The origin of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be traced back to the Balfour declaraition by Great Britain in 1917. Ironically the declaration called for the establishment of an independent Jewish state within Palestine, as long as the civil liberties of existing inhabitants were guaranteed. Seventy-five years later, is painfully obvious that these guarantees were never maintained. The state of Israel exists as a dominant overlord to the non-existent state of Palestine. Instead of two separate and equal states as stated in the Balfour declaration, we have one nation that has usurped the sovereignty of another. Israel maintains a stranglehold upon the Palestinians, and with its current right wing government, shows no signs of searching for peace. Thus the conflict will continue without the intervention of outside forces, to bring both parties to the peace table.
             The history of the conflict all relates to the way that the Israeli state was created. The Zionists didn't want to emigrate to the Holy land, they wanted their own separate homeland. After WWII, the British were pressured by Zionist interests to create a separate state within Palestine. In an odd twist of fate, the early Jewish settlers were forced into camps by the Palestinians. In an effort to remove the British from Palestine several Israeli underground gangs resorted to terrorism. They kidnapped and murdered British personnel, in an effort to get the British to turn over their mandate to the U.N. Their tactics were succesful, and in November of 1947 the U.N. Recommended that Palestine be partitioned and a new Jewish state be created.
             The borders that were created by the UN resolution were immediately unpopular with both sides. To the Arabs this was their home, and the Jews had no right to be there. The odd borders that were created between the two nations, served only to increase tensions between the two countries, rather than ease them as had been h...