Palestinian Territories

Arab Opinion

Because in 1948 something called Nakba from Palestinian History, in this year most of Palestinians were forced their houses lives and lands to live now in refugees in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and other Arabic countries with almost very bad situations specially the once living in Lebanon.

The number of refugees lives outside Palestine estimated with 4 to 6 millions, they are not allowed even to visit Palestine.

Israel didn't stop at that point it keeps taking lands to build Israeli settlements, they are increased day by day due to the large increase of Jewish immigration, and the most important problem is that Israel keeps digging under Al-Aqsa mosque which increase the chance for it's collapse, and because it's one of the most important places for Muslims unequal fights always happens.

Also Jewish only allow people above 50 years to pray at Al-Aqsa. Younger people are not allowed, and so and so on, without stopping.

May god help Palestine, and set it Free soon, to live in peace for once.

Israeli Opinion

The Zionists and others who supported the Creation of the Jewish Nation were finally able to get the International Community to see the entrenched nature of Anti-Semitism in Europe after the Holocaust. This international perspective finally allowed Jews to successfully campaign for a State. When the United Nations was formed and indicated this would be a goal of theirs (the Partitioning of the Mandate of Palestine), a large number of Jews from refugee camps across Europe began to immigrate both legally and illegally to the territory. Arabs, who were repulsed by the idea of a Jewish State, used militias formed to oppose the British occupation and turned them against the Jews. The Jews responded with similarly formed militias and targeted the Arabs.

When the Partition plan was announced, the Jews were not happy with the small piece of land that they were awarded, but figured that some land would be better than none. The Arabs on the other hand refused to tolerate the idea that they would have to compromise at all. Jewish militias returned to defend the Partition borders, but were forced to engage with the Arab militias throughout the Mandate. As the Jewish-Arab Engagement of 1947-1949 became compounded by Israel's declaration of Statehood and the intervening of seven Arab countries, the War got bloodier. As the Arab opinion above notes, not all of the Jewish soldiers behaved honorably and there were numerous massacres of Arab civilians during the Jewish-Arab Engagement, but there were also attacks on Jewish civilians during the same period and prior to (as mentioned above).

Answer #1:

It depends entirely on which day "today" is.

Currently, on December 8, 2013, the son of Greek Orthodox Priest

Gabriel Nadaf, a resident of Nazareth, Israel, was beaten by Israeli

Muslims because of Nadaf's vocal support of the IDF and enlistment.

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Answer #2: (same date, from another contributor)

My grandkids went to the synagogue with their parents yesterday,

and today, their mother took them to the park and to visit their

other (local) grandmother.

There was no nation of Israel in the first century, Israel having been destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BCE.

In Judea and Galilee, the most common occupations were associated with farming. Jews had traditionally held a strong bond with the land and avoided losing their farms at all costs, since a landless farmer was destined to extreme poverty. Nevertheless, many Jews did lose their land through indebtedness during the Roman period and became farm labourers. Fishing was an occupation available to some in Galilee. Village artisans performed a variety of tasks such as carpentry and pottery.

Townspeople included priests and scribes, of whom there were many, especially in Jerusalem. As in other parts of the Roman Empire, merchants formed an important part of town life. Good quality pottery, furniture, clothing and other crafts and manufactures provided work in the towns.

Inevitably, those among the very poor who were unable to support themselves turned to brigandry, petty theft and begging. In turn, a corps of guards and local soldiers was required.

Religious Answer

The Bible says that there will be seven years of peace in Israel, then the end of the world. So yes, there will be in the future.

Practical Answer

A number of things would have to take place before a long-standing peace (as opposed to a mere cessation of hostilities) could take place. There are other requisites, but there are the most important.

1) Mutual Recognition: Israel would need to recognize a completely independent and sovereign Palestinian Government that would fully control a certain amount of the former British Mandate of Palestine (most likely Gaza and the West Bank). Israel would also have to confer on this state the unambiguous nature of being correct and necessary for Israel. Conversely, Palestine would have to recognize the Right for Israel to Exist as a Jewish State occupying the remaining amount of the British Mandate of Palestine (most likely 1949-Israel). Both sides would have to recognize the historical and emotional value that the land also has to the other.

2) Regional/International Recognition: States that have adopted attitudes strongly favoring one side at the expense of the other, such as the Arab States would need to recognize the legitimacy of both Israel and Palestine.

3) Israeli Reparation Payments: Israel dispossessed many Palestinians of their property, either by malicious activities that took place during the Arab-Israeli Wars or by Ben-Gurion refusing to let Palestinians who left return after the 1948-9 War. Israel needs to pay the Palestinian government reparations for the land that was taken in this way.

4) Israeli Withdrawal from the Settlements: Israel must withdraw from the Settlements to provide Palestine with a viable infrastructure and complete sovereignty. The Settlers must return to Israeli territory. The buildings, however, should be left as partial payment of the above-mentioned reparations.

5) Palestinians Must Concede Right of Return: Recognizing the State of Israel as a Jewish State is meaningless if Palestinians en masse are allowed to Return to Israel. Therefore, Palestinians (and their backers) must abandon the notion that they can ever return to Israeli territory. Palestinians should leave the refugee camps and become proper citizens in this new country of Palestine.

