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We're diving a little deeper today into the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians often referred to as the Middle East conflict. When we produced this show, not much had changed from the day before. The two sides were still engaged in their worst violence in years with the Israeli military launching more air strikes in Palestinian controlled areas and Palestinian militants firing more rockets into Israel.
In several Israeli cities there's been rioting and violence between Arab and Jewish citizens. One mayor says decades of coexistence between these two groups have been quote "trampled". Flights into Israel have been cancelled by several international airlines. And it looked like the Israeli military and Palestinian militants were both waiting for the other side to stop its attacks first before pulling back on their own. Gaza is the Palestinian controlled territory from which rockets are being launched and which is being targeted by Israeli air strikes. Gaza is controlled by Hamas, a Muslim fundamentalist group that does not recognize Israel as a nation.
Because Hamas's attacks through the years have targeted civilians, the U.S. government and European Union consider it to be a terrorist organization, as does Israel. Hamas wants an Islamic country established in the region that now includes Israel. But decades of efforts to establish two countries in this area, a Palestinian state and an Israeli state have all failed. It has tremendous religious and historical significance to Jews and Muslims as well as Christians.
