Israel and Palestine – A conflict too great to resolve?

During my sophomore year of high school, I followed current events in the Middle East. Each day after school, I would scan through The Washington Post, clipping articles for monthly updates. It was the early nineties: the papers were full of articles and a peace deal between Palestinians and Israelis was on the horizon. But the hope for peace has not become a reality. More than ten years later, history tells a different story of increased hostility and ongoing violence, with an increased number of problems in recent months.

The latest developments in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict stem from the precarious condition of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's deteriorated health, the delayed Israeli West Bank pull-out and Palestine's recent Parliamentary elections.

First, some background: after World War I, the League of Nations gave Britain control over the former Ottoman Empire, which included what is now Israel. During the 1930s, persecution of European Jews by the Nazis and the Holocaust caused a marked increase in the number of Jewish immigrants to the Holy Land. Before long, clashes erupted between these newly-arrived Jewish immigrants and the Palestinians, who were already occupying the territory and were supported by neighboring Arab states.

In 1948, the territory became the state of Israel, a designated Jewish homeland, although Palestinian settlers lived on and owned the land. No land was designated for Palestinians.

As a result, many regard Israel as an occupying force, since the land that was declared their territory originally belonged to the Palestinians. Although the conflict is often portrayed as a religious conflict, there exists both a large contingent of Palestinian Christians and many Jews in Israel who do not consider themselves to be religious.

Most recently, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke and has been in a coma since January 4 of this year. He is revered for his time as a brigadier general, when he led Israeli troops during the Six-Day War of June 1967 to capture East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Last August, Sharon, who has been prime minister since 2001, forced the Israeli settlers to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank in an effort to move toward permanent borders and solidify separation from the Palestinians. This effort has slowed due to Sharon's poor health.

Another threat to the possibility of a two-state agreement came when Hamas, an Islamic fundamentalist group, won 76 of the 132 seats in the Palestinian parliament on January 25. The oppositional political party, Fatah, maintains control of the presidency.

Although Hamas won the elections due to its commitment to welfare and social services, Europe, the U.S. and Israel identify the group as a terrorist organization. The election has been a wake-up call to Fatah, which has been plagued by corruption and incompetence. Israel says that it will not negotiate with Hamas unless they denounce violence and acknowledge Israel's right to exist as a state.

At present, acting prime minister Ehud Olmert has announced that the Israeli government will move forward on withdrawals from the West Bank , retaining three large settlements near the Jordanian border. Olmert says that their goal is to establish permanent borders, as negotiating with Hamas is not an option.

Since my days of newspaper clippings, it has been hard to keep from becoming cynical about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Easy solutions belie the intensity and complexity of the conflict. People fight about more than just land. They defend their culture, religious identity, autonomy and freedom. Both sides in this conflict have suffered, and both sides have done wrong. Can we maintain hope that peace still looms on the horizon?