Then in the 1930’s the holocaust took place, an international crisis experienced mainly by the Jews, who were killed fiercely by the Nazi’s led by Adolph Hitler. After this the whole world had a new found sympathy for the Jews, as they were victimized. The holocaust caused the Jews to intermingle. Many moved back to Palestine after Hitler was defeated.
For centuries the Arabs have lived in what we call the Middle East. In the seventh century AD Arabs had started to convert to Islam. From their homeland, Arabia they gradually drifted across the Middle East and North Africa forcing the their religion and teachings onto the people. Palestine was one of many countries they took over.
For centuries, Palestinian Arabs were the dominant people in the area.
In the sixteenth century the Turks had conquered most of the Middle East. The Arabs many times tried to defeat their Turkish rulers and re establish the Middle East including Palestine. When the First World War took place, the Arabs were struggling for independence. The Turkish fought on the German side against Britain and their allies. The British then encouraged the Palestinian Arabs to rebel against the Turkish, as the British were afraid that the Turks would cut the oil supply. The British told the Arabs that they would then have independence, but once again found themselves under rule, only this time they were under Britain’s reign. However by making the point that the Arabs had a right over Palestine it would be wrong not to mention that the British also recognised Jewish rights in the Holy land. In 1917 a letter was sent to Lord Rothschild, a leading British Jew. In the letter it stated “His Majesty’s Government view with the favour the establishment in Palestine of a National Homeland for the Jewish people.” This was then confirmed as the ‘Balfour Declaration’, which gives the Arabs, and the Jews equal right to Palestine. They wanted independence but then found themselves under the British rule. In 1919 Britain were given mandates over Palestine and Iraq.
Although the Jews and Arabs both have reasons as to why they have rights over Palestine, not all of the Arabs think the same about the Jews and not all the Jews think the same about the Arabs. It was most likely that some small groups of both sides were willing to share Palestine and cooperate over a land that they equally had a territorial right over. Secular groups of Jews and most Arabs that were not Muslim did not see a reason why both communities could not live in harmony, which is stated in the basis of both religions. However there were extremists in both parties who thought that the land belonged to only them. Ways of getting across that they did not want to share was to form groups within themselves. Specific examples of this are Zionists, who believe that Jews should have a National Homeland and that it should be Israel. They carried out raids on Palestine. Irgun was another example of extreme Jew. They were a Jewish terrorist group who attacked the Arabs whenever possible. Not only were there Jewish groups, there were also Arab groups. A guerrilla group called Fatah, which was part of the PLO, carried out numerous raids on Israel as soon as it was born. Fedayeen who were Palestinian fighters also invaded Israeli territory.
It is not just the two sides who are divided with different viewpoints, making it more complex than an ‘us versus them’ war, however. Other countries have their own interests and standpoints, which complicate the region further. America is a major ally for Israel. After the discrimination that the Jews received, many Jews migrated to America (Diaspora). They then went into business and earned themselves enough money to give Israel $1000 million a year during the 1967 war. The US Government said that Israel was a close, firm friend that was in a troubled part of the world.
Consequently it could be said that Israel had an unfair advantage as America were supplying far more money and arms than Russia were for Palestine and the Arab Nations.
Oil? A major trade around the world, which was effected by the war going on between Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews. Other countries around the world (meaning mainly USA and USSR) wanted control of oil because of its value and also because of the fact that the Arabs were using it as a weapon. The trade routes had problems because of the fighting, which meant that little supply was getting to the rest of the world. This affected the economy and prices of oil started to rise and carry on rising. The crisis then became a lot bigger because it had lead to a war between USA and Russia. More commonly known as the Cold War. However the two largest countries in the world had more sense and knew that using nuclear weapons was not the answer. They decided that the way to fight the war was to use the situation going on between Israel and Palestine as a go between. USA funded Israel and Russia funded Palestine.
