Israel

Israel became a member of the United Nations in May 1949, one year after its becoming a sovereign nation. In early 2011, of the 192 United Nations member states, Israel has full mutual diplomatic relations with 154. Since 1967, diplomatic relations have been established with several Arab and Muslim countries. Israel maintains full diplomatic relations and open borders with neighbouring Egypt and Jordan since signing peace treaties with them in 1979 and 1994 respectively.

Some of the countries with which Israel has no diplomatic relations do accept Israeli passports, and acknowledge other Israeli marks of sovereignty.

The following 36 members of the United Nations do not have diplomatic relations with Israel:

Algeria, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Guinea, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, North Korea, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan*, Pakistan, Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

*Bhutan allows India to conduct the majority of its foreign relations, and has direct relations with fewer than 50 countries.

Answer:

Currently (2013), 160 of the 192 other UN member states (83%) recognize Israel. In the Middle East, the countries that recognize Israel are Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey.

There are plenty of abstract ideas for resolutions, but so far nothing has come too close to actually resolving the conflict for an extended period of time. It's a complicated situation that probably requires many resolutions over a long time.

Answer 1

The Bottom Line is that both sides have a number of important and difficult concessions to make in pursuit of peace and the majority on each side are not willing to concede as much as they should. One of the best proposed solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is the Geneva Initiative which provides for a comprehensive resolution of each side's major issues. However, this Initiative requires a number of major concessions from each side, some of which are very painful. See the link below for more information.

Answer 2

If you look at the number of "initiatives", "peace plans", "road maps" and other projects called to solve the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Arabs, you will find that this number exceeds 50. It means that all the politicians, historians, sociologists, think tanks have been for almost 70 years thinking about how to establish peace between Palestinian Arabs and Israelis - but the current situation demonstrates that their formidable efforts have failed. It means that the approach to the problem based on the concept that the peace between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs is possible in the foreseeable future is based on the wrong premise.

In order to solve a conflict, the analysts should first answer two basic questions:

1. Who are the true main actors in the conflict?

2. What are those main actors´ principal true goals?

The conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Israel is a small part of the much bigger conflict between Arabs and Israel, and of course nobody can find a solution to the small conflict without solving a bigger one of which the smaller is a part. And Arab leaders are not interested in solving the conflict and establishing peace with Israel. This conflict helps them explain to their people why their life is so hard and insecure; it´s because Israel together with America and other "imperialists" rob Arabs of their natural resources. Arabs blame Israel of all their misfortunes, problems and woes, Israel is the personification of the World Evil in the eyes of the common Arab public- and a wonderful scapegoat for Arab leaders. And they will not let Palestinian Arabs, who are not self-sufficient economically and are heavily dependent on the economic and political support of Arab countries make peace with Israel.

The goals Arabs pursue are simple: to destroy Israel and divide its territory between Egypt, Jordan, Syria. Nobody is going to give any "Palestinian State" to Palestinian Arabs; Egypt occupied Gaza almost 20 years, from 1948 to 1967, and Jordan in the same years occupied Judea and Samaria ( what the West calls "West Bank") and Jerusalem. And in all these almost 20 years neither Egypt nor Jordan did not move a finger to create some "Palestinian State". Moreover, Palestinian Arabs did not claim it and were quite content living under Egyptian and Jordanian occupation. So, Arab leaders are using Palestinian Arabs as a cannon fodder in their endless attempts to destroy Israel- but without the risk of the direct military clashes with Jews that were so disastrous for Arabs in their previous wars against Israel.

And they will go on using Palestinian Arabs in this role in future. If it were not so, 300-million Arab world would have absorbed 750,000 Arab refugees from Palestine as a 8-million Israel has absorbed 800,000 Jews- refugees from Arab countries. If Arab leaders have not done it yet and there are no signs they are going to do it in future, then they need Palestinian Arabs exactly in the quality of refugees, without rights and without perspectives; such people are very easily manipulated and are a good weapon. And they will not let totally dependent on them Palestinian Arabs sign any treaty with Israel if this treaty does not serve Arabs´ political goal of final destruction of Israel.

Israeli leaders understand this Arab game and categorically refuse to be a part of it. So, all talks about "one-state solution" are just a vibration in the air because Israel will not agree to commit a national suicide and accept the "solution" which will in ten years make Jews a minority in their own country. So, a one state solution is unacceptable for Israel.

And the "two - state "solution is unacceptable to both Israel and Arabs, because for Israel it means the deterioration of its military capacity to fight off an Arab attack in case of a war and the division of Israeli capital Jerusalem, which was for Jews a cultural, political and religious centre during the last 2,500 years- and for Arabs it means the necessity to officially recognize Israel and its right to exist. In order to evaluate the chances Arabs will agree, let´s look at Egypt. This country signed a Peace Treaty with Israel in 1979-and was immediately branded as a traitor by all the Arab world. But after the military defeat Egypt suffered in the Yom Kippur war of 1973 Egypt did not have any other options to get back Sinai. So, the Peace Treaty was signed, Egypt got Sinai, Israel and Egypt established the diplomatic relations, Israeli tourists started to visit Sharm el- Sheikh and Kurgada… This idyll continued 30 years. But 30 years later the iron fist of president Mubarak opened up and the Egyptians got the chance to say what they really thought. And they said it! Almost 80% of Egyptians say the Peace Treaty with Israel must be cancelled.

