Peace in the Holy Land

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

According to the Bible, Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.  God promised Abraham that He shall make a great nation of them (Genesis 21 12-13, 18 New American Bible).  It can be inferred from here that the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael would be the Israelis and the Palestinians (Arabs) respectively as they have fulfilled the prophecy God made to Abraham.  Since the 20th century, the Israelis and Arabs have been at war with one another, both staking claim to the strip of land they claim belongs to them.  If one were to look at it from the Arab perspective, they have been on the land since the time Islam was spread beyond Saudi Arabia.  They have lived there long after other invaders such as the Crusaders and the Ottoman Turks left after being driven out of these lands.  The Israelis case, they have believed that their claim is stronger citing Scripture as the basis of their claim to the land they believed was promised to their patriarch Abraham by God (Genesis 12 2-3 New American Bible) and reaffirmed to his grandson Jacob who would be renamed Israel (Genesis 32 29 New American Bible).

Yet despite these prophecies, the Israelites have endured countless trials and tribulations which led to the Diaspora during the Roman times and several more centuries of persecution in Christian Europe where they were the favorite scapegoats whenever a major crisis would occur (Bregman, 2003).  Realizing that they were marginalized, the Zionist movement emerged to take up the cause of Jews worldwide and resolved to make Palestine their home once again for this is the land promised to them (Herzl, 2006).  The Balfour Declaration of 1917 further reinforced their resolve to return to Palestine.  Unfortunately, a similar promise was also made to the Arabs as well.  Jews from all over started coming to Palestine in droves and in 1948, the state of Israel was born.  No sooner was the Jewish state born that her hostile Arab neighbors attacked it in an effort to wipe it off the face of the earth.  Surprisingly, the Israelis have prevailed in every conflict which have led the Palestinians to resort to terrorism.

Despite the ongoing conflict between the two peoples, Israelis and Arabs have also attempted to make peace and Israel has been able to make peace with Egypt in 1979 and with the Palestinians in 1995 with the United States acting as chief mediator.  The result of these peace accords was Israel willingly yielded the territories they seized in the previous wars to the aforementioned states. In return, these states recognized the existence of Israel as a state and repudiated its commitment of destroying it (Quandt, 1988  Bard, 2005  Isseroff, 2009).

The United States should play a key role in helping bring about peace in the Middle East.  It is a friend of Israel and several of the Arab states in the region.  While the United States has traditionally stood by the side of Israel by being its chief sponsor and providing it with military hardware, it must also make friends with the Arab states not only for the oil they produce, but to aid them in their continuing fight against (transnational) terrorism in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.  It has to show that despite being a close ally of Israel it has the right to have as many friends as they wish.  It also needs to assert tactfully that Israel has a right to exist like any other nation and show its Arab friends that they can keep the Israelis in check since the latter is known for taking a proactive stance in its national security.

Nevertheless, despite American supervision, Israelis and Arabs still continue to build bridges to bring each other together and not allowing extremists from trying to sabotage their efforts.  It can be inferred that those who seek peace are those who believe that Israelis and Arabs are brothers who have the same father (Abraham) and they believe that together, they would be a strong nation as God prophesized.

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