Summary: Reading Time: 9 minutesPart 3 in my Complete and Balanced Historical Guide to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict looks at the Balfour Declaration.<br> <br> A common statement of exasperation heard in the west when people look to the Israeli Palestinian conflict is something along the lines of “Those people have been fighting each other for thousands of years and nothing is ever going to change that.” This statement is historically inaccurate and even hypocritical.<br> <br> I referenced this in different podcast episodes and posts on the history of the middle east but we should keep in mind that it is western cultures who have given us such things like the Hundred Years War, two world wars, nuclear weapons and detonating atomic bombs on wartime targets, and also introduced words like holocaust and genocide into the political modern lexicon.<br> <br> The Middle East certainly hosts some of the oldests civilizations in the world but to say that the people of the middle east have been fighting each other for thousands of years is simply untrue and this is particularly untrue in the case of Palestine.<br> Palestine Before World War I<br> <br> As has been mentioned earlier the area of Palestine was relatively peaceful prior to the 20th century. There were issues in the north in the areas of modern Lebanon and Syria but not in Palestine. Even as the Jewish immigration increased during the course of the late 19th century this peaceful status did not change until just before World War I.<br> <br> This was largely because Palestine was part of the larger Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire had once been one of the strongest powers in the world but it was fading over the course of the 19th century. As it faded external forces began to take their toll on Palestine and the surrounding regions of the Middle East. The new great powers of the planet, chiefly Great Britain and France, began to lurk at the doors of the empire to scoop up new colonial holdings.<br> <br> In the early years of the 20th century a coup toppled the ruling order of the Ottoman Empire and installed a group of new leaders. While they sorted their own power struggles out things began to shift more rapidly on the ground in the western parts of the empire in areas like Palestine. Jewish immigration was increasing thanks to the efforts of the Zionist organization. They still met resistance from the new Ottoman rulers but they were also able to circumvent the Ottoman rulers more easily. Meanwhile, the Arab residents of Palestine were as concerned of British and French eyes on their land as they were of Jewish eyes.<br> <br> This loosening of the Ottoman grip on power in the region during the first couple of decades of the 20th century and the rising influence of Jewish immigration and threat of European imperialism were the sparks that were needed for the rise of Arab nationalism that had been so long delayed in Palestine.<br> <br> In 1913 the First Arab Congress, also known as the First Palestine Congress met in Paris France to initiate an organization and plans of reform for the Arabs living within the Ottoman Empire. The Congress meetings would last for two months and while its ranks included a large number of Lebanese Arabs there were also representatives of other countries and ethnic groups within the middle east, including the Zionists.<br> <br> The Arab Congress of 1913 was not successful in many of its aims as the outbreak of World War I changed many of the realities on the ground before any of their proposals could be implemented but it was significant for what it marked historically.<br> <br> By way of the Arab Congress, Palestine officially now had two nationalist groups vying for power with one another within Palestine. There were the Arab Nationalists and the Zionists. Groups who had been living together in relative peace and ease now began to shift into a new perspective as see...
