Arab-Israel Conflict, What is It?

Ever since I was a child, I remember this conflict making the news on the front pages .Simultaneously many conflicts made news and subsided with time, like the JVP, LTTE-Sri lanka. But this conflict has stayed on, for decades.

Geographically this area is very small. The size of Israel is no more than a small district. Still it makes serious impact on world peace. The Israelis are mostly Jews, mostly non-practicing. The Arabs are mostly Muslims, practicing. So the religion is not the dividing factor.

The main bone of contention is the land. Both the races are Semitic, that is, the descendants of Shem, son of Noah. It is believed that Arabs are descendants of Ismail whereas the Jews, that of Isaac. Ismail and Isaac both were sons of Abraham. So anywhere on the back of earth only these two races can claim to have Abraham lineage positively. The land which is matter of dispute is under the control of nation of Israel today. This land was possessed by the Canaanites around 4000 years back. These people were very brutal, violent and deserved destruction in God's eyes, according to the bible. As a token of reciprocation to Abraham's faith, God promised Abraham that He would select the Jews, Abraham's descendants as chosen people to demonstrate His dealings with the entire mankind. Subsequently this land of Canaanites was handed over to the Israelites in around 1750 BC, through holy wars.

So from the year in which the nation of Israel captured Canaan, till 70 AD it was occupied by the Jews (with a brief intervention of 70 years from 607 BC to 537 BC, when the Babylonian empire possessed it.)

In 70 AD, , the temple of Solomon,the center of Jewish religious identity, was destroyed by the Romans and unprecedented massacre of the Jews was witnessed. It is estimated by Josephus the historian that around 1.5 million Jews were killed in Jerusalem itself. This led to irreversible migration of the Jews outside the holy land. By the 7^th century, rise of the new religion Islam was noticed in the adjacent Arab world. The Arabs were the first to embrace it. The land of Israel left unoccupied by the Jews was progressively occupied by the migrant Arabs. Ironically, Islam advocated that Jews along with the Christians were people of the Book, i.e. not to be ill treated. This scenario continued for almost up to 20th century. A miniscule minority of Jews was left behind and by the start of 20^th century, by conservative estimate not more than 5000 Jews remained in the land. No part in history shows that they were ill treated by their Muslim Arab brethren, who even enjoyed supremacy under the Ottoman Empire.

However the real dispute started after that. Harassed, persecuted worldwide, the World Jewish Congress decided to call it a day and decided to settle Jews in a nation of their own. The final blow came in form of Nazi persecution and by the end of Second World War, Jews worldwide made the decisive effort to have their own nation somewhere. The term Zionism was coined to represent this assertion of identity.Various places were shortlisted, even Uganda too, but finally once occupied land of ancestral Israel was zeroed upon. This land was naturally occupied by the Arab Muslims, now called Palestinians,that too for almost 13 centuries, then. Large scale immigration of the Jews was planned and executed. In a very short span, i.e. by 1948, the Jews could declare the birth of the nation of modern Israel. The Arabs had apprehended this and had opposed it tooth and nail. However Israel succeeded due to monetary and technological support from Jews worldwide, predominantly from America. Of course, strong nationalism also contributed. Since its birth, Israel faced the continued threat of destruction by surrounding Arab nations. Three wars were fought. Large scale violence has been used from both sides. Majority Arabs were relegated to minority within the country. They have been confined to restrictive areas. A gap exists between the two. Arabs say it is their land, usurped by Jews. Jews say, originally it belonged to them, before it belonged to the Arabs. Lot of sentiments are involved as this land is considered holy by world's major religions, the Christians, Muslims and also the Jews. Many non-Arab Muslims too have emotionally become attached to this issue and consider the Jews as their enemies. Many have predicted that the third world war may erupt because of this conflict.This remains the longest unresolved and burning dispute.

And this is exactly the reason why events here make top news.

The whole world remains alert to it.