What are Israel and Palestine? Why are they fighting?Israel is the world's only Jewish state, located just east of the Mediterranean Sea. Palestinians, the Arab population that hails from the land Israel now controls, refer to the territory as Palestine, and want to establish a state by that name on all or part of the same land. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is over who gets what land and how it's controlled.

Israel in red, Palestinian-majority territories in pink.VardionThough both Jews and Arab Muslims date their claims to the land back a couple thousand years, the current political conflict began in the early 20th century. Jews fleeing persecution in Europe wanted to establish a national homeland in what was then an Arab- and Muslim-majority territory in the British Empire. The Arabs resisted, seeing the land as rightfully theirs. An early United Nations plan to give each group part of the land failed, and Israel and the surrounding Arab nations fought several wars over the territory. Today's lines largely reflect the outcomes of two of these wars, one waged in 1948 and another in 1967.The 1967 war is particularly important for today's conflict, as it left Israel in control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, two territories home to large Palestinian populations:

Note that, since 1967, Israel has returned Sinai to Egypt. BBC NewsToday, the West Bank is nominally controlled by the Palestinian Authority and is under Israeli occupation. This comes in the form of "settlers," Jews who build ever-expanding communities in the West Bank that effectively deny the land to Palestinians, and Israeli troops, who protect the settlers and enforce Israeli security restrictions on Palestinian movement. Gaza is controlled by Hamas, an Islamist fundamentalist party, and is under Israeli blockade but not ground troop occupation. The two Palestinian groups may have reconciled on April 23rd, creating one shared Palestinian government for the first time since 2007.The peace negotiations fell apart and, in July and August 2014,the conflict escalatedto a full-on war between Israel and Hamas.The primary approach to solving the conflict today is a so-called "two-state solution" that would establish Palestine as an independent state in Gaza and most of the West Bank, leaving the rest of the land to Israel. Though the two-state plan is clear in theory, the two sides are still deeply divided over how to make it work in practice.The alternative to a two-state solution is a "one-state solution," wherein all of the land becomes either one big Israel or one big Palestine. Most observers think this would cause more problems than it would solve, but this outcome is becoming more likely over time for political and demographic reasons.What is Zionism?Zionism is Israel's national ideology. Zionists believe that Judaism is a nationality as well as a religion, and that Jews deserve their own state in their ancestral homeland, Israel, in the same way that the French people deserve France or the Chinese people should have China. It's what brought Jews back to Israel in the first place, and also at the heart of what concerns Arabs and Palestinians about the Israeli state.Jews often trace their nationhood back to the Biblical kingdoms of David and Solomon, circa 950 B.C. Modern Zionism, building on the longstanding Jewish yearning for a "return to Zion," began in the 19th century right about the time that nationalism started to rise in Europe. A secular Austrian-Jewish journalist, Theodor Herzl, was the first to turn rumblings of Jewish nationalism into an international movement around 1896.Herzl witnessed brutal European anti-Semitism firsthand, and became convinced that the Jewish people could never survive outside of a country of their own. He wroteessaysandorganizedmeetings that spurred mass Jewish emigration from Europe to what's now Israel/Palestine. Before Herzl, about 20,000 Jews lived in Israel/Palestine; by the time Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the number wasabout eight times that.Though Zionists all agree that Israel should exist, they've long disagreed on what its government should look like. In the most general terms, the Zionist left, which dominated the country's politics until the late 1970s, is inclined to trade Israeli-controlled land for peace with Arab nations, wants more government intervention into the economy, and prefers a secular government over a religious one. The Zionist right, which currently enjoys commanding positions in the Israeli government and popular opinion, tends to be more skeptical of "land-for-peace" deals, more libertarian on the economy, and more comfortable mixing religion and politics.Arabs and Palestinians generally oppose Zionism, as the explicitly Jewish character of the Israeli state means that Jews have privileges that others don't. For instance, any Jew anywhere in the worldcan become an Israeli citizen, a right not extended to any other class of person. Arabs, then, often see Zionism as a species of colonialism and racism aimed at appropriating Palestinian land and systematically disenfranchising the Palestinians that remain. Arab states actually pushed through a UN General Assembly resolution labelling Zionism "a form of racism and racial discrimination" in 1975, though it wasrepealed 16 years later.How did Israel become a country in the first place?Social and political developments in Europe convinced Jews they needed their own country, and their ancestral homeland seemed like the right place to establish it. European Jews -90 percentof all Jews at the time -arrived at Zionism partly because of rising anti-Semitic persecution and partly because the Enlightenment introduced Jews to secular nationalism. Between 1896 and 1948, hundreds of thousands of Jews resettled from Europe to what was then British-controlled Palestine.

