The Middle East is the focus of international politics today, and there is a constant war between Palestine and Israel. Twenty years later, the middle-aged people who picked up their mobile phones and swiped the news of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict today are still a group of teenagers, turn on the TV, and see the news about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Going back 50 years, the grandparents and grandparents who are exercising in the park today may have just come into contact with such a new thing as the radio, and when they turn on the radio, there is still a Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the news. Before we know it, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been with us for three generations, and there is no end to it. Why is it so difficult for Palestinians and Israelis to reconcile?
It has been 75 years since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, during which time there have been five large-scale wars. There are countless skirmishes, and both sides have suffered heavy losses in this showdown of the century, during which it is not because there are no people of insight to promote the process of reconciliation, but under the agitation of internal and external forces, the reconciliation reached by the two sides has either achieved limited results or has gone back to the past.
In November 1977, Sadat of Egypt personally went to Jerusalem to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Begin and broke the long-standing antagonism between the Arab world and Israel. In September of the following year, under the mediation of Carter of the United States, Sadat and Begin signed the Camp David Accords in the United States, which took an important step towards the normalization of relations between the two countries, and the two were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together in 1978.
In September 1993, Arafat, chairman of the PLO Executive Committee, and Israeli Prime Minister Bhabin Rabin flew to Washington and signed the "Oslo Accords" under the auspices of Clinton of the United States. Similar to 16 years ago, the following year Arafat and Rabin were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Sixteen years apart, both rapprochements brought the dawn of peace to the Middle East, but the results were very different. Sadat's groundbreaking actions were met with criticism from Arab countries, culminating in his assassination by Islamic extremists in 1981. But he took this difficult step not only in return to Israeli-occupied Sinai, but also in dragging Egypt out of the unprofitable Middle East war. Since then, neighboring Arab countries have withdrawn their troops one after another, and the chaos in the Middle East has gradually stabilized. The war is fought only between Palestine and Israel.
After reconciliation was achieved, Arafat, like Sadat, was denounced as a traitor to the Muslim world, seriously undermining Arafat's authority. On the Israeli side, Rabin also encountered resistance, and died in 1995 in an assassination attempt by Israeli right-wingers. Later, the right-wing Netanyahu came to power and took a hard line on Palestine, leaving the idea of a two-state reconciliation to nothing. The diplomatic setback once again undermined Arafat's authority, and Fatah, who was led by him, gradually lost his leadership. After Arafat's death in 2004, Fatah was replaced by the radical Hamas, and Israel and Palestine remained at war.
Egypt can get out of the chaos, but Palestine cannot, because Egypt and Israel have a clear border, and the two countries can retreat to the line and live in peace. But there is no way back for the Palestinians, and every piece of land here is full of disputes. Palestine has a long history as a geographical term, and in ancient Roman times, the region was called Palestine, which can be traced back to the Philistines, who were inhabited by the Philistines, and the Greek word "Palestine" means "land of the Philistines". However, Palestine as a state is very late, in the long history, the ancient Egyptians, ancient Persians, ancient Macedonians, ancient Romans, Arabs, European crusaders, Egyptian Mamluks, Ottomans have become the rulers of Palestine, Palestine has never become an independent state.
After the end of World War I, the defeated Ottoman Empire was divided between Britain and France, Syria and Lebanon in the Middle East were assigned to France, Iraq and Jordan were under the British Union, and Palestine was administered by the international community. In 1920, the League of Nations passed a resolution to place Palestine under a British mandate. Historically, when the British ended their mandate to Palestine in 1948, the neighboring countries of Egypt, Syria (the center of the Umayyad dynasty), Iraq (the center of the Abbasid dynasty), and Jordan (once part of Palestine, which was founded by the British on the Jordan River) could all claim Palestine as their own "since ancient times".
But it is also for this reason that none of the Arab States has sufficient grounds to integrate Palestine. Moreover, the partition of Palestine and Israel is a resolution made by the United Nations, and although it is unfair, it nevertheless gives Palestine and Israel the legal principle of independence. It is also untenable for Arab countries to annex and divide Palestine. The reason why the big guys fight Israel together is because of resistance to the Jews and the preservation of the honor of the Arabs. However, this alone is not enough to unite the Arab countries, and the power of the Palestinian mainland is still too immature at this time to be placed under the fence and it is difficult for them to undertake the great cause of independence on their own.
Due to the lack of a backbone and the difficulty of obtaining practical benefits in the war against Israel, the Arab countries gradually withdrew from the war against Israel. During the first Middle East war, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan were all in battle. By the time of the Fourth Middle East War, only Egypt and Syria were left fighting, because in the last war Egypt lost the Sinai Peninsula and Syria lost the Golan Heights, and the two countries had to fight for themselves, followed by Palestine.
In the fourth Middle East war, Egypt and Syria fought hard and held back their strength to be ashamed. The war started very smoothly, taking advantage of the laxity of the Israelis on Yom Kippur, Egypt and Syria sent troops to sneak attack, and the strategy and tactics were impeccable, and they regained lost territory for a time. Just when it was about to crush Israel, the United States intervened, providing Israel with all support except for directly sending troops, and forcibly helped Israel move back into the war. Egypt and Syria suddenly felt powerless and had no choice but to give up. Egypt and Jordan have reconciled with Israel, while Syria, Lebanon and Iraq have not yet established diplomatic relations with Israel, but after the end of the Fifth Middle East War in 1982, there was no major war between the two sides, and the state of war basically ended. And what about the Palestinians? They live here, so what should they do?
Arafat's original intention in establishing Fatah was to overthrow Israel's hegemony through violent resistance and establish a secular Palestinian state "from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River", including Jews. The pattern is not small, but on the whole, the Palestinians are on the weak side, and the weak side is not able to support a grand plan.
In 1987, the first major Palestinian intifada broke out in the Occupied Palestinian Territory against Israel**. The intifada has received widespread solidarity from the international community, and Israel's plans to maintain the occupation with coercion and expulsion have failed. Arafat seized the opportunity to proclaim the establishment of the State on 15 November 1988. In that year, a number of countries announced their recognition of Palestine, and on 15 December, the resolution on the question of Palestine adopted at the special session of the General Assembly further made clear the recognition of the State of Palestine. At this point, the 1947 United Nations resolution on the partition of Palestine and Israel was finally settled, and both Palestine and Israel established their own states without being able to eliminate the other.
For the Palestinians, it is already rare to be able to establish an independent state, and it is even more difficult to gain the recognition of most countries, including Israel, after independence. Arabs living outside Palestine can shout and kill because they can go far across the river. Palestine has never belonged to them, and the life and death of Palestinians are just news reports.
More than seventy years ago, both Palestine and Israel were non-existent states. Since the national line has been artificially drawn, and the other party cannot be forced to accept his own way of rule, the only way is to be at peace with each other. It was precisely when Arafat saw the plight of the Palestinians that he deviated from his original intention and chose to drag Palestine out of the war at the same time as Sadat, at the expense of infamy. In the end, it backfired, with the assassination of Rabin and the rise of Hamas turning the tide for the worse.
Although Palestine is small, it can fully accommodate two countries with different nationalities and religions. The only question is how to draw a border that satisfies both sides, or draw a line that neither side dares to cross. The former is almost impossible, the weak have no way out, the strong still want to be stronger, and no matter how they draw, they are not human inside and out. The latter requires a powerful external force to hold the two sides to force peace, and many countries in the world sympathize with the Palestinians and Israelis, but if they really invest huge resources to do something that has nothing to do with them, or even thankless, no country is willing to do it. If the Palestinians and Israelis fail to draw a stable national border, continued conflict is inevitable.