Chapter Nine: The Question of Israel and Palestine

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Chapter NineThe Question of Israel and
Palestine
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The Origins of the Conflict
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The Origins of the Conflict

• Conflict between Palestinians and Zionists
• Zionist- A person favoring the creation of a
  Jewish state
  
• 1890- European Jews began flocking to Palestine
  to create a Jewish state
  
• The European Jews were willing to remove the
  Turks, but they also wanted control of Palestine
  without interference from the Palestinians

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The Origins of the Conflict

• The promises made by the British during WWI
• Arabs
• The British hinted to the Arabs that they would
  allow Arabs all through the region to unite in
  one government if the Arabs would revolt against
  the Turks
• Zionists
• The British promised the Zionists they would
  recognize the creation of Israel
  
• French
• The British promised the French to split the
  Middle East when the war was over

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The Origins of the Conflict

• Two terrorist organizations created by the
  Jewish
  
• Irgun Zvai Leumi
• The Stern Gang
• 1948
• The United Nations recognizes Israel
• The Arabs attack Israel

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The Origins of the Conflict

• Seeking peace with Israel
• Egypt sought peace with Israel in 1973
• Jordan joined the peace process
• Syria and Iraq rejected peace
• The militant Arabs who joined the Syrians and
  Iraqis called themselves the Rejectionist Front

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The Origins of the Conflict

• The Palestinians turn to terrorism
• Since the Palestinians were not strong enough to
  attack the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) directly,
  they used other tactics (e.g., bombing public
  places, conducting open murder), referring to
  their actions as military operations and commando
  tactics

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The Rise of the PLO
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The Rise of the PLO

• Creation of the PLO
• In 1957, Yasser Arafat gathered groups of
  disgruntled Palestinians in Jordan
  
• In 1964, Arafat formed the Palestinian Liberation
  Organization (PLO)
  
• Arafats purpose was to create a political
  organization to help form a multinational
  alliance against Israel

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The Rise of the PLO

• Fatah
• Joining a group of young Palestinians, Arafat
  formed a quasi-military organization called Fatah
  in 1959 and merged it into the PLO in 1964
  
• Fatah ran its first operation in 1965, blowing up
  an Israeli water pump

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The Rise of the PLO

• Tactics of Fatah
• Sending small ambush teams from the Jordanian
  border
  
• Planting bombs
• Shelling Israeli settlements from Jordan

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Fatah after Karamah A Legend is Born
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Fatah after KaramahA Legend is Born

• Karamah
• On March 21, 1968, the Israelis launched a
  mechanized assault on the village of Karamah- one
  of Arafats primary bases in Jordan
  
• After heavy fighting, Karamah held firm despite
  the odds against the Palestinians
  
• It was the Jordanian army that stopped the
  Israeli armor
  
• Yet, the PLO emerged from Karamah with the
  reputation of a fighting force, and Yasser Arafat
  became a bona fide hero

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Fatah after KaramahA Legend is Born

• After Karamah
• The PLO began a terrorist campaign against
  Israel
  
• Terrorism was the only viable military tactic for
  a small group of relatively weak people who
  wanted to launch an offensive against a superior
  force

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Fatah after KaramahA Legend is Born

• PLO as a model for terrorist groups
• The PLO was a model for terrorist groups in the
  Americas, Europe, and Asia
  
• Nationalistic militants from Ireland and the
  Basque region of Spain trained in PLO camps
  
• The ideological left and European left-wing
  terrorists flocked to training centers
  
• Cuba claimed the PLO served as an example for
  South and Central American revolutionary groups

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Fatah after KaramahA Legend is Born

• The PLO splinters
• Despite Arafats attempt to keep the movement
  together, various groups started to go their own
  way as early as 1970
  
• The Democratic Front for the Liberation of
  Palestine
  
• Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
• Individuals such as Abu Abbas, Abu Nidal, and
  Abu Ibrahim defected

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Palestinian Violence Expands
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Palestinian Violence Expands

• King Hussein of Jordan
• Concerned with the growing influence of foreign
  nationals in his own land, in 1970, King Hussein
  ordered the PLO to stop attacking Israel
  
• Hussein was trying to stop the rival influences
  in Jordan
  
• Arafat defined Husseins order, and stepped up
  operations against Israel

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Palestinian Violence Expands

