Arab Israli Conflict Essay Research Paper The — страница 3

Lebanon and forced the PLO to withdrawl and move to Tunisia. The Israelis took over a six mile strip in Lebanon, but were later forced to leave by the United Nations. Several years later, in 1988, the Intifada uprising occurred in the Israeli occupied territories. This is when the Palestinians in the occupied territories of the Gaza Strip and West Bank began a surprise revolution. The Israelis were caught by surprise and the Palestinians declared a moral victory. Without the Intifada many people believe that there would have been no peace process, and also there would have been no Palestinian self-rule. As the uprisings continued, the Israelis were looking for an end. So peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis began in 1991. They didn t get serious until 1992 when

Yitzhack Rabin was elected prime minister of Israel. He was part of the labor party and he truly believed in peace. He continued the peace talks and then within a year of him becoming prime minister he had reached some results. In 1993 Israel and Palestine signed the Oslo Agreements. These agreements were ground breaking for many reasons. First of all they allowed the Palestinians to have limited autonomy in the Gaza Strip and Jericho. Also a Palestinian council was created to rule and was called the Palestinian Authority. The things that Israel got although not as huge were also ground breaking. They got peace and also they were recognized as a country by the Palestinians for the first time ever. Israel also had to protect the borders in the case of any problems. This agreement

was much needed and seemed to help limit the violence between these two enemies. Then in 1995 the peace process took a huge hit when Rabin was assassinated. He was killed by one of his own people because they didn t agree with his point of view. This was a larger problem than everyone at first thought. Rabin was all for peace, and was willing to work for it. However his replacement Benjamin Netanyahu did not want the Palestinians to get anything. He drug his feet and held up the entire peace process. If not for pressure from the United States, the peace process might have ended with his election. The year after Netanyahu was elected, Arafat was elected chairman of the Palestinian Authority. Then after they were both elected to their respective governments, another break through

occurred. In 1998 the Wye Agreements were released. These Agreements stated that Israel would withdraw thirteen percent of its troops from the West Bank. It also said that the Palestinian police force would be reduced. There were still many unresolved issues, but this was a step in the right direction, the direction of peace. However, the main thing still to decide on was a Palestinian nation. This decision was supposed to be made one year from the date of the Wye Agreements. That date is slowly approaching. After signing the Wye Agreements, Netanyahu met a lot of opposition. The people elected him because they thought he wouldn t give anything to the Palestinians. However, he proved the people wrong. He gave a large amount to the Palestinians and is an unliked man in Israel

because of it. Elections are scheduled to be held in May for a new Israeli prime minister. This is because Arafat has threatened to declare independence when the year s deadline is up. Therefore these elections have an enormous bearing on the peace process in the Middle East. As you have seen the Arab-Israeli conflict is still going on today. It began many years ago, but still is unresolved. There is a good possibility that it could be taken care of in this month s elections. Also if Arafat declares independence the whole process could take a different turn. There are many directions in which the ongoing conflict could go. Hopefully everything will eventually work out for the best and peace will be restored in the holy land, as it was in 1800BC.