Israel vs. Palestine questions?

ACTaFOOL82

ACTaFOOL82

Active member
1) What started the fued, when?
2) Does Palestine have a set army, or just rebel groups/militias?
3) What weapons do both sides use?
4) Do the Sunnis, or Shiites hate Israel, or both?
5) What tactics do both sides use?
6) Will it ever be totally, officially, without a doubt over?
7) In what way is Palestine superior to the IDF (if any)?

I am doing this for a church project so any help would be very appreciated. Please help me out guys.

*coughshermancough* :cowb:
 
jeez, it'll take a term paper to answer all of those questions completely. i can tell you this much, it's all a land war. just like most terrorism in the middle east. it's just a battle over land. it doesn't help that the israeli want to put up a wall though. in reality the israelis were placed there by the US when we created their county. the displaced palestinians are rightfully, pissed off about it.
weaponry? well it's terrorism vs the latest US weapons and tactics when it comes to israel vs PLA.
will it ever be over, ya, it will be if they decide on some boundries. but the problem is there won't ever be a decision on boundries because both sides think they should be there. someone obviously wasn't looking too closely at the backlash when they came up with the bright idea that we should just plot down an israeli state there with complete disregard to everyone who already lived in the area.
it's a battle of tactics. technically you could say the IDF is more superior to the palestinians because they have the latest and greatest out of the US. but they don't fight a conventional war, so the best tank on the planet doesn't make much of a difference.

there's no way anyone can cover everything you asked in a thread. there are tons of books written on the topic. i bet there's a few good research papers done on it at the army war college that you could probably look up too. but i gave a pretty general summary of what's going on. i might have missed a few things, maybe someone else can fill the gaps.
 
One of the biggest problems (that I don't see mentioned yet) is the stated goal of the Palestinian extremist groups -- Destroy Israel. Drive the Israelis from the land completely. That goal is entirely unreasonable and makes negotiating impossible. The Iraelis are NOT willing to just pack up and leave. And yet, that is what groups like Hamas are determined to make happen. Nothing less than every Israeli gone from the land -- murdered down to the last if necessary -- is acceptable to them.

The Palestinian people as a whole are willing to negotiate for mutually acceptable terms, but the extremist groups continue their attacks to guarantee that no peaceful solution is achieved. This is very unfortunate for the majority of the Palestinians that ARE willing to find a way to peacefully coexist. Because of the actions of the few, the larger group suffers. For some reason, the majority of them refer to the groups launching suicide attacks as "Freedom Fighters". Ironic that the opposite of freedom is all they will likely ever achieve.

Israel is a lot more willing to find a peaceful solution than most give them credit. They are just in a completely impossible situation -- The only way to protect their own people is to treat all of the Palestinians like criminals. I've yet to hear of a reasonable alternative. It should be stated that everytime they are attacked, Israel retaliates with attacks on areas they claim were connected with the attack. Its interesting that there are ALWAYS more Palestinians killed in the aftermath than Israelis are killed in the initial attack. That fact, in my opinion, is a deliberate move to assure that Israel is not extinguished by attrition -- there are more Palestinians than Israelis.

It should definitely be stated that not ALL of the Israelis were "put there by the United States" (besides the fact that it wasn't JUST the United States). There was a substantial number of Jews living in the region of Palestine prior to World War I. That number grew steadily from the end of WW1 to the beginning of WW2. Zionism is a concept that has no beginning in recent history. The Jews have always wanted to resettle back where they started out.
 
Firstly Egoz, you are very wrong about Israel "being placed" here by the USA, that is historically and logicaly uncorrect. Infact the US had no real control over Eretz Israel(Palestine0 at that time. Also, the USA almost dident recognize the State of Israel when it was declared, as they were sure the Arabs will crush us...Also, the State of Israel was not "plotted", it was ad still is the Jewish Motherland for the past 5000 years, before a Palestinian ever existad and much before Mohamad was even born...Check your history, its full of propganda.

Let me try and ansawer the questions....altohugh it might take a while.

