HOT BARGAINING: THE MIDDLE EAST 2001

Abstract

For over a century, the Middle East has been going through massive transformations; some peaceful, others bloody. For decades, the Arabs and Israelis fought each other for affirmation of their national identities, territories and natural resources. For the Israelis, the fight was for a self-recognised sense of nationhood that would gather all the Jews of the world in the Holy Land of Palestine. For the Arabs, the fight was to rectify the 'original sin' of uprooting the Palestinians from their historical homeland and thus depriving them of the right of self-determination. The conflict between the two sides continued unabated for over half a century in the international forums and on the battlefields. Overtime, the conflict, which was about the partition of Palestine, was extended to a host of increasingly complicated issues such as the Arab territories occupied since June 1967, the arms race, water supplies, refugees, the economic boycott, settlement and settlers, terrorism and others.