The Middle East has always been a volatile region. Throughout the ages, people of all religions have disputed over control of the Holy Land. The rule of the Turkish Ottoman Empire starting in 1516 brought about four centuries of Muslim control over Palestine. After World War I, Zionists hoping for the formal return of Jews to "the Promised Land" ignited the tension once again. Consequently, the creation of the state of Israel injected radicalism into the Middle East.

United Nations Partition Plan - 1947

      The concept of Zionism began solely as a political idea, but religion became the basis for its support. Theodor Herzl, the creator of Zionism, at first wanted an independent state in order to end anti-Semitism in Europe, where Jews were the target of persecution. After considering other sites in Africa and South America, Palestine was chosen for its religious attachment to Jews. They believe that God promised Palestine to them when He told Abraham: "And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession" (Genesis 17:8).

      The fulfillment of God’s will caused many Jews perform acts of radicalism. According to Gershon Salomon, an Orthodox Israeli Jew, he and his friends are "completely committed to doing everything that [they] can to ensure that the prophetic plans of God will be fulfilled" and are "ready to sacrifice [themselves] for this" (The Voice of the Temple Mount, Fall 1995, pg. 2). One of the more gruesome acts of terrorism by Jews occurred on April 9, 1948 in a small, peaceful Arab village of Deir Yassin. The Irgun Assault Unit, headed by Menachem Begin, attacked this village and killed over 250 people, nearly all of the town’s inhabitants (Benvenisti, 1995). Radical groups such as the Irgun developed rapidly and a new, more violent division of Zionism was founded – Revisionist Zionism. Yitzhak Shamir, commander of the underground militia known as Lehi, believed that peace "would only bring greater demands in its wake until everything the Arabs wanted would, at last, be theirs, even Jerusalem" (Benvenisti, 1995). Lehi was not afraid to use violence to achieve their goals:

"Force always forged the destiny of nations. . . . The destiny of the land of Israel has always been determined by the sword, not diplomacy. The only justice in the world is force and the dearest asset in the world is freedom. The right to life is granted only to the strong, and power, if not given legally, should be taken illegally" (Benvenisti, 1995).

This idea was behind the assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte, the U.N. mediator given the task of resolving the Arab-Israeli dispute in 1948.

Armistice Agreement - 1949

      If some Jews believed that the establishment of the new State was God’s Will, Muslim Arabs likewise use religion to claim Palestine as their own. Muslims believe that they are descendants of Abraham through Ishmael, meaning that the Biblical prophecy was already fulfilled even before Israel was created. Instead of the Jews returning to Palestine, the idea of a Promised Land is interpreted by many to be the return of all people to the kingdom of God (Harper, 1987). Since the Jews were first exiled from Palestine because they disobeyed God, others regard modern Israel as inappropriate because conditions of God’s promise have not been met.

      Politically, Palestinians holds to the belief that the Holy Land is rightfully theirs "just as England is the rightful land of the English and France the rightful land of the French" (Harper, 1987). More tensions have resulted over the fact that existing Palestinians virtually were ignored in the efforts to establish the state of Israel. Early Zionists thought that the region was "totally desolate, an uncultured wilderness, and that anyone who [wished] to buy land there [could] do so to his heart’s content" (Harper, 1987). In fact, the population of Palestine had reached more than 800,000 by 1920 (Pimlott, 1991). One of the first challenges Jews had to face in establishing their independent state was the acquisition of land. Palestinian farmers were reluctant to sell Jews the land; Zionists had only acquired 3.5% of the region before the British intervened. In order for Jews to own land in Palestine, they had to force out the native population, which was still the majority in 1947. By 1949, about 725,000 Palestinians had become refugees (Messenger, 1988).

      Since Israel could not have been established without the support of the West, Arabs distrusted the new state and would not recognize its existence. By claiming the establishment of an independent state was the only way to end their persecution and prevent yet another Holocaust, Jews were able to gain the acceptance of Western powers (Harper, 1987). Even before Israel’s creation in 1948, Palestinians had resented the West. During World War I, Arabs had been led to believe that in return for their support of Britain, they would be given much of the Middle East, including present-day Israel. Instead, the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916 secretly divided much of the land gained from the fall of the Ottoman Empire between Britain and France (Pimlott, 1991). The betrayal felt by Arabs turned to anger as Lord Balfour, the British foreign secretary, declared that Britain will "view with favor" the establishment of an independent Jewish state (Harper, 1987).

Arab Refugees - 1948

      Fear by Palestinians of losing their land erupted into violence. Almost twenty years before the United Nations officially partitioned Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, unrest caused by heavy Jewish immigration into the area led to the massacre of sixty Jewish members of a religious community in Hebron by Arabs (Pimlott, 1991). Another Arab rebellion in 1938 was finally crushed by the Jewish military organization Hagannah and the British army. As soon as the British gave up their mandate in the Middle East on May 14, 1948, Jews immediately proclaimed the state of Israel while surrounding Arabs sent 30,000 troops to Palestine in an unsuccessful attempt to recapture the region (Pimlott, 1991).

      The creation of the state of Israel essentially gave one religion the right to a land that is deemed vital by all three of the world’s great monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. The fact that the majority of Palestinians who have lived in that land for generations were displaced made it inevitable that a struggle would arise. Conflicts only increased in the decades that followed Israel’s creation as Jerusalem came under the complete control of Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967 and Islamic Fundamentalism emerged in the 1980’s. The radicalism that exists today in the Middle East is the direct result of Israel’s creation in 1948.

   

Bibliography

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