(Zero0000)Many Arabs saw the influx of Jews as a European colonial movement, and the two peoples fought bitterly. The British couldn't control the violence and, in 1947, the United Nations voted to split the land into two countries. Almost all of the roughly650,000Jews went to the blue territory in the map to the right, and a majority of the Arab population (roughly twice the size of the Jewish community) went to the orange.The Jewish residents accepted the deal. The Palestinians, who saw the plan as an extension of a long-running Jewish attempt push them out of the land, fought it. The Arab states of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Syria all later declared war on Israel as well (albeit not to defend the Palestinians).Israeli forces defeated the Palestinian militias and Arab armies in a vicious conflict that turned700,000 Palestinian civilians into refugees. The UN partition promised 56 percent of British Palestine for the Jewish state; by the end of the war,Israel possessed 77 percent- everything except the West Bank and the eastern quarter of Jerusalem (controlled by Jordan), as well as the Gaza Strip (controlled by Egypt). It left Israelis with a state, but not Palestinians.What is the Nakba?The 1948 war uprooted 700,000 Palestinians from their homes, creating a refugee crisis that is still not resolved. Palestinians call this mass eviction the Nakba - Arabic for "catastrophe" - and its legacy remains one of the most intractable issues in ongoing peace negotiations.Not surprisingly, Palestinians and Israelis remember the birth of the Palestinian refugee crisis very differently (here's ahelpful side-by-side comparison). Palestinians often see a years-long, premeditated Jewish campaign to ethnically cleanse Palestine of Arabs; Israelis tend to blame spontaneous Arab fleeing, Arab armies, and/or unfortunate wartime accidents.Today, there areover 7 millionPalestinian refugees, defined as people displaced in 1948 and their descendents. A core Palestinian demand in peace negotiations is some kind of justice for these refugees, most commonly in the form of the "right of return" to the homes their families abandoned in 1948.Israel can't accept the right of return without abandoning either its Jewish or democratic identity. Adding 7 million Arabs to Israel's population would make Jews a minority - Israel's total population is about 8 million, a number that includes the 1.5 million Arabs already there. So Israelis refuse to even consider including the right to return in any final status deal.One of the core problems in negotiations, then, is how to find a way to get justice for the refugees that both the Israeli and Palestinian people can accept. Ideas proposed so far includefinancial compensation and limited resettlement in Israel, but no two leaders have ever agreed on the details of how these would work.What is the West Bank?The West Bank is a chunk of land east of Israel. It's home to 2.6 million Palestinians, and would make up the heart of any Palestinian state. Israel took control of it in 1967 and has allowed Jewish settlers to move in, but Palestinians (and most of the international community) consider it illegally occupied Palestinian land.In 1967, Israel fought a war with Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Israel fired the first shot, but claims it was preempting an imminent Egyptian attack; Arabs disagree, casting Israel as an aggressor. In six days, Israel routed the Arab powers, taking the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan.Israel has controlled the West Bank since the Six Day War (as it's called). For many Jews, this is wonderful news in theory: the West Bank was the heartland of the ancient Jewish state. It's home to many Jewish Holy sites, like the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, that Jews were previously cut off from. In practice, Israeli control of the West Bank means military administration of a territory full of Palestinians who aren't exactly excited about living under Israeli authority.The border between Israel and the West Bank would probably have to change in any peace deal. There are about 500,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank, many of whom live near the border with Israel proper. In a two-state deal, some of these settlers would have to leave the West Bank while some border settlements would become Israeli land. In exchange, Israel would give over some of its territory to Palestine. These would be called "land swaps." No set of Israeli and Palestinian leaders has agreed on precisely where to draw the border.What is Jerusalem?Jerusalem is a city that straddles the border between Israel and the West Bank. It's home to some of the holiest sites in both Judaism and Islam, and so both Israel and Palestine want to make it their capital. How to split the city fairly remains one of the fundamental issues dividing Israelis and Palestinians.For the first 20 years of Israel's existence, Jerusalem was divided. Israel controlled the parts of Jerusalem and its suburbs inside the red dotted line on this map, while Jordan controlled everything outside of it (blue dotted lines separate Jerusalem proper from suburbs):

BBCJordan controlled the Temple Mount, a hill in the map's brown splotch. The hill hosts Judaism's holiest site, theWestern Wallof an ancient Jewish temple, and two of Islam's most important landmarks, theal-Aqsa Mosqueand theDome of the Rock. Israeli Jews weren't allowed to pray at the Temple Mount while Jordan controlled it. During the 1967 war, Israel took control of East Jerusalem.Israel calls Jerusalem its undivided capital today, but almost no one (including the United States) recognizes it as such. UN Security Council Resolution 478condemnsIsrael's decision to annex East Jerusalem as a violation of international law and calls for a compromise solution.The difficulty is that no one is sure what that compromise would look like. Not only is there an issue of ensuring Israeli and Palestinian access to the holy sites, but Jews have moved in and around Jerusalem in huge numbers. They now make up about two-thirds of the city:

What is Gaza?Gaza is a densely populated strip of land that is mostly surrounded by Israel and peopled almost exclusively by Palestinians. Israel used to have a military presence, but withdrew unilaterally in 2005. It's currently under Israeli blockade.The sporadic rocket fire that's hit Israel from there since its pullback has strengthened Israeli hawks' political position, as they have long argued that any Palestinian state would end up serving as a launching pad for attacks on Israel.

