The Best Solution to the never-ending, everlasting, eternal struggle that is the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Author, teacher, and lecturer Marianne Williamson once said, “The mortal mind alone cannot devise an answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, because the true answer lies on a level of consciousness that’s beyond our mortal thinking. Quite simply, when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians, we need a miracle.” A miracle is defined as a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency. Williamson truly believes that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a conflict that has plagued the Middle East for over 60 years, is insurmountable for man and requires divine intervention. But why? Why can’t Israel and Palestine take responsibility and cooperate? Why can’t world leaders reach a distinct and concrete solution? Why can’t the human race take responsibility for failing to protect innocent men, women, and children from countless years of unnecessary violence and terror? Although the conflict between Israel and Palestine is one with complex roots involving issues of religion and territory, there is no reason the two sides can’t recognize the humanitarian catastrophe their opposing viewpoints have caused and work together to put an end to the violence that has claimed the lives of over 7,000 people in just the past 16 years (Beauchamp). There is no straight-forward solution to this issue; if there was, the issue would have been resolved already. The solution to the unceasing struggle between Israel and Palestine is one that involves the cooperation of foreign nations, a compromise between both sides, and in the end two separate states. 

The conflict truly began in the latter part of the 19th century when a Jewish minority group known as Zionists began to immigrate to what was then considered territory of the Ottoman Empire. The movement referred to as “Zionism” revolved around the idea of Jews reclaiming their God-given land they referred to as Israel. Many Jewish people viewed Israel as their only hope of survival following years of persecution. Following World War I, the Ottoman Empire fell apart and the land the empire had once ruled was now in control of Britain and France. During this time Britain controlled what was known as Palestine and they allowed a heavy influx of Jews into the region. That is until the Arab population that had dominated this territory for many years became unhappy with the growing Jewish population. Soon enough both sides had formed different militant groups and violence was becoming far more prevalent throughout the disputed land. In the 1930s, Britain began limiting Jewish immigration as a step to prevent any more violence from arising. Shortly after Britain began limiting the Jewish population, Adolf Hitler gained power in Germany and as a result even more Jews immigrated to the region known as Palestine (Vox). 

The violence at this time was reaching new peaks and finally, in 1947, the United Nations proposed a two state solution to resolve the conflict. The two states would be called Israel and Palestine and Jerusalem would be unclaimed by both sides and remain an international zone. Jerusalem was of major concern because both the Jews and Arabs had holy sites located in the city. However, this proposal was only accepted by one side, the Jews. They began to recognize the land they occupied as Israel however the Arabs rejected the notion of two states as a large population believed that all the Europeans wanted to do was colonize their land and take it away from them. As a result, a war between the new state of Israel and the surrounding Arab population broke out in 1948. The goal of the Arab population was to take back their land and form one large Arab state known as Palestine. The new state of Israel won the war and in the process won far more land than what was originally gifted to them by the U.N in 1947. Moreover, Israel now controlled Jerusalem, again a city with major religious ties to both Judaism and Islam (Wedeman). 

Following the original war between the Arab population and the newly formed state of Israel, large populations of Arabs were forced out of Israel and fled to various parts of the Middle East (Wedeman). Then, in 1967 a war known as the Six-Days war broke out yet again between Israel and the adjacent Arab population. Yet again, Israel won the war and this time their land expanded even more as the Jewish State seized control of all of Jerusalem, as well as the Gaza Strip, previously ruled by Egypt, the West Bank, previously ruled by Jordan, and the Golan Heights, previously ruled by Syria (Vox). In the following years, Israel came to peace with most of the neighboring Arab states, however they still ruled over what was once Palestinian territory and as a result a group called the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) formed and fought against Israeli forces with the intent of destroying the state that now ruled over their holy territory. While the PLO was fighting against the expansion of Jewish territory into occupied territory in the West Bank, another group was forming in the Gaza Strip called Hamas. This group was dedicated to the destruction of Israel and considered the PLO to be far too focused on compromises. The violence that stemmed from the formation of Hamas was recognized in 1993 when the Oslo Accords were signed. This agreement was designed to give power back to the Palestinian people, however extremists on both sides were unhappy with the negotiations (BBC News). 

Between the years of 2000 and 2005 the Palestinians challenged the Israeli state yet again in what was known as the second intifada in which thousands of people from both sides were killed. Eventually, Israel removed themselves from the Gaza Strip and following a brief internal struggle between Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian population in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip fell into the hands of Hamas. The area remains extremely dangerous and there is only one solution to resolve the violence, instability, and terror that has plagued this beautiful land for so long and that is the creation and recognition of two separate states (Crashcourse). 

 The long road to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict begins with a change in mindset. Too often this struggle is viewed as one that has been going on for thousands of years and involves intricate matters of religion. In reality, the struggle has only been relevant for about 100 years and is focused primarily on disputed territory, not differences in belief. To view this struggle as one that is everlasting with no end in sight is unfair, ignorant, and lacks a basic understanding of the conflict itself. The people of Israel, the people of Palestine, and the international community deserve a solution to this problem. This struggle between Israel and Palestine may be complex, but no issue, regardless of the complexity, should last as long as this has. 

Recent studies have shown that both sides, Israel and Palestine, are far from unanimous in deciding upon the proper solution. In Israel about 55% of a sample of 1,207 people, supported the notion of a two state solution, while in Palestine, only 44% of a sample of 1,270 people, supported the two state solution (Kershner). While it is evident that both sides have internal disagreement, Palestine clearly is the more divided side, primarily due to the formation of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In 2006, Hamas gained control of the Palestinian government by winning a majority of parliamentary seats. For the past 11 years, since Hamas gained power, there has been an endless struggle between the violent militant group and the Palestine Authority, the democratic government which previously controlled all of Palestine (Stern). Due to the fact that Palestine essentially has two separate governments in power, negotiations with Israel are practically impossible. The presence of the two separate sides within Palestine makes the Israel and Palestine conflict practically a three sided disagreement. Therefore, before Palestine can address their issue with Israel, the rest of the world must work alongside Palestine to solve their current internal crisis. 

