dr. Tiberiu TĂNASE^
Violeta Ioana NAGÂŢ^

Abstract. The long-standing conflict that we are briefly analyzing has also taken on complex forms of “violent clash of civilizations”. Palestinians still seem attached, including traditional clan and tribal structures and the values of moderate or radical Islam. For a long time, secular nationalism has galvanized masses of fighters. The last decades have been noticed by increasing the influence of Islamic fundamentalist groups (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, etc.), to the detriment of those of secular and even Arab-socialist orientation (Palestine Liberation Organization).

The armed struggle, in its various forms, has occupied almost an entire space of manifestation of individuals and groups, both for Palestinian Arabs and for Israelis. As a result, this conflict has transformed, into the senses, into a “normal state” of both societies. He was given highly exaggerated motivations and interpretations, in relation to the specific territorial stakes.

For Arabs, the war against Israel was emotionally justified as a revenge against the West, as an instrument of “national and civilization rebirth”, after centuries of Ottoman and colonial imperial rule.

The Israelis, for their part, believed that military victories demonstrated the fighting ability and virility of a people, subjected for centuries to ethnic and religious discrimination, culminating in the Holocaust of 1939-1945.

Today, both peoples hope for a long-awaited peace from the international community. To understand the chances of this peace means to know the causes of the conflict, its real motivations and the play of the different international actors.

Keywords: Arabs, Israel, Middle Ages, political orientation, conflict, ethno-cultural, enclave, Holocaust