HAMAS, an Arabic acronym meaning “Islamic Resistance Movement”, is the name of the socio-political organization currently in power over the Gaza Strip. For decades Jews & Muslims and Israelis & Palestinians, often one in the same, have fought for control over the region. Each have killed thousands of the other, destroyed infrastructures and used underhanded tactics to gain an advantage. Nations such as Japan, the European Union, the United States and (of course) Israel classify the group as terrorists, while nations such as Turkey, Russia and Switzerland do not. (King, 2010) Many factors are taken into consideration before a Nation-State denounces an organization as a “terrorist group”. A profile of HAMAS may help make clear why it is not uniformly denounced by all nations and with historical context, if they truly are freedom fighters in a resistance movement.
Genesis
The Nation of Israel was founded out of the eastern area of a British occupied (former Ottoman Empire) section of western Asia known as the “Mandate of Palestine”. There was an attempt in November of 1947 by the United Nations (UN) to partition the region into Arab and Israeli states with the Holy City Jerusalem as an international city. (United Nations, 1949) The Jews accepted this proposal while the Arab League and other groups did not. (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2006). What followed was an Arab strike that became violent and sent the Jews on the defensive. They rebounded and brought the civil war to an end, expelling over 250,000 Arabs. The day before the British mandate was set to expire; the region was invaded by four Arab States starting the yearlong 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Ultimately a cease fire and truce was reached with the establishment of bo...
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...ember 14, 2011, from Washington Institute for Peace: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2653
Lockman, Z., & Beinin, J. (1989). Intifada: The Palestinian Uprising Against Israeli Occupation. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.
Morris, B. (2008). 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press.
Netanyahu, B. (2002). A Durable Peace: Israel and its Place Among the Nations. New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing.
Spears, J. (2002 , January 8). Federatoin of American Scientists. Retrieved September 10, 2011, from Muslim Brotherhood: http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/mb.htm
United Nations. (1949). Background Paper No. 47. Lake Success, NY: UN.
Wikipedia. (2011, August 25). History of Hamas. Retrieved September 14, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Hamas#Early_Islamic_activism_in_Gaza
Ben-Gurion, David. “Status-Quo Agreement.” In Israel in the Middle East: Second Edition, edited by Itamar Rabinovich and Jehude Reinharz, 58-59. Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2008.
This marked the beginning of the Palestine armed conflict, one of its kinds to be witnessed in centuries since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and World War 1. Characterized by a chronology of endless confrontations, this conflict has since affected not only the Middle East relations, but also the gl...
Since the inception of an Israeli nation-state in 1948, violence and conflict has played a major role in Israel’s brief history. In the Sixty-One year’s Israel has been a recognized nation-state, they have fought in 6 interstate wars, 2 civil wars, and over 144 dyadic militarized interstate disputes (MIDs) with some display of military force against other states (Maoz 5). Israel has been involved in constant conflict throughout the past half century. Israel’s tension against other states within the Middle East has spurred vast economic, social, and political unity that has fostered a sense of nationalism and unity in Israel not seen in most other states. Over the next several pages I will try and dissect the reasons for why the nation state of Israel has been emerged in constant conflict and how this conflict has helped foster national unity and identity among the people of Israel.
Although a major component of this conflict is religion, the difference in beliefs in the Middle East is not the sole reason for Palestinian resistance and violence. Instead, each person is motivated to fight for freedom in a unique way. For some, the occupation has causes issues and deaths of family or close friends. Others simply feel that it is their duty to fight for independence. No matter the reason, each freedom fighter feels that their actions are justified by the problems that the occupation has bestowed upon them. In Hany Abu-Assad’s Paradise Now, two Palestinian men are are chosen to commit a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, Israel. Using the two men as examples, Abu-Assad demonstrates the distinct effects that each man feels in Israeli occupied territories. Hany Abu-Assad has experienced the oppression of the Israeli occupation first hand, and in Paradise Now, he uses long shots to show the overall injustice of the situation and close-up shots to show how single people are trapped by unique circumstances.
The Arab-Israeli conflict, initiated over one-hundred years ago and still continuing, has confounded both policy-makers and citizens; despite the best efforts of foreign leaders, only one substantial accord has materialized in the decades of negotiations: the Israel-Egypt peace treaty of 1979. Before one undertakes to understand such a complex topic as the Israel-Egypt peace treaty, however, a broad knowledge of the historical background of the two countries involved is essential to understanding the motivations and aspirations of both parties, which in turn will shed light on the peace treaty itself. Foreign policy can’t be viewed in a vacuum; rather, each country must be viewed as a nation with legitimate historical and political aspirations . Also, when evaluating foreign policy, there are two methods of analysis: one is to concentrate on the output and documents produced by working backwards, deducing the intents of the various leaders from the end result; the other method is to focus on the politics of decisionmaking, viewing foreign policy as a result of individual political aims. The first approach focuses on the primary sources, while the other concentrates on the parties themselves. In this paper, I will give a comprehensive background of Israel-Egypt relations, and utilize the two forms of analyses to deduce what the goals of each party were at the time the treaty was signed, and use the lens of hindsight to evaluate whether their goals were met.
