1. “Tension between Israel and her neighbors was caused by the
failure to resolve the Palestinian question” To what extent do
you agree with this statement?
Megan Kedzlie
23/4/2014
Since the extraction of British forces from the Mandate of Palestine, that small stretch
of land has been the center of much conflict throughout the sixty years following. The actions of
both Jewish leaders and Palestinian supporters combusted into the Arab-Israeli Conflict,
centered around the much debated Palestinian question. The main reason for the conflict
between Israel and its neighbors was the inability to act on the Palestinian question, however
other factors did come into play in the conflict after the question was ignored.
The key factor in the development of the conflict between Israel and her Arab neighbors does
come from their (originally) ultimate support of the Palestinian state. Due to the creation of the
Arab League after the Egyptian President Gamal Nasser, the rise of Pan-Islamism connected
many nations that had previously been under the rule of the Ottomans until their decline during
World War II and the separation of Islamic states by the colonial powers. As Samuel Huntington
stated: “Muslims in massive numbers were simultaneously turning toward Islam as a source of
identity, meaning, stability, legitimacy, development, power, and hope.” This connection
through race and cultural origins put the neighbors of the Palestinian mandate and its people
(Lebanon, Jordan, Syria) all in support of the Arabic people that had residence in the mandatory
Palestine before the movement in support of the Balfour Declaration of 1917. This move by the
British to put the Jewish “homeland” into the mandate of Palestine pushed two opposing
religions into 26,000 km2
of space. With the resurgence of Islamism, became a potent mix in
Palestine and caused much tension between the two states, and with the 1948 proclamation of
the Israeli state, obviously started over sixty years of conflict. As Flapan wrote: “the myths that
Israel forged during the formation of the state have hardened into this impenetrable and
dangerous ideological shield.”, which is what developed into their shield against the religious
connections that Arabs also had to the area – the majority of the claims that Israeli’s had to the
land were dure to the Torah’s mention of the “Return to Zion” that would take Jews back to the
land of Israel after the exile by Cyprus the Great in 538BC. This, in contrast to the claims of that
the Palestinians have to the land of Israel is based in the Canaanites whom travelled to Palestine
from the Arabian Peninsula, then were forced out by the Hebrews (Philistines), and then molded
back into Canaanite control after thousands of years. The mixture of historical control between
the two religious powerhouses is the key to the conflict between Israel and it’s neighbours.
Further fears are linked to the military prowess that the Israeli Defense Force portrayed in both
the 1967 Six Day War, but also the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In both, a multitude of Arabic nations
were unable to defeat the single Israeli force, moreso in Yom Kippur, as while many Arab
nations consider that “the Crossing” was a success as the first time an Arab force made it into
Israel, the conflict was over in less than a month (with the Israeli forces ending only 80km from
Cairo after an originally Egyptian attack on the Sinai Peninsula). This caused the need for an
increase in foreign support, which was the Carter Administration moving to address the peace
talks of 1979 in Camp David aimed at bringing peace between Israel and it’s neighbors.

2. President Sadat of Egypt ceded to the United States’ demands and acknowledged the Israeli
state, which led to the dissolution of the Arab League. This was vital in changing the structure of
the conflict between Israel and its neighbors, as the acceptance of the other Arab states of
Israel’s place in the Middle East caused the contention to move from Israel to Palestine. This
was due to the movement of the refugees within Israel’s neighbors and the safety concerns that
they brought with them. Benny Morris claimed this to be true by writing that “the Israeli Arabs
are a time bomb. Their slide into complete Palestinization has made them an emissary of the
enemy that is among us.”
The other defining aspect of Israel’s relationships with its neighbors comes from its foreign
support. Since the inception of issues between communism and “democracy”, the United States
and the USSR have been at odds over their influence, and none more so than in the Middle East.
Both nations felt like they had strong connections to the Israeli cause (the US had a large Jewish
lobby in the Capitol after the movement of Jews after World War II, and the USSR felt a
connection as the Arab treatment of the Israelis reflected their own treatment from the US), but
the strong Jewish lobby in the United States became the major supporter for the Israeli cause,
leading the Russians to move towards supporting the larger Arab leaders such as Nasser, King
Hussein of Jordan, and the many rulers of Syria. Through efforts such as the Czech-Egyptian
Arms Agreement of 1955, the leaders of many USSR nations influenced the Arabs into
continuing the struggle against the Jewish people. For the first thirty years of conflict, this proxy
war for control of the Middle East between the US and USSR was a clear example of another
failure to resolve tensions between Israel and her neighbors. As historian Efraim Karsh wrote
“All agree that Western imperialism bears the main responsibility for the endemic [political]
malaise plaguing the Middle East to date.”
Whether we accept where the Arab-Israeli conflict has lead to today, its inevitable to
acknowledge that the nations inability to resolve the Palestinian question has lead to the
constant tensions between Israel and her neighbors. But is this a question that will ever be
politically resolved, or will nations fall back into disarray before we see peace in the Middle
East?