Perhaps you have heard of the Middle East Crisis? In specific the term refers to political and religious conflict within one country, Israel. Over the last 53 years, and still to present day, there remains unrest in this small area. Size wise, Israel is smaller than the state of New Jersey and can be travelled by car in just a few hours. The land is home to 8.8 million Israeli’s, Jews, Arabs, Americans, Canadians, Philippians, Thai, Etheopians, Russians, Europeans, South Africans, and so on. Visiting Israel is a historic treasure, the land is beautiful, and people devoutly love their country. Living in Israel, however, is strife with the reality of casualties from attacks. Israel is surrounded by Arab countries, most of them hostile towards Israel’s presence. Within Israel, Arab territories called the West Bank and The Gaza Strip, are the epicenter of the Middle East Crisis. Not only are two diverse religions wanting representation of biblical landmarks, land disputes remain the main element in the Middle East Crisis. Terrorist groups such as Hezbola, Hamas, and the PLO have, or remain anchored in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Their claim is for all Israelis to perish and for them to regain the land once called Palestine.
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In the 1800's the Zionist Movement, lead by Theodor Herzl was created. Its goal was to make a country that could be of refuge for the Jewish people. The term Zionist refers to those who believe in the independent state of Israel. Both Jews and Arabs claim sacred relics and history in the geographic area previously called Palestine, now called Israel. It wasn’t until 1947, after WWII, that theZionist movement began to obtain global support. During WWII millions of Jews were displaced and persecuted. They needed a country of their own. Talks between Britain, the UN, the USA and Canada established an agreement to change the borders of Palestine and create the state of Israel.This Agreement was called the Partition Plan. The original proposal was to move the Jews to Argentina or Uganda, but the jews wanted to return to their homeland, which at the time was occupied by Palestinian Arabs. From 1945 to 1947 the Jews and Palestinians peacefully coexisted together, it wasn't until late 1947, when Israel was established as a country that the violence began. Agreements were formed between the Palestinians, Jews, and Un divided the land in a series of artices called armstices. It was after Israel officially became a country that the first in a string of Israeli-Arab wars began. Many Arab countries refused to accept Israel as a country and politics became volatile. More fighting ensued and between the years 1948 to 1949, Israel regained land that was taken in the armstices, displacing 750,000 Arab palestinians. In the following years 1949 to 1960, Israel opened its borders to refugees and immigrants who would naturalize as Isreali citizens. By increasing their population, the country started to flourish agriculturally, medically, educationally, financially as well as militarily. In 1967, the 6 days war between Israel, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, allowed Israel to obtain significant strong holds such as the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt), West Bank (Jordan), and the Golan Heights(Syria). Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1982 as part as part of a historical peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. . the following visual shows the land before and after 1967 . In 1993 the Oslo Peace Accord was signed between the Israeli and Palastinian leaders This agreement stated that Israel would be recognized as a country, but borders were not agreed upon. A ceasefire was agreed upon. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Yasser Arafat became the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization(PLO) and bombings from the Palestinain occupied territories were directed at Isreali’s. In 2002 a chain of suicide bombing oganized by the PLO killed over two dozen Israeli’s in Jerusalem. The government of Israel voted to build a wall around the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In 2005, Israel removed all israeli settlers from the Gaza strip, but still maintained control of airspace. In 2006 an Islamic extremist group the Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and sent rockets into Israel accompanied by frequent raids on Israel. In the following years leading up to 2017, Israel launched many military invasions on the Gaza strip looking for terrorist cells. In 2017 United States President, Donald Trump, passed a bill allowing Israeli’s to build communities in the West Bank. In 2018 a long term ceasefire was brokered between Israel and the Hamas. As many rational people recognize, both sides are right. The solution to live peacefully
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