Summary: Reading Time: 10 minutesIn my last post in this series we looked at the <a href="http://www.theendofhistory.net/most_recent/complete-balanced-guide-israeli-palestinian-conflict-chapter-17-intifada/">intifada</a> of the 1980s. This was a major turning point in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. It was the first time the Palestinians had really struck out on their own to protest and resist the Israelis and it helped open the door to the peace process and the two state solution proposals of the 1990s.<br> <br> <br> Before the Peace Process and Two State Solution<br> <br> Before the intifada the plight of the Palestinians had always been a sort of proxy struggle between Israel and the Arab states. Even in the 1970s with the rise of political Palestinian terrorism, a lot of the fight and struggle seemed to be more about a proxy fight than it did a real struggle between those Palestinians living in Israel and those who were planning and producing these terrorist attacks outside of Israel.<br> <br> The intifada changed all of that. It gave the real Palestinian people, those living within the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a voice and a face within the conflict. As the world turned on their nightly news they no longer saw masked men holding innocent people captive or hijacking airplanes. They saw Palestinians children throwing rocks at Israeli tanks that were moving down the streets of their neighborhoods.<br> <br> For the first time it seemed people began to question the justice of the whole situation. How was it that Israel came to be in these streets anyway? Why did the Palestinians not have their own homeland?<br> Israeli Society Slowly Opens to the Peace Process and Two State Solution Ideas<br> <br> There were changes in Israel too. After the debacle of Lebanon and the atrocities committed by Israeli soldiers and leaders there, many in Israel were beginning to question their own government and the issue of what was right and wrong regarding the Palestinians.<br> <br> By the end of the 1980s an entirely new generation was coming of age in Israel whose only experience of war had been Lebanon. This was not an experience of David versus Goliath like their parents had experienced in 1973, 1967 and 1948. This had been more akin to an oppressive state attacking a smaller state and unleashing the dogs of war on innocent people.<br> <br> Many Israeli soldiers returning from Lebanon began to vocalize their opposition to the Israeli government’s actions there. A whole new political movement arose within Israel and the hawkish, defensive and victimized self-image represented in leaders like Menachem Begin was soon out of popularity.<br> Palestinians Open Up to Peace Process and Two State Solution Ideas <br> <br> The intifada meant a huge change for Palestinian politics too. Arafat had been almost destroyed by what happened in Lebanon. The intifada was not born by his efforts but by the Palestinian people themselves. If any one group could claim credit for stirring up and leading the intifada it was not the PLO but this new group, Hamas.<br> <br> Hamas was a new thing not only in Palestinian politics but in Middle Eastern politics. It was a politicized religious organization who was willing to use the gun to make their point and achieve what they saw as their divine purpose.<br> <br> Arafat had been an enemy of the Israeli government but Hamas was going to prove a dreadful nightmare. It was one thing to have an opponent who was acting in his own self interests. This provided some level of predictability. That is who Arafat was for the Israelis. Hamas was different though. In future years, as they introduced suicide bombers into the equation Israel realized this was not something they would ever be able to corral.<br> <br> That was in the future though. For now, as the 1980s drew to a close and the intifada was winding down, Arafat,
