Israeli Palestinian conflict and its regional implications

International Politics

The Threat of Terrorism the Context of International Relations between the U.S. And the Middle East

The threat of terrorism in the U.S. is inextricably linked to the events in the Middle East and the perceived role of the U.S. many of those events; especially in the Israeli/Palestinian disputes. The U.S. is a major power and the country has not been afraid to use that power in international relations. It is the way that the power has been used, often for the support of Israel, to the detriment of Arabic nations.

To appreciate this one can look at the way in which the U.S. has supported Israel, this was seen with the 'friendship' formed between Kennedy and David Ben-Gurion (Bass 2). Building ion the foundation laid by Kennedy, other presidents extended the relationship (Bass 5). It was rumored that during the Six Day War in 1967 Lyndon B. Johnson supplied the Israelis with arms, although this has been denied. More conclusive evidence of support for Israelis seen when, during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the U.S. did supply arms to the Israelis following the early successes of the Syrian and Egyptian forces who were seeking to regain land they had previously lost to Israel. When this support of Israel is placed into the context of the founding of the country; an artificially created state which saw the United Nations portioning land from the area known as Palestine for the homing of Jewish immigrants, the interference can be seen as an extension of the west support for the Jewish state against the Arab States. For those who had been in the region for many generations, and saw land take, first by their UN and then by the fighting of the Israelis, to gain more land, the support from the U.S. was an unwelcome interference, hindering their own interests.

The U.S. was not only active in supporting Israel, power has been used to support its own interests, such as the aid given to Iraq in the Iran/Iraq war; a war that resulted in the loss of approximately 1 million lives, one may ask why the U.S. choose to interfere and if that interference helped to prolong the a war and increase loss of life. The first and second Gulf Wars were also examples of the power of the U.S., at the time it was argued that the invasions were to protect the Kuwait's and then the Iraqi people from aggressors, and preventing the use of weapons of mass destruction, but subsequent analysts have argued the real motivation of the U.S. was to ensure access to oil supplies (Deulfer and Dyson 73). In all cases there is the perception of the U.S. interfering in issues that should be dealt with locally, interfering to protect their own interest and to enforce their own values; a situation which leads to resistance. Terrorism may be argued as an action undertaken when people feel that they cannot be heard in another way.

This resistance has been seen in terrorist attacks which may be directly related to the associated with the U.S. foreign policy actions in the Middle East. In 1979 there was the Iran Hostage Crisis, when the U.S. embassy in Tehran was seized by Iranian demonstrators, demonstrating against U.S. policies. 52 U.S. staff were taken hostage; in a crisis which lasted 444 days (Houghton 74). The well-known terrorist attacks of 9/11 may also be seen as relating to the actions and perceptions of the U.S. In the Middle East, with Al Qaeda objecting to the U.S. influence and interference in the Muslim world.

Question 2

The U.S. appears to have taken sides in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. To start with the U.S. was party of the body that created the state of Israel in 1947. However, the actions in later years appear to support the state against their neighboring enemies, as seen with the supply of arms against Syria and Egypt in the Yom Kippur war, although it may be argued that in the bigger context the U.S.S.R. was supporting Egypt and Syria. However, there has been ongoing military support for Israel since 1973; in 2013 this included a request from the Obama administration for $3.1 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) (Sharpe 3). When assessing if the U.S. has taken sides, it may be argued that lack of any aid to the Palestinians, which may be seen as indicating a clear bias.