1) This question needs some backround. If you believe the Bible, the first Jew (Abraham) lived in Eretz Israel(Palestine) 5000 years ago. If you dont buy into this, I can physically proove Jewish presence about 3500 years ago...The Jews lived and farmed here, and wrote their history for thousends of years. Unfortunatly, around 2000 years ago, the Romans exhiled almost every Jew in Judea(the name of the province in those times) to Europe, destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and renamed the province Syria-Palestina, after the Anchienst and very extinct Philistines. Some Jews, however, stayed in Israel, or snuck back in. So for the past 2000 years there was Jewish presence in Eretz Israel(Palestine). Rulers came and go, but Jews stayed.
The Palestinians are Arabs. In the late 6th century, the desendents of Mohamad took Syria-Palesine from the Byzantine Empire. The importence of Jerusalem to Islam originates from the Koran, although the name of the city is never mentioned their. The Arab Empire became the Muslim Empire and Finnaly the Ottoman Empire.
In the late 19th century, the Jews in Europe, as a result of being herrased and attacked constantly because of their race and religion, had a national awakening. Some left europe for Palestine and setteld their immidiatly. Some were only convinced when the Zionist movement grew strong and Theodor (Binyamin Ze’ev) Herzl laid down the preicpals of Zionisem.
Zionisem was a very simple idea. If the Jews cannot murge with the Europians and other people, and are being killed and raped for their religion and race, they must have their own countery. This will stop the friction between the Jews and others, and gather all the Jews togather where they can freely worship and act according to their colture.
Many went after Herzl's idea. They came to Palestine in their thousends and tens of thousends. They wanted their motherland to be their national home. The Arabs now saw that they have a problem. Here was an entire nation wanting to go back home, where the Palestinians already lived. Influence by Zionisem, the Arab-Palestinians started to grow nationalistic, but in a very passive way. In the 1920s the Arabs attacked Jews on a few occasions, killing dozens since the Jews did not have any military type organization... By the mid 1940', the holocaust drove more people to Zinisem. The Situation in Palestine grew tens. On one side, the Jews were not eagre to fight the Arabs, but did preapre them selves. The Arabs were very eagre, having superior noumbres, but were not as trained and orgazied as the Jews. It all exploded into to civil war. 1947 the Brits(then ruling Palestine with UN mandate) went to the UN to ask for a solution. The UN decided to have two states, an ARab one and a Jewish one. The plan was very good for the Arabs and left very little for the Jews, but they accepted. The Arabs did not. They were sure they can push the Jews into the Sea. 1948 The State of Israel was born into war. 5 Arab armies invaded to assist the Palestinian militias, that could not defeat the orgenized determined Israelis. The Israelis turned out to be very good warriors, and by 1949 they not only won the war, but got to keep more land than given to them. The areas leff that were ment to be a Palestinian-Arab state were taken by Jordan and Egypt. The Palestinians were now refugees. In 1967, provoked and bsieged, Israel went to war and took those areas as well. Today they are known as "the territories". And this is how it happened. The Palestinian-Arabs always thought they can gaimn more by attacking, and always lost by using violence.
 
It should be noted that in 2000, Israel offered a ridiculously good peace proposal to the Palestinians and they threw it back in Israel's face. Didn't even bother with trying to negotiate the terms or anything. Probably just because it was Arafat, but I still say that was stupid.
 
Yes, that is correct.

I will now ansawer question 2:
2) Does Palestine have a set army, or just rebel groups/militias?
Click to expand...

The Palestinians have many diffrent militias, but baisically no real army. The major groups are the PLO and Hammas. The PLO, Palestine Liberation Organization was esteblished in 1959 by Yasser Arafat, and is a Arab-Socialist movement witha political wing and a Military wing. The PLO has many "regiments", "forces" and "sections" in it. Such are the "El Aktza Regiments", responsible for many mortar and rocket attacks. The PLO is where the Palestinian Autherity draws its power from and almost all of the Palestinian Police are PLO members. Arafat's own guard unit, "Force 17", is comprised of the most loyal PLO gunman, and they are known to be envolved in the more specialized terror and gurrila attacks. The PLO probably has 50000 members(educated guess).
Hammas is a Suni-Fundamentalist Organization, that started it's path as a part of the Muslim Brothers movement in the Territories. Israel allowed the movments activeties in the late 80' because it was mainly humanterian and educational. Turns out they were gathering support and by the eary 90' they became a powerful political and military org. They are more fanntical than the PLO, and were the first to use suicide bombers, which remain their weapon of choice(although they now preform rocket and mortar attacks). Hammas probably counts in by the thousends.(again a guess).

I will adress a part of question 3 now: Palestinian weapons.

