The Continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has essentially existed since the very creation of the Israeli state in 1948, although the roots date back even further to the struggle between the Zionist yishuv and the Palestinian Arab population. The Israelis felt isolated and encroached upon by enemies, and the Palestinians felt that they had been kicked out of their rightful homes. Conflict continued for decades, as seen in the Six Day War, both Intifadas, the Gaza War, and now most recently the violence between Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli Defense Forces. To this day, despite multiple short-lived treaties and cease-fires, tens of thousand have died in total, although the casualties on the Palestinian side are notably higher. (B’Tselem)

            The continuation of the violence between these two peoples over such a long period of time, as now represented by the most recent clashes begs the question, why? Why do two peoples continue to hate and kill each other for so many years? Is it because each individual state feels that the other is a threat to their security? Do they believe that only one can survive in security and that peaceful coexistence is useless? Or does it go even deeper, perhaps to the very identity and culture of the Israelis and the Palestinians?

            We may look at first on the surface area. What events led to the occurrence of each of these individual events? For example, it could be reasoned that the Six Day War was caused by a series of skirmishes and escalations which led to a war which was undesirable on all sides, the Gaza War in 2008 likely occurred due to the rocky end that a 6-month cease-fire between Hamas and Israel came to, and we could now debate about a variety of reasons that might have caused the most recent conflict between Gaza and Israel. However, if we remove the surface reasons and study the conflict more intently, there are two main theories which come to the forefront.

            In a realist system, states interact with one another on the pure basis of increasing their own security. When the UN Partition Plan of Mandatory Palestine essentially created the Israeli state, the Middle East was thrown into a realist nightmare. Israel, surrounded on all sides by nations who considered it a threat to their very way of life, was immersed in war from day one. Even though it prevailed, Israel was brought into being through violence, which tempered its state system. Today, the Prime Minister of Israel is Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the conservative right-wing party Likud, and arguably a war hawk. He clearly leads his country in a realist way, as judging by his political views and his frequently fiery speeches against Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah. He advocates for preventative strikes against Iran should it reach a certain level of uranium enrichment, and was likely doing something similar in his attack on Gaza. I personally believe that he thought he would increase his countries security by taking out major Hamas leaders and weapons caches, in large part because of his public statement that he could no longer “accept a situation in which Israeli citizens are threatened by the terror of rockets.” (BBC) This idea is reinforced by the fact that Israel is a parliamentary democracy, and that Netanyahu ordered the attack despite the fact that 70% of Israelis support an end to violence. (Lidman) Also, this would not be the first time that Israel has performed such military action. In fact, many scholars believe that Israel regularly performs such culling actions on Hamas and other militant groups in order to prevent them from becoming a true threat to the state (i.e. the Gaza War as well as multiple attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon.) (BBC)

            However, there is also the constructivist point of view, which views identity and norms as the great driver behind international relations. From this point of view, we can see that the intense hatred that many Palestinians and Israelis hold toward each other can be a huge incentive for violence. As I mentioned earlier, the way that the state of Israel was born into violence has led many Israelis to hate their neighbors, the Palestinians in particular. However, we can see the same hatred on the Palestinian side, as characterized by both Intifadas. Such an intense hatred of two populations living side by side almost inevitably leads to violence, particularly when there is constant rocket fire from Hamas and while Israel is slowly starving out the Gaza Strip through a military siege (Israel controls virtually all roads in and out of Gaza, except for the Rafah border crossing which is controlled by Egypt.) (Harel) In fact, the current norm of hatred between the two peoples is only being more deeply ingrained into the individual cultural identities, as can be seen in the educational programs of the respective nations. For example, Palestinian schools have been known to teach anti-Semitic chants and hatred for Israel to children as young as five. (Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs) This indoctrination of the children leads to an increase in tensions and in violence, as these children become adults and join their respective governments with biased and often violent views which in turn affect the governance of their respective nations.

            I believe that these two theories are intertwined, and only a combination of the two can truly explain the problem. Because of the hatred between the two nations, security threats become a real issue. The only way to truly solve the conflict and perhaps to create a peaceful solution where the Palestinian nation can live side by side with the Israeli nation is to combat the norm that exists right now, which is blind hatred for “the enemy.” Each side must make a commitment to tolerance and understanding, and putting and end to the dehumanization of the enemy. Only then, when each respective cultural identity is no longer at least in part defined by hatred and violence towards, can peace become a viable option.

Works Cited

            Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel (29 May 2011). "Opening of Rafah crossing spells end of Israel's blockade of Gaza". Haaretz. Retrieved 22 March 2012.

            Lidman, Melanie (28 December 2011). "Support growing for two-state solution". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 27 Nov. 2012.

            "Q&A: Israel-Gaza Violence." BBC News. BBC, 22 Nov. 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20388298>.

            "Statistics." B'Tselem. The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://www.btselem.org/statistics/first_intifada_tables>.

            "Video: Hamas uses civilians as a means to achieving military goals." 2009. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. See 06:46 through 08:00 in the video.