Although American thinker and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson made this statement in the 19th century, it remains relevant today. As you work through this activity, consider his idea about peace in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis in the Middle East. Recall what you know about human geography, and read about the long-standing conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians in Israel. Then consider the complexity and violence of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and its direct tie to the geography of the Middle East.

Write a 3-5 page research paper about the role that human geography—including factors like culture, economics, and religion—plays in the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. Follow the process outlined below, and focus your research to answer the following question:

How has human geography prevented the Israelis and Palestinians from reaching the “understanding” that Emerson cites as necessary for achieving peace?

answer: in october 1962, an american u-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the soviet union on the island of cuba. president kennedy did not want the soviet union and cuba to know that he had discovered the missiles. he met in secret with his advisors for several days to discuss the problem.

explanation:

from thales, who is often considered the first western philosopher, to the stoics and skeptics, ancient greek philosophy opened the doors to a particular way of thinking that provided the roots for the western intellectual tradition. here, there is often an explicit preference for the life of reason and rational thought. we find proto-scientific explanations of the natural world in the milesian thinkers, and we hear democritus posit atoms—indivisible and invisible units—as the basic stuff of all matter. with socrates comes a sustained inquiry into ethical matters—an orientation towards human living and the best life for human beings. with plato comes one of the most creative and flexible ways of doing philosophy, which some have since attempted to imitate by writing philosophical dialogues covering topics still of interest today in ethics, political thought, metaphysics, and epistemology. plato’s student, aristotle, was one of the most prolific of ancient authors. he wrote treatises on each of these topics, as well as on the investigation of the natural world, including the composition of animals. the hellenists—epicurus, the cynics, the stoics, and the skeptics—developed schools or movements devoted to distinct philosophical lifestyles, each with reason at its foundation.

with this preference for reason came a critique of traditional ways of living, believing, and thinking, which sometimes caused political trouble for the philosophers themselves. xenophanes directly challenged the traditional anthropomorphic depiction of the gods, and socrates was put to death for allegedly inventing new gods and not believing in the gods mandated by the city of athens. after the fall of alexander the great, and because of aristotle’s ties with alexander and his court, aristotle escaped the same fate as socrates by fleeing athens. epicurus, like xenophanes, claimed that the mass of people is impious, since the people conceive of the gods as little more than superhumans, even though human characteristics cannot appropriately be ascribed to the gods. in short, not only did ancient greek philosophy pave the way for the western intellectual tradition, including modern science, but it also shook cultural foundations in its own time.

to protest slavery i would think it would be a