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-J...