Palestine in the Arab world
Palestine was called Canaan in ancient times and included present-day Israel, Jordan, Gaza, and the West Bank. Historically, both Jews and Arabs have lived here. In 1020~923 BC, the Jews established the Hebrew Kingdom here. After the Roman Empire conquered Palestine, it repeatedly suppressed the Jews and drove most of the survivors out of Palestine, and the Jews were exiled around the world. In 622 AD, the Arabs defeated the Roman Empire and took over Palestine. Since then, Arabs have become the main inhabitants of the region. Palestine has been part of the Ottoman Empire since the 16th century and became a British mandate after World War I. After the British occupied Palestine, it was divided into two parts: east of the Jordan River called Transjordan, which is now the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; West of the Jordan River was called Palestine, now known as Palestine, which includes present-day Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.
The conflict-prone areas of Israel and Palestine, known as the "powder keg" of the Middle East, are part of the "Levant" region in the field of archaeology and ancient calendar studies. Etymology, the word "Levant" means "rising" in Latin and refers to the east where the sun rose in the eyes of the Romans.
Thus, in its broadest sense, the term refers to the entire land and islands of the eastern Mediterranean coast east of Italy, as well as Greece in southern Europe and Cyrenaica in North Africa (present-day eastern Libya).
Among them, the core area of the southern Levant includes present-day Israel, Palestine and Jordan, which is referred to in this article as the "Palestinian Territory." From 332 BC onwards, with Alexander's conquest of ancient Eastern civilizations such as Egypt and Persia, the Eastern Mediterranean entered the Hellenistic era.
After Alexander's death, the ministry divided the vast "empire" he left behind, forming three Hellenistic kingdoms. Among them, Ptolemaic based in Egypt, called himself Pharaoh, and established the Ptolemaic dynasty dominated by the Macedonians-Greeks.
However, Palestine, which is to be analyzed in this article, is a "thoroughfare" connecting various regions in the eastern Mediterranean, and the geographical location of Palestine is very important, and it has been the focus of contention among major neighboring forces since ancient times. An independent unified country has never been formed here, and political forces such as scattered city-states or urban alliances often need to "choose sides" to survive in the midst of the hegemony of the neighboring powers. As the birthplace of the three major religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Palestine is an important bridge in cross-regional exchanges of civilizations. Because of this, the land was usurped by the Jews to establish a state.
Palestine is located on the Mediterranean coast of western Asia, at the crossroads of three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. The region is legendary and fraught with disasters. Here, Jews and Palestinians are brothers with a common ancestry. Jerusalem is home to the world's three major religions. After World War II, four large-scale wars in the Middle East were linked to this problem, causing heavy losses and great trauma to the people of the region. The Middle East peace process continues to this day, but it has been difficult. People hope that peace will come soon and that the two peoples, who were brothers in ancient times, will reunite and build a better homeland together.
Today, however, the Palestinian people are being bombed indiscriminately by Israel and have no basic guarantees for them, and they are facing a great danger of extinction.
Territory of the Ptolemaic dynasty in 200 BC
Second, the Jewish state of Palestine was named Israel
The Zionist movement in Europe emerged at the end of the 19th century and advocated that Jews return to their native Palestine to establish a homeland, and many Jews began to immigrate to Palestine. During World War I, Britain took over the "Mandate" of Palestine from the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which had ruled Palestine for more than 400 years. In 1917, Britain issued the famous Balfour Declaration, allowing Jews to return to Palestine to establish a "Jewish House". Just as Britain split the Federation of India into today's India and Pakistan before returning India, Britain is also jokingly called "-churning stick" by netizens because of various-stirring stick operations.
During World War II, due to Nazi Germany's policy of genocide, a large number of Jews tried to move to Palestine. In November 1947, the United Nations adopted Resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine, which provided for the establishment of Arab and Jewish states in the region, with the city of Jerusalem as an international city. According to the resolution, the Jews were given 14,942 square kilometers of land, while the Arabs received only 11,203 square kilometers. As shown in the figure below.
In fact, Jews and Arabs are both Semitic people, and thousands of years ago they were "brothers." A genetic analysis report from the University of Arizona in the United States shows that Jews and Arabs have a common ancestry, genetics, history and language, especially the blood ties between them. Arabs were friendly to the small number of Jews who came to settle in the late 19th century, and Arabs throughout history did not abuse Jews because of religious differences. Anthropologists have reconstructed the skull of Jesus based on scientific evidence, which still resembles today's Palestinians, not Europeans.
