Appraisal of the Politics of Israeli and Palestine Conflict using Intractable Conflict Theory

One of the conflicts that had defied all attempts to resolve it is the Israeli and Palestine conflict, and recently the United States of America introduced a policy on the status of Jerusalem that seems to further escalate the conflict. This paper examined the politics of Israeli and Palestine conflict using intractable conflict theory, with specific objectives of identifying the factors escalating the conflict, ascertaining the role of the superpowers in escalating the conflict as well as looking at all the past efforts to de-escalate Israeli and Palestine conflict and why they failed. The study used Enemy System Theory as a framework of analysis. Data was sourced from documentary sources that contain information on the conflict while content analysis was used to analyze data. The study found that factors triggering the conflict are: a contention by the two groups of people (that is Israel and Palestine) over ownership of the same piece of land and the United States of Americas interest in maintaining hegemony in the Middle East. All the past efforts failed because of lack of commitment and mistrust among the parties (Israel and Palestine) and their allies especially the one of the United States of America who vetoes resolutions capable of ending Israeli-Palestine conflict. The study recommends that the United Nations Security should implement/enforce the 1947 Two State solution for both Israel and Palestine as contained its resolution 181 of 1947. That the United States of America should rescind its hegemonic influence in the Middle East and work towards a final settlement of the conflict based on UNSC resolution 181 of 1947. That both Israel and Palestine should stop using any form of violence such as terrorist acts against each other but should resort to pacific means to de-escalate the conflict