Arab-Israeli Relations

THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT: HISTORY AND PROSPECTIVE SOLUTIONSWAR
The 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the subsequent conflicts can be considered inevitable, as generally speaking, the ultimate source was a creation of a new nation inside the territory occupied by an existing nation, the latter surrounded by its political, social, and religious allies.
RELATIVE POSITIONS
From the onset, there was already fierce opposition and resistance to the immigration or Diaspora of the Jews back to Palestine, much more the creation of a Jewish state. Directed against the immigrant Jewish population, the Arab resistance took its form in violent attacks. In the Hebron massacre, sixty-seven Jews were killed in the conflict and Jewish homes and synagogues were burnt and ransacked (Segev, 2000) This and similar incidents were prompted by the covert and violent operations of the Black Hand, an armed Arab oppositionist group (Yaari, 1973) On a more organized level, the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine or Great Arab Revolt, became a nationalist revolution by Arabs against British colonization, and the subsequent effect of Jewish immigration (Morris, 1999).
Furthermore, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husayni, initiated the opposition against the idea of creation of a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. To this end, he even sought an alliance with the Axis to expel Britain from Palestine. On a political level, there were no opposing factions in the Arab or Palestinian camp. However, as seen in the Hebron Massacre, some local Arab families saved the lives of 435 Jews by having them hide in their houses, obviously at great risk, thus indicative of the opposition of some moderate Palestinians to the ensuing violence (Ashkenazi, 2009). On the other hand, despite the increasing violence and impunity against their communities, the political leadership of Israel, known as the Yishuv adopted a policy of restraint (havlaga) and static defense in response to Arab attacks (Sela, 2002). However, after further violence from armed Arab groups, more radical and critics of havlaga, broke away from the Hagana or the self-defense organization of the Yishuv, and formed the right-wing and militant Irgun, later led by Menachem Begin in 1943, who in turn attacked Palestinian civilians and policemen.
ROLE OF GREAT BRITAIN
It must be noted that the turning point of the hostilities and conflict between the Arab Palestinians and the Israelis was through the promulgation of the Balfour Declaration by the British Government in 1917, whereby it stated that "the government of Great Britain supported the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine." Apart from exacerbating tensions between the Palestinian Arabs who were then residing in Mandate Palestine and Jews who had already emigrated during the Ottoman period, it encouraged the Diaspora or Jewish immigration back into Palestine. This was soon followed by the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, seeking to promote Arab-Jewish cooperation on the negotiations of a Jewish National Homeland in Palestine, although this Agreement did little to mitigate the already escalating conflict (Sela, 2002). In 1920, during the San Remo conference which practically endorsed the 1916 Anglo-French Sykes-Picot Agreement, Great Britain began assigning the different Arab countries their respective territories. However, in the case of Palestine, while the British had earlier gave assurances to both the Arabs and Jews, land, they then claimed that they had never promised to give either side all of the territory in question. This prompted violence from already rising tensions, which took the form of the Riots in Palestine of 1920, and the Jaffa riots of 1921. To mitigate the tension, and on account of British inability to control Arab violence in the British Mandate, "the semi-autonomous Arab Emirate of Transjordan was formed in all Palestinian territory, to the east of the Jordan river, which was roughly 77% of the mandate" (Division for Palestinian Rights, 1978). A more recent attempt of the British Government to cease hostilities and provide a solution was the Peel Commission. In its 1937 report, it proposed a two-state solution which allocated territories to occupy for both sides, while the British continued to have control over Jaffa, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and nearby areas. Although bitterly divided, the Jews eventually accepted the principle of partition (Eran, 2002).The Arabs, however, rejected it while demanding "an end to Jewish immigration and land sales to Jews, calling for independence of Palestine as an independent Arab state." (Sela, 2002). Reaching an impasse, Jewish and Arab violence against the British Mandate increased.
THE UN PARTITION PLAN - REACTIONS
The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, or the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (II) Future Government of Palestine, was a resolution adopted on 29 November 1947 by the General Assembly of the United Nations. It was brought about by Great Britain's planned termination of the British Mandate for Palestine, and sought for the partition of the subject territory into two states, Jewish and Arab, while the Jerusalem-Bethlehem area was to be under UN special international protection (Molinaro). Said resolution provided for a complex and highly detailed description of the proposed boundaries for each state. It also provided for an economic union of the proposed states, which included a proposal for protection of religious and minority rights (Lenczowski, 1962). In response, the proposed plan was accepted the Jewish community in Palestine, through the Jewish Agency. By implication, it also conceded to the stipulated international zone, and Arab State. However, the minority- extreme nationalist Jewish groups such as Irgun Tsvai Leumi and the Lehi, who were fighting the British, expressed opposition to the plan (Best, 2004). On the other hand, the plan was discarded by the Arab, who in their rejection, were supported by Arab League. Substantiating their rejection, the Arabs contended that it was in violation of the rights of the majority of persons in Palestine, which was then- 67% were non-Jewish (1,237,000), while 33% were Jewish (608,000). Further, Arab leaders began threatening the Jewish population of Palestine, giving statements such as "driving the Jews into the sea" and ridding Palestine "of the Zionist Plague" (Morris, 1948).
United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and its proposed solutions and partition plan could not have been a sustainable and feasible solution for conflict. The United had insufficient competence to implement a solution which could be against ideals and wishes of the majority of the population occupying the territory in question. In other words, an alternative solution would have to been...