And now, Israel has killed Palestine, limiting the removal of all residents of Gaza within 24 hours, and then indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, I wonder how Jesus will feel when he sees fratricide today?
Resolution No. 181 on partition: Map of territorial distribution
Third, encroached Palestine
Israeli and Palestinian backgrounds under four Middle East wars
After the establishment of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, but the Arabs firmly opposed it, the Arab-Israeli conflict intensified, and four large-scale wars took place in 1949, 1956, 1967 and 1973. Through the war, Israel had occupied not only the lands allocated to the Arabs in the United Nations "partition" resolution, but also the Sinai Peninsula (returned to Egypt in 1982), the Golan Heights and southern Lebanon (occupied in 1982 and withdrawn in May 2000) and the entire city of Jerusalem, and nearly 1.5 million Palestinians had fled their homes and become refugees.
First Middle East War
The day after Israel's founding, Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian, Lebanese and Iraqi armies launched a joint offensive against it, and the first Middle East war broke out. The Arab army numbered more than 40,000, while Israel had only 30,000 guerrilla forces and no regular army. However, the Israeli people were fully committed to protecting the nascent state, and the excellent guerrilla warfare also undermined the unity of the Arab coalition, forcing it to fight separately, and the Arab countries' selfish desire to seize territory made it difficult to coordinate command. The United States urgently proposed a truce in the United Nations Security Council, and the Soviet Union was dissatisfied with the rash attack of the Arab countries. On 11 June 1949, the Arabs and Israelis agreed to a four-week ceasefire. With the timely help of Jews from all over the world, Israel quickly restored its combat effectiveness and formed a regular unit, the Israel Defense Forces. The Arab States attacked again on 9 July 1949, but the IDF had grown to more than 60,000 men and was well armed. Israel eventually won the war. After the war, Israel not only recaptured the territories allocated to it by the United Nations "partition" resolution, but also occupied most of the territories allocated to the Palestinians by the United Nations.
In the first Middle East war, Israel annexed more than 6,200 square kilometres of land allocated to Palestine and forcibly occupied West Jerusalem
Second Middle East War
Also called the Suez Canal War. Since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, it has been controlled by the-stirring Britain for a long time, and most of the huge profits have fallen into the hands of British and French monopoly capital. On July 26, 1956, on the 4th anniversary of the victory of Nasser's leadership of the Egyptian Revolution, Nasser announced that he would take back sovereignty over the canal and nationalize it. Unwilling, angry and angry, Britain and France secretly plotted to unite with Israel to regain control of the Suez Canal by force. War broke out at the end of October 1956, but both the United States and the Soviet Union strongly disliked the actions of Britain and France. Under intense pressure, Britain and France declared a ceasefire on November 6 and withdrew all their troops from Egypt in December, and Israel returned to the position before the ceasefire line of the first Middle East war. Egypt eventually won the war.
Third Middle East War
The Third Middle East War is also known as the June 5th War. On June 5, 1967, Israel launched massive surprise attacks on Egypt, Syria and Jordan. After careful calculation, reconnaissance and preparation, all 196 aircraft available for combat in the Israeli army took off, using ultra-low altitude flight and other advanced technologies, and soon blew up nearly 200 Egyptian aircraft. Egypt lost air supremacy, and the Israeli army went on the offensive. The war ended after six days of fighting, and is also known in history as the "Six-Day War". Due to Israel's confusing tactics and the strategic and tactical mistakes of the Egyptian and other armies, the Afghan side suffered heavy losses. In 1967, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 242, demanding that Israel withdraw its forces from the occupied lands, but Israel refused to implement the UN resolutions. Despite Israel's military victory, the antagonism with the Arab countries has deepened, and the hope of peaceful coexistence between the two sides has become even more remote.
In the Third Middle East War in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt (returned to Egypt in 1978), the Golan Heights in Syria, and declared all of Jerusalem its capital.
Fourth Middle East War
Also called "October War", "Yom Kippur War", "Ramadan War". After Sadat came to power, he felt the power of Israel's surprise attack and decided to respond to Israel in the same way. In order to confuse Israel, the Afghan side successfully carried out deception tactics. On October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria, with the support of Palestine and other Arab countries, launched a war against aggression and regained lost territory against Israel.
