Finding peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict comes down to a history lesson
There’s no doubt that the history behind the Arab-Israeli conflict is shrouded in “he said, she said’s” and each side tells the story a little differently. But as President Obama and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair look to foster a lasting peace between Israelis, Palestinians and the neighboring Arab nations within the next two years, finding a starting point may be one of the biggest struggles.
The Obama administration seems to be pointing to 1967 (The Six Day War) as the root of the conflict, while the Israeli government and soon-to-be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continually hark back to the events of 1948 (The Arab-Israeli War) as the base of the problem.
Because of these views, Obama has placed Israel’s continuing occupation of the West Bank at the heart of his campaign for a lasting peace in the region, insisting that Israel immediately stop all settlement activity.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu contends that settlements are a peripheral issue, being used to divert attention from the real problems of the Middle East. In his view, the problems stem from the events of 1948, when the Jewish state was founded by the United Nations, only to be immediately plunged into war with surrounding Arab nations.
“Even before Israel controlled the West Bank and Gaza, the animosity toward Israel nonetheless existed,” said Dore Gold, ex-Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and now an adviser to Netanyahu in an interview with the Toronto Star. “There were no settlements before 1967.”
Therefore from the perspective of Netanyahu, the fundamental problem is the failure of most Arab countries to accept Israel’s existence (the exceptions being Egypt and Jordan).
This understanding partly explains Netanyahu’s demand that Palestinian leaders acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state before they can sit down to find a lasting peace.
For those interested in learning more about the history behind the Arab-Israeli conflict, I recommend Palestine and the Arab Israeli Conflict by Charles Smith. I found this book to be a fair, objective look at the history of the conflict and the attempts toward achieving peace.