Middle East Paper Essay, Research Paper

The conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis erupted after

the partition made by Great Britain on November 29, 1947. Immediately

after the decision to make Israel a separate, independent state, there

were massive attacks on both sides. Upon reading the first set of

articles, I felt that the Palestine’s unnecessarily attacked the Jews

and that they deserved the land being given to them. But the first set

of articles I read were incredibly biased toward the Jewish perspective

and, I think that because of this, I presented a distorted view of the

situation. Now that I have read the second packet, I understand that

many of the Arabs must have felt helpless about the situation, and even

startled by the numerous attacks and massacres by the Israelis.

I now believe that the reason that the fighting started was because

both sides felt that they had an obligation to uphold their religious

beliefs and, also, justification to do what they did. Both the Arabs

and the Jews felt that it was their sacred duty to keep or regain their

land. The Arabs thought of the partition as an automatic declaration of

war against them. Therefore, they thought that they had to

counter-attack the Jews in order to keep their land.

One of the biggest massacres that the Jews waged on the Arabs was

the attack on Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948, when 250 men, women, and

children where killed. The first set of articles that we read did not

mention anything about the ruthlessness of this massacre. Since the

articles were biased toward the Jews, I do not think that they wanted

the reader to know what really happened. In the first set of articles,

they never really gave a set explanation of why so many Arabs fled their

homes so quickly. If the Jews were as inadequately equipped as they

claimed to be, I do not think that as many Arabs would have emigrated so

readily. On the other hand, the second set of articles was biased

toward the Arabs, so they might have exaggerated the facts a little

bit. According to the Arabs, it was the most barbaric and "calculated

massacre" yet. It caused many of the Arabs to flee their homes in

terror; which is exactly what the Jews wanted. The Jews made themselves

out to be the "helpless ones," but I believe that they were the most

ruthless, and that is why many of the Arabs fled instead of fighting for

their country. The worst part about the massacre was that it was

planned and carried out by former Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem

Begin. After committing such a terrible deed, he was allowed to reign

over Israel for years after that.

The massacre at Deir Yassin terrified the Arabs of Palestine. Part of

the reason that so many Arabs fled was due to the announcement made

about the massacre by Dr. Hussein Khalidi, Secretary General of the Arab

high committee. He announced the massacre in such a frantic way, that

all the Arabs in range of Jewish attacks panicked and were instigated to

leave their homes. It was the combination of the Deir Yassin massacre

itself, and all the hype, which caused many Arabs to flee their homes in

terror.

After summarizing both packets, I still cannot clearly say who was

more at fault in this situation. The Arabs were simply defending the

land that had belonged to them for so many years. And the Jews were

fighting for that same land because it was given to them by a partition

that remained unrecognized by the Arabs. Both sides felt that they were

right about the situation, and, therefore, massive fighting broke out.

The fighting sparked as a result of the partition so I think that the

British are largely to blame for the fighting. The United Nations

should have thought about the results of such a partition resolution.

They never took into account that, obviously, the Jews would want to

regain their land immediately. The lesson to be learned from all of

this is that even though something sounds good on paper, it should be

well thought out before actually being put into action