During the war, the Egyptian army crossed the Suez Canal and successfully destroyed the "Bar-Lev Line", a strong defense line that Israel boasted. The leading Egyptian Air Force dispatched 240 aircraft from 30 airfields to the Israeli positions on the opposite shore, destroying more than 90% of the Israeli military targets in the Sinai Peninsula within 20 minutes, and Egypt lost only 5 aircraft. This result strongly supported the ground forces, destroying more than 400 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles before and after. The Syrian army also hit Lake Galilee, an important fresh water supply area in northern Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon was commissioned and showed excellent command skills, he led a part of the army to storm and cross the Suez Canal, directed his troops to continue to advance, cut off the Egyptian army from the rear, and opened the door to Cairo, winning the war initiative in one fell swoop.
However, mainly due to the intervention of the superpower and the strong assistance of the United States to Israel, the Afghan side was forced to cease the war on October 25, 1973. The Afghan side has won a partial victory, but most of the occupied territory remains in Israeli hands. In 1974, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 338, reaffirming that Israel should comply with Resolution 242 and withdraw its forces from the occupied land, but Israel refused to implement the resolution. The fourth Middle East war made both Arabs and Israelis fully realize that it is impossible to eliminate each other by means of war, and the Afghan leaders turned to realism and began to consider the path of peaceful coexistence with Israel. Israeli leaders have also begun to consider the idea of giving up part of the occupied land in exchange for peace. This paved the way for Egypt and Israel to formally sign a peace agreement and establish diplomatic relations in March 1979.
It should be pointed out that in 1982, in order to combat the Palestine Liberation Organization operating in Lebanon and eradicate its operating bases, Israel mobilized a large number of troops to launch a large-scale attack on Lebanon, severely damaged the PLO led by Arafat and scattered it to other Arab countries. Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon and the establishment of the so-called "safe zone" (the United Nations later adopted resolution 425 calling for Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon, and in May 2005, the Israeli Government Barak fulfilled its resolution to withdraw its forces from the southern Lebanon security zone), known as the "Lebanon War" or the "Fifth Middle East War". But the overall scale and scope of the war was much smaller than the previous four Middle East wars
Palestinian territory was encroached upon in the course of the war.
Palestinian territory has been encroached
4. Hamas that rose up to resist
In January 2006, the United States promoted democracy in Palestine with unexpected results, Hamas won the Palestinian legislative council election and presided over the formation of a cabinet, refused to recognize Israel, and the Hamas government was boycotted by the United States, Israel and the European Union, and since then, Hamas has been characterized by Europe and the United States as a "terrorist organization". However, it has always been on the front line in the cause of Palestinian liberation, the Palestinian territory has been cut to pieces by Israel, and the power of taxation, foreign affairs, and defense is also controlled by Israel. Decades of fighting and peace talks over the Palestinian issue have only come to such an end, which of course has deeply humiliated and angered the Palestinian side and the Arab camp, thus sowing the seeds of national hatred. Since it is difficult to win the military struggle, Pakistan and some extremist organizations in the Arab world have launched terrorist attacks against the United States, Israel and some Western countries from time to time outside the track of peace talks.
Fifth, the Palestinian-Israeli war that is difficult to quell
In recent years, marked by the successive changes of the US-Israeli government in early 2001, the development of Palestinian-Israeli relations since the 90s of the 20th century has actually been divided into two stages, namely, the stage of great development that has made great achievements and the stage of conflict, retrogression and stagnation since the beginning of the 21st century. For several years now, the negotiating mechanisms and frameworks that had been the case since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 had been virtually abandoned. The Palestinian-Israeli peace process has been "dead" as a result of the ongoing conflict and hatred between Palestine and Israel in recent years, Israel's unilateral actions and changes in the Palestinian-Israeli political situation; The Lebanese-Israeli negotiations have been frozen for a long time, and it has been impossible to talk about Syrian-Israeli negotiations since 2000.
The Middle East peace process has always been one of hope and challenge, difficulties and opportunities. To observe the development of the Palestinian-Israeli situation, we must pay attention to its essence and history, and the development and change of sticking to one momentary event often affects the judgment of the overall trend of the Palestinian-Israeli situation. The Bush Administration's policy of serious favoritism in favor of Israel, the instability of the Israeli Government, and the degree of coordination within the Palestinian side are also important factors affecting the peace talks. Palestine and Israel have always fought each other on key issues such as borders, involving a series of key issues such as the return of refugees, the demarcation of borders, the final status of Jerusalem, the demolition of settlements, and the distribution of water resources, all of which are thorny and hard wounds that prevent a complete breakthrough in Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. There are strong opposition and containment forces between Palestine and Israel, the United States, the Arab world and other relevant parties, and under the influence of tough forces on both sides, it is difficult for Sharon and Abbas to make substantive compromises, and the situation between Palestine and Israel may re-exist at any time.
