The Arab-Israeli Conflict

‘Arab-Israeli conflict in the period 1896-2002 was dominated by the great powers for entirely selfish and cynical reasons.’ To what extent is this a fair assessment of their involvement in the Middle East during these years? The Arab-Israeli conflict is often contemplated as one of the most important global issues over the past centuries.the is conflict is often described as the fight for Arab nationalism through the state of Palestine and a claim for the jews, through Zionism the right to exist as a state .While it might be tempting to condemn the great powers for their involvement in the Israeli-Arab conflict throughout much of the last century there is also much doubt that they were also motivated by genuine feelings to establish a lasting peace in the area. Writing in 1922 to Herbert Samuel, a Zionist and cabinet colleague, Winston Churchill complained of the great expense to the British taxpayer of having to ‘bear the cost of imposing on Palestine an unpopular policy.’ Later between 1944 and 1948 Menachem Begin, one day to be Israel’s 6th Prime Minister, was responsible, he and his armed militia Irgun, for terrorist attacks on the British military presence in Israel, culminating in the notorious bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in which 91 people, British, Arab …show more content…
Undoubtedly I believe that Britain and the other great powers such as the USSR, America and France benefited from involvement in Middle East affairs although it is certain they did so at great cost. Even till date America continues to influence international politics of the Middle East.In respective of my question, I do believe that the