The Israeli and Palestinian Conflict Essay -- Middle East Conflict War

The Israeli and Palestinian Conflict - Many Questions, Few Answers Unless the Israelis and Palestinians could not compromise, negotiate and come to an agreement, peace is impossible in the Middle East and even the security fence that Israel is now building will not solve the conflict nor stop terrorist actions by Palestinian extremists. The Israelis and Palestinians need to compromise and negotiate, as suggested by the words written on that wall, â€Å"Peace comes (with) agreement not separation.† The leaders of both sides of the conflict should think of the future generations. They should agree to disagree –meaning that they should come to terms and pour out all their grievances, the cause and root of their anger and go beyond that anger to think of a solution that both sides would agree upon. They should decide what is best for their people and the land they would both like and wish to call home. Historically, the land being fought by the Israelis and Palestinians never experienced any peace at all. Palestine was occupied and fought by different groups, Ottoman and the Roman Empires, and the Crusaders. In late 19th century, the population of Palestine was mostly Arabs, nomads, and some Jews but that soon changed. In Europe, Jews were being persecuted so leaders of European Jews gathered in Switzerland to form the Zionist movement. The goal of Zionism was to â€Å"create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law.† The slogan, â€Å"A land without people for a people without land† by Dr. Chaim Weizmann, a Zionist leader successfully helped support the Zionist movement’s goal. And under the British government who occupied and governed Palestine at that time and with the Balfour Declaration, a Jewish homeland was established in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration allowed migration of Jews to Palestine during World War I, which led to anti-Jewish riots by the Palestinians. The Palestinians felt more betrayed and reacted badly when more European Jews who were escaping Nazi persecution, were allowed to migrate to Palestine during and after the World War II. They demanded an independent Palestinian state. They attacked British troops and posts, as well as Jewish settlements. The settlers counterattacked and retaliated while at the same time, the British escalated its oppressive measures against the Palestinians by destroying their homes and sentencin... ...e so-called leaders in Palestine and Israel and some here at the US don’t want peace in that land at all. They have their own agenda and interest to protect at all cost. The Palestinians’ hatred of Jews would extend even beyond Israel. Palestinian supporters from the Arab and Muslim world saw the biases, prejudice and injustice done to the Palestinian people. The United States with its support of Israel became a victim of this hatred and vengeance with the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. Thousands of lives and billions of dollars of properties were lost. Is peace possible in the Middle East? Would the wall being built by the Israeli government protect its people from Palestinians violence and terrorism? Is there a possibility of an independent Palestinian state? Could there be a solution to the Palestinian problem and its refugees? Could the illegal Israeli settlements of Palestinian lands be ever resolved or removed? Could the Palestinians and Israelis ever live together in peace? Would there be a leader on both sides who could lead their people to make peace to each other? These are the questions that are hard to answer with the ongoing situation in the Middle East.

