Israel-Palestine Conflict and the Role of Egypt Essay

Israel-Palestine Conflict and the Role of Egypt - Essay Example The Israel-Palestinian conflict is one of the most important issues in the international politics and various efforts have been initiated by United Nations and various countries to resolve the issue and bring about a compromise between the two parties of the conflict but none of the efforts has been able to achieve success (Harms and Ferry). There are many other issues related to the conflict which include the economic failure of the Palestinian authority and the deplorable condition the Arabs in the region, the terrorist activities of the Islamic extremist, violation of international laws by both parties of the conflict and the human rights violations in the region. The conflict has gained extraordinary importance because of the fact that Jerusalem is the sacred city of the three major religious communities of the world; Christians, Jews and Muslims and due to the dismal security situation of the region, a large number of pilgrims are not allowed to visit their holy places. Both par ties of the conflict are not willing to show any type of flexibility in their stances and thus a deadlock persists despite repeated international interventions and efforts. The most feasible solution presented by the United Nations and the international community is the establishment of two states in the region, a Palestinian State for the Arabs and an Israeli state for the Jews; majority of people in the region agree on this solution, however they have failed to come up with an acceptable partition plan. The acts of violence committed by the Palestinian armed groups and the Israeli army have also complicated the whole peace promotion process. Important international actors in the conflict include United Nations, United States, Russia and the Arab League particularly Egypt. The history of the Israel-Palestine conflict can be traced back to the end of the 19th century when the first Zionist Congress was held in Switzerland with the establishment of the World Zionist Organization. The Jews of the world aspired to return to Zion (Jerusalem) as part of their religion, and that is why in the latter half of the 19th century the Jews started to organize themselves and started to strive for an independent Jewish homeland in the region of Palestine. The World Zionist Organization established a Jewish National Fund for encouraging the immigration of the Jews from various regions of the world to the Palestinian regions and large sums of money were spent on the purchase of land from the Ottoman rulers and later the from the British rulers. During that time, for the first time in history, Arab Nationalism also started to become popular among the Arabs of the world, particularly in this region. The Jews managed to buy large areas of land in the Palestinian regions and started to build the Jewish settlements and at the same time Jews from all over the world were encouraged to migrate to the Palestinian regions in the newly constructed settlements. During the beginning the mi nor conflicts stirred up because of the accidental killings by the Jews and Arabs in the regions, however the Arabs soon became aware of the Zionist ambitions of the Jews, particularly the peasants and farmers of the lands where the Jews have started to build settlements. These farmers, known as fellaheen felt dispossessed of their lands and started to protest before the Ottoman leaders about the increasing Jewish settlements