By Eric Vandenbroeck and co-workers

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians

There have been a series of wars between Israel and the Arab nations. Uprisings, called intifadas, against Israeli occupation, and reprisals and crackdowns by Israel have also taken place.

Also during the Biden administration on any given day during the long war in Gaza, a Biden administration official could be expected to assert any of the following: a cease-fire was around the corner, the United States was working tirelessly to achieve one, it cared equally about the Israelis and the Palestinians, a historic Saudi-Israeli normalization deal was at hand, and all this was bound up with an irreversible path to Palestinian statehood.

Saudi Arabia kept repeating that normalization with Israel depended on progress toward a Palestinian state, and the Israeli government consistently ruled such progress out. The more time went on, the more U.S. statements were exposed as empty words, met with disbelief or indifference. That did not stop them from being made.

It served as cover for a policy that enabled Israel’s ferocious attacks on Gaza and hailed the most modest, fleeting improvement in the situation in the Palestinian enclave as the product of American humanitarianism and resolve.

Its roots stretch back well before the war in Gaza and extend well beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The relationship between the Jewish people and Jerusalem goes back to pre-Roman times. But the first person in modern times who presented a reliable report of the current area of dispute is Mark Twain.

Mark Twain wrote that, "Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes"- "about whose borders nothing grows but weeds."

But where Mark Twain described the area of Palestine (modern-day Israel) as a desolate, barren, and unlovely land in his 1867 trip, which he chronicled in his book The Innocents Abroad. He noted the absence of trees and shrubs, the poor condition of the villages, and a general sense of sadness and decay across the landscape. He did not write that there were no people at all.

Based on the known history today (at the time of writing, September 16, 2025), the first major wave of people to settle in and develop this &desolate, barren, and unlovely land& where the Jewish people declared their homeland during the Balfour Declaration.

 

What Are the Main Israeli-Palestinian Issues?

Among the issues: A two-state solution, Israeli settlements on occupied land, the status of Jerusalem, agreed borders, and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Two-state solution: An agreement that would create a state for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza alongside Israel. Netanyahu says Israel must have security control over all land west of the Jordan River, which would preclude a sovereign Palestinian state. west of the Jordan River

Settlements: Most countries deem Jewish settlements built on land Israel captured in 1967 to be illegal. Israel disputes this and cites historical and biblical ties to the land. Continued settlement expansion is among the most contentious issues between Israel, the Palestinians, and the international community.

Jerusalem: Palestinians want East Jerusalem, which includes the walled Old City's sites sacred to Muslims, Jews, and Christians alike, to be the capital of their state. Israel says Jerusalem should remain its "indivisible and eternal" capital.

Israel's claim to Jerusalem's eastern part is not recognized internationally. Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, without specifying the extent of its jurisdiction in the disputed city, and moved the U.S. Embassy there in 2018.

Refugees: Today, about 5.6 million Palestinian refugees - mainly descendants of those who fled in 1948 - live in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and in Gaza. About half of registered refugees remain stateless, according to the Palestinian foreign ministry, many living in crowded camps.

Palestinians have long demanded that refugees and their millions of descendants be allowed to return. Israel says any resettlement of Palestinian refugees must occur outside.

 

The creation of Israel on most of the territory of Mandatory Palestine in 1948

Particularly since the creation of Israel on most of the territory of Mandatory Palestine in 1948 and the expulsion or flight of most Muslim and Christian Palestinians from that land, the terms "Palestinians" and "Palestinian people" are usually used to refer to the Levantine Arab (i.e. native Arabic- and historically Aramaic-speaking) people descended from the people who have lived in historic Palestine over the millennia with admixture of immigrants over that period, see; 1 and 2, This contemporary usage thus often implicitly excludes Palestinian Jews when describing ethnoreligious groups.

Before 1948, the term "Palestinian" applied to people from Palestine, including Jews. In contemporary usage,5 particularly since the creation of Israel on most of the territory of Mandatory Palestine in 1948 and the expulsion or flight of most Muslim and Christian Palestinians from that land, the terms "Palestinians" and "Palestinian people" are usually used to refer to the Levantine Arab (i.e. native Arabic- and historically Aramaic-speaking) people descended from the people who have lived in historic Palestine over the millennia with admixture of immigrants over that period. This contemporary usage thus often implicitly excludes Palestinian Jews when describing ethnoreligious groups before 1948.

Israel and Hamas have been waging war since gunmen from the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip stormed into southern Israel and Hamas have been waging war since gunmen from the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages.

