Israeli and Palestinian War Essay

The current international community had been exposed to many different conflicts due to many different causes. However, one of the most important factors of the conflicts arising in the global community is cultural conflicts which different ethnicities have. One of the few ethnic groups that are having such conflict is the Israelis and the Palestinians. These two ethic groups has a long history of conflict together which until the present time, was still not resolved due to the over lapping issues that these groups have. Although there are many actions done in order to entirely put an end to the long and overlapping clash of both these ethnic groups, there are still a big gap between both conflicting parties. In order to understand both the parties involved in the conflict, it would be best to first have a historical background of both the parties involved. Therefore, a background of these two ethnicities should be fore mostly presented to provide a just research upon this topic. History of Israel and their culture: Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. You dig the soil and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins from Bar Kokhba, and 2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like the one that today advertises ice cream at the corner candy store. (Krauthammer, 1998, n. p. ) Israel had gone through many changes through time including different wars and challenges that had occurred to the state. Most of the books regarding the history of Israel discusses and mentions the book of the Bible as one of main sources for the description of the country’s heritage. As said in the book entitled â€Å"A History of Israel† written by John Bright (2000) and William Brown (2000), â€Å"The history of Israel is the history of a people which came into being at a certain point in time as a league of tribes united in covenant with Yahweh, which subsequently existed as a nation, then as two nations and finally as a religious community† (Bright and Brown, 2000, p. xvii). The authors continuously added that the important key points of the history of Israel are their religion and the subject cannot be separated from one another. The history of the state of Israel dates back in the thirteenth century in which the Hebrew patriarchs migrated from Mesopotamia to a new territory—Palestine. The migration acted as the beginning of Israel and its history. However, the history of Israel is much more depicted, as said by different books, in most parts of the Bible. The religious writing has all the accounts of the history and also the culture of Israel as well as those that are in the same region as they are. Not only is the history of this country was put into account but also the countless culture with me and women as well as the type of family that they have. Just merely basing the culture of Israel in the holy scripture of the bible a person may easily say that Israelis are conservative in nature for they are the people are the first and foremost people had experience the so called â€Å"life of Jesus here on earth. † Given such situation, there ethnic group bases their life style depending on the scriptures that they are being told by the prophets and the leaders of their religious group. As presented in many different books of the Bible, the group of religious leaders is the main influence of the king of the country. The religious leaders influence the king which then influences the society. Due to the religion based norms of the Israelites, they are mostly known to follow the strict rules of the Holy Scriptures. If any Israelite by-passes any rule that is not in the book of the bible, will be punished through the listed ways of available in the laws also made by the religious leaders. However, in many internet sites as well as books relating to the cultural background of the Israelites but still, the religious factor of Christianity could not be removed from their culture. It is one of the factors in which Israel is known as such, just like the statement left by the authors Bright and Brown in the top part of this paper. Israel had encountered different wars and different changes in the society such as the Arab-Israeli war in which have dated many years back which was one May 1948. There are other wars that followed which are: the Sinai War (1956), Six Day War (1967) and the Yom Kippur War (1973). Through all these wars, major different transform had happened to Israel which leads to the different beliefs that they have now. (***) Although they have gone through many different transformations within their society, currently it is said that the Modern Israel society is shifting towards the western culture. The different cultural material such as dance, poems, and literatures are now being thought as a modern interpretation of the Israeli culture. However, there are few authors who do think that the system of modernization of the Israeli culture somehow puts a dent on the collective norms of the society. In an article entitled â€Å"Westernization and the Decline of Collective Culture† it stated that: Israel, whose main dividing line is ethnica large part of the relevance of the word ‘west’ relates to Eastern Europe – the Ashkenazi ‘homeland’ – as the Western part of the line. The ‘West’ meant the beginnings of Zionism, the Eastern European center and, to a lesser extent, Western Europe, the center of Herzlian Zionism and daily Zionist politics. As the Yishuv assumed an identity that was defined against both the Arab East and the Jews who came from there, the Eastern European character of the society was utterly clear. It has already been mentioned that the early waves of Zionist Zionist Aliyah, dominated totally by the Eastern and East-Central European background of the Olim, defined their way of life as a revolt against that of Eastern European Jewry. Nevertheless, such an influence could not be dismissed so easily. (â€Å"Westernization and the Decline of Collective Culture† , n. p. ). There are different ethnic groups in Israel given that they have ancestors that came from Europe and Asia with different religions. Given all these, their whole society is diverse however the infiltration of new and modern ideas from the west stills a puzzle that is in need of a place in the Jewish community own society. History of Palestine and their culture: Palestine on the other hand is state wherein the Israel has a conflict. For many years now, the state had been in a very complicated condition because of its relationship with its neighboring country—Israel. In comparison with Israel, Palestine is mainly composed with Arab nationalities. Palestine