Source Note #18: The Four Wars of Israel and Palestine
The Four Wars of Israel/Palestine (Dissent Magazine, Fall 2002)
Israel and Palestine are fighting four wars: the Palestinian war to destroy Israel, the Palestinian war to create an independent state alongside Israel, the Israeli war for the security of Israel within its 1967 borders, and the Israeli war for Greater Israel including the settlements and territories.
Topic: Should the Obama administration continue to support Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Category: Academic research
What is it? PDF file of the original article
Publication Information: Dissent Magazine, Fall 2002
Author: Michael Walzer
Location: http://tinyurl.com/bp4sb3
Accessed: March 8, 2009
Support:
Thomas Hobbes
Yasir Arafat
Ariel Sharon
Menachem Begin
Ehud Barak
Yitzhak Rabin
Anwar Sadat
The sources cited in this article, with the exception of a quote by Thomas Hobbes, represent political figures in Israel and Palestine who have, over the course of history, affected the current state of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Audience and Agenda:
Dissent Magazine is an academic journal published by the University of Pennsylvania that focuses on politics, government, and international relations. Although self-admittedly leftist in thought, it has established itself as a leading intellectual journal. The magazine has a circulation of over 10,000.
Usefulness:
Walzer makes the case that there are currently four wars being waged in the Middle East, two each by Israel and Palestine. Israel is fighting not only for the defense of its state, but for the 1967 borders of the Greater State of Israel. Palestine, on the other hand, aims to destroy the state of Israel in its entirety while simultaneously (and somewhat contradictorily) fighting for its own state alongside Israel. In order for a lasting peace to be mediated, Walzer maintains that both parties must give up fighting their wars that end in destruction of the other state. However, this largely depends on the promotion of the moderates — those who support the other wars. Arafat may not have been ready to accept the historic peace of the compromise that almost came from the Camp David Accords; until both states are prepared for that peace to occur, no amount of outside mediation can help.
Works cited:
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/display.php?id=about
http://tinyurl.com/bp4sb3
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