Thomas Keller

The Arab-Israeli Conflict Thomas Keller

The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict - A Historical PerspectiveThe initial intent of this thesis was to explore the historiography of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and identify the key issues in the debate. The primary intent of this thesis was to evaluate the strategic security related risks the State of Israel must take in order to maintain the status quo of military occupation in the Israeli controlled territories of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights. The research was conducted, generally, by rigorously exploring as much primary evidence as possible. This included, but was not limited to, published interviews, published studies, and government documents. The research was conducted, specifically, to provide a representative sampling of research from both Israeli and Arab historians. The research revealed that the Palestinian intifada, or "uprising," directly affected the Israeli government's political and military planning, strategically and tactically, in the occupied territories. The Israeli government now seems committed to a political settlement with the Palestinian people represented by the Palestinian Liberation Organization; therefore, the security related risks to the State Israel, strategically and tactically, posed by a newly created Palestinian State are few compared to maintaining the status quo of Israeli military occupation in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights.