Is Peace Possible Anymore?

• Author: Smith, Patricia

The Trump administration has thrown out the rule book on negotiating between Israel and the Palestinians. Will that work?

In January, the Trump administration unveiled its long-awaited Middle East peace plan. The proposal is the latest in a long string of American attempts at peacemaking in this volatile region.

The peace plan follows a series of actions by President Trump that have upended America's long-standing approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict. In 2017, Trump recognized the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv the following year. In November, the U.S. declared that Israeli settlements in the West Bank don't violate international law--a change that put U.S. policy at odds with most of the world.

Some Israelis, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have applauded the moves and the new peace plan, as have some Americans. But others have criticized them and said they jeopardize prospects for peace. Here's what you need to know about how the policies might affect the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

1 What are Israel and the Palestinians fighting about?

In a nutshell, they're fighting because they both claim the same small piece of territory (see map, facing page). Israelis and Palestinians have been at loggerheads since Israel's founding in 1948, but the roots of the conflict go back much further.

In the first century A.D., Jews were expelled from their ancient Middle East homeland by the Romans; for nearly two millennia, Jews lived in exile in Europe, other parts of the Middle East, and elsewhere. At the end of the 19th century, Jews known as Zionists began arguing that Jews needed a state of their own. When 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust during World War II, many nations embraced the idea of creating a Jewish state in British-ruled Palestine, the Jews' historical homeland.

However, over the previous 2,000 years, their ancient homeland hadn't remained empty. So when significant numbers of Jews began moving back in the early 20th century, tensions erupted with the Arabs already living there.

In 1947, a year before British rule over Palestine was set to end, the United Nations voted to divide the area into an Arab state and a Jewish state (see inset map). The U.N. plan designated Jerusalem as a special international zone not belonging to either country. The Jews accepted the partition plan, but the Arabs rejected it.

When the British left and Israel declared independence in 1948, Arab states--including Egypt, Syria, and Iraq--attacked. Israel prevailed and, in the course of the war, it ended up controlling more territory than the U.N. plan had called for. The victory secured...