Reuters

Palestinian forces break down Israeli border barrier during Israel-Hamas War on October 9, 2023

Yet another pivotal political event has just graced this lovely green and blue planet that we call Earth, that being the Israel-Hamas War of 2023. This conflict is yet another war in the long list of wars that have graced the Middle East since 1948. However, many people may not understand how such a conflict started in the first place. To start, the Middle East as a modern geographic concept became a thing in the 19th century, when the term was first coined. The Middle East has always been a meeting point for all the world’s cultures, from the Turks, the Europeans, the Muslims, etc. As such, it has always been diverse and divided heavily by cultural lines.

The Middle East long ago was populated by polytheistic and pantheistic religions, until Judaism popped up in what now makes up modern-day Israel. The religion was quickly crushed by the Romans and massacred in several wars, but the religion persisted. Judaism was later followed by Christianity, which was also suppressed by the Romans, who at the time were controlled by the Polytheistic Roman religion, which was a variant of the religion of the Greeks. However, in 313 CE the Roman Empire would formally convert to Christianity. Then, in 610 CE, the religion of Islam was formally established. The Christians would later take over Europe while the Muslims would take over North Africa, Spain, the Middle East, and Iran, and would spread even further many years later. The Jews would suffer anti-Semitism from the Christians who hated them because of the fact that Judas Iscariot, a Jew gave Jesus over to the Romans, who would then execute them. As such, the Jews were seen as a cursed and evil people by the Christians in Europe.

However, the Muslims were not discriminatory towards the Jews at the time. The original Islamic Caliphates were generally tolerant of their existence, though they would tax them. It is not exactly known how or why anti-Semitism spread through the Islamic world, but it is known that over time anti-Semitism became so rampant that Jews were massacred all over Europe and the world through pogroms or even full-on genocide. However, anti-Semitism was not present in the Muslim world even in the 19th century, which is when this ideology became rampant. The Quran itself doesn’t even really mention the Jews in a negative light, besides occasional mentions of being hostile and vindictive. However, European colonialism would pop up and spread this ideology to the Muslim world, and they ate it up and used all kinds of arguments that Jews were ritualistic murderers. The rise of Western Liberalism, which challenged the Islamic religious authority also served as yet another reason to use the Jews as a sort of scapegoat, and thus this bastion of freedom from discrimination would now become a nightmarish world of hate.

This hostility would be even further exasperated by the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. Israel also occupied the holy land of Jerusalem, which is seen by the three Abrahamic religions, which were Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as the sacred land of their religion, and as such belonged to their religions. The land was used as a reason for the Crusades of the Middle Ages, which was waged between European Christians and Arab Muslims. The Muslims in the end won that war and have held that land for centuries, though the Jews still claimed it as their homeland as the Bible and Torah and even to an extent the Quran mention that that land was the home of the Israelites, or the Jews. So, they sought to claim that land as their home. This was especially so in the 19th century and the early 20th century, as anti-Semitism was rampant during that time, and the Jews wanted a country to call their own. They looked at Uganda and Madagascar and other places but settled on Palestine, which was populated by Arabs, but they would move in quite quickly and would then upset all the Arabs as they saw that land as theirs, not the land of the Jews. Thus, this caused a war in 1948, where the new nation of Israel would go up against Syria, Egypt, Palestinian militants, Jordan (then known as Transjordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, and the war would last for over 9 months. Israel, despite being outnumbered, would win the war without any foreign support after over 9 months of fighting.

Several more wars would come and go, with either stalemates or Israeli victories. But nevertheless, these conflicts would further divide the Arab Muslims and the Israeli Jews. However, in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, attempts were made at making peace. Most important were the 1979 Camp David Accords, which ended a long-time state of war between Egypt and Israel, as well as the 1991 Madrid Conference, the 1993 Oslo Accords, 1996-1999 Agreements between Israel and Palestine, and many more. These long, slow steps towards peaceful cooperation and existence would, however, be completely shattered by Israel’s war with Hamas on October 7, 2023. Now we come to today, where fighting in Israel began on October 7, 2023, with the forces of Hamas launching thousands of rockets from Gaza at civilians across the border between Palestinian Gaza and Israel. This event then continued with the forces of Hamas crossing into Israel by breaking down border barriers and crawling through thousands of underground tunnels, which are now being blown up by Israeli forces. Hamas invaded Israel and made some minor gains but was quickly halted and pushed back as Israeli forces launched airstrikes that killed around 10,000 people. Then, Israel invaded Palestine on October 27 surrounded Gaza City, and told civilians to evacuate the city or be seen as enemies.

But most importantly, the war has split the world in half. On one side, you have those who support Palestine, who are seen protesting and tearing down posters of people kidnapped by Hamas and labeling Israel as a genocidal state. On the other side, you have those who support Israel, who are labeling those who support Palestine as anti-Semites who want to kill all the people of Israel. This war is yet another example of how something so minor as religious differences can truly divide everyone, even those who have no real connection to the conflict in question. The war simply happened and it split everyone into two camps who now despise each other simply because they support the existence of one state over another. This war has shattered the idea of peace between Palestine and Israel and perhaps even peace with the Arab World. But most of all, it has divided the entire world. But I say, don’t get caught up in such things. Understand that someone’s creed or religion means nothing because every nation, religion, people, etc. matters in their own way and has equal worth. Judge people by their character, not anything else. But, we’ll see if anyone actually listens.

Citations:

Rubin, Shira, and Joby Warrick. “Hamas Envisioned Deeper Attacks, Aiming to Provoke an Israeli War.” Washington Post, 12 Nov. 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/11/12/hamas-planning-terror-gaza-israel/. Accessed 12 Nov. 2023.

Zvulun, Ronen. “Israeli Army Shows Devastation in Northern Gaza as Invasion Grinds On.” Reuters, 9 Nov. 2023, www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-army-shows-devastation-northern-gaza-invasion-grinds-2023-11-08/.

Martínez, Andrés R., and Emma Bubola. “What We Know about the Hamas Attack and Israel’s Response.” The New York Times, 8 Oct. 2023, www.nytimes.com/article/israel-gaza-hamas-what-we-know.html.

“References to Jews in the Koran.” Www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/references-to-jews-in-the-koran.

Office of the Historian. “The Arab-Israeli War of 1948.” State.gov, 2019, history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/arab-israeli-war.

Office of the Historian. “Milestones: 1977–1980 – Office of the Historian.” State.gov, 2019, history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/camp-david.

Office of The Historian. “Milestones: 1993–2000 – Office of the Historian.” State.gov, 2000, history.state.gov/milestones/1993-2000/oslo.

Rosman, Katherine. “How Posters of Kidnapped Israelis Ignited a Firestorm on American Sidewalks.” The New York Times, 31 Oct. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/10/31/nyregion/israel-gaza-kidnapped-poster-fight.html. Accessed 12 Nov. 2023.

“Piers Morgan Rips into Man Caught Tearing down Posters of Israeli Hostages.” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnYUATYGQe4. Accessed 12 Nov. 2023.

Archive, View Author, and Get author RSS feed. Woman Caught on Camera Ripping down NYC Posters of Israeli Hostages: “Are You Proud of Yourself?” 21 Oct. 2023, nypost.com/2023/10/21/woman-caught-on-camera-ripping-down-nyc-posters-of-israeli-hostages-are-you-proud-of-yourself/. Accessed 12 Nov. 2023.

Archive, View Author, et al. NYC Leaders Blast Anti-Israel Activists Tearing down Hostage Posters. 2 Nov. 2023, nypost.com/2023/11/01/metro/nyc-leaders-blast-anti-israel-activists-tearing-down-hostage-posters/.