Blasting With Boyles
OPINION
I always call myself an amateur historian, somewhat of a traveler, a reader of this part of the world, and a listener to people from the Middle East.
The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians — how many people in this country really truly know the history of the conflict.
Historically the British take control over the part of the world known as Palestine after World War One. The Arabs help defeat the Ottoman Empire which ruled Palestine and the British and the French then cut their throats. The tension between Arab and Jewish populations deepened when the UK agreed on the principles of a national home in Palestine in the Balfour Declaration.
Jews, Zionists I should say, had historical links to the land, but Palestinian Arabs also had claims dating back centuries and were very much opposed to the move. The British said the rights of Palestinian Arabs would always be protected.
Between the 1920s and the 1940s European Jews arrived and then the knowledge of over six million Jews murdered in the holocaust increased urgency to demands for a safe haven. In 1947 there was growing violence between Jews and Arabs and against British rule. The UN voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab states. Jerusalem would be an international city. No Arab nation supported it and the British abstained and then in typical British colonial fashion handed the whole problem over to the UN on May 14, 1948.
Jewish leaders in Palestine declared an independent state known as Israel. Then Israel was recognized by the UN the following year. The day after Israel declared independence it was attacked by the armies of five Arab nations.
By the time the fighting ended in an armistice in 1949, Israel controlled most of the territory.
The agreements left Egypt occupying Gaza Strip. Jordan occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Israel occupied West Jerusalem.
Over 750,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes on land that becomes Israel, and they end up as refugees. That event in Arabic is called Nakba. It means catastrophe. In the years that followed hundreds of thousands of Jews left or were expelled from Muslim countries. Many go to Israel and then what is known as the 6 Day War in 1967 changes everything again. The war saw Israel fight Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. The Israelis launched first strike on the Egyptian air force. By the time the fighting ended the Israelis had Sinai and Gaza from Egypt, Golan Heights from Syria, and East Jerusalem and the West bank from Jordan. A million Palestinians came under Israeli control.
Israel, in a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 returns the Sinai and exits East Jerusalem and Golan Heights. Along with Gaza it is now known as the occupied Israeli territories.
Israel has overall control of the West Bank but since the 1990s the Palestinian government has run the towns and the cities.
There are 150 Israeli settlements and housing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Palestinians want all Israeli settlements to be removed, and Israel does not recognize the right of Palestinians to have their own state and argue the West Bank is part of the Israeli homeland.
In July 2024 the top court for the UN, the International Court of Justice, said Israel’s continued presence in occupied Palestinian territories is illegal.
Israelis and Palestinians both claim Jerusalem as their capitol. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capitol of a future Palestinian state. Most of the population is Palestinian and only a very small percentage of them have chosen to become Israeli citizens. The UN and most international opinions consider East Jerusalem to be Palestinian.
Gaza is 25 miles long and about 10 miles wide. It’s home to 2.3 million people and even before the latest war between Israel and Hamas, Gaza had one of highest unemployment rates in the world, people living below the poverty line, and depending on food aid to survive.
Egypt was driven out of Gaza in 1967 and the strip was occupied by Israel.
The UN still regards Gaza as Israeli occupied territory and in the years that follow, Hamas and Israel fought in several conflicts, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, and 2021. In every round of fighting people were killed on both sides but the vast majority of them have been Palestinians in Gaza.
Then October 7, 2023, Hamas launches the assault from Gaza. Kills around 1,200 people in Israel and takes more than 250 hostages, a major military offensive in Gaza. It’s believed that more than 46,700 people have been killed, a majority of them women and children.
In January 2025, after 15 months of war, begins the slow agreement to halt the war and release Israeli hostage and Palestinian prisoners.
The war spreads into Lebanon, the West Bank.
143 out of 193 members of the UN vote in favor of a Palestinian bid for full UN membership. Some European countries, along with our country, do not recognize a Palestinian state, and say they will only do so as part of a political solution to the conflict.
There are about 5.9 million Palestinian refugees. They are descendants of the Palestinians who fled, that were forced from their homes. Most live in Jordan, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Syria, and Lebanon.
The two-state solution to all of this seems highly improbable. Israel rejects it. Early efforts to settle the conflict led to a deal called the Oslo Peace Accords. Those talks collapsed.
We sit where we sit today.
I don’t have an answer and seemingly no one does. The Israelis now have four stated goals. Destroy Hamas, free the hostages, ensure Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel, and return displaced residents of northern Israel.
The Palestinians seek to establish their own independent state in at least one part of what was historic Palestine. Israeli defense controls West Bank. The Egyptian blockade of Gaza and the terribleness of Palestinian internal politics place their goals totally out of reach.
What I tried to say here is a line I’ve used too many times. There are parts of the world where there is no tomorrow, there is simply yesterday repeating itself.
Thanks for reading this, it was difficult to write.
— Peter Boyles
