DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

¶ … Germany reunify? What caused this to happen?

Germany was reunified as a result of the decay of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. The background and brief account of the event is as follows: Germany was divided after World War II as a result of Cold War tensions. East Germany adopted communism as the state policy, while West Germany chose democracy and Capitalism. The relations between the two Germanys remained frosty until the advent of the reformist Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 whose liberal policies encouraged the populations of other East European countries including GDR to struggle for greater freedom. In August 1989, when Hungary removed border restrictions with the neighboring Austria, thousands of East Germans started to escape to the West via this route; others organized mass demonstrations against the GDR government. The hard-line East German leader, Erich Honecker, was forced to resign in October 1989 as a result of public pressure and withdrawal of support by Gorbachev. When the new East German government decided to issue visas to East Berliners for visit to the West on November 9, thousands of East Germans rushed to the Berlin Wall and the border guards, overwhelmed by the numbers allowed them through. It was the beginning of the end of the Berlin Wall and led to the formal reunification of Germany after the defeat of the ruling Communist Party in the free, multiparty elections held in March 1990 ("The Reunification...").

What is the basic problem between the Palestinians and the Israelis? Is it religion? Race? Economics? Or a combination of these factors?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a complex issue that has religious, racial, and politico-economic overtones, but most of all it is a territorial dispute. The root of the conflict lies in the fact that both the Israelis and the Palestinians believe that the land rightfully belongs to them. The claim of the Palestinians is based on the fact that at the time of the start of the Zionist movement in the 1880s, the population of Palestine, which was part of the Ottoman Empire, was overwhelmingly (about 95%) Arab and had been so for the previous several centuries; the Jews were a small minority (5%). However, the Jewish people have a historical claim on the Palestinian territory where the Jewish nation originated over 3,200 years ago and where Jewish kingdoms and states had existed up to the 2nd century AD. The religious aspect of the conflict is that the Jews believe that the land was given to them by God and they were destined to return to the land while the Muslims (who constitute the majority of the Palestinians) also consider Palestine and particularly Jerusalem to be holy land. Since many Israelis have immigrated from Europe, there is an element of racial enmity between the two communities as well. ("Summary of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict")

Why are a lot of people in U.S. so fearful of NAFTA?