The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Simply Put

The fundamental disagreement is over land. Both Jewish Israelis and Arab, Muslim Palestinians claim rights to the region generally known as Palestine, encompassing the current state of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israelis trace their roots to this land back to ancient Biblical times as the land in which Moses, Jesus and the like lived. It was then known as Israel, as most who know a bit about the Bible are familiar with. Being a fundamental aspect of the Bible, most Christians share this belief that Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people. However, since the Romans conquered the region and put it under harsh rule, many Jews fled the region (called the Diaspora), although still remained a significant portion of the population in Palestine.

The Palestinians make a similar claim. Muslims accept the Old Testament, although they don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and only as far as the Koran permits. Jesus is viewed as an important prophet. Although the heart of the Muslim world will always be in current Saudi Arabia (Mecca and Medina), Jerusalem plays as big a role in Muslim tradition as it does in any religion. After the Romans, the region, including the Jews, was governed by Muslims rulers until the British in the early 20th century.

As is common knowledge, the Holocaust during World War II erased 6 million Jews from the earth. Europe was an unfriendly place for Jews, even in countries who were on the "Allied" side of the war (Winston Churchill refused that any Jew served in his cabinet). Many Jews moved from Europe to their historic "homeland" of Israel as a part of the Zionist movement, which seeks to establish Israel for the Jews based on divine right.

In 1948, led by David Ben-Gurion, the Jews of Palestine simply declared the state of Israel. They fought a brief war against the Palestinian Arabs (who were assisted by the British, the old colonizers) and won, ending in the state of Israel and the West Bank. With this, a portion of modern-day Israel was formed, although the current state was not fully formed until another brief war in 1967, the Six Day War, in which they took Jerusalem.

While the western world, led by the United States, immediately accepted the state of Israel as compensation for the Holocaust, Palestinians did not. They were left with the West Bank, which is largely infertile and useless land, and Gaza, which is currently a giant slum. Most, if not all, Palestinians, to this day, adamantly deny Israel's right to exist.

An important complicating factor in this issue are Israeli settlements. Incentives for Jews to come live in Israel are very high, as the government offers loans with very low or no interest to those who want to relocate to Israel. Therefore Israeli neighborhoods are constantly expanding. These neighborhoods are called settlements. The problem is that these expand outside of Israel's borders, the rationale being that if these are towns and cities are filled primarily with Jews, when the time comes to make a two-state agreement, they will be included in Israel. Recently, President Obama has called for a freeze in settlement-building, putting a strain on the usually close relationship between America and Israel.

Currently, most Palestinians live in poverty, while Israel is generally considered a first-world, western nation. Hamas -- the political party, or terrorist organization, depending on who you ask -- was democratically elected as the ruling party of Palestine. However, the west widely does not accept them because of military tactics considered morally wrong, or more consistent with those used by terrorists than armies. Rockets are regularly fired into Israel from the Gaza strip, which often kill Israeli civilians, but are cheaply made and not very powerful. When Israel responds, such as in the winter of 2008-2009, with superior military force, the number of dead Palestinians is exponentially higher than those of Israelis.

Many solutions have been proposed over the years, led by different nations, to no avail. Neither side wants to be the one to compromise, and it is difficult to see an end in sight.

This is clearly not a comprehensive history, but an attempt to put an incredibly complex issue in simple terms. I have glossed over many details in the hopes of making the entire conflict easier to understand. I hope that I have helped those who didn't quite get this enormously important issue in today's world.