War in Gaza

A-Peeps:

First of all, nice work on the DBQ today. It is a difficult and sometimes frustrating process, but you are well on the way to kicking its butt all over the place when May comes around. We'll do another one in a few weeks.

Have any of you been following the current Israeli incursion into Gaza? We'll spend some time on the Arab-Israeli conflict later in the year, at least so far as to understand how Europeans influenced it or dealt with it. We have just begun to talk about nationalism, which is probably the biggest factor. We will talk later about how modern diplomacy works (EU, UN, etc...), self-determination (thanks Woodrow...), how imperialism (coming soon!) shaped the modern Middle East (shaped is a nice way of sawing 'screwed up') and why Israel is so aggressive. I'm not being facetious or anything with that last one either. After the Holocaust, Jews migrated by the millions to Israel and declared "never again" would they be the kicking post of the world. Oh, and we'll cover Jewish nationalism (Zionism) and anti-Semitism.

If you want a fairly unbiased account of the current conflict, go to www.cnn.com. They have lots of "the history of..." or "people you should know..." sections rather than just the headlines. The UN has begun throwing around the term "war crimes elements" at Israel (which we will also learn about...). So, things are really hot over there right now-

Jones