Usenko wrote:...In short, it's two groups of people that have been put into a difficult situation, not entirely of their making, and violence is a regrettable (but perfectly human) response.
TLDR at the bottom, of course!
I agree and think that people need to understand more about this issue. The commonly understood history of this problem goes back to the defeat and appropriation of the
Ottoman Empire during a time when several European powers were still interested in their own "Empires." Conflict had been an ongoing issue, to varying extent, in Europe for centuries. With the various Treaties of Westphalia
1 European powers had somehow found a way to persuade each other from going to war without actually going to war. Some horrible conflicts were ended by groups of diplomats, not battlefield victories. At least until people got tired of being ruled by Kings. But, the energy put into such intricate diplomatic negotiations, carried out largely on horseback and wagons, with diplomats far from home and sometimes left to solve problems on their own, didn't get similar application outside of Europe. Well, that's pretty easy to figure out, right - Europe was concerned about Europe, even if its power stretched into other lands.
But, after World War 1, in which such niceties as Westphalia had broken down, and all the machinations and diplomatic wrangling, much of it reactionary and not very forward-looking, over issues in Europe arising from that mess, nobody gave an equal amount of attention to what was going to happen in the Middle East after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Why? Imperial interests... There was simply little interests there to engage diplomatic discourse in terms of stability and a lot of interest there concerning exploitation of the new vacuum. England, France, Italy, even post-war Germany, all had their own interests in the region and moved quickly to assert varying forms of dominance, precluding any sort of true sovereignty for just about every "country" that could be found, if one can call a line in the sand a border. That persisted until even after World War II, even though various powers had declared their support for the formation of certain "states." (Perhaps... in an effort to wrest control from Ottoman/Turkish dominance? Just a thought.)
But, the creation of the states of Israel and Palestine began before World War II, with various powers like Great Britain, the League of Nations, France and other Eur0pean powers as well as the Ottomans, as early as 1917.
1 As intentions to create both Israel and Palestine became clear and borders were being determined, radical differences in various census conducted demonstrated populations emigrating into/within the region, likely attempting to establish ethnic dominance and influence the creation of the states.
By no means is this an exhaustive post on the subject... But, the point should be clear:
The creation of Israel is intrinsically tied to the creation of Palestine and this has been in progress since 1917, through two World Wars, both of which severely complicated matters, and has been further mired in the imperial expansion of various European powers in the interim period, at least as recent as the 1970's, all of which has resulted in populations being notably distrustful of any and all outside powers, since outside powers have had their fingers in the region since long before, and continuing through, the various World Wars that have included these regions.
In short, the TLDR is - This is an old wound that has never been stabilized long enough to cure. This region only experienced any semblance of what could remotely be called geopolitical "stability," largely due to people in the region not concerning themselves very much with declaring sovereignty, during the days of the Ottomans. That collapse and subsequent power-vacuum and influx of European powers further destabilized any hope for fully carrying out intentions that had been very, very, clear since 1917 for the creation of Israel
and Palestine. In recent history, relative stability has been achieved, but only through intense efforts by none other than the European (And, today, American) powers that had previously sought to exploit the region. But, that "history" has left its mark on local states/peoples, with memories of Imperial exploitation as well as broken promises.
While I strongly support the sovereignty of Israel, I have to point out that the Palestinians have been waiting for the promise of
their country to be "created" for over a hundred years.