Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Middle Eastern States


Israel/ Palestine


In the late 19th century, a rise of nationalism grew, including the Zionism(Jews) and Arabs. The Zionism wanted to establish a Jewish nation-state in Palestine. Historically, to the Jews, it was known as there "homeland." Their goal was to find self determination there. The Arab leaders, on the other hand, were against the creation of the creation of the Jewish state. The population in Palestine was largely Arab. Many others supported the creation of a Jewish state because they thought it would benefit the entire region economically and the Jews had a right to a state in the land of ancient Israel.After WW1, the English promised a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine in the Balfour Declaration. Under the British and Ottoman rule, the Jewish purchased this land. After WW2 the issue of Palestine was handed over to the United Nations. In 1947, the United Nations approved the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into two states: one Jewish and one Arab. The Jewish leadership accepted the plan, but Palestinian Arab leaders rejected the plan. After the the British left, a civil war broke out. The war resulted in an Israeli victory.
Today Israel is still facing these problems. There is no clear solution at the moment, but there are some ideas. One solution would be to creating a Palestinian state in Israel by connecting Gaza strip with the West Bank. By doing this, the Palestinians would gain some land. The problem is, the Israelis loose access to the Mediterranean sea, and they are most likely not willing to give up a big water way. One way to solve it to redistribute the land. Palestine state to the north and Israel to the South so they both have access to the Mediterranean Sea. It is also important that they eventually sign a peace treaty to discourage guerrilla warfare. The Palestinian state would lose Gaza posting some conflict. This is a hard situation with no clear resolution.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Czarist Russia


Intellectuals
This class was the educated class that worked for the improvement of Russia. The difference between the early and later intellectuals is that the early had an active role in the tsarist government while the later intellectuals were activists that were mostly against the government. The intellectuals wanted to modernize Russia by "westernizing" and moving away from autocracy and more towards democracy. Some nationalism views of the Slavs wanted to stay away from industrialization and center more around farming. There were two different groups of intellectuals, the Populist and Marxist. The populists would go to the peasants, sometimes even dressed to look like them, to recruit them to revolt against the government. On the other hand, Marxist focused more on a classless society, where the lower class overthrows the upper class. The work of the intellectuals were very challenging with many road blocks. Ideas were unable to be spread due to illiteracy. Russification was now taking place so the people would not revolt against the Czar.This is why the government police took action and punished members by inprisoning and exiling. Some groups became extreme and succeded to assasinate Alexander II, a Czar from the Romanov Dynasty. This class would defently support the idea of Revolution. This is what they stood for. Their goal was to better Russia, and Revolution is how they would get there.