Palestine had risen from 83,000 to 174,000, which show that they were able to flee from Germany and various other countries where anti-Semitism had taken over. By 1937 there were 395,000 Jews in Palestine creating a new home for them. This increase was a good representation of the strife that the Jewish people were living with and fleeing was the only option to be safer. By the time the Holocaust had ended in 1945 the number of Jews in Palestine had risen to 554,000, which was a number of Jewish refugees from the concentration camps that had undergone the most horrific experiences anyone could experience and coming to a new place would allow them to be free of that torture and unimaginable hatred. This increase of Jewish immigration because of anti-Semitism in Germany and the Holocaust would be the largest factor of the creation of Israel and the new home for Jews all round the world.

Paragraph 4
The United Nations proposed a plan for a partition in Palestine that would allow the Jews and Arabs to have equal amounts of land that they would be able to call their own without any conflict. The Jews accepted the partition but the Arab leaders declined the offer as they weren’t accepting any territorial division to take place. This indecision caused a civil war to break out between the Arabs and Jews in order to protect their land. The creation of the Jewish homeland was finally made realistic when the Israeli’s won the 1947-9 war against the Arab states throughout Palestine. When the war began many Arabs fled from their homes to find a safer place to live and once they had fled the Israeli’s didn’t allow them to come back into their homes which were now the Israeli’s land. Around 85% of the civilian Arabs fled their residence in order to get away from the war. The places they fled to included; West Bank, Gaza, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Having claimed this land in Israel, more and more Jews were migrating there from all over the world as they saw Israel to be a place that they could identify with and call home. This also led to an influx in Sephardic Jews who had been in Palestine centuries ago but were now able to come back and live freely.

Paragraph 5
The conflict with Arab states and having US support began with the 1967 war when the United Arab Republic of Nasser and Jordan had a 6 day war. Nasser were hoping for US support when they went into the war but they didn’t end up backing them, meaning the Nasser forces were being demolished by the Israeli’s who started the war with surprise attacks against the Egyptian air fields. The Nasser forces were outwitted and outmuscled by the Israeli forces and lost West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and Golan Heights, Annexing Jerusalem. This win for the Israeli’s meant that the US supported them and their survival, so the Egyptians plan backfired leading to the opposite of what they wanted.

Conclusion
The Arab-Israeli conflict was a long affair that still affects society today as the places that the Jews took from the Arabs is still causing troubles as to whose land is whose. The force that I think was most decisive was Zionism and nationalism within the Jewish community. I think that this force was the most decisive as it meant that these Jews had now found a place and community that was centred around their religion and beliefs which meant they would fight for the land they believed was rightfully theirs. As things progressed they fought vigorously to save their land ending up with more and more land after each battle or confrontation. They were affected by other forces such as; British Imperialism, because of the promises they made, it blindsided the Jews and also the Arabs in believing they were there to help each race out and were there to make them the dominant race, when they were really there to increase the power of the British. When the Jews and Arabs realised this they fought for their land and the Jews came out with the win, forcing thousands of Arabs out of their homes and creating a larger Jewish community. After the holocaust thousands more Jews migrated from Germany and Austria along with a few other countries as they saw Palestine as a home for Jewish people and a safe place that would keep them free of torture and Anti-Semitism. When there were wars between the Arabs and Israeli’s the Israeli’s would always come out on top as they had more man power and artillery, which lead to them having more support from bigger countries such as The US which meant they were able to get more artillery and armed forces to bear their opponents.