Gender Expectations from Society

Gender Expectations As far as anyone is concerned, boys and girls have always been different. From the well-known immaturity of a boy and the maturity of a girl to the actual differentiation of sex, it is obvious the difference between the two. Masculinity vs. femininity, the learning process when growing up, and responsibilities are the differences the stories â€Å"Boys† by Rick Moody and â€Å"Girl† by Jamaica Kincaid illustrate very well. And as society has its role, it uses these differences to set standards for each gender as for what is expected by them.These standards that are set are very stereotypical, making expectations and gender stereotypes go hand in hand. The learning process for a boy and a girl as they grow up is very different. In the story â€Å"Boys†, how boys learn is illustrated very well. Throughout the whole story, the boys are about doing things and learning from their mistakes. No one teaches them anything, but they learn from life on a trial and error basis. They were left alone to learn by themselves through what life had to offer for them. But the girl from the story â€Å"Girl† was taught completely different.She was taught everything by what seemed to be a mother figure. She was taught what to do at a young age while being taught what she would have to do in the future at the same. From how to fold clothes to â€Å"†¦how to bully a man† (Kincaid 201) there was always some one teaching her. And due to this learning process for each gender, responsibilities are set. Responsibilities are probably the biggest part of growing up. The responsibilities for each gender differentiate greatly. A woman seems to have more responsibilities because she is taught what she must do, and especially if she is maintaining a household.But she knows what to do when it comes time that she has to do it. As for a man, he never stops learning. Life seems to continue going on that trial and error basis. And the respo nsibilities for him are not that hard until he begins a family. Once he starts a family, he must take the full-blown responsibility for caring and providing for them. But a boy does not become a man because of age, but because of what he learned from life. In the story â€Å"Boys†, the boys are seen to be in their teenage years but are still considered boys.Not until their father dies are they considered men, because that is when they learn what they need to actually be men. A woman has no need for this type of lesson, because they were taught everything they need to become since they were young. These responsibilities are thought to be because of one idea: masculinity vs. femininity. Masculinity vs. femininity has always been a great factor for what is expected from each gender, and is generally stereotyped. Men are thought to always be strong and to be leaders, while women are thought to be fragile and helpful.This greatly influences the expectations, as women are thought t o be weaker and more vulnerable. This is why women are thought to have to stay home and take care of the household while the man goes out to work. For a man, it is expected that he lead the household and take care of it. Also, because a man is generally thought as being strong, he must go out and work in order to provide for his family. And though times have changed, this idea seems to remain. Men can stay home while the woman works, but then others look down on them.It’s just what is expected from a man and woman based on their responsibilities and their learning process. It seems that most ideas and expectations concerning men and women are very stereotypical. Maybe it is because of masculinity vs. femininity and the expectations that come from that. Maybe it’s the learning process that boys and girls have as they grow up and the expectations based on how they learn. Or maybe it is because of the responsibilities that are expected from man or woman. Maybe it’s a combination of these reasons. But whatever the reason may be, the stereotypes are there. They are stereotyped expectations on gender.

Probability Distribution in Statistics

If you spend much time at all dealing with statistics, pretty soon you run into the phrase â€Å"probability distribution.† It is here that we really get to see how much the areas of probability and statistics overlap. Although this may sound like something technical, the phrase probability distribution is really just a way to talk about organizing a list of probabilities. A probability distribution is a function or rule that assigns probabilities to each value of a random variable. The distribution may in some cases be listed. In other cases, it is presented as a graph. Example Suppose that we roll two dice and then record the sum of the dice. Sums anywhere from two to 12 are possible. Each sum has a particular probability of occurring. We can simply list these as follows: The sum of 2 has a probability of 1/36The sum of 3 has a probability of 2/36The sum of 4 has a probability of 3/36The sum of 5 has a probability of 4/36The sum of 6 has a probability of 5/36The sum of 7 has a probability of 6/36The sum of 8 has a probability of 5/36The sum of 9 has a probability of 4/36The sum of 10 has a probability of 3/36The sum of 11 has a probability of 2/36The sum of 12 has a probability of 1/36 This list is a probability distribution for the probability experiment of rolling two dice. We can also consider the above as a probability distribution of the random variable defined by looking at the sum of the two dice. Graph A probability distribution can be graphed, and sometimes this helps to show us features of the distribution that were not apparent from just reading the list of probabilities. The random variable is plotted along the x-axis, and the corresponding probability is plotted along the y-axis. For a discrete random variable, we will have a histogram. For a continuous random variable, we will have the inside of a smooth curve. The rules of probability are still in effect, and they manifest themselves in a few ways. Since probabilities are greater than or equal to zero, the graph of a probability distribution must have y-coordinates that are nonnegative. Another feature of probabilities, namely that one is the maximum that the probability of an event can be, shows up in another way. Area Probability The graph of a probability distribution is constructed in such a way that areas represent probabilities. For a discrete probability distribution, we are really just calculating the areas of rectangles. In the graph above, the areas of the three bars corresponding to four, five and six correspond to the probability that the sum of our dice is four, five or six. The areas of all of the bars add up to a total of one. In the standard normal distribution or bell curve, we have a similar situation. The area under the curve between two z values corresponds to the probability that our variable falls between those two values. For example, the area under the bell curve for -1 z. Important Distributions There are literally infinitely many probability distributions. A list of some of the more important distributions follows: Binomial distribution – Gives the number of successes for a series of independent experiments with two outcomesChi-square distribution – For use of determining how close observed quantities fit a proposed modelF-distribution – Used in the analysis of variance (ANOVA)Normal distribution – Called the bell curve and is found throughout statistics.Student’s t distribution – For use with small sample sizes from a normal distribution