(Gringer)Egypt controlled Gaza until 1967, when Israel occupied it (along with the West Bank) in the Six Day War. Until 2005, Israeli military authorities controlled Gaza in the same way they control the West Bank, and Jews were permitted to settle there. In 2005, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pulled out Israeli troops and settlers unilaterally.Gaza is governed by the Islamist group Hamas, which formed in 1987 as a militant "resistance" group against Israel and won political power in a 2006 U.S.-based election. Hamas' takeover of Gaza prompted an Israeliblockade of the flow of commercial goodsinto Gaza, on the grounds that Hamas could use those goods to make weapons to be used against Israel.Israel haseasedthe blockade over time, but the cutoff of basic supplies like fuel still does significant humanitarian harm by cutting off access toelectricity,food, and medicine.Hamas and other Gaza-based militants have fired thousands of rockets from the territory at Israeli targets. Israel has launched a number of military operations in Gaza, most recently a 2008 air strike campaign that culminated in a ground invasion and a series of air strikes again in 2012.What are settlements and why are they such a big deal?Settlements are communities of Jews that have been moving in to the West Bank since it came under Israeli occupation in 1967. Some of the settlers move there for religious reasons, some because they want to claim the West Bank territory as Israeli land, and some because the housing there tends to be cheap and subsidized. Settlements are generally considered to be a major impediment to peace.About 500,000 Israelis live in the settlements, of which there are about 130 scattered around the West Bank. Roughly75 percentof settlers live on or near the West Bank border with Israel. Some of the settlements are vast communities that house tens of thousands of people and look like suburban developments. Some look like hand-built shanty outposts. The map on the right shows settlements as blue boxes; red dots mark recent settlement construction activity.Settlements create what Israelis and Palestinians call "new facts on the ground." Palestinian communities are split apart and their connection to the land weakened, while Jewish communities put down roots in territory meant for Palestinians. In effect, it blurs or constrains the boundaries of any future Palestinian state. For some settlers, this is the point: they want the West Bank fully incorporated as Israeli territory and are trying to make that happen.Peace NowThe settlements and military occupation required to defend them makes life really difficult for Palestinians. Palestinians are excluded from certain Israeli-only roads and forced to go through a number of security checkpoints.Most international lawyers (including oneaskedby Israel to review them in 1967) believe settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of population into occupied territories. Israeldisputesthat.What is the Palestinian Liberation Organization? How about Fatah and the Palestinian Authority?The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is the national representative of the Palestinian people. Itrunsthe Palestinian National Authority (PA), the semi-autonomous government tasked with managing the Palestinian territories until it makes a deal with Israel. Fatah, the secular nationalist political party that's dominated Palestinian politics for decades, controls the PLO and PA.In practice, the PLO runs the government in the West Bank but not in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas. It also conducts peace talks on behalf of the Palestinians,but its authority to implement those deals has in the past been hampered by poor relations with Hamas. However, if an April 23rd agreement to form a national government with Hamas is actually implemented, this barrier will have been eliminated.In the first decades after its 1964 creation, the PLO sought to destroy Israel and replace it with an entirely Palestinian state. Fatah's founder, Yasser Arafat, employed military tactics toward this end, including attacks on Israeli civilians. This changed in 1993, when the PLO accepted Israel's right to exist in exchange for Israel recognizing it as the legitimate representative of Palestinians. That was the beginning ofreal peace negotiationsbetween the two sides.The PLO's current Chairman is the relatively moderate Mahmoud Abbas, whoseopposition to violence played a role in deescalating theSecond Intifada.Frustrated by peace talk failures, Abbas is also pursuing international recognition of Palestinian statehood, for example by seekingnon-member state status at the UN. This is meant to put pressure on Israel. The U.S. opposes it.What is Hamas?Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist political organization and militant group that has waged war on Israel since its 1987 founding, most notably through suicide bombings and rocket attacks. It seeks to replace Israel with a Palestinian state. It also governs Gaza independently of the Palestinian Authority, but it may have just found a way to reconcile its differences with the other major Palestinian faction.Hamas'chartercalls for the destruction of Israel. Though Hamas does not recognize Israel's legitimacy, in 2011 itcommittedto a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank. It's not clear whether Hamas could reconcile itself to the existence of Israel.Hamasled the chargein using suicide bombings against Israel in the 1990s and 2000s, though in recent years it has shifted to rockets and mortars as its weapons of choice. The organization also offers Palestinians a robust network of social services, which it developed as an alternative to deeply corrupt PA institutions.In 2006, Hamas won a slight majority of the seats in the Palestinian Authority legislative elections. But Hamas refused to accept previous deals that the PA had made with Israel, leading it to de facto secede from the PA and to govern Gaza independently from the West Bank-based PLO.Unity talks between Hamas and the PLO havebroken down repeatedly. That meansthere is no unified Palestinian authority, complicating peace talks significantly. However, this may have changed on April 23rd, when Hamas and the PA agreed to a form a shared government within five weeks and hold elections in six months.What were the intifadas?The intifadas were two Palestinian uprisings against Israel, the first in the late 1980s and the second in the early 2000s. Some analysts believe a third intifada is likely if the Obama Administration's current peace overtures break down.The First Intifada was a largely spontaneous series of Palestinian demonstrations, non-violent actions like mass boycotts and Palestinians refusing to work jobs in Israel, and attacks (using rocks, Molotov cocktails, and occasionally firearms) on Israelis. Palestinian fatalitiesdramatically outpacedIsraeli ones, as the Israeli military responded to the protests and attacks with heavy force.The Second, and far bloodier, Intifada grew out of the peace process' collapse in 2000. Negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat broke down, and the Intifada began shortly afterwards. Typically, Israelis blame a conscious decision by Arafat to turn to violence for the Intifada's onset, while Palestinians point to an intentionally provocative visit to the contested Temple Mount by Israeli politician (and soon to be Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon. While both Arafat and Sharon played some part, thecentral cause was likelya basic mistrust between the two sides that made war inevitable after peace talks broke down.The spark that lit this powder keg was a series of Palestinian demonstrations that Israeli soldiers fired on. Palestinian militants subsequently escalated to broader violence, and the PA refused to reign them in. Unlike the First Intifada, Palestinian tactics centered on suicide bombings, rocket attacks, and sniper fire - which Israel met with even deadlier force. The conflict petered out in 2005, but not before about 1,000 Israelis and 3,200 Palestinianswere killed.The main fear today is that the Second Intifadacould repeat itself.Secretary of State John Kerry is engaged in an intense effort to broker a deal between Israelis and Palestinians; both sidesare concernedthat a breakdown in peace talks could send a signal to Palestinians that the only way this conflict ends is through war.How are Israels neighbors handling the conflict?Israel has fought multiple wars with each of its four neighbors, all of whom nominally support the Palestinian national cause. Today, it has peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but its relations with its other neighbors, Syria and Lebanon, are fraught. Israel occupies territory that Syria claims, and Lebanon is home to Hezbollah, a powerful militant organization dedicated to Israel's destruction. There are large, mistreated treated Palestinian refugee communities in all of Israel's neighbors but Egypt.