 

The Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The conflict pits Israeli demands for a secure homeland in what it has long regarded as a hostile Middle East against Palestinians' unrealized aspirations for a state of their own.

In 1947, while Palestine was under British mandate rule, the United Nations General Assembly agreed to a plan to partition it into Arab and Jewish states and for international rule over Jerusalem. Jewish leaders accepted the plan, which gave them 56% of the land. The Arab League rejected the proposal.

Israel's founding father, David Ben-Gurion, proclaimed the modern state of Israel on May 14, 1948, a day before the scheduled end of British rule, establishing a haven for Jews fleeing persecution and seeking a national home on land to which they cite ties dating to antiquity.

In the late 1940s, violence had been intensifying between Arabs, who comprised about two-thirds of the population, and Jews. A day after Israel was created, troops from five Arab states attacked.

In the war that followed, some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes, ending up in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, and in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Palestinians lament this as the "Nakba", or catastrophe. Israel contests the assertion that it forced out Palestinians.

Armistice agreements halted the fighting in 1949, but there was no formal peace. Descendants of Palestinians who stayed put in the war make up about 20% of Israel's population now.

The truth is that this is something that is morally, politically, and legally intolerable. 

In 1967, Israel made a pre-emptive strike on Egypt and Syria, launching the Six-Day War. Israel captured the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria and the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt.

A 1967 Israeli census put Gaza's population at 394,000, at least 60% of them Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

In 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israeli positions along the Suez Canal and Golan Heights, starting the Yom Kippur War. Israel pushed both armies back within three weeks.

Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and thousands of Palestine Liberation Organization guerrillas under Yasser Arafat were evacuated by sea after a 10-week siege. Israeli troops pulled out of Lebanon in 2000.

In 2005, Israel withdrew settlers and soldiers from Gaza. Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and seized full control of Gaza in 2007. Major fighting flared between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza in 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021.

In 2006, Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers in the border region and Israel launched military action, triggering a six-week war.

There have also been two Palestinian intifadas, or uprisings, from 1987 to 1993 and 2000 to 2005. In the second, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups carried out suicide bombings in Israel, and Israel conducted tank assaults and airstrikes on Palestinian cities.

Since then, there have been several rounds of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel and is regarded as a terrorist organization by Israel, the European Union, the United States, and other countries. Hamas says its armed activities are resistance against Israeli occupation.   

Israel responded with a military assault in Gaza in which more than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities. Nearly the entire population of 2.3 million people in the enclave has been displaced from their homes, and much of the territory has been laid to waste.

The Gaza war is the bloodiest episode yet in a conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that has rumbled on for more than 75 years and destabilized the Middle East.

Israel’s military said Tuesday, 16 October, that it expects its Gaza City offensive to take “several months” to complete, marking the first timeline it has given for its plan to take control of the enclave’s largest population center.

 

What Attempts Have There Been To Make Peace?

In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, under which the Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egyptian rule.

In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Arafat shook hands on the Oslo Accords establishing limited Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza. In 1994, Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan. But a summit six years later, attended by Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and U.S. President Bill Clinton at Camp David, failed to secure a final peace deal.

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In 2002, a proposed Arab League plan offered Israel normal relations with all Arab countries in return for a full withdrawal from the lands it took in the 1967 Middle East war, the creation of a Palestinian state, and a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees. The presentation of the plan was overshadowed by Hamas, which blew up an Israeli hotel full of Holocaust survivors during a Passover seder meal. '

Under U.S. President Donald Trump in 2020, Israel reached deals known as the Abraham Accords to normalize ties with several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco.

Palestinians stopped dealing with the U.S. administration after Trump broke with U.S. policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

Qatar and Egypt have acted as mediators in the latest war, securing a truce in late 2023 that lasted seven days, during which some hostages held by Hamas were exchanged for prisoners held by Israel, and more humanitarian aid flowed into Gaza.

Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff formally took the position during Trump's second term in office.

 

Where Do Peace Efforts Stand Now?

Months of on-off talks on a further Gaza truce have so far proven fruitless, circling the same issues.

Above all, Hamas says it will free its remaining hostages only as part of a peace deal that ends the war. Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is destroyed.

Other issues holding up a deal have included control over the border between Gaza and Egypt, the sequencing of reciprocal steps in any agreement, the number and identity of Palestinian prisoners to be released alongside Israeli hostages, and free movement for Palestinians inside Gaza.

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has sought a "grand bargain" in the Middle East that would include normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Riyadh says this would require progress towards creating an independent Palestinian state, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out.

 

 

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