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** Israel & Palestine

Recent Realities

Unfortunately, a great deal of violence marks the history of the Middle East in the twenty-first century. Much of that violence was sparked, initially at least, by massive U.S. military interventions in response to the 9/11 attacks of 2001. Shortly after those attacks, the United States initiated a campaign in Afghanistan that lasted over a decade (indeed, U.S. military involvement continues there today). In 2003, without U.N. approval, it invaded Iraq and removed Saddam Hussein. That part of the Iraq War (Operation Iraqi Freedom) proved relatively easy, albeit devastating for the inhabitants. The country, however, soon descended into chaos, and U.S. occupation forces (the Coalition Provisional Authority) had neither plans nor the means to deal with the situation. After eight years of occupation, the United States finally withdrew from Iraq at the end of 2011, leaving a country ruined by war and paralyzed by political crisis. From out of the ashes, moreover, arose an even greater regional threat: the so-called Islamic State (ISIL or ISIS), an ultra-extremist jihadist organization seeking to establish a new Middle Eastern (or world) caliphate. After yet another few years of war and devastation, extending from Syria to Kurdish northern Iraq, ISIL was broken up, in the main, in late 2017. (Pockets of both it and allied groups still exist.)

In Afghanistan, meanwhile, the longest-ever war fought by the United States produced little in the way of tangible, enduring change. Osama bin Laden, the chief instigator of 9/11, remained at large until 2011, when he was killed by U.S. forces—in Pakistan. The most that can be said beyond that is that Afghanistan remains Afghanistan, a hard-knock nation that has, more than once, survived attempts by great foreign powers to subdue it. In this case, however, U.S. efforts have been directed not against the Afghan government but against extremist-jihadist elements inside the country.

Popular uprisings that came to be known as the Arab Spring erupted in Tunisia in late 2010 and soon spread to other areas in the region. Long-standing, autocratic rulers fell in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Yemen. Libya and Syria, however, erupted in civil war. The Syrian civil war in particular has proved troublesome, generating great numbers of refugees and resulting in something of a proxy war between Russia (which backs the Syrian regime) and the United States (which opposes it). Elsewhere, such as in the Gulf States and Iran, popular uprisings were contained or quelled. In Egypt, in a backlash, a military regime has taken hold. In Turkey, a coup was attempted in 2016 but put down by the regime of Recep Tayyip Erdoĝan. In Saudi Arabia, a “reverse coup,” or purge, took place in 2017: prominent princes, government ministers, and business people were arrested by Saudi authorities and forced to turn over much of their wealth as part of an anti-corruption effort.

And then there is the Palestine-Israel conflict. This conflict involves not only Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as Jerusalem, but also Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. In 2005 Israel decided to end 38 years of occupation in Gaza, leaving it largely to Palestinian control but under Israeli surveillance. Two years later, in response to an internal dispute between the two major Palestinian political parties, Hamas and Fatah, Israel and Egypt began a blockade of Gaza to prevent the importation of a range of materials that Israel claimed could be used to support attacks against its territory. Then, in winter 2008–2009, 2012, and again in 2014 Israel launched offensives against Gaza that killed thousands of people, mainly civilians. Since then, violence has become the norm for Palestinians in Gaza—particularly after the demise of the Oslo peace process (started in 1994). Today, the Israel-Palestine conflict revolves around the same issues it always has: the occupied territories, the status of Jerusalem, the final borders, and the return of Palestinians from camps in Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon.

Middle East map, around 2006.

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Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
"Recent Realities." ** Israel & Palestine, edited by Editors of Salem Press, Salem Press, 2023. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GHCT1023_0013.
APA 7th
Recent Realities. ** Israel & Palestine, In E. o. Salem Press (Ed.), Salem Press, 2023. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GHCT1023_0013.
CMOS 17th
"Recent Realities." ** Israel & Palestine, Edited by Editors of Salem Press. Salem Press, 2023. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GHCT1023_0013.