reading reading
ok. i've been hard at work since i came back and have been faithfully reading up the zionist movement that eventually culminated in the israeli-palestinian conflict now.
its history is so rich of full of excitement and simply complements what we read in the news these days. i mean, the fight for a separate jewish nation in the Land of Israel was the bread and butter of the zionist movement, and has been fought since 1200 BCE. it was intensified and evolved into a political movement with the great exodus and persecution of jews all over the world, in spain in the 1500s and even more recently, the german holocaust during world war two.
they achieved their goal in 1948 when israel was recognised as an independent nation. yet, the zionist celebration was marred by the arab-israeli war that emerged almost simultaneously, a war launched by israel's neighbouring nations - egypt syria and lebanon. another 6 day war resulted in the successful acquisition of the gaza strip, the west bank and the golan heights from israel's advesaries, and served to expand their land for the zionist ideal of aliyah, an immigration and return of jews from their jewish diaspora, back to a nation they can call home.
yet, the issue of palestine arose because israel occupied part of it and the arab palestinians saw it as a compromise and a violation to their right and freedom of a land that they've owned for many years prior to the formation of an independent jewish state. the palestinian authority was thus set up to look into the domestic and political affairs of the arab palestine and this i believe, is the crux of the middle eastern crisis, that has seen too much bloodshed, other than in iraq. the lack of a one strong faith and belief in one singular party in palestine discredits their authority and power and an area that requires a powerful authority to end the conflict. with two conflicting parties in the form of hamas and fatah, their differences are almost irreconciliable. yaseer arafat recognised the credibility of israel, yet with his passing, the new pa under the strong influence of hamas has strongly refuted this notion and have abstained from the road map for peace.
israel has consistently made an effort to drive the two nations towards a peaceful settlement, yet the irresolute pa can never seem to come to terms with what has been proposed, even after israel ordering a peaceful jewish pull out of the gaza strip and handing it over to the palestinian authority. the ironic thing now is, the palestinians are fighting amongst themselves, in the gaza strip. what began with an unified effort to fight for a bigger palestinian state, where the right of return was to be granted to almost 4 million expelled palestinians, have evolved into an internal strife between two distinctly different parties in the pa. it is thus understandable why the israelis are hesitant about releasing jewish communities in the west bank to the palestinians. i mean afterall, the west bank offers a geographical advantage because of its high ground. qassam rockets being fired by the palestinians into israel, barely a year after being ceded the gaza strip, has increased greatly and this underscores the ambitious nature of the palestinian authority. who is to say that after pulling out jewish troops and civilians out of palestine and the west bank, the pa will not launch a full scale attack on israel?
and it's precisely these intriguing details of the global political climate that makes me believe that i wanna do what i'm gonna do in uni. all i can offer now are mere, and almost simplistic inferrences of the israeli-palestinian conflict, where there is still so much more to explore. the multi dimensional facets of war and conflict, and of race and religion are areas that are crucial to the study of the middle eastern conflict.
and there's the iraq war and the increasing insurgency. i was reading this time magazine article yesterday about an interview with one of the jihad's top bomb maker in iraq, and i was disturbed to read that he demonstrated to the reporter how he managed to overcome the power of radio frequency jammers. it was reported that he challenged all 4 reporters present to turn on their phones as he switched on a jammer, and all their phones showed no bars in the reception column. and he triumphantly produced his phone to show full strength.
now that's a cause to worry about.
its history is so rich of full of excitement and simply complements what we read in the news these days. i mean, the fight for a separate jewish nation in the Land of Israel was the bread and butter of the zionist movement, and has been fought since 1200 BCE. it was intensified and evolved into a political movement with the great exodus and persecution of jews all over the world, in spain in the 1500s and even more recently, the german holocaust during world war two.
they achieved their goal in 1948 when israel was recognised as an independent nation. yet, the zionist celebration was marred by the arab-israeli war that emerged almost simultaneously, a war launched by israel's neighbouring nations - egypt syria and lebanon. another 6 day war resulted in the successful acquisition of the gaza strip, the west bank and the golan heights from israel's advesaries, and served to expand their land for the zionist ideal of aliyah, an immigration and return of jews from their jewish diaspora, back to a nation they can call home.
yet, the issue of palestine arose because israel occupied part of it and the arab palestinians saw it as a compromise and a violation to their right and freedom of a land that they've owned for many years prior to the formation of an independent jewish state. the palestinian authority was thus set up to look into the domestic and political affairs of the arab palestine and this i believe, is the crux of the middle eastern crisis, that has seen too much bloodshed, other than in iraq. the lack of a one strong faith and belief in one singular party in palestine discredits their authority and power and an area that requires a powerful authority to end the conflict. with two conflicting parties in the form of hamas and fatah, their differences are almost irreconciliable. yaseer arafat recognised the credibility of israel, yet with his passing, the new pa under the strong influence of hamas has strongly refuted this notion and have abstained from the road map for peace.
israel has consistently made an effort to drive the two nations towards a peaceful settlement, yet the irresolute pa can never seem to come to terms with what has been proposed, even after israel ordering a peaceful jewish pull out of the gaza strip and handing it over to the palestinian authority. the ironic thing now is, the palestinians are fighting amongst themselves, in the gaza strip. what began with an unified effort to fight for a bigger palestinian state, where the right of return was to be granted to almost 4 million expelled palestinians, have evolved into an internal strife between two distinctly different parties in the pa. it is thus understandable why the israelis are hesitant about releasing jewish communities in the west bank to the palestinians. i mean afterall, the west bank offers a geographical advantage because of its high ground. qassam rockets being fired by the palestinians into israel, barely a year after being ceded the gaza strip, has increased greatly and this underscores the ambitious nature of the palestinian authority. who is to say that after pulling out jewish troops and civilians out of palestine and the west bank, the pa will not launch a full scale attack on israel?
and it's precisely these intriguing details of the global political climate that makes me believe that i wanna do what i'm gonna do in uni. all i can offer now are mere, and almost simplistic inferrences of the israeli-palestinian conflict, where there is still so much more to explore. the multi dimensional facets of war and conflict, and of race and religion are areas that are crucial to the study of the middle eastern conflict.
and there's the iraq war and the increasing insurgency. i was reading this time magazine article yesterday about an interview with one of the jihad's top bomb maker in iraq, and i was disturbed to read that he demonstrated to the reporter how he managed to overcome the power of radio frequency jammers. it was reported that he challenged all 4 reporters present to turn on their phones as he switched on a jammer, and all their phones showed no bars in the reception column. and he triumphantly produced his phone to show full strength.
now that's a cause to worry about.