ISRAEL is often seen in a state of collision either with regional countries or with the people of Palestine. It has fought several wars in the region and meted out unimaginable treatment to Palestinians. Israel’s hawkish policy needs to be understood through the prism of realism. However, it becomes indispensable to get to the bottom of the complex history of Israel-Palestine conflict. The rise of anti-Semitism in Europe and birth of Zionist movement emboldened the Jews to migrate to the ‘biblical’ land of Israel. Jews started their settlement through several waves of migration. Othman Empire’s lenient policy provided them incentives. The Jewish settlement and occupation of Palestinian lands increased the apprehensions of Arabs, so they started opposing the influx of more Jews on their territory.
In the First World War, Othman Empire sided with Germany. Despite British and Othman Empire had cultivated amicable relations before the war to reduce the influence of Russia in the region, British egged on Arab nationalism to pressurize Othman Empire. British promised self-determination to Arabs after the end of the war and urged them to raise the standard of revolt against the Turks. However, in 1916, British also entered into a secret treaty—Sykes-Picot Agreement—with France to divide and control the Middle Eastern territories of Othman Empire after the war.
Even so, through the Balfour Declaration in 1917, British also promised the Jews that it would curve out a country for them in Palestine. Nevertheless, after the end of World War-I in 1919, British and France divided the former territories of Othman Empire into areas of British and French administered regions through the Mandate System. As unrest increased in Palestine, the Peel Commission recommended the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states in 1937.
In 1939, the outbreak of World War-II increased the Jewish exodus. It stoked tensions between Arabs and Jews. As British was exhausted in the war and not in a position to control those territories, it handed over the Arab-Jews issue to the UN. In 1947, the UN passed the resolution 181 that recommended the partition of Palestinian land into a Jewish State and an Arab state. It was rejected by the Arabs. Initially, Jews had controlled only 7 per cent of the land whereas 93 per cent of the territory was under the control of Palestinians. But the UN resolution changed Palestine’s territorial makeup as it allotted 53 per cent of the land to the Jewish state and 47 per cent to the Palestinian state.
Just after the end of British mandate, the state of Israel was declared on 14 May 1948. Regional Arab countries attacked the newly born state of Israel. Despite initial success, regional countries were defeated. It provided Israel a lease of life. In 1967, Israel launched a preemptive strike against regional countries that resulted in the defeat of Egypt, Syria, Jorden and Lebanon. Israel captured Golan Heights, West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. In 1973, another Arab-Israel war erupted between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria to recover the territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
However, the dynamics of conflict changed after the uprising of Palestinians in 1987. Before the Intifada, Israel was engaged with regional countries. Nonetheless, the uprising created another front of war. Notwithstanding negotiations and several agreements, Israel rejected the ‘two-state solution’ which was proposed by the UN and it continued its subjugation of the people of Palestine and occupation of their territory.
In response, Hamas launched a surprise attack on 7 October 2023. Israel declared war and vowed to annihilate Hamas and release the captives. Despite temporary truce to exchange prisoners, war again resumed between Israel and Hamas. According to the UN Chief Antonio Guterres, Hamas attack “did not happen in vacuum”, but it was a reaction to Israel’s continued subjugation of Palestinians and rejection of the two-state solution.
Yet, many scholars opine that Hamas attack has occurred because of changing regional geopolitics as many regional countries have established relations with Israel after the Abraham Accords in 2020. Similarly, growing Saudi Arabia’s desire to build diplomatic relations with Israel appears to be another reason, for it may dilute the Palestine cause. Therefore, the strategic timing of Hamas attack may at least postponed Saudi-Israel normalization deal for now.
Against this backdrop, Israel appears to be an insecure country and lacks legitimacy in the region. As per realist paradigm, Israel’s search for security and recognition is the main factor that shapes the country’s policies in international politics. For ensuring its survival, Israel tends to increase its strategic depth through occupation of Palestinian territory, to seek regional hegemony with accumulation of more power, to create deterrence through armament or nuclear weapons, to forge alliance with the West, to influence the US decisions through lobbying and to build soft power through education and scientific advancement. Besides this, technological development and cyber dominance are also integral part of Israel’s grand strategy to ensure its security in a volatile regional strategic and security environment.
Although Israel’s belligerent behaviour has been on account of its search for security and survival, there are multiple other factors which have emboldened its recent carpet bombing of an entire population in Gaza Strip. The unwavering support of the US, impotence of the UN, duplicity of western countries, decadence of rules-based international system, polarization in Muslim world and hawkish government in Israel are the main contributing factors to the Israel’s aggression and bombing of civilian population in Gaza. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the Muslim world to create a united front to pressurize both Israel and the US to end the war and implement the two-state solution to resolve the Palestine-Israel quagmire. Else, it creates more destruction and humanitarian crisis.
—The writer is a strategic affairs and foreign policy analyst, based in Islamabad.
Email: [email protected]
views expressed are writer’s own.
