Upfront World Affairs 2014 Response

The recent issue of Upfront covered world affairs, and one article in particular targeted the grim. "How the Murder of Four Teens Started a War," by Patricia Smith was about how the militant killings of four boys escalated into battle. Three Israeli teens were killed by Palestinian militants, and Jewish extremists retaliated  with the killing of a young Muslim teenager named Muhammed Abu Khdeir.

What's shocking to me is how this conflict grew into all-out war, even killing 2,173 citizens of Israel an Palestine, most of them civilians. Such violence seems unthinkable as a result of the murder of four, but at a closer look there were many other causes for war to suddenly break out. Israel claimed its existence in a land where there were already the Palestinians. The English-controlled area complied, but the Arab citizen did  not. When Israel was first formed, Palestinians citizens attacked. Several more wars were fought, and each time Israel captured a chunk of land from its neighbor tensions mounted.

I think that this war, like many others, can be traced back to colonialism. The English gave the Jews Israel because it was their native homeland and they already controlled the area near it, Palestine. They had no regard for the native Palestinians and bier wishes, and so crammed two very different peoples together. Colonial-era tensions have lead to war all over the earth. The English-run government keeps a lid on both ancient and modern tensions, but when they leave the newly independent nations have old hatreds and new issues to deal with. Ancient times were very different from now, but those old hatreds run deep and effect us even now.