Complete 7 pages APA formatted article: The Israeli. Being arguably considered an inextricable part of the broader Arab-Israeli conflict, the Israeli-Palestinian puzzle accounts for over six decades of unceasing violence, which has brought about the serious loss of life, including massive civilian casualties, and a staggering trail of devastation throughout the region (Amnesty International n.p.. Gelvin 166-169. Tessler 269-273, 407, 465, 533-535). Both sides in the conflict have understandably developed their own narratives concerning the legitimacy and rightness of their cause and aspirations, which are predominantly grounded in the “villainy of the opposing party” and consisted of certain historical facts as well as a number of myths and misinterpretations (Tessler xi). On the other hand, besides the internal dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian tensions, there are historical and international conditions, including two major wars during the twentieth century, nationalism, the Cold War rivalry, the rise and spread of radical Islamic terrorism, etc., that have actually determined the course of the struggle between those two communities (Gelvin ix). In order to put the Israeli position in proper context, distinguishing – as much as possible – between facts and propaganda, the paper attempts an insight into the historical, political and socioeconomic realities woven into the fabric of the Israeli-Palestinian argument. Thus, the paper explains why Israel should maintain the status quo, i.e. occupation of the contested territories, until a mutually satisfactory solution of the conflict is achieved.Long before the creation of modern Israel, the narrow strip of land that included Syria, Canaan, and Phoenicia had been subject to the struggle between then superpowers – Egypt, various Mesopotamian empires, and the Hittite Empire (Matthews 19). There is archeological evidence, like the Merneptah Stele – a monumental inscription describing a campaign of the pharaoh Merneptah into Canaan, which actually contains the first mention of Israel outside the Bible – indicating the presence of an ethnic group named Israelites in Canaan at the end of the thirteenth century B.C.