Peace in Israel
Peace in Israel
Contents
Since Israel became a country, there has been a great power struggle for land in the middle east . The fight is between Israelis and Palestinians. Two major conflicts have arose during this time. The first is the fight for the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The second is the terrorism and violence which is destroying innocent lives.
The West Bank and Gaza Strip conflict started in 1948. Israel would take over small Palestinian and Arabic villages such as Al-Tira. Israelis would occupy and depopulate these villages by using bomb raids and ground assaults. Today many of these villages are Israeli settlements. Currently the West Bank and Gaza Strip are in a state of chaos. Since the killing of Abu Ayyash, an engineer who created bombs, was killed in early January of 1997. Many bombing attacks have centered on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian workers can not get to their jobs in Jerusalem if they live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This is causing the Palestinian economy to suffer tremendously. After 29 years of occupation the problems have taken a toll , things have not changed much , despite a "peace process."
Terrorism has always been a problem in the middle east. This was no different on Sept.14, 1993 when Arafat and Rabin signed a peace treaty. When this agreement was signed Iran and other Islamic Fundamentalists were filled with rage and violence. Two Palestinians committed violent terrorist acts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. One man strapped a bomb to his chest and detonated it in a police station. Fortunately he was the only casualty. Other countries such as Lebanon promoted terrorism. Hezbollah leader sheikh Hassan Nasrallah spoke in front of 8,000 people, "Victory to Islam; death to Israel... war...war until victory." This speech only created more violence and chaos in the middle east. The World view analysis of Israel and Palestine is divided into three views: conservative, liberal, and revolutionary.
The conservative view would say the Israeli-Palestinian problems were because of the drastic changes that took place in peace treaties and agreements. An example of this is when Arafat and Rabin signed a peace agreement in 1993. The agreement was to unite Palestinians and Israelis. This was a drastic change that the conservative party did not want to make.
They would solve the problem by using order in the Gaza Strip and West Bank area. To restore order, conservatives would use war. By using war and power politics they would try to stop change or regress talks in the peace process.
The liberal view is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts were caused by war. The war in 1948 led to the conflicts of 1997. Liberals believe war is a "tragic mistake." It can be prevented by international organizations and agreements.
Solutions to the problem are using wealth and freedom instead of power. Free trade and free exchange of ideas can result in peace. Wealth and freedom are more important than controlling other countries. An example of this is the power that Israel holds over the Palestinians.
The revolutionary view of the Israeli-Palestinian confrontations would say the problems were developed by Israelis treating the Palestinians unfairly. Israelis abuse their powers, and exploit the Palestinians. They believe war is exploiting economic relationships between Israelis and Palestinians.
There are many solutions for Israeli-Palestinian problems. Revolutionary ideas believe in transforming the status quo, to do this revolutionary and rapid change need to be made. A revolution world view values justice. To obtain justice, the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians would have to change. Justice between the two different people and the changing of economy is a key to solving war.
Here are three world views with different theories and solutions. Through these views we can start to try and make a change in Israeli and Palestinian relations.
Solutions to Gaza strip and West Bank
The Israeli government and the PLO signed an agreement called the Gaza Jericho Agreement. This agreement settled the controversy of the Gaza strip and West Bank. There are four issues covered in the agreement. The first issue discussed was the security agreement. In this agreement the Israeli government had to remove their soldiers from the Gaza strip and redeploy them elsewhere. A few of stayed to guard the fence row that separated the two parties and some of them were used for protecting and taking care of the streets that were traveled by the Israelis and the Palestinians. The removal of these troops allowed the PLO to take over the area. The two parties decided to have a joint committee that was made up by Israelis and Palestinians. In this committee they designed and dealt with joint security issues and provided guidance for the district coordinators officers. To protect the Palestinians living in the Gaza strip area, the PLO created a police force that will provide security in this area. Some of the security will be provided along with the Israelis in protecting people who use streets to travel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip area. Only certain streets can be traveled by both parties. Israeli soldiers can only travel on roads that go through the Gaza strip. As for the Palestinians they are able to travel on roads that cross the settlement.
The second issue is civil affairs. Civil affairs decided to organize a committee to deal with the problems in the society. This committee provides a coordinator and cooperation committee and two joint regional subcommittee's. This committee was created to sort out problems between the PLO and Israeli authorities. However, this group of twenty-four Palestinians has a major concern on their hands, in that, Israel knows their names and this could bring racial actions upon them. This group is closely monitored by Israel's government and when a new member comes into this committee the PLO must inform the Israeli government of the new member.
The third issue that was discussed was the legal affairs issue. This issue enabled the PLO to have different branches in their government. They are the legislative, executive and the judicial branches. With this new power they could now govern the problems in their area. Along with this the two parties decided to put forth a Human Rights law. This law was created to protect the rights of Palestinians and Israelis.
The fourth and final issue that was discussed and agreed upon was the economic relations between Israel and the PLO. This agreement was created so that Israel and the PLO could openly trade and not leave the other party without important goods, from this agreement another committee was created. This committee is called the JEC (Palestinian-Israel joint economic committee). This committee worked out import taxes and import policies. This committee was created with equal representation from both nations. One of the policies agreed upon was the goods list. This list stated what countries the two parties were allowed to import goods from. The countries that were chosen were Jordan, Egypt, and Arab and other Islamic countries. If there were any changes in the purchase tax or levy excise then the party would have to notify the other one.
SOLUTIONS TO TERRORISM
Israel and the PLO signed a number of treaties to handle the problems that they have with terrorism. One of the treaties that was signed was the Oslo Peace Accord. This treaty had three important concepts covered in it. The first was to recognize"the right of the state of Israel to exist in peace and security." The second concept was to "renounce the use of terrorism and other acts of violence." The third concept discussed in this treaty was "to revoke all articles of the PLO covenant which call for destruction of Israel." The second treaty that was signed into effect was the Gaza-Jericho Agreement. This agreement discussed possible Palestinian authority to be implemented in certain areas. Another treaty that was signed into effect was the OsloII treaty. This treaty gave the PLO self rule in the West Bank area. These three treaties, however, did not put a stop to terrorism. Eventually these two nations will have to live in peace. This peace process will take time and healing on for both nations.