is a country in conflict with the territorial boundaries with its neighbors however, it is the sate of Israel that it has the strongest conflict with. In recent years, Palestine had been in front of the international news due to its war is Israel where in the Gaza Strip is the main location for the war of both states. Much news about the war of both these countries had spread all over the world therefore, other countries with interest in both Israel and Palestine sprung up in the war which made it a much globalized issue. Palestine, just like Israel is a conservative nation however, Arabs have a different belief and a different religion in which they follow. Because of the unequal and hard to justify territorial conflict that both these countries have, there are Israelites in Palestine and vice versa. This situation makes it more complicated because the conflict is not only within the Gaza Strip but within the states. The conflict is not war between the said nations but the conflict of different citizens of diverse religion has conflict with each other. The situation becomes societal which would only cause a deeper conflict with other nationalities. Conformity: It is known that every one in the society wants to have acceptance of the society that an individual is in to. Every action always leads to being accepted in the society and being one of the individuals surrounding him or her. Although Israelis are the least part of the world to be transformed by the growing trend of being modernized, it seems that whenever there are eyes closely looking or investigating there must be changes in which every one must have. Given that we are in a changing and shifting world, everyone is expected to follow. But if the culture of Israel is seen, the years of conservatism and their historic influences a big hindrance for making the big step of development in the eyes of the western countries. The complication and whether being with the trend of the world or conserving the past is still confusion for most of the Israelis. Although there is uncertainty if the society needs to follow the global trend or not, there is a great possibility that without noticing and being too occupied with the issues the state currently have, the society could slowly shift away form those issues and focus more into something that they could enjoy or are very new to them. One of the new things that they could enjoy is he western culture which promotes freedom and indulgence of the things in life. On the other hand, Palestine is a state in which there everyone must conform in the society. Given that there are people living in Palestine who are Jews, there is a great possibility that conflict will arise. The Jews within the Palestinian territory is in need of the conforming in the society they are living in or just rebel against it and sacrifice themselves. Being dissimilar in terms of religion while living in space with an individual with another religion may raise conflict. Religion does not only create a clash in terms of their different holy scriptures and other materials but also a conflict within the society they are in. there would be debates in which they would present the great and the not so great religion. However, the conflict would not be addressed in such way therefore, actions much be done to create a stop in the conflicting parties involved in this situation. Social Perception and Social Cognition: Both Israel and Palestine exercises social perception and social cognition through the actions that these states and each of their culture have. However, their culture always leads to the concept of being accepted by the society given that they have very different religious beliefs. But between the two of these ethnic groups, the Palestinians are demanding more recognition and acceptance in the global community given that they are still a new state which had been separated from Israel, and their neighboring countries. Palestine seeks to have and create actions that would mediate their call for acceptance (â€Å"International Recognition of the State of Palestine, n. p. †) even if there are group of individuals that would be greatly affected with the situation. Provided that fact that one of the most important aspects of being a new state is to be accepted by all other states in the world in order to act and participate in the activities within the global community. It is a serious matter of the Palestinian people and the government to attract the attention of the global community through the wars and all other battles that they have. Israel on the other hand is more leading to the concept of social perception due to the actions those individuals chooses to have in their lives. The dilemma of being within the trend of the international community such as having western shows and western influences are now a concept of problem that the Israeli society has. The fear of wholly losing their history and the beliefs that their ancestors had given them one of the greatest concepts that every conservatives fear. However, the new society or some individuals does not see the history and Israeli culture as a hindrance to their society. Thus, the historical factors as well as the cultural aspects are strong compared to other societies therefore, Israelis should not fear the changing world, and thus they should try and be open to new possibilities such as the western culture. In conclusion, the conflicts of the two of these ethnic groups are thus a problem of not meeting of the same interests, history and religion. Given all these differences, their priorities are varying which makes it hard for these ethnic group to realize that they should create a middle ground or something that they have together in order to fully create a stop to the conflict that they have. References Bright, J. & Brown W. , (2000) A History of Israel. Kentucky: John Knox Press. Krauthammer, C. (11 May 1998). â€Å"Israel Celebrates their 60 years of Independence. †Weekly Standard Retrieved 8 August 2008 from http://www. science. co. il/Israel-history. asp. â€Å"Westernization and the Decline of Collective Culture.† n. d. Department of Jewish Zionist Education. Retrieved 10 Aug 2008 from http://www. jafi. org. il/education/culture/onisraeli/14-west. html. â€Å"Country Fact Sheets from the CLP. † n. d. Common Language Project. Retrieved 10 Aug 2008 from http://clpmag. org/content/pages/factsheets/palestine. php. â€Å"International Recognition of the State of Palestine. † Palestinian National Authority. Retrieved 10 August 2008 from http://web. archive. org/web/20060404211437/http://www. pna. gov. ps/Government/gov/recognition_of_the_State_of_Palestine. asp.