Bourke, Dale Hanson. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Tough Questions, Direct Answers. Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity, 2013. N. pag. Print.
Gelvin’s introduction, however, states that one of the arguments of his book is that “historians specializing in the Middle East certainly have a story to tell, but it is a global story told in a local vernacular” (Gelvin 2). In the rest of his introduction, Gelvin briefly discusses the formation of groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, pointing out that these organizations are not the fanatical Islamist terrorist groups that reject modernity, but rather, modern unions that offer “alternative approaches to modernity” (Gelvin 6). Furthermore, he argues that al-Qaeda is inherently modern because it shares an outlook and modus operandi with anarchism, since it is a reactive, decentralized organization that attempts to destroy systems that promote modernity, much like nineteenth century European anarchist groups.
Continetti, Matthew. “Hamas’s Useful Idiots.” Commentary 138.2 (2014): 80-79. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 July 2016.
Bob Hawke once said; “Unless and until something concrete is done about addressing the Israeli-Palestinian issue you won't get a real start on the war against terrorism.” Perhaps Hawke put into a few simple words one of the most complicated issues within our world today, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As Israel continues to strip the Palestinians of their land and fears it’s very existence because of the Palestinians terrorist acts, there seems to be no solution in sight. The world appears to be split and all over the place when it comes to this matter. According to The Middle East Institute for Understanding approximately 129 countries recognize Palestine as a state while many others do not. Over all the political matters within this issue not only affect Palestine and Israel but the world as a whole, as the Middle East and the West seem to disagree. This has had and will continue to have an enormous impact on many political affairs all over the world particularly in the current fight against terrorism. Personally I feel that the Israeli Palestinian conflict while being a very complicated matter has a simple solution. Within this issue I am a firm believer that the occupation of the West Bank by Israeli forces is extremely unjust and must come to an end. Once this is achieved a two state solution will be the most effective way to bring peace to the area. The occupation of the West Bank violates political and legal rights, human rights, and illegally forces Palestinians who have lived in the area for hundreds of years from their land. This conflict is at the height of its importance and a solution is of dire need as nuclear issues arise in the Middle East due to the tension between Israel and it’s surrounding neighbors, and the...
The War of 1948, also known as the War of Independence, was fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The war began May 15, 1948 when units from the armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq invaded Israel launching a war that lasted until December 1948.# The war resulted in the defeat of the Arab forces and the success of Israel as a newly established state. It is evident that the Arab forces were not successful in the first Arab-Israeli war because the Arab army lacked motivation, education, and proper equipment.# Despite the support from Arab states outside of Palestine, the Arabs were unable to gain enough strength to overcome the Israeli forces. In contrast, the Israeli army was able to succeed because they had unconditional support from the Jewish community, efficient infrastructures, and modern equipment. Israel also used significant strategies that proved lethal against the competing Arab forces. With the Arab communities unorganized attempt to go to war in 1948, it was inevitable that Israel would come out of the war as the victor.
Mr. Sharon’s views about Israel and its conflict with the Arabs were cemented early in his life. He was born 1928 and lived his early years in British controlled Palestine. At the age of one, his farming village was overrun by Arab raiders. Women and children took refuge in a barn where he escaped the raid unharmed. His family migrated to Russia, but at age 14, Mr. Sharon volunteered for a local militia devoted to ensuring the security of Jewish settlements. Mr. Sharon
Jerome Slater. "Muting the Alarm over the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." International Security 32, no. 2 (Fall 2007): 84-120.
Kamrava, Mehran. "The Arab-Israeli Wars." The Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War. 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 2010. 109-39. Print.
From 1948 to 1950 is a more well known section in the history of the Middle East; the Arab-Israeli War, in which there were a series of attacks on the outnumbered new state of Israel which were uncoordinated since, as said before, the Middle East is not a cohesive unit at this point in time, and were actually beaten back a bit by Israel which gained more land than they were allotted by the UN partition until an armistice was signed on January 7, 1949.
“There is no such thing as a Palestinian.” Stated former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir after three fourths of one million Palestinians had been made refugees, over five hundred towns and cities had been obliterated, and a new regional map was drawn. Every vestige of the Palestinian culture was to be erased. Resolution 181, adopted in 1947 by the United Nations declared the end of British rule over Palestine (the region between the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River) and it divided the area into two parts; a state for the Jewish and one for the Arab people, Palestine. While Israel was given statehood, Palestine was not. Since 1947, one of the most controversial issues in the Middle East, and of course the world, is the question of a Palestinian state. Because of what seems a simple question, there have been regional wars among Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, terrorist attacks that happen, sometimes daily, displacement of families from their homes, and growing numbers of people living in poverty. Granting Palestinian statehood would significantly reduce, or alleviate, tensions in the Middle East by defining, once and for all, the area that should be Palestine and eliminating the bloodshed and battles that has been going on for many years over this land.