(Cacahuate/Globe-trotter/Joelf)Egypt's 1978 peace treaty with Israel, the first signed by any Arab state, is underwritten bymassive amounts of American aidto both Egypt and Israel. The treaty also forbids Egypt from a military presence in the bordering Sinai Peninsula, which has helped allow militant and criminal groups to flourish there.The Syrian government is still quite hostile to Israel. Syria is aligned with Iran, Israel's greatest adversary in the region today. Syria also wants the Golan Heights, militarily useful land Israel seized during their 1967 war, back.Lebanon is home to Hezbollah, a virulently anti-Israel Shi'a Islamist group funded by Iran. Hezbollah is amajor force in Lebanese politics, so Lebanon is unlikely to play any role in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in the near term.Though each of these states publicly supports the Palestinian cause, Palestinians tend to be skeptical. Palestinian refugees are shoved incrowded camps and generally poorly treated. Jordan, which houses the largest concentration of Palestinians, is the only Arab state to give Palestiniansfull citizenship rights.What do Middle East countries that dont border Israel think about the conflict?Beyond Israel's immediate neighbors, the three most important regional states in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Here's a brief rundown of each one's significance.Iran: The Iranian government believes Israel is fundamentally illegitimate and supports the most hard-line anti-Israeli Arab factions. Israel sees Iran's nuclear program as a direct and existential threat, and Iran feels the same about Israel's officially undeclared nuclear weapons. Iran has provided significant military and financial backing to Hezbollah, Hamas, and Syria, the "Axis of Resistance" to Israeli and Western interests in the Middle East. The ongoing Syrian civil war, which put the Syrian government on the wrong side of Arab public opinion, has pushed Hamas away fromthe other three parties.Turkey: Long on good terms with Israel, Turkey has become increasingly pro-Palestinian in recent years. Its Islamist Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has positioned himself as achampion of the Palestinian causefor ideological, domestic, and geopolitical reasons. Israeli-Turkish conflict overan Israeli raid on a Turkish aid mission to Gazasevered diplomatic relations between the two countries, though relations may be improvingafter Israel apologized.Saudi Arabia: The Kingdom donateshundreds of millions of dollarsto the Palestinian Authority and is the driving force behind anArab League peace planfloated as an alternative to traditional Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Though Saudi Arabia has yet to recognize Israel, their mutual hostility towards Iran has builtan unprecedented working relationshipbetween the Saudi and Israeli governments.Why are the US and Israel so friendly?That's a hugely controversial question. Though American support for Israel really is massive, including billions of dollars in aid and reliable diplomatic backing, experts disagree sharply on why. Some possibilities include deep support for Israel among the American public, the influence of the pro-Israel lobby, and American ideological affinity with the Middle East's most stable democracy.The countries were not nearly so close in Israel's first decades. President Eisenhower was particularly hostile to Israel during the1956 Suez War, which Israel, the U.K. and France fought against Egypt.As the Cold War dragged on, the US came to view Israel as a key bufferagainst Soviet influencein the Middle East and supported it accordingly. The American-Israeli alliance didn't really cement until around 1973, when American aid helped save Israel from a surprise Arab invasion.Since the Cold War, the foundation of the still-strong (and arguably stronger) relationship between the countries has obviously shifted. Some suggest that acommon interest in fighting jihadismties America to Israel, while others point toAmerican leaders' ideological attachment to an embattled democracy. Perhaps the simplest explanation is that the American public has,for a long time,sympathizedfar more with Israel than Palestine:

One very controversial theory, advanced by Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, credits the relationship tothe power of the pro-Israel lobby, particularly the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Critics of this theory argue that AIPACisn't as strongas Walt and Mearsheimer think. AIPAC's early 2014 failure to secure one its longstanding top priorities, new sanctions on Iran,underscoredthe critics' point.Regardless of the reasons for the "special relationship," American support for Israel really is quite extensive. The U.S. has given Israel$118 billionin aid over the years (about $3 billion per year nowadays). Half of all American UN Security Council vetoesendedresolutions critical of Israel.How does the world feel about Israel/Palestine?Non-Muslim countries recognize Israel's legitimacy and maintain diplomatic relations with it, but most are harshly critical of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and ongoing occupation of the West Bank. Global public opinion at present is assuredly more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.83 percent of the world's countries, and almost every country that isn't Arab or Muslim majority, recognizes Israel:

Note that this map, from 2009, doesn't reflect Turkey and Israel severing relations.The Green EditorThat being said, Israel is extremely unpopular worldwide. In a BBC poll of 22 countries, Israel was thefourth-most disliked nation(behind only Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea).It's clearthat West Bank settlements are a key cause of Israel's poor global standing. Most of the world believes that Israel's continued control of the West Bankis an unlawful military occupation, and that settlementsviolatethe Fourth Geneva Convention. Though this view is supported by most legal scholars, Israel and pro-Israel conservativesdispute it. They argue that the West Bank isn't occupied and, even if it were, the Fourth Geneva convention only prohibits "forcible" population transfers, not voluntary settlement.What is the Israeli-Palestinian peace process?Sometimes called "Oslo" after the 1993Oslo Accordsthat kicked it off, the peace process is an ongoing American-mediated effort to broker a peace treaty between Israelis and Palestinians. The goal is a "final status agreement," which would establish a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank in exchange for Palestinians agreeing to permanently end attacks on Israeli targets - a formula often called "land for peace."Despite Secretary of State John Kerry's fairly intense efforts to revive the peace process, the talks are stalled. The most recent stumbling block is the Palestinian unity deal between Hamas and Fatah, which prompted Israel, who believes Hamas will never make a deal, to suspend talks on April 24th.This is far from the first time the peace process looked stuck; in fact, many people believed the peace process to be dead in January 2001. