What Is the Middle East Crisis?

In his book, Fast Facts on the Middle East Conflict, author, Randal Price, gives an interesting anecdote that sums up the crisis in the Middle East. 'A scorpion, who wanted to cross the Nile, did so by sitting on the back of a crocodile. In the middle of the river, the scorpion stings the crocodile and both of them drown to death. When the crocodile asks the scorpion about the reason behind the sting, the scorpion merely said..."there is none! This is the Middle East"

This story sums up the Middle East crisis beautifully. Both the Arabs and the Jews have been at war with each other for about three centuries now, with each side, trying to discredit the other. Until now, the west wasn't really concerned with the conflict (although it did play its part in aggravating the problem), but 9/11 did change things. Governments around the world did realize that it was important for them to bring about an amicable solution to the conflict, in order to maintain world peace. But what exactly is the crisis in the Middle East?

Conflict between the Arabs and Jews has its roots in the Roman conquest of ancient Jewish Kingdoms of Israel and Judea. They banished the Jews living there, and sold a vast majority of them as slaves. The kingdom was then named Palestine. With the Arabs conquering Palestine, the remaining Jews took to Arab culture and the Muslim religion. Though there still existed Jews and Christians. This situation continued until and after Palestine became a part of the Ottoman Empire. Around late 19th century, began the Zionist movement, that called for Jews around the world to come together to reclaim the lost land of Israel. Consequently, thousands of Jews from as far as East Europe and Yemen came to Israel to reclaim lost land and strengthen religious and cultural ties, with the country of their origin.

After the end of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was overthrown and taken over by the British, who promised a 'nation exclusively for the Jews'. This was severely opposed by the Arabs who forced the British to restrict access to the Jews. The problem assumed gargantuan proportions after the Second World War, thousands of displaced Jews has nowhere to go. Caught in a quagmire, the British gave mandate to the United Nations, to come to a conclusion about the crisis. The UN then adopted a proposal for the partition of Palestine. Naturally, while the Jews accepted it, the Arabs rejected it. When this armistice agreement was proposed, West Bank and Jerusalem were under control of Jordan and the Gaza Strip was under control of Syria. Thousands of Palestine Arabs who were forced out of Israel by the Zionists settled here. In June 1967, Israel fought with Syria, Jordan and Iraq (they had formed an alliance against Israel) to conquer West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Sinai Dessert. Growing nationalism in Israel supported settlements in these areas. What started as an attempt to reclaim Palestine by the Arab Muslims soon became a fight to liberate these settlement areas. Meanwhile the Arab Palestine Muslims began their claim for a separate state. There were several organizations that supported this cause. While some organizations believed in peace, and under the patronage of the UN, some like the Hamas, assumed militant proportions.

Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza has been continually growing, although in 2005, Israel agreed to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

Both, the Arab Palestine Muslims and the Israeli Jews have been fighting over a land that both claim ownership on and rightfully so. This is in short, the Middle East Crisis; very much resembling the story mentioned earlier.

Mohammad Goldstein, the author of this article is a prolific writer, who has authored several ebooks including 'The Plot to Overthrow', where he discusses about the Arab-Israeli conflict in Chapter 3 of the book.

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