The Emergence of the Title

The conflict surrounding Israel and Palestine is probably one of the most standard and classical conflicts in today’s world. Even the name of the conflict could be very puzzling and if said in the wrong way could get you in a lot of trouble. Many may question as to why it is not called the “Israeli” conflict or simply the “Palestine” conflict. Well this is because if we call it a conflict over “Israel” then many Palestinians and other Arabs would be highly offended and take it to mean that the conflict is pro-Israeli or has a Zionist agenda. On the other hand, if we were to call it a “Palestinian” conflict then we would be saying that it favors anti-Zionists and other critics of Israel.

So, then why not call it the “Israeli-Palestine” conflict? Well, we can’t because even though the core of the conflict surrounds Israeli’s and Palestinian’s, the involvement of surrounding Arab states after the emergence of Israel in 1948 expanded the term into an “Arab-Israeli” conflict.

Before 1948, Jews, who were still not known as Israeli’s because there was no such thing as Israel, lived peacefully with Arabs within the British ruled Palestine and the surrounding Arab nations played secondary roles.

Thus, due the rising conflicts after 1948 when Israel was established as a state, the term “Arab-Israeli” caught on because many neighboring Arab states were involved in defending not only their territory but also were trying to defend the Arabs who lived in Palestine.

Even though Palestinians have reclaimed their previous position as Israel’s major enemy and even though most neighboring Arab states have signed peace treaties with Israel (Egypt and Jordan) and others have disengaged from the conflict, it is still widely known as the “Arab-Israeli Conflict”.

Sources:

Dowty, Alan . Israel/Palestine. 2nd. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2008.