Israel-Palestine Conflict Maintains Ceasefire

In July, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict again erupted with both Palestinian forces and the Israeli Defense Army exchanging sustained missile fire. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination on Humanitarian Affairs, 1,473 Palestinian civilians and 6 Israeli civilians were killed due to the conflict. The Israeli Iron Dome Missile Defense System, when compared to the less well armed Hamas jihad extremists, was a contributing factor in the disproportionate death toll.

America has supplied Israel with its means of defense since the end of World War II, and has been one of the  top recipients of military aid from the United States.

“The conflict between Israel and Hamas offers a stark contrast between a friend of America, a champion of democracy in the Middle East, and one that is unequivocally a terrorist organization with blood on its hands.”  Vladimir Davidiuk said, a political science major, and a member of the College Republicans.

The situation also inspired support for Israel from the Jewish community in the United States.  

“The situation in Israel is very complicated,” Laurie Drell said, a Jewish student. “But no country can allow terrorists, or their neighbors, to shoot rockets into their country without responding to the attack. So I feel that Israel has the right to protect their country.”

Palestine and Israel both have historical conflicts concerning social, political and religious issues. Similar to the 2011 Arab Spring, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was brought to the world’s attention through the power of social media. According to a July 20 2014 New York Times article, the use of Twitter hashtags brought a boots-on-the-ground perspective, as Twitter users in the Gaza Strip took to Twitter, utilized hashtags such as #gazaunderattack or #israelunderfire, with the former used in over 4 million twitter posts. Through social media, organized protests were also coordinated all over the world, most notably the violent Paris riots.

Stephanie Hernandez - The Summa

“The [missile] fire is political, religion being the fuel; the people whom have their own homes taken away and the mosque’s bombed are simply in the way of political fire,” said Richard Sindelar, associate professor at the Center for International Studies. “The Western media distortions of the conflict are due to the fact that both sides are usually biased, and most times journalist are unable to get into Palestine through blockades imposed by Israel.”

Sindelar served as a Foreign Service officer from 1974 to 1995. His diplomatic career included assignments in Cairo, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem.

“Zionism is the way Israel conducts politics. Like any country, there are two sides to everything, some that agree and others that do not,” Sindelar said. “The only way any ceasefire can transition into a peace treaty with the Arab world only Israel if accepts the fact that it must give back Palestinian land.”

Haya Abdel is a UST student whose family was affected by the recurring Palestine-Israel conflicts through the years.

“My father is fully Palestinian, and my mother is a second generation Palestinian- Lebanese,” Abdel said.  “Her grandparents were from Palestine, but they were kicked out of the country to make room for Jewish settlements. They lost everything.”

Abdel, like many Palestinians, also has noted media discrepancies when covering the conflict.

“The problem with American media is that it is too much of a business,” Abdel said. “In order to be competitive in the industry, they have to show what the people want to see, the news must align with the constituent's interest. I prefer the news to be given in a much more fact-based, rather than opinion-based, manner.”  

Abdel believes that it is more a matter of fairness in treatment of both sides, than of religion.

“There are people of many religions who call Palestinian territory their home, and who have raised their voices against Israel,” she said. “Israel’s war on Palestine is about gaining security, resources, and land, not about eradicating any one religion.”  

According to Haaretz, Israel’s oldest newspaper, a Sept. 11 article reports that Palestinian President Mahamoud Abas has urged Hamas to submit to the Palestinian Authority so that further negotiations can continue. Talks between Israel and Palestinian offices are set to begin in the end of September, in Egypt.

Stephanie Hernandez - The Summa