The Peace Process.

Many, if not most of us has heard about the conflict in the Middle East and the attempts to resolve it. The means by which people are trying to stop the the conflict is often referred to as the "Peace Process" by news anchors and analysts of the region. But who are the parties involved? Does Yasser Arafat represent all the Arabs of the Middle East? Why is the Israeli army present in in south Lebanon? Seems confusing right? Yes and no. One of the unfortunate casualties in news reportage is good background info. As a result, the big picture and all of the people in it seem fuzzy at best.

There is no doubt that the creation of Israel, while providing Jewish refugees of World War II a place to live created problems as well. It seems that the Arabs point their fingers at the Israelis and vice versa. Let's take a brief look at the conflict and the peace processes it created.

In 1948 the United Nations upheld the British Mandates' decision to partition Palestine. That is they decided to divide it. Why did they do this and how did they come to such a decision? Shortly after the Second World War, many of the Jews who survived the War had no home to go back to or (more commonly) did not want to return to their home countries like Germany or Poland. One can't really blame them since they had been hunted like dogs in these areas and the citizens of these nations often turned them over to the Germans and rarely spoke up when they were abused.

It is important to note that since the turn of the 20th century Zionistic Jews had been moving to Israel in small numbers. Shortly after the war as a result of the refugee situation the UN created a committee to go and see what was going on and report back. The committee was made up of representatives from all over the world. They found grounds that both Arab and Jewish peoples had a historical claim to the area just as the Brithish comissions beforee them had found. They recommended that the area be partitioned based on population size. Papers were drafted and maps drawn. In May of 1948 the UN held a session to vote on this issue. The decision was made that Palestine was to be partitioned. As a result of this decision, Israel was declared a Sate on May 6,1948.

The Arab peoples said they were not going to accept such a decision to partition. The idea of Partition was no good when the Brithish ruled that area, so what could possibly be different now? In their eyes Jews could be there, but under Arab governance. The conflict which had been escillating since 1945, became a war.

It is often here that people (especially Israelis) point the finger and say 'See! you broke the UN decision! You guys were in the wrong!' But it is always good to see the other side. The UN was the creation of Western European powers. The Arabs argued that the British had pulled out because they couldn't make the tough decisions. They also felt that the European managers of the area were unfairly biased in favour of the Jews who were influential in Europe and that there was undue sympathy from the Holocaust which while a tragedy the Arabs were not responsible for.

Israel fought back and not only defended the boundaries set out in the Partition Plan, but succeeded in pushing the Arabs into their territory and thus capturing land. Now there was occupied (or cunquered) land in Israeli hands. Those Arabs who remained inside became subject to Israeli rule. Others fled to countries like Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. These people had thus become "displaced".

Israel was now a new nation and since the first day of its existence had to fight for land that the UN decided was for them. The leaders of Israel had ample evidence that they were going have to face some people who did not want them around. They decided that territory conquered would remain under their control.

The Peace Process that continues in Israel today should be more accurately described as Peace Processes. They can be divided into two categories: (a) The process of peace with hostile neighbors, and (b) the Process of peace with the internal Palestinian population.
Peace with the Neighbors.

In 1973 at the end of the Yom Kippur War, Israel signed the first treaty with an Arab nation, Egypt. Jordan also has peace with Israel, which was established in 1994 after Oslo and has very good trading relationship which will continue to develop for the benefit of both nations. A peace agreement remains elusive with regard to Syria and Lebanon.

In 1973, Israel conquered the Golan Heights, which is a fertile plateau located in the northeast of the country. This was done because the Syrians were not effectively controlling guerilla groups that mounted attacks from the plateau down into Israel. More importantly though, is that in the 1973 War Israel had to repulse Syrian forces who occupied this elevated position...not an easy task, especially when you are a smaller army and your opponent is bigger than you are. Solution? Israel took the Golan and thus took away the Syrian advantage. Now on top, they were only 50 Kms away from the Syrian capital. That's a pretty good conquest that you do not throw away.

Israel is prepared to return the Golan, but wants certain things as to make them feel secure. One, if they pull out then there should be an impartial army stationed there to be sure nothing fishy happens. Second, Israel would like some early-warning electronices there that would let them know if another Yom Kippur war is going to happen. Syria says the impartial army is OK, but the early warning systems are no good. In addition, Syria has some criteria the biggest being that they want the Golan back plus some flat territory the leads up to it which was taken during the 1967 War. Israel says that's not cool, because it would put Syria on the shores of Israel's only lake and primary source of fresh water.

So while they discuss this and that, the situation remains the same. There are three tank divisions of Israel parked on the Golan and on the other side of a fence are three divisions of Syrian tanks. They look at each other, sometimes talk to each other, and probably have contests as to who can grease their tank better and lots of other time wasting things like that.

Aside from Syria, Israel occupies the first 5 Kms of south Lebanon. Why the heck are they there? Well, by the 1980's Israeli settlements were coming under attack by militants who were pro-Palestinian. Basically they figured that if they put pressure on Israel via attacks, Israel would go away because civilians can only stand so much shelling before they give up. Israel's solution was to invade Lebanon in the belief that they could get these rabble-rousers out of the way in a couple of days. Well they tried and it has been 20 years and they can't seem to get these guys. The army sees this area as a strategic asset. If the guerillas are gonna attack, at least the bombs will fall in Lebanon and on military targets, not Israeli roads and houses. The other good bonus was that there are many Christians in South Lebanon that make up 50% of the population really feel like second-class citizens. They willingly take guns and training from the Israelis and fight the Lebanese government and guerillas. What luck! Israel doesn't have such a big population and therefore not so many men in the army. No problem! the southern Lebanese Christians are there! Good for Israel, right? No. Israelis back at home are really tired of having soldiers who are 19 getting killed in an operation that was supposed to last a couple of days. Get Out A.S.A.P. they cry!

So why not get out? Oh yeah! then that would just bring the guerillas closer to home. Well get the Lebanese police or army or something to go in there and fight the terrorists. Unfortunately there is not much government in Lebanon and what is there is doing the will of Syria, who have 35,000 of their own troops there. And the Syrians say nothing gonna change unless they get the Golan Back. Besides, what do you think the guerillas would do when the Lebanese government goes after them? They would begin causing serious unrest at home and try to overthrow the government. That's basically what's happening there. Despite this Israel plans to with draw by July 2000 and is hoping that International goodwill will prevent anything from occurring.

Peace with the Palestinians

Israel needs to also conclude a peace with the population of Arabs who according to the partition plan have a right to a state too. Since the War of Independence, Israel became very protectionist. Security was an all or nothing game. In there are people who were in Israel however few that were causing problems, then justice came down hard. Territories became off limits. Commerce and shipping was forbidden or restricted to avoid smuggling and arms procurement.

The Israeli government signed the Oslo Accords in 1993, which set out timetables by which territory, would be returned to Palestinian control and self-rule. Land has been given back but very slowly, as there are unresolved issues. Some of these issues are: What is to become of Israeli settlements in areas that are handed back? Do they stay or go? If they stay, do these Israeli become a part of the new Palestinian State? If yes, then how will they be represented in by the new state? How will they be taxed? What will the education be like? In Arabic or Hebrew? Then there are really big questions like; What will Jerusalem be a Capital of? Will it be a shared Capital? Will there be two separate Capital buildings? What about stuff like garbage collection or the care of roads? These are the things that hinder the swift creation of a Palestinian state.
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