What is the purpose of the Middle East Peace Conference?

Since the Second World War, in the past half century, the land in the Middle East has been full of bloody artillery fire. The Arab-Israeli confrontation has caused long-term turmoil here. There has been enough blood and tears. People long for peace. ...

From 199 1 year 1 October 3 1 day to1October1day, the Middle East Peace Conference was held in Madrid, Spain for the first time. This is the first time that Arab countries and Israel have sat together to discuss the Middle East peace issue after more than 40 years of wars and five wars. This is undoubtedly a major turning point. After 22 months and 1 1 rounds of negotiations,1September 1993 13, the PLO and Israel finally reached an agreement on mutual recognition, which marked a historic breakthrough in the Middle East peace process.

The Middle East is the birthplace of ancient civilization and the first cornerstone of western civilization. Jerusalem, a small town on the east coast of the Mediterranean, is world-famous. It is the holy land of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During thousands of years of historical changes, complex ethnic relations have been formed here.

Today's Middle East issue is ultimately the Palestinian issue. This is the key to the Arab-Israeli dispute.

Palestine is located in the west of Asia, between the Mediterranean Sea, the Dead Sea and the Jordan River. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria and Jordan in the east, Sinai Peninsula in Egypt in the southwest and Abaka Bay in the Red Sea in the south, covering an area of 27,000 square kilometers. It is located in Europe, Asia and Africa, and its geographical position is very important.

Palestine was called "the land of Canaan" in ancient times. As early as 3000 BC, a group of semi-nomadic Canaanites who migrated from Arabian Peninsula began to settle here. They established the Canaanite State here before 2000 BC. Later, the Phoenicians along the Aegean Sea came here again and established the "Phoenician" country. They call it Palestine. It means "Phoenician land". About BC19th century, the ancestors of the Jews, the Hebrews, moved to Palestine from the Euphrates River.

Hebrews used to be nomadic people, but they quickly absorbed Canaan culture and began to settle down. The Hebrews fought against Canaanites, Phoenicians and Palestinian tribes, and in the process, they realized the union of Jewish tribes. From 65438 BC to 0020 BC, the Hebrews established the first Hebrew state in parts of Palestine and eastern Jordan, with Jerusalem as its capital.

Jerusalem means "city of peace" in Hebrew. Jews built large-scale temples here, making it the political and religious center of Jews. In 923 BC, the country was divided into two parts, the northern part called the Kingdom of Israel and the southern part called the Kingdom of Judaism. In 722 BC, the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyrian Empire, and its residents were gradually assimilated by Assyrians. In 586 BC, the emerging kingdom of Babylon destroyed the Jewish kingdom, and the king and most of the residents were taken to Babylon. Since then, Palestine has been occupied and contested by neighboring countries. It has been occupied by Persia, Greece, Rome, Turkey and other foreigners. In 538 BC, the Persian Empire conquered Babylon, allowed some Jews captured by Babylon to return to Palestine, and restored a small affiliated country near Jerusalem for resettlement. In BC 143, Jews in Palestinian areas got rid of the rule of the Greek Macedonian king, established the Macabies Dynasty, and gained independence for 80 years. In 64 BC, the Roman Empire invaded Palestine and imposed cruel rule in Palestine, which aroused strong resistance from Jews. They held four large-scale uprisings, all of which were brutally suppressed by the Roman Empire, and more than 6,543,800 Jews were killed. In addition, a large number of Jews were plundered to Europe and became slaves. Most of the remaining Jews were deported to Palestine and scattered around the world. They mainly went to Britain, France, Italy, Germany and other western European countries, and some went to Russia, Eastern Europe and North America.

In the 7th century, Islam rose in the Arabian Peninsula. In 637 AD, Palestine became a part of the emerging Arab Empire, and Arabs began to flood into Palestine. In their long-term common life, they have formed modern Palestinian Arabs together with local Arabs. Since then, they have thrived on this land. 1099, Europe occupied Palestine in the Crusade and established the State of Jerusalem. 1 187, the Crusaders were defeated by the local people, and most of Jerusalem and Palestine were liberated. During the 400 years from1517 to1917, Palestine became a dependency of the Ottoman Empire. After the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, it became the mandated territory of Britain.

After leaving Palestine, Jews began to wander around. During their wandering life of 1000 years, they were in an extremely miserable situation and suffered all kinds of persecution. This persecution began when the Roman Empire regarded Christianity as the state religion, and intensified in the Middle Ages. 1789 After the French Revolution, the persecution of Jews eased. In World War II, this persecution reached its peak because of the Nazi massacre of Jews.

