Israel Foreign Policy

Engaged in an atrocious war with the country of Iraq, the United States of America has been occupied with a battle in the Middle East with an extensive history behind the issue. It all began before the World Trade Centers were destroyed or bombed, and even before the Gulf War had raged in Iraq once before. Although the recent multitude of events has definitely increased awareness of American politics and its’ policies, most people are still unaware of the initial events that have created a sort of “hatred” for American people across the globe, especially in the Middle East region. This hatred for Americans is an important topic as the United States is deeply involved with Middle Eastern countries in several ways such as its special relation with Israel, terrorism, and its thirst for oil. On September 11th 2001, the United States of America finally realized how unprotected it really was and decided to take serious action against the threat across the world of terrorist groups acting out against America and its citizens. From Osama Bin Laden’s network, Al-Qaeda, to Saddam Hussein’s terrorizing government which condoned the killing of its own people, the United States took swift action to end the killing of innocent people across the world, whether they are Americans or Iraqi citizens being gassed. The United States also happens to have an extremely delicate relationship with Israel, a Jewish nation in the middle of a Muslim region whose countries do not prefer having diplomatic relations with it. Unrestricted support from America also happens to anger Palestinians and the Arab nations surrounding Israel, contributing to the terrorist acts organized by Middle Eastern militants. To furthermore complicate the situation, America also imports the largest amount of petroleum in the world from Middle Eastern Countries, over twenty million barrels a day. As a result, the United States has to maintain active relations with countries such as Saudi Arabia, which it also condemns for several reasons, such as supporting Anti-Israel operations.

In 1947, the Partition Plan set forth by the UN declared the division of Arab land between Palestinians and Jewish immigrants who had fled Europe after an increase of anti-Semitism following World War II. Although Palestine and surrounding countries rejected the plan and voted against it, they were defeated by thirty three other nations who supported the plan. After the plan was put into effect, opposition from both sides increased and Israel and the Arab nations went to war. It is at this point in time when the United States began to support Israel. Angered Arabs have since held within themselves resentment for America who they see as ardent supporters of the Jews. Out of the United States’ enormous foreign aid budget, approximately thirty percent goes straight to Israel with over half of that monetary payment being for military support (Segev, 1986). On top of this contribution, after the Gulf War, the United States has been offering Israel an additional two billion dollars, increasing the aid to an excess of five billion dollars, or about fourteen million dollars a day. For military support, much of the aid is used towards American made helicopters and fighter planes, meaning Palestine is virtually used as a testing ground for new armed forces technology (Rowley, 1984). Aid aimed towards Palestine is also absent from the United States, helping escalate unpopularity for America within the region of Palestinian supporters. In comparison, Palestine receives its’ aid from surrounding Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Syria (Bard, 2002). United States lawmakers believe that Israel is their only ally in the entire region despite the lack of support they receive back from Israel in return and also argue that maintaining relations with the nation is an important issue and interest of the country’s political agenda. Ever since the 1960’s, the United States has recognized the actuality of Israel being powerful enough to defend itself in the case of an escalation with one of its surrounding neighbors, however has not stopped aiding the country with the largest portion of its foreign aid budget (Bard, 2002).

On September 11th, 2001, when two hijacked airplanes collided into the World Trade Centers, the United States realized it had to take action against terrorist groups. From Al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to Saddam Hussein’s corrupted government in Iraq, the United States took hurried action in deploying forces in the region, overthrowing both countries’ governments and began to implement a democratic administration. The reason for attacking Iraq is still disputed as the country was uninvolved with 9/11 despite US intelligence reports. George W. Bush also claimed that other intelligence informed the White House Iraq was armed with “weapons of mass destruction” although the UN was unable to find any such weapons. After the war began between Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States quickly grew unpopular among most countries in the Middle East, except with Israel. Shaky tensions between Muslim nations dwindled even further with the way the United States handled the war in Iraq. Numbers of Iraqi casualties range from over fifty-thousand to well over one hundred thousand despite the recovery of zero weapons of mass destruction and the