Why is there a state of war between Israel and Gaza?

Answer 1

Longer View Answers

General Answer

This question is best answered by a PhD history thesis. However, in this limited format, we will attempt to simplify without gross oversimplification.

Gaza, a small strip of land along Israel's south Mediterranean coast, is a ghettoized area used by Israel to isolate Palestinians. Palestinians are the Muslim natives of Palestine, an historic area traditionally defined as that part of Arabia containing most of the sites described in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. As one might expect, the Palestinians resent their ghettoization and have rebelled throughout the history of Israel as a modern country. Their primary weapon in rebellion is terrorism against civilian Israelis.

Recently this terrorism has taken the form of rocket attacks fired from the Gaza strip into Israeli settlements in the adjoining Negev desert. The Israeli government has chosen to answer these attacks with overwhelming military force as a sort of collective punishment for all residents of Gaza who allow the terrorists free passage. The terrorist leadership, an organization called Hamas, refuses to stop the rocket attacks, and the Israelis seem disinclined to stop at this point even if Hamas does stop, as their stated aim is to wipe out the Hamas organization.

Palestinian Perspective

The reasons for the current conflict in Gaza are very complicated, however, at its most basic level, conflict in Gaza comes from the creation of Israel in 1949.

Before 1949, Palestine was a country, however, after WWII, Israel were given a Palestine as a "National Homeland", the decision to do this had been in the making for years, however with the atrocities committed by Hitler in WWII, the Zionist movement (those seeking the creation of Israel finally achieved their objective.

The taking of Palestine was extremely unpopular, as it displaced all those people previously living there, and was seen by many people from the Middle East as further evidence of Western interference and Imperialism.

Recently, groups in Gaza (a disputed territory that nobody officially owns) have been firing rockets into Israel killing only three people in the last many years, but certainly disrupting Israeli life. Because of this the Israeli military have attacked Gaza, killing hundreds (as of this writing). Most people agree that this is a disproportionate response.

However, the root of the problem, and conflict in Gaza, stems from the creation of Israel and western interference since 1919, along with many other local groups, committed to the extermination of Palestinians.

Israeli Perspective

What a one sided view. First of all, there was never a Palestinian country or state as the area was under British occupation and before that under Ottoman rule (old Turkey). When Israel was formed under UN decision in 1948, many locals (retroactively referred as Palestinians although the term did not exist at the time) fled the area on the newly formed Israel for fear that they would be slaughtered as is customary in the region. Many years later, these people wanted to come back and reclain ownership of the land and homes they left behind when they fled. This is commonly reffered to as the "right of return". Israel refused and said that the property was then occupied by Israelis and to give so many people Israeli nationality at once would completely up-end the demografic distribution inside Israel, turning it into a mostly Arab state. Since there are 22 other such states and only a single Jewish State this seems rather unfair, however this point is debatable. The Palestinian issue and the first use of the term began in 1967 when Israel won a preemptive war against the entire Arab world and in the process took over what is now called the Palestinian Territories. It was initilly thought that these regions would be used as leverage in peace talks similar to the way Sinai Peninsula was given back to Egypt in return for peace. Unfortunately, this did not work, for many complex reasons faulting both sides, and Israel ended up occuping the area since. This has had detrimental effects on both sides and results in the flaring of warfare every few years ever since.

Shorter View Answer

Discussion of Operation Cast Lead of December 2008

1). Gaza is under military occupation. Article 42 of the Hague Regulations stipulates, a "territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army," and that the occupation extends "to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised." Similarly, in the Hostage Case, the Nuremberg Tribunal held that, "the test for application of the legal regime of occupation is not whether the occupying power fails to exercise effective control over the territory, but whether it has the ability to exercise such power."

Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, like those in the West Bank, continue to be subject to Israeli control. For example, Israel controls Gaza's air space, territorial waters, and all border crossings. Palestinians in Gaza require Israel's consent to travel to and from Gaza, to take their goods to Palestinian and foreign markets, to acquire food and medicine, and to access water and electricity. Without Israel's permission, the Palestinian Authority (PA) cannot perform such basic functions of government as providing social, health, security and utility services, developing the Palestinian economy and allocating resources.

2). Terrorists or freedom fighters depending on your point of view continue to resist the Israeli occupation with rocket attacks. The reality is the rockets contain no warhead and no guidance system. (Then what in the world can be their purpose, other than to invite retaliation ?) It can argued that the rockets are nothing more than a large firework with no powder. (Then what defensive value can they possibly have ? Perhaps you need a better class of more capable freedom fighters.) The mortality rate from rocket attacks since 2001 in Israel is 0.002% (How shocking! Only two of every hundred thousand Israelis have been killed by large powder-less fireworks with no warhead or guidance system from across the border, and still they keep whining and getting nasty about it ? ! The nerve of those uppity Jews anyway, refusing to die in serious numbers.)

3). In January of 2009, Israel broke the peace and launched operation 'Cast Lead' a massive military offensive against a civilian population. (Perhaps they had grown tired of being targeted by large powder-less warhead-less unguided fireworks from across the border?) It banned foreign press from entering Gaza. It used white phosphorus (a chemical weapon) on UN sanctioned hospitals and schools (a war crime). Within 23 days the death toll had reached 1,284 Palestinians dead, 6 IDF by enemy fire and 3 IDF by friendly fire. When the operation had finished Israel had claimed more land from the Gaza strip in the name of security zones for their protection. (Is that the same Gaza strip from which the Israeli military had removed all Israeli civilian "settlers", by force where it was necessary, and turned it over to Palestinian control? The same Gaza strip that the new owners immediately trashed as soon as they had the chance?)

The following links detail some of the incidents that took place during 2009

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