Let´s not forget we are talking about the country that is considered "moderate" and even "pro-Western". The hatred to Jews and Israel in other Arab countries is by no means less than in Egypt. So, the chances that Arabs will without any force major situation agree to recognize Israel and stop planning its destruction are very slim.

So, these two last starry-eyed inventions of the Western Liberals,"one-state solution" and "two state solution", will follow the sadly famous "road map", "Beilin initiative", "French peace plan", "Russian initiative" and about three dozens of their unsuccessful brothers, sisters and cousins from different countries of the world. And both Israelis and Arabs know this but they will politely arrive to the White House, they will listen, seriously nodding, the full of high - flying words about peace and living side by side in harmony speech of President Obama or whoever will be at that moment the President of the USA, they will pose for a traditional shake hands - and then they will return back home and in less than a month will inform USA that the sad fate, insurmountable obstacles and the crafty designs of the enemies of peace have made all their efforts to implement the wise decisions of the President of the USA futile.

We have seen this comic cartoon at least 20 times in the last 20 years.

In this situation, there are only two realistic perspectives for solving the conflict.

1. In the course of the war between some Arab states, for example, Syria or Egypt and the Jewish State, Israel uses the chance and pushes Palestinian Arabs from all the territory of Judea, Samaria and maybe Gaza, making them flee to Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon or wherever they can. Of course, there will be a public outcry and a lot of accusations of "ethnic cleansing", but there is no doubt that if Israel gets in a situation of the war for survival, it will do it like it did it in 1948. However, Arab countries understand this and try to avoid the direct military conflicts with Israel.

It leaves us with just one realistic option, i.e.

1. The International Community initiates the plan of moving Arabs - non citizens of Israel - from all the territories of Israel including Judea , Samaria and Jerusalem. By force? No, of course not. By paying them for leaving.

Why Arabs, and not Jews? Well, first because there are only 1.2 mln Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem and about1.1 mln in Gaza, i.e. approximately 2.3 mln Arabs to move - against 8 mln Jews. Moving 2.3 mln people is much easier than moving 8 mln. And not only much easier, but also much cheaper. Second, Jews will simply refuse to leave . They've created quite a successful State, with the diversified economy and the GDP per capita(PPP) higher than in Italy and just $5,000 lower than in the United Kingdom. Why should they leave? And what would it cost to make the idea of leaving interesting to them?

But Arabs say they will never leave their motherland ( how can a motherland of Arabs be in Palestine, and what is Arabia then - are the questions Arabs prefer not to hear), that they will better die than emigrate… Yes, of course they say it, together with the terrible stories about how they love death more than they love life and about how they are "the native population of Palestine" - but in English, at the public forums and conferences. But in Arabic, average Arabs say something very different.

A survey conducted among the Palestinians in Nov. 2004 indicated that only about 15% of the Palestinian population resident in Israeli administered areas (Judea and Samaria) would reject outright an offer to emigrate.

By contrast, almost 40% would be ready to emigrate even without any form of the compensation, if only some country agrees to accept them. And over 70% would be happy to leave on the condition of receiving some form of material compensation as an inducement to emigrate permanently from the areas currently under Israeli administration (see the Related Links below) .

Another poll carried out by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion showed that only about half of the Arab population says they wish to remain in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In reply to the question: "If the possibility of immigration to the West were open to you, would you immigrate or stay in the country?"

55.3 % said "I would stay"

38.3 % said "I would immigrate"

6.3 % said" I don't know"

(See Related Links for more)

Poll No. 168 Nov 03, 2009

So, some 50%-70% of Arabs living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza would be ready to immigrate if only some country/ies opens the door to them and if they get some financial compensation. 2.3 million Arabs who live in Judea, Samaria and Gaza make some 450,000 families. Supposing the amount of the compensation being at $20,000 per family, we shall have the price of ending the conflict: $9 bln. It´s a lot of money? Well, yes, it is. But the West pays annually billions of dollars in direct financial and indirect humanitarian aid to Arabs in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and this amount is also quite comparable to the costs of the project of saving the endangered species, where one single program of saving green and loggerhead sea turtles costs $153.8 million. I am very positive about both green and loggerhead sea turtles, they are nice, cool and very sociable and I wish them luck and prosperity. But still, I think that the life and prosperity of 2.3 million people should cost at least the same as the life and well-being of sea turtles.

Read more at the Related Question below

Answer 1

Palestine was never an independent or quasi-independent Arab State before the 1990s. Prior to the State of Israel, it was a British Mandate. (Answer 2 is mistaken about this issue.) Prior to that it was part of the Ottoman Empire (and not even a unified district), Seljuk Empire, Mamluk Empire, etc. Palestine was given opportunity to declare independence in 1947 with UN Resolution 181, since permission was given to both a Jewish State AND an Arab State. Unfortunately, the Palestinians chose at that time not to legitimize the Jewish State by declaring independence. In 1988, the PLO declared Palestinian Independence in absentia. In 1993, the Oslo Accords resulted in Israeli recognition of the Palestinian Authority as an independent governing body for the Palestinians and gave them administration of parts of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. However, there has not been a realization of full independence yet.

Answer 2: Palestinian Perspective

Palestine had independence about 60 years ago, but know they have no independence. in fact some Palestinians are in like a prison cell. everywhere they go they need to pass a checkpoint and the Jews treat Palestinian badly. sometimes they even let Palestinian woman give birth on the middle of the streets just because they don't have their passport on them.

Samaria, land of the Samarians or Samaritans.