6) Jerusalem Must Be Shared or Internationalized:Palestine and Israel both want Jerusalem and the only way to solve this is either divide the city East/West respectively and divide the Old City or Internationalize the City or some combination of Internationalization and division. Neither side will rest until it can assure its followers that its holy sites will be protected.

7) Liberal Thought: Just in general, people have to be willing to compromise and live with that compromise.

This excerpt is taken from keyway.ca

"Regardless of the place of origin of the Philistines, whether Crete or Egypt, or anywhere else, we do know for certain how "Philistine" became "Palestine." The name Palestine originated from the Greek word pronounced Palaistina, which is derived from the Hebrew word pronounced pel-eh-sheth, meaning land of the Philistines (one of the most famous of whom was Goliath). The original word referred only to a small coastal territory corresponding to what is today Gaza, never to all of the land of Jacob, who God renamed Israel."

As concerns "Jewish Arabs":

It is important to note, before answering the question, that the people you are referring to are not considered to be "Jewish Arabs" by either Arabs or Jews or themselves. They are typically referred to as "Jews from Arab countries", "Mizrahi Jews", "Mizrahim", or "Sephardi Jews". Many Jews consider the term Jewish Arab offensive because the Jews were in much of the Middle East and North Africa long before the Arabs arrived and did not intermarry with them to a large degree, making them Un-Arabized (as opposed to the remaining indigenous population which did experience this). Therefore, they are not Arabs of Jewish faith, but Jews who happened to grow up in Arab countries.

As concerns Israel:

Racial Jewish demographics are always hard to do in Israel because there is a huge push in Israel for Jews from all different walks of life to intermarry and create a United Sabra Culture. (Sabra is the term for Israeli Cultural Judaism). Mizrahim first came to Israel in the "Exodus Wave" which occurred from 1950-1952. During that period, between 450,000 and 550,000 Mizrahim left the Arab World and came to Israel, with the largest communities leaving from Iraq and Morocco. Israel had, prior to that point, a population of around 600,000. This made the Mizrahim a very large percentage of Israelis.

During the 1960s, the Israeli Religious Population was relatively small and Mizrahim reproduced at a slightly higher rate than Ashkenazim which led to Mizrahim being the largest Jewish community from that period until the 1990s when a mass of Russian Jews shifted the balance back to Ashkenazim being the Jewish majority. However, it is also important to note that the children of the Mizrahim born in Israel in the 1960s and 1970s began to intermarry with the Ashkenazim, leading to many in Israel having mixed heritage. (For example, one-quarter of Israelis claim Moroccan heritage, but only one-fifth claim it from both sides, representing a difference of 250,000 people)

The best estimate today of the Mizrahi Jewish population in Israel would be around 2 million individuals.

As concerns the Palestinian Territories:

There used to be a relatively sizable Mizrahi Jewish population in what would become the Palestinian Territories in the early 1900s (prior to the increase brought on by the Mandatory Period). There were roughly 20,000 Jews in Jerusalem and its environs, as compared with an Arab population of around 300,000 (which is nearly 7%). This grew during the the Mandatory Period to roughly 100,000 Jews, most of whom were not Mizrahi Jews, but the descendants of Europeans.

The Jewish-Arab Engagement of 1947-1949 saw the expulsion of all Jews in the Palestinian Territories as they were seen to be on the side of the Jewish State. The period from 1949-1967 (the Jordanian West Bank) was the only time in the last two millenia when no Jews lived in or were permitted to visit the Old City of Jerusalem. Any endemic Palestinian Jewry crossed into Israel after this forcible expulsion. In 1967, a minority of Israeli Mizrahi Jews (of which some were historically Palestinian, but had shed that title) joined in the settlement building in the West Bank and Gaza, primarily in the environs of Jerusalem and in the Old City itself. However, this was a minority of settlers both because a stronger pull to attract settlers existed in the Ashkenazic Communities (Nationalist fervor) and because those communities contained more individuals. With the Israeli unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, there are no more Mizrahi Jews in that area.

A decent estimate of the Mizrahim remaining in East Jerusalem and the Israeli Settlements scattered throughout the West Bank would be 60,000 (of a total of between 200,000 and 300,000 settlers).

Answer 1

In the Israel -- Palestine conflict, the US is neutral on the side of Israel. The United States is trying to get Israel and Palestine to reach a peace agreement between each other.

Answer 2

The United States supports both Israel and Palestine. The United States is also prepared to support and aide any Arab country (like Egypt) that is willing to trade violence and antagonism for peace.

The United States support for the State of Israel is the stronger of the two and comes from a variety of sources. Israel has cooperated with the United States on diplomatic issues, military and intelligence exchanges, large amounts of trade, and significant technological investment. In addition there a numerous Americans who support the State of Israel because of religious convictions on top of the already-listed reasons.

The United States is the largest donor to UNRWA, the UN organization maintaining the Palestinian Refugee Camps, and is one of the largest donors to the Palestinian Authority, the current official government of Palestine. The United States has consistently endorsed a Roadmap to Peace with a Two-State Solution since the Oslo Accords in 1993.