WTF? The Israel-Palestine Conflict Explained

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is basically as old as the land itself. It’s a conflict so deeply emotional and so rooted in history the only way to understand it is to just admit you will never understand it. No matter what view you take, ultimately, it will seem ridiculous that it has gone on for so long.

In the past week and a half, you’ve probably heard about the air strikes Israel has been sending into Gaza and those Hamas has been sending into Israel. It’s also very possible that when you see this in passing on CNN or someone tweet about it, you don’t fully understand what the fuck is going on, but you know it’s bad. Well, that’s the first step.

There’s no need to delve into the deep, deep history of this conflict, but you should be educated on what’s happening now.

Who are the characters?

So our two foils are Israel and Hamas.

Israel is the little plot of real estate you keep hearing about that’s only the size of the the state with the most distinguished odor, New Jersey. Israel is a highly modernized country. Their economy is 16th in the world and their tech industry rivals that of Silicon Valley. Israel is also the only successful democracy in the Middle East.

The Gaza Strip is an even smaller plot of land ceded by Israel back in the 1990s to the Palestinians. It is currently run by Hamas, the terrorist group posing as a political party. (They produce children’s shows that explicitly tell kids to kill Jews, so you tell me if they’re a terrorist group.) Due to the long history of fighting between the Israelis and Palestinians, just like the West Bank, Gaza has Israeli and Egyptian blockades along its political borders, but even more strict, allowing very few visitors through. More than 70 percent of the population is below the poverty level, electricity is unreliable, access to clean water is declining and the Hamas government receives no aid from the world’s biggest donor, the U.S.

So what’s happening exactly?

In a nutshell, Hamas militants and the Israel Defense Force (IDF) have been firing rockets back and forth, the difference being that all of Israel’s rockets make landfall, while Hamas’s are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome.

The Iron Dome is a mobile air defense system that intercepts short-range rockets, missiles, air rafts, etc. with accuracy of more than 90 percent. It’s so effective that the IDF is actually concerned that the population is getting too complacent with hearing warning sirens and assuming everything is fine. (http://nypost.com/2014/07/10/israel-launches-overnight-air-strikes-on-gaza/) Fun fact: Due to time constraints, parts of the Iron Dome were taken straight from a toy car bought at Toys-R-Us.

However, Gaza has no such defense system, and it has been devastating to the people who live there. While Israel has only had one single casualty from this series of attacks, Gaza has had over 230. Most of the Israeli rockets target the homes of Hamas leaders, but casualties have been unavoidable due to Gaza’s extremely dense population.

Why exactly is this happening?

Well, a lot of reasons. Some of it is due to a collapse in peace talks mediated by the U.S., some of it is just because, but a lot of it is due to the death of three Israeli teenagers.

In mid-June, three Israeli high school students went missing after they went on a hike together through the West Bank. For 18 days the boys were missing, and, unfortunately, their bodies were found only 15 miles from where they were last seen. The Israeli government believes Hamas is behind the killings. This, combined with sporadic rockets fired into Israel after a cease fire had been agreed upon, was the final straw that triggered Israel to retaliate against Hamas.

So what’s next?

Late at night on Thursday (July 17) Israel began a ground invasion of Gaza and called on 50 thousand reservists to help carry out the operation. IDF officials have no plan for how long the operation will last, but estimate about two weeks. Hamas has already responded by firing even more rockets and claim they still have more to fire.

It’s unclear how long the fighting will last in Gaza, but this ground operation is targeting Hamas leaders and seeks to destroy underground tunnels dug by militants to sneak into Israeli cities to carry out attacks.

What’s my opinion?

I’ve only been to Israel on Birthright, but I can honestly call it my other country. After visiting and making lifelong friends with people who actually live there, I feel almost as Israeli as I do American. The people we’re talking about are my friends. I see them posting about the sirens and the rockets on Facebook while I’m in la-la-land Florida enjoying my summer.

The thing about Israelis, though, is that they don’t let anything affect them. They make sure they’re safe, but they haven’t put their lives on hold for this. They still follow their daily routines, go out at night and keep living their lives. They know that if they’re afraid, the terrorists win.

As far as the Palestinian people go, they deserve better than the situation they’ve had. Israel’s goal is to oust Hamas, and the Palestinians should support them because they have not helped improve their condition or peace talks since taking control in 2006. At the same time, they’re destroying their homes and killing their innocent civilians, and that’s a grudge that could not be let go.

 

Featured photo courtesy of: Cija

---