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Essay on Jewish Arab Conflict World Civilization late 1930's - 1949
The conflict arose over a small, sensitive piece of territory, along the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea between Lebanon and the Sinai Peninsula, known as Palestine. Two distinct ethnic and religious groups--Arabs and Jews-believe that the land within this territory was promised to each of them by the British, who were colonial overlords of the area during the early part of the twentieth century. Hostile relations developed and have persisted as a result of strongly divergent interpretations of history and intense opinions about rights to political freedom and independence.
For more than fifty years, two separate ideological expressions--Palestine Nationalism (among Arabs) and Zionism (among Jews)--have clashed in a steady pitch, with the advocates for each side arguing rights, justice, and preferred conditions for a settlement leading to peace. Since the founding of the state of Israel by the Jews in 1948, the feverishness of the conflict has been particularly high. Scores of nations throughout the world have engaged in strong debate about the problem by reassessing grievances, analyzing moral claims, and adopting policies designed to capture their emotional views, to offer suggestions for a practical solution, and to preserve their own national interests. Thus far, no solution has emerged that all the parties find acceptable. Not only have the active participants failed in their efforts to reach accommodation, but outside powers and international mediators have also been unable to locate a strategy for resolving differences in a way that is mutually acceptable to all.
In March 1939, Alfred North Whitehead, writing commentary on world politics for Atlantic Monthly in an essay entitled "An Appeal to Sanity," devoted some attention to the problem that came to be known as the Arab-Israeli conflict. He stressed that issues were already complex, that difficult ones faced international relations in the future, and that understanding the claims and positions of all parties was important.....