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had just rejected his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak'speace offer(there's huge disagreement as to just what that offer entailed). Moreover, renewed talks failed to generate an agreement, and worsening violence during the Second Intifada violence made another round of talks seem impossible.Despite the 2001 failure, the general Oslo "land for peace" framework remains the dominant American and international approach to resolving the conflict. The Bush administration pushed its own update on Oslo, called the "road map," and the Obama administration has made the peace process asignificant foreign policy priority. Whether the current initiative can make progress depends on resolving the four core issues that have plagued the peace process:West Bank borders/settlements,Israelisecurity,Palestinian refugees, andJerusalem.So far, there's been little success, and two major hurdles: Israel continues to expand West Bank settlements, which Palestinians see as a de facto campaign to erase the Palestinian state outright, and the Palestinians remain politically divided between Fatah and Hamas and thus unable to negotiate jointly.The newFatah-Hamas agreementappears to have replaced the problem posed by Palestinian division with a new, seemingly bigger one. The Israeli government is convinced thatHamas' fundamental opposition to Israel's existence precludes any serious commitment to a peace deal.Israel, then, believes any unity deal Hamas can support is tantamount to Palestinians renouncing negotiations in toto.As a consequence, Israel hassuspended talksand may impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority. It's hard to see what could resolve this impasse other than Israel changing its view of Hamas or Hamas renouncing its commitment to destroying Israel neither of which are likely.How do the current Israeli and Palestinian governments approach the conflict?Very warily. For very fundamental reasons, neither side thinks the other is in any position to make a real deal, and it's not exactly clear how the US government could change their mind.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas doesn't really trust the Israeli government, which is currently led by a right-wing coalition. Settlement expansion is one of the main reasons; settlement construction has reached aseven year highunder Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Abbas sees rapid expansion today as strong evidence that Israel is attempting to make a Palestinian state impossible. While Netanyahu did freeze settlement expansion everywhere but Jerusalem for10 months starting in November 2009, Palestinians wanted a total freeze, and so only sat down to talk in the 9th month (the talks went nowhere).Netanyahu was a longtime critic of a peace deal with the Palestinians convictions and his commitment now is often questioned. He's the first leader of Likud, Israel's major right-wing party, toendorsea two state solution while in power - which he did under heavy American pressure in 2009.Israel has real reasons to be skeptical of the Palestinian side as well, Hamas-Fatah relations foremost among them. Previously, Israel had been concerned Fatah couldn't implement any peace agreement in Gaza. If the April 23rd agreement to form a national government and hold new elections actually sticks, that problem will disappear.However, it's hard to predict how the new Palestinian leadership would approach the peace process. Israel does not trust Hamas, which it sees as dedicated to Israel's destruction, so the Israeli leadership is skeptical that any government including Hamas would ever really commit to a real peace deal with Israel. So Israel has suspended peace talks, and won't reopen them with any Palestinian government backed by Hamas.Netanyahu also wants the Palestinian government to recognize Israel not merely politically, as it already does, but as "the nation-state of the Jewish people." This is a relatively unusual position for an Israeli government to take, and Abbas isrefusing to consider it.How does the Palestinian unity deal affect the conflict?On April 23rd, the two main Palestinian political organizations, Gaza-based Hamas and West Bank-based Fatah, agreed to form a joint national government in Palestine one that would apparently recognize Israel and commit to a two-state solution. If it's implemented, the deal would resolve the longstanding intra-Palestinian split that has so hampered peace negotiations. However, it has also angered Israel, who doesn't believe Hamas is seriously interested in peace. Israel has suspended peace talks in response.Under the new deal, the two Palestinian factions would jointly support a shared interim government within five weeks, and hold elections for Palestinian Authority President, PA legislative council, and Palestinian Liberation Organization council within six months.The interim governmentwill recognize Israel, according to the State Department and to an unnamed Palestinian officialquotedby the Times of Israel. This would bea first for any Palestinian government that includes Hamas. The Times of Israel alsoreportsthat the new government would alsoacceptpast agreements with Israel and commit to a two-state solution. Hamas previously refused to endorse permanent peace with Israel even in principle, so this would be a pretty significant move even though Hamas itself would not be recognizing Israel, merely supporting an interim government that did.If implemented, the Palestinians would have a unified government for the first time since 2007. The Palestinian split had made peace negotiations extremely difficult, as Israel couldn't make two separate deals with two separate Palestinian groups.

Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty ImagesThere's some reason to believe the deal won't hold. Hamas and Fatah came to similar agreements in both 2011 and 2012, but both of those fell apart. This deal doesn't resolve underlying issues between the two groups, such as whether Palestinians should agree to a permanent peace deal with Israel or whether Palestine should be governed according to Islamic law. Those are pretty significant disputes.Israel fears that Hamas will never give up its commitment to Israel's destruction, and so believes the deal signals the end of serious peace negotiations. "Does [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] want peace with Hamas or peace with Israel?" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked rhetorically while the deal was being worked out. "You can have one but not the other." Indeed, when it won the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006, Hamas refused torecognize Israel, renounce violence, and fully accept all previous PA agreements with Israel.If the interim government actually will recognize Israel and commit to a two-state solution, as now appears to be the case, it would suggest that may have been a real change in Hamas' attitudes towards compromising with Israel. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki called the details of the deal a "positive" development, and may suggest that the United States will be more willing to work with a Hamas-inclusive government than it has been in the past. But all of its could change depending on both whether the deal with Fatah falls apart and/or the outcome of the scheduled Palestinian election in six months.What are the two-state solution and the one-state solution?These are the two broad ways that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might end.The "two-state solution" would create an independent Israel and Palestine, and is the mainstream approach to resolving the conflict. The idea is that Israelis and Palestinians want to run their countries differently; Israelis want a Jewish state and Palestinians want a Palestinian one. Because neither side can get what it wants in joined state, the only possible solution that satisfies everyone involves separating Palestinians and Israelis.The "one-state solution" would merge Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip into one big country. It comes in two versions. One, favored by some leftists and Palestinians, would create a single democratic country. Arab Muslims would outnumber Jews, thus ending Israel as a Jewish state. The other version, favored by some rightists and Israelis, would involve Israel annexing the West Bank and eitherforcing outPalestinians or denying them the right to vote. Virtually the entire world, including most Zionists, rejects this option as an unacceptable human rights violation.Most pollingsuggeststhat both Israelis and Palestinians prefer a two-state solution. However, the inability of Israelis and Palestinians to come to two-state terms has led to a recent surge in interest in a one-state solution, partly out of a sense of hopelessness and partly out of fear that, if the sides cannot negotiate a two-state solution, a de facto one-state outcome will be inevitable.What is BDS?BDS is an activist movement aimed at creating costs to Israel's Palestinian policy through boycotts of Israeli goods and institutions, divestment from Israeli companies, and sanctions on the nation itself. Hence the acronym BDS - boycott, divestment, and sanctions.The BDS movement coalesced in July 2005, when a number of Palestinian civil society organizations issued a "BDS call" for an organized campaign to economically isolate Israel the same way South Africa had been isolated for its apartheid policies. The movement to accomplish this goal is coordinated by theBDS National Council(BNC), which guides local campaigns around the globe.The BNC plans to continue efforts to boycott Israel until (1) all of the settlements are dismantled, (2) they believe Palestinians have been given equal rights inside Israel's borders, and (3) Palestinians refugees are granted the "right of return," which means to return to the land and homes they used to inhabit in what is now Israel.That last goal has led BDS' critics tolabel ita stealth movement to destroy Israel's existence as a Jewish state. While BDSdoes not take an official positionon Israel's existence, the size of the Palestinian refugee population means that, if it gets what it wants on the right of return, Palestinians could potentially outnumber Israelis, ending Israel's status as Jewish state and giving Palestinians the power to dismantle the Israeli state.