Monday, April 13, 2009
April 13th Class Discussion
Today in class we were presented with the British, Palestinian and Israeli conflicts of the 1930's through 1950's. It is a clear fact that the on going violence occurring today in Israel is a result of the events of the 1930's and 40's. I personally feel that the reason for the long, violent, and ridiculous tension between the Israeli’s and Palestinians is in part due to British involvement. During the 30's and 40's, British policy's both politically, financially and militarily clearly aided the Palestinians. For example, British forces helped train and provide support to already existent Arab military forces. However, in May 1948, British forces began to gradually leave Israel. As a result, Arab forces couldn't with stand the Zionist opposition. Soon later, Zionist won out and declared Israel an independent nation which was also confirmed by the United Nations. British involvement including promises made to both the Palestinians and Israeli’s which only instigated and promoted further future violence between both nations. Have British forces left years prior to the 1930’s, maybe the conflicts seen today would not have lasted as long as it has.
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This issue in the Middle East is a self made problem because of how the land was distributed. You had to imagine that if each country did not get a decent amount of land they will not be satisfied. This is the hardest problem to solve because no land is ever enough for these two countries.
ReplyDeleteThe involvement of the British, the U.N. and then the United States was very influential in how these issues were solved in the beginning. The land that was sold to Zionists were not the typical Palestinians public but absentee landlords, so you cannot really blame the people. Also the Zionists agreed to the division of land set up by the U.N. and the Arabs in the area were never supportive of this, so I totally agree with Louis that it was foreign influence that influenced the events. There was never 'enough' land for the Palestinians because they were the majority and receiving an equal amount of land with less say than the Israelis.
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