First, border demarcation and water resource allocation.
The essence of the Arab-Israeli contradiction is a territorial issue, and in the first Arab-Israeli war in May 1948, Israel annexed more than 6,200 square kilometres of land allocated to Palestine and forcibly occupied West Jerusalem. In the Third Middle East War in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt (returned to Egypt in 1978), the Golan Heights in Syria, and declared all of Jerusalem its capital. In the fifth Middle East war in 1982, Israel occupied southern Lebanon and established the so-called security zone. In May 2000, Israel withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon. In the 90s of the 20th century, Israel built Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, with 104,000 Jewish settlers in settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Arab countries have been demanding that Israel comply with United Nations resolutions 242 and 338 and "land for peace". Taking the Palestinian-Israeli boundary line prior to the 1967 war as the standard, Israel is required to strictly implement the Oslo Accords and the Road Map, and former Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's "unilateral action plan" can only be a process and component of the Road Map plan and the Oslo Accords, but not the whole story. From Sharon's point of view, Israel at most hopes for the successful implementation of the "unilateral action plan", that is, to return all of Gaza and about 50 per cent of the West Bank, about half of the territory actually claimed by Palestine. Back at the Camp David negotiations in 2000,
Secondly, the question of Jerusalem.
The city of Jerusalem, a religious shrine for Jews and Arabs, has its own tough stance. Although the city is under de facto Israeli control, Palestinians and Arabs have been demanding the territorial and religious rights to which they are entitled. Islam reigned in Yah, with the return of Jews from the 7th century to the 20th century, and Arabs and other Muslims who lived there for more than a thousand years have turned Yahh Although Christianity ruled Jehpolis for nearly 400 years, Jehcity was used only as a religious shrine, not a political center. Since the 19th century, with the massive return of Jews from all over the world to Palestine, the struggle of the Arabs living with them for land and religious rights has intensified. In November 1947, a United Nations resolution provided for the internationalization of Yah. In 1948, the British Mandate ended, Israel declared its statehood, Arab countries strongly opposed it, and the first Arab-Israeli war broke out. After the war, the armistice line divided the city in two, with Israel controlling parts of the western and southern part of the city and Jordan occupying the Old City and its areas north and south. In 1950, Israel moved its capital to Yah. After the 1967 Middle East War, Israel occupied Jordanian-controlled areas and reunited the city. Since then, Israel has consistently declared the city of Yahd as its permanent and indivisible capital, but it has so far been denied by the international community, including the United States. In November 1988, Palestine also declared its independent State, with Jerusalem as its capital.
Thirdly, there is the issue of the return of Palestine refugees.
The return of more than 4 million Palestine refugees has been an insurmountable obstacle in the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. Israel, fearing a radical change in the proportion of Jews and Palestinians in the population following the return of Palestinian refugees to the occupied territories, insisted on local integration of Palestinian refugees in their host countries in order to compensate them, effectively denying them the right to return. This is what the Palestinian side has always rejected.
Fourth, the question of Jewish settlements.
According to the "unilateral action plan", Israel will withdraw from all settlements in the Gaza Strip and some minor settlements in the West Bank, but Israel will not withdraw from many important settlements in the West Bank, but will continue to build settlements in the West Bank for Jews evacuated from the Gaza Strip to live, causing strong dissatisfaction from the Palestinian side.
Fifth, both Palestine and Israel face opposition forces. In January 2006, the United States promoted democracy in Palestine with unexpected results, Hamas won the Palestinian legislative assembly election and presided over the formation of a cabinet, refused to recognize Israel, the Hamas government was boycotted by the United States, Israel and the European Union, and Fatah also expressed strong dissatisfaction with Hamas's dominance and did not cooperate with the Hamas government at all. On 8 February 2007, the two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, formally signed the Mecca Agreement in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in which the two sides reached agreement on the establishment of a national unity Government, a political platform for a new Government and the reconstruction of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In June 2007, Hamas and Fatah broke out in Palestine, and Palestinian President and Fatah leader Abbas announced the dissolution of the national unity government and the formation of an emergency cabinet, which was supported by the United States and other Western countries. Although both factions refused to declare separate statehood and did not dare to assume the responsibility of secession, a situation had in fact developed within Palestine in which the two factions were separated.