Non fiction Reading Response 1

Four teens get murdered, another war between Israel and Palestine starts. Patricia Smith, the author of "How the Murder of Four Teens Started a War" writes about another war that has happened between Palestine and Israel. Palestine and Israel have been in a conflict for 6 decades now over teritory. They have fought many times already and now another war played out. One of the causes is that 3 Israeli teens were kidnapped and killed by Palestinians militants. Soon a young Palestinian got killed by an Israelist. All of this concluding with a war between the two groups. The author wants me to learn about how history and these horrible killings started yet another war between the countries.

Throughout the article, Patricia quotes many people. One of the people is the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu. After the three murders he said, "They were kidnapped and murdered in cold blood by beasts. Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay." Hamas is a terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip. This quote shows that Benjamin is very convinced that it was Hamas's idea to kill the three Israeli teens. He will not show any mercy towards Palestinians and will fight them. He is ready for war and will not back off at any cost. That is one of the reasons why the war started.

The author also talks about the history of Israel and Palestine and their conflicts with eachother. He says, "According to the U.N. plan, the territory,, then known as Palestine and governed by Great Britain, would be divided into two states, one Arab and one Jewish But Arabs rejected this plan and attacked Israel when it declared its independence the following year." This quote explains and shows how the dissagreements and bad blood between Israel and Palestine started. It was all over land and wanting to be larger and more powerful than the other country. Because of this bad history between the two countries, the war could have also started. But the killings helped the war start even earlier than it would have.

Throughout the whole article the author speaks a lot about Palestine and Israel and their history with eachother. She also speaks about the four murders of the teens that also contributed to another war starting. This connects to conflicts in general because most of the time conflicts begin because of bad history and sudden events that happen which help spark it. So the author taught me well about how many big conflicts start and later play out.