Why did Jews encounter racial persecution in medieval Europe? Shiro Tanabe of Japan thinks so in his book The Whole History of the Middle East War. This is because they think they are "God's voters", stubbornly believe in Judaism and stick to their own way of life, and it is difficult for them to assimilate into other ethnic groups. In the Christian society in the Middle Ages, Judaism was banned as a cult, and the basis of the "Reformation System" (a system that isolated the Jewish community in a certain area) was established. Later, the system of pagans wearing special badges was introduced in 12 15. At this time, countries that decided to expel Jews appeared one after another. 1290, Britain announced the expulsion order, 1306, France also announced the expulsion of Jews. In addition, the occupation of Jews is also restricted. Because usury was banned by Christianity, they were forced to engage in the most despised lending industry at that time. Because of this, wealthy Jews are more disgusted with Christians.

By the16th century, due to the Renaissance and the Reformation, the absolute rule of the Catholic Church was shaken, and the persecution of Jews gradually eased. 1789 The French Revolution made the atmosphere of Jewish liberation soar. Napoleon officially recognized Jewish autonomy and resumed the ancient Jewish conference in 1808. After Napoleon stepped down, there was a wave of restoration in Europe, especially in Germany and Bismarck. 188 1 year, the persecution of Jews in Russia began again. As a result, a large number of Jews migrated from Russia and Eastern European countries to the United States, Canada, Australia and South Africa. From 188 1 to 19, more than 600,000 people set foot on American soil. Jews believe that the only way to escape racial persecution is to leave Europe, create their own country, and then move there. 1896, founder of Zionist organization Theodore? Heckel clearly put forward this idea in his pamphlet The Jewish State. Soon, this booklet became a classic of Zionism, and a Zionist movement of "returning to Mount Zion in Jerusalem to create a country" rose from then on. 1903 The number of Jews who immigrated to the United States was1500,000, and 1928 reached 3 million. Before World War II, most Jews lived in Europe. During the period from 194 1 to 1945, Hitler slaughtered more than 6 million Jews, which dealt a devastating blow to the Jewish society in Europe. Ironically, Hitler's massacre of Jews led to the vigorous development of Zionism and promoted Jewish immigration to Palestine. From 1930 to 1944, about 44,000 Jews migrated from Europe to Palestine. There are 370,000 people who immigrated to North and South America, including 240,000 people who immigrated to the United States. 1942 in may, the Zionist organization of the United States held an emergency Council meeting at the Biltmore Hotel in new york, and adopted the Biltmore plan, changing the goal from building a "national homeland" to building a "country". 1944 in February, things developed to submit a resolution to the US Senate and House of Representatives demanding unrestricted immigration to Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish state there.

The Second World War also had a great influence on Arabs and Jews who opposed the Palestinian issue. In wartime, in view of the Nazi massacre of Jews, the relief of Jews was put forward as an international issue, and the Zionist center was transferred from Europe to the United States. The Jews' struggle against Britain's restrictions on Jewish immigration has intensified, and the American government has also exerted pressure, which has put the British government in a dilemma. Therefore, in April 1947, Britain submitted the issue of Pakistan's mandate to the United Nations. In order to solve the Palestinian question, the United Nations General Assembly established a special committee on Pakistan organized by 1 1. After visiting Palestine, the Committee put forward two proposals to the United Nations in September, 1947: the "majority proposal" put forward by seven countries, including Canada and the Czech Republic, advocated that Pakistan should be divided into a Jewish state and an Arab state, and Jerusalem should be internationalized; The "minority plan" put forward by India, Iran and Yugoslavia advocates the establishment of a Palestinian Federation, with Arabs and Jews exercising local autonomy respectively and restricting Jewish immigration. Finally, the "majority plan" was adopted at the UN General Assembly on1October 29th.

However, this partition resolution not only failed to ease the Arab-Israeli national contradictions, but further aggravated them because of the unfair territorial division. The resolution stipulates that the area of Arab countries is 1. 1.000 square kilometers and that of Jewish countries is 1.400 square kilometers; Jerusalem and its suburbs are administered by the United Nations. According to this resolution, Arabs who account for more than two thirds of the total population (about 1.3 million) only get 42.88% of the total area of Palestine, while Jews who account for less than 1.3 (about 600,000) get 56.47%. But before the resolution was passed, the land occupied by Jews only accounted for 6% of the total area. This means that Arabs have to cede large areas of land to Jews. Obviously, this is unacceptable to Arabs and will inevitably deepen the contradiction between the two sides.