Although Hamas rightfully gained the majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament following the election in 2006, it is in the best interest of everyone involved for the militant group to relinquish its power. There are several very important reasons why Hamas is a group unfit to govern Palestine. First and foremost, unlike the far less radical National Palestine Authority, the militant group does not recognize Israel as a state whatsoever despite past agreements. The main objective of Hamas is to completely destroy the neighboring state of Israel. The presence of Hamas is the main reason why Israel and Palestine are currently unable to reach a mutual solution. 

There international community has recognized several different ways in which to deal with the formation of Hamas (Byman). Israel has discussed possible negotiations with Hamas as well as the complete opposite approach of sending in military forces to retake the Gaza Strip. Both options aren’t ideal as Hamas is more than likely not open for negotiations as their one goal is to completely destroy Israel. Furthermore, sending in large numbers of Israeli forces into the Gaza Strip could put a halt to peace negotiations with the Palestine Authority if Israel’s attacks do not go as planned. Unfortunately, often times civilians on both sides are killed, but when Palestine civilians are killed at the hands of Israeli’s the likelihood of the Palestine Authority winning the support of the general population to engage in negotiations drops significantly. This plays right into the hands of what Hamas wants to do; prevent peace negotiations and eventually destroy Israel. The best way to deal with Hamas is for the international community, Palestine, and Israel to all recognize what the people of Gaza want, and that is no more war. Gaza has been blocked off from a multitude of resources by Israel and as a result, just 23 years after Palestine had a very similar poverty rate to that of the United States, about 70 percent of Gazans live off under $1 a day (Byman). Then people of Gaza are beginning to lack support for Hamas as their focus has shifted from destroying Israel to simply surviving day to day. The international community should be responsible for slowly allowing aid back into Gaza, while at the same time facilitating a shift in power from Hamas to Palestinian Authority. This shift in power will be a delicate operation that more than likely must be supervised by Israel forces as well as international forces.

Following the removal of Hamas and the restoration of stability in Gaza, Palestine, now under control of the Palestine Authority, can engage in peace talks with Israel. The negotiations will cover a wide range of topics but should be focused on borders, Jerusalem, and new Israeli settlements. While the specifics of the negotiations may remain up for debate, it is pretty clear that both sides won’t get exactly what they want and a compromise will be necessary. First, Israel will have to give up some land. Following the Six-Days War in 1967 Israel gained a significantly greater amount of land than they were originally gifted by the United Nations. The compromise would most likely include similar borders to those before the war in 1967. This will entail possibly removing some of the new settlements Israel has built and relocating those who live there. The compromise will also include major decisions regarding Jerusalem, a place with holy ties to both Judaism and Islam. The compromise will have to include some kind of split of Jerusalem because Palestinians have too much divine interest in the city to leave it in the hands of Israel. The compromise will also have to deal with logistical issues of having two separate countries such as electricity, water, and other resources. Overall, the compromise will most likely give back Palestine a fair portion of land, include some sort of split regarding Jerusalem, and put a halt to Jewish expansion by allowing Palestinian refugees back into the state their families once called home (Joeffe). 

If both Israel and Palestine are able to reach some sort of agreement based on the premises aforementioned, the result will be two separate, fully-functioning, states. This conclusion to the Israel-Palestine is one supported by the majority of the outside world. Ideally, this solution would provide the security Israel has wanted for many years as well as the territory the Palestinians have fought to win back from Israel. The reason this is the best resolution to the conflict is because it is the solution that satisfies the most demands of either side. There is no possible way for both sides to be completely satisfied with a peace deal simply due to the nature of the conflict. The number one desire of Israelis is for security as they feel their people have been persecuted consistently throughout history. On the other hand, Palestine, at least conservative Palestine, desire the holy land their ancestors once lived in. While this desire will never be completely fulfilled as Israel now considers the same land its own holy land, a compromise as described before would somewhat satisfy this desire. While the resolution is often called a two-state “solution”, a better term may be a two-state “compromise” as any sort of resolution will be based on the premise of both sides making concessions. 

Although this compromise in which two separate states are created is the overwhelmingly supported path to peace, some people do call for a one-state solution. Those who call for a one-state solution are those who are tired of no progression being made. This solution would include Israel granting citizenship to Palestinians. This solution however could face serious issues down the road as Arabs would likely outnumber Israelis and this could eventually lead to the downfall of the Jewish population. Additionally, the pure hatred many have for the opposing side would not be conducive to a functioning country and would result in serious inner conflicts. Overall, the one-state solution may put an end to the fighting now, but could provoke serious violence down the road. 

 Many people, like Marriane Williamson, believe this conflict is a never ending conflict. That this conflict will just continue to remain a stalemate for as long as we live. That this conflict can be ignored. But it truly can’t. How can the rest of the world continue to allow this war to rage on? This battle between Israel and Palestine has resulted in thousands upon thousands of civilian deaths. From Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, to stabbings carried out by Palestinians, children, mothers, fathers, future doctors, aspiring lawyers, proud grandparents, and my middle school baseball teammate, Ezra Schwartz have all lost their lives. Too many lives have been lost, too many futures wiped away in the blink of an eye, too many families left devastated. It is time for Israel, Palestine, and the rest of the world to recognize the humanitarian crisis this conflict has created and work together to put an end to this madness. We must push for a two state solution, for a two state compromise; for those who have lost their lives, for those who fear for their lives, and for those who have yet to live. 