4 years ago the PLO had a rgiment of BRDM APCs, a couple of helicopters, and some Patrol Boats. These were destroyed by Israel early on, using air and sea attacks. Right now there are no AFVs used by the PLO or any other Palestinian organiztion in the territories. They do however posses many light and medium range weapons.

SMG- Alot of Uzi SMGs were smuggled in and some were taken from Israeli casualties. Other 9mm SMGs are not uncommon, mainly smuggled in. I saw some pictures of what looked to me like self made 9mm SMGs, but Im not a great expert.

Rifles- Mainly they use AK47 rifles. 30000 were given to the Palestinian Police by Israel in 1994. Others were smuggled in from egypt and Jordan, and by sea into Gaza. They also have M16 and Galil rifles captured rom Israeli Troops or smuggled in. They also have other rifles smuggled in.

MGs- They Some russian made DshK HMGs, Browning 0.5 HMGs. They also have many PK LMGs and FN/MAG MMGs in service. They smuggled those in in diffrent ways, or stole them from IDF storage.

AT- They have many, many RPG launchers, and soem LAWs. They also have homemade AT rockets of diffrent sizes and capabilitys, mostly junck. Some say they have ATGMs, but as to now ive never heard of them using them or displaying them.

Anti-Aircraft- They use their heavy MGs to fire at IDF helicopters, but so far non were shot down(although many were hit). Its believed they have Strela and Redeye Anti-Aircraft Shoulder Launched Missiles, but they never used them to my knmowledge, probably fearing a painfull reprisel by the IDF.

Artillary- They do not any real artillary, only mortars. But they make their own Qassam rocktes with a range of about 5-6 miles and a payload of 20 pounds. They are working on making larger rockets. There were talks about Katyusha Rockets with a range of 20 miles being smuggle in, infact some were captured on the "Karine A" a ship that was heading to Gaza and was stormed by Israely commados at sea. The problem is that there are only two targets in those higher ranges that are worth shooting at: Ariel Sharons private farm, and the city of Ashdod, with the power station that produces 40% of Israel's electricty(yes, I know its only one powerstation, but its a small country and we only have 2 other power stations... :D )...Any attack on these targets will meet witha painful reprisal.

So, thats it for that Q.
 
Let me correct my statments as to the Redeye and Strela AA Missiles. I discussed this witha friend and reached the conclusion that if they had them right now, they would use em. Same for the long range Katyusha rockets. However, it's possible that they had these weapons and thse were destoyed in the early Air Attacks on PLO/PLA assets.
 
Allright, this a back to back, but only becaus every ansawer is so long...

Now to Israeli weapons:

Rifles: The IDF uses mainly the USA made M16 famly of rifles, including the M4 Carabine, M16A2, and other weraients. The IDF also uses the Israeli made Galil rifle, and the Israeli made bulpup Tavor rifle. The IDF also uses USA made Remington M24 Sniper Weapon System, Modified Remington 700 bolt action rifles, A veraiety of Mauser SWSs, the M82A1 Hard Target rifle, and other sniper weapon systems.

MGs: The IDF uses the FN MAG, FN Minimi, the russian made PK and RPD, the Israeli made Negev, and the USA made 0.50 Browning HMG.

Wheeled Vehicles: Israel uses the USA made Hummer, and the UK made Landrover. In addition the Israeli made Sufa, essentially a Jeep copy is used.

APCs: The IDF uses mainly the USA made M113 APC, with extra armor and reacive armor added by the Israeli Military Industry. Israel also made its own line of Heavy APCs, based on captured T55 tanks, and on British made Centurion tanks.

Tanks: Israel uses mainly the Israeli made Merkava series of tanks, and also the USA made M48/M60 Patton, modified in many ways, and renamed Magach.

Artillary: Israel uses a range of Israeli made Mortars. We also make our own version of the MLRS. The IDF uses the M109 and M107 USA made SPA vehicles.

Aircraft: Israel uses mainly USA made aircraft. This includes the F15 series, with the newest version in Israeli use being the F15I Raam(Thunder) which is similar to the F15E. Israel also ha the 2nd largest fleet of F16s, with the F16I Sufa(storm) being the newest version. Also in service are the F4 Phantom and A4 Skyhawk. It should be noted that Israel very rarelrl uses its fixed winged aircraft in the territories, because of the risk to civilians. However, the Helicopters are being heavily used, and the IAF has a fleet of AH-1 Cobra and AH64 Attack Helicopters in service. Israel makes its own UAVs.
 
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