• Hussein attacks the PLO
• In September, 1970, Hussein attacked the PLO
• The PLO had nowhere to run Arafat fled to Lebanon

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Palestinian Violence Expands

• Black September
• Arafat created a new group to strike at Israel,
  naming it Black September
  
• Black September attacked in Munich at the 1972
  Olympics Games

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The PLO and the Changing Face of Middle Eastern
Terrorism
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The PLO and the Changing Face of Middle Eastern
Terrorism

• As various terrorist groups split off from
  Arafats control, a host of Arab states offered
  support and assistance, causing further splits in
  Fatah
• The Abu Nidal Group (Black June)
• Formed in the 1970s after Arafat stated publicly
  that the PLO would recognize Israels right to
  exist in return for a Palestinian homeland
  
• Knowing Abu Nidals frustration, Saddam Hussein
  approached the terrorist group with a
  proposition
  
• Abu Nidal could develop his own organization, and
  the Iraqis would assist with funding

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The PLO and the Changing Face of Middle Eastern
Terrorism

• The Abu Nidal Group organization
• Abu Nidal developed a rigid hierarchy and assumed
  control of the new organization
  
• He created an internal committee, the Committee
  for Revolutionary Justice, a group of internal
  thugs that kept Abu Nidals followers in line

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The PLO and the Changing Face of Middle Eastern
Terrorism

• Syria and Abu Nidal
• Syria was interested in gaining power in Lebenon
• Syria approached Abu Nidal with a proposition
• They offered to fund Abu Nidal if he would
  conduct operations for Syria

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The PLO and the Changing Face of Middle Eastern
Terrorism

• Abu Nidal a gang of mercenaries
• Abu Nidal accepted missions and payment from
  Libya and other Arab states
  
• The Soviet Union sought his services
• Abu Nidal set up an infrastructure in Europe
• In Libya, Colonel Moammar Khadaffy sought to
  establish his own links with Abu Nidal
  
• Abu Nidal was too independent for Libya

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Intifadas and Religious Revival
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Intifadas and Religious Revival

• Three competing interests in Middle Eastern
  violence
  
• Who will govern and what will be governed?
• The internal struggle among Arab states
• Militant Muslims came to believe that secular
  politics are doomed to failure

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Intifadas and Religious Revival

• The Intifada
• On December 9, 1987, thousands of protesters
  marched in Jabiliya, a Palestinian refugee camp
  in the Gaza Strip, to protest the Israeli killing
  of four Palestinians
• A spontaneous riot broke out in Gaza, and within
  days it had spread through all the Occupied
  Territories
  
• As the resistance continued, the Palestinians
  called the uprising the Intifada, and it had a
  religious flavor

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Intifadas and Religious Revival

• The United States and the Intifada
• The United States responded to the Intifada with
  a new peace proposal
  
• The United States brokered a temporary peace
  agreement in September 1993
  
• Known as the Oslo Accords, the peace agreement
  introduced a radical new concept to the long
  struggle It defined a semiautonomous Palestinian
  National Authority (PNA) and hinted at the
  possibility creation of a Palestinian state

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Intifadas and Religious Revival

• The Israeli Likud Party
• In May 1996, the conservative Israeli Lukid Party
  came to power
  
• The new Likud government, under the direction of
  Benjamin Netanyahu, tried to back away from the
  Oslo Accords as it increased military action in
  Lebanon. This brought Hezbollah, Hamas, and other
  militants back to the streets, and the fragile
  peace threatened to evaporate
• By 1998, the Israelis and Palestinians signed a
  new agreement, the Wye Accords, and Arafat
  reasserted power over the PNA
  
• Netanyahu lost a 1999 national election to Ehud
  Barak of the more centrist Labor Party
  
• The Likud Party campaigned against Barak in 2000
• Ariel Sharon, the leader of the Likud Party, won
  the election and was reelected in 2003

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Intifadas and Religious Revival

• The current state of the Israeli-Palestinian
  conflict
  
• Yasser Arafat died in the fall of 2004
• Much of the stuggle has turned to religion, and
  members of the Rejectionist Front maintain their
  hatred of Israel with passionate zeal
  
• Israel has produced its own brand of religious
  fanaticism
  
• This strain of Judaism calls for the conquest and
  destruction of the Arab states surrounding
  Israel, and this view increasingly influences the
  Israeli government