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a supporter of the two-state solution,opposes BDS. He, as well as a number of liberal Zionists such as the writerPeter Beinart, supports a boycott targeted only at goods made in the West Bank settlements.As the Israeli-Palestinian drags on, many Israelis worry that BDS will become more mainstream. Even Secretary of State John Kerry has warned that BDS couldend upbeing a real problem for Israel if it doesn't make peace with the Palestinians.What happens if the peace process fails?Israel, the West Bank and potentially even Gaza become de facto one state, as there'd be no agreement actually establishing political separation. That means one of two things: either Israel ceases to exist as a Jewish state, or the Palestinians become permanent second-class citizens in an Israel that includes the West Bank and potentially even Gaza. Secretary of State John Kerry, in a taped conversation firstreportedon April 27th, referred to this second possibility as an "apartheid state."Arabs will eventually outnumber Jews in Israel-Palestine,if they don't already. For Israel, which sees itself as both Jewish and democratic, this poses anexistential crisis. If Arabs outnumber Jews and are allowed to vote, then it's the end of a Jewish state. But if Arabs outnumber Jews and aren't allowed to vote, then Israel is no longer a democracy.That's the force of the South Africa analogy Kerry and others have used: a Jewish state that represses an Arab majority would feel an awful lot like a form of apartheid. Kerry's use of the analogy is particularly troubling for Israelis, who are concerned about beingboycotted and sanctionedin the international sphere in the way that South Africa's racial regime was before its demise.Israeli conservatives often contest these demographics. They argue that Palestiniansoverstate their numbersfor political reasons and that the Israeli populationtends to grow faster than experts think. However, themainstream viewis that Israel's demographic problem is real, and Israel faces a choice between three outcomes: a two-state solution, a non-democratic state governed by a Jewish minority, or the end of a Jewish state.Why did Israel and Hamas go to war in July 2014?The ongoing violence between Israel and Gaza-based militant groups including Hamas, which haskilled1,777 Palestinians and 68 Israelis, was sparked by the June 10 murder of three young Israeli students. It spiraled into an Israeli ground invasion ofGaza.Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaar, and Naftali Frenkel disappeared while in the West Bank, where they were studying at a yeshiva. Israel conducted a massive manhunt in the Palestinian territory, alleging they were abducted by members of Hamas. (Israeli officials appear to havedisagreed from the startas to whether the killers were acting on behalf of Hamas or were alone cellacting on their own.) The boys were found dead on June 30th, apparently executed. Subsequent reporting suggests that Israel already knew they were dead when the search began, and used the manhuntas a coverfor arresting a large number of Hamas operatives as a response to the killings.Israel also responded to the deaths withalimited bombing campaignin Gaza against Hamas targets there, beginning the night of the boys were found.Palestinian militant groups (though, notably, not Hamas) in Gaza fired rockets into Israel.Then, on July 2, a 16-year-old Palestinian named Muhammed Abu Khdeir was found dead near his Jerusalem home, apparently burned to death. Police arrested six Israelis for Khdeir's murder, telling reporters that the killing has been "nationalistic." In simpler terms, that it was a revenge killings by Jewish extremists for the murders of the three Israeli boys.

Andrew Burton/Getty ImagesThis followed astringof violence against Palestinians by settlers and other Israelis, within a climate of anti-Palestinian sentiment and some inflammatory statements by right-wing Israeli politicians, all of which had been inflamed further by Israeli national outrage over the murders of the three Israeli students.On July 5th, a video surfaced showing Tariq Abu Khdeir, Muhammed's 15-year-old Palestinian-American cousin, gettingbrutally beatenwhile detained by Israeli police after a Palestinian demonstration in East Jerusalem.Palestinians became furious about the Khdeir boys, about the bombings in Gaza, and about the clamp-down on the West Bank during the search for the murdered Israelis. There wereriotsin Jerusalem, the West Bank, and some Israeli Arab towns.There had been sporadic rocket fire throughout the crisis, but Hamas launched a wave of40 rockets on July 8th, for which it claimed responsibility for the first time since 2012. Then Israel launched more strikes in Gaza, as part of what Netanyahusaidwas an effort to make Hamas "pay a heavy price."There seemed like a brief chance for a ceasefire on July 15th, when Israel accepted an Egypt-brokered deal to stop the fighting. But Hamas' military wing continued firing rockets andappeared to reject the ceasefire.On July 17, Israel invaded Gaza its first ground invasion since early 2009 saying it would target and destroy the tunnels Hamas had built from Gaza into Israel. While the tunnels into Egypt are largely used to ferry people and supplies around Israel's blockade, the tunnels into Israel were used primarily to allow Hamas to attack Israelis. After several very bloody days of fighting, which left parts of Gaza devastated and sent one in four Gazans fleeing from their homes, Israel withdrew its troops on August 5.Israel and Hamas are currently negotiating a long-term ceasefire in Cairo. The Egyptian government are mediating the talks.