The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

After this, Israel continued to insist that it had earned the right to occupy these territories. Palestinians, on the other hand, expressed what they saw as their right to live in a land that the U.N. recognized as theirs.

Wars of words led to wars with bullets and tanks. Both sides had "hawks" who thought that violence was the answer. One of the main hawks on the Palestinian side was Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization and of Fatah, a guerilla movement that had violence as its goal. Members of Fatah were responsible for the slaughter of Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972.

But Israelis weren't innocent, either. Israeli leaders tended to make statements and take actions that inflamed the situation. Israeli Prime Ministers refused to even address Arafat as the Palestinian leader. Arafat refused to call off the hijackings, bombings, and kidnappings.

An increase in Israeli attacks on Palestinian leaders and territory led to the declaration of an intifada ("uprising") in 1987. It lasted six years, and it led Palestinian people to question Israeli people and methods with guns and bombs and widespread distrust. Israel, of course, responded with even more determination to keep the upper hand. Often, Israeli "demonstrations of force" aimed at keeping Palestinian guerrillas in line led to civilian casualties.

Arafat, meanwhile, was trying to cement his role as a statesman, even if he wasn't the leader of a state. He addressed the U.N. again, in 1988, and renounced terrorism as a means to reclaiming land for his people. Some observers found this declaration to be quite meaningful; others dismissed it as rhetoric not to be trusted.

With the ascension of Yitzhak Rabin to the post of Prime Minister of Israel came a new era in Mideast peace talks. Rabin and Arafat negotiated in secret, resulting in the historic Oslo Accord, which gave the Palestinians living in Israel-occupied territory much more of the say in their daily affairs and also recognized Arafat as a partner in the peace process. (He had formerly been labeled a "terrorist" and someone who couldn't be trusted.) Arafat and Rabin stood on the same stage at the American White House and shook hands, with the American President, Bill Clinton, looking on, on Sept. 13, 1993. The very next year, Arafat and Rabin shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. Also in 1994, Arafat returned to the Gaza Strip after 26 years in exile.

Things looked up for the Palestinian people for a while in the late 1990s, despite the assassination of Rabin in 1995. Arafat and the Israeli government signed an agreement that provided for the removal of Israeli settlers and soldiers from most of the West Bank city of Hebron in 1997. And in 1998, another agreement was signed by both sides, furthering the peaceful settlement of the West Bank "problem."

But with the coming of the new millenium, the peace process unraveled again. Frustrated by the lack of real progress, Arafat and the PLO declared a second intifada. It is still in effect. In response, Israel moved tanks and soldiers into position around Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah, effectively putting him under siege. He was allowed to leave only when he was too ill to survive in West Bank hospitals.

For Israel, the story hasn't changed in many years. Israelis have settled in to lands that Palestinians call home, and these Israelis believe that they have the right to live there and call it home themselves. Palestinians want the Israeli "occupiers" to leave, and they desperately want a homeland of their own, a country of their own. That is something that Yasser Arafat, in the end, could not deliver. Perhaps his death will be the first step in breaking the polarization that has so gripped both sides in the past 20 years.

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