The Critical Thinking - Research Paper Example

? MIDDLE EAST, US-ISRAELI RELATIONSHIP AND THE WORLD The media, scholarly works and even books are filled with the Middle East , its relationship with the US, Europe Africa and Israel. The Middle East is so important in the world history and culture, because all the three monotheistic religions were born in the Middle East such as, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism and also it’s the heartland of Islam because of cities like Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem so it has more than one sacred place in it. Also in history the Middle East has been going through a lot of wars because of these important places and location. It is a fact that most of the religious groups have significant attachment with the Middle East .1 The Christian community is associated with the Israeli and the Muslims also originate from the region. This means that this place holds a key to religious standing of the community. It is important to note from various books that Middle East plays a critical role in the social, economic political issues around the world from ancient period. There is significant historic attachment of various social aspects of the society that can be traced to the Middle East. From biblical texts, Quran and other religious cultures, Middle East is shown as having a critical contribution to the contemporary social groups among the diverse communities around the world. When it comes to economic issues, Middle East is the leading producer of the input factor for most of the production activities around the world. Crude oil is the leading source of energy that dictates significant part of the overall economic productions in most countries. It is therefore important to note that most economies in the world depend on Middle East directly or indirectly and US has been at the picture most of the time. Some of the conflicts between Middle East and US can be attributed to such economic issues. It is through this that political polices comes in.2 The different cultural structure of the Middle East community is different from the US and this translates to incoherent economic ideologies which are closely related to politics. The strategic geographic location is so important for the trading, because it will make the trading so easy between the different countries. Also all the stuff which is coming from Europe and needs to go to Asia needs to go through the Middle East so all this is going to benefit the Middle East countries. This explains why the international community is really concerned about peace in the Middle East. The recently experienced revolutionary fights that Swept North African Arab countries and Syria is a good example of how such consequences can be felt by the world.3 From various texts, it is evident that the central location of Middle East between the other continents makes it serve as the route and this is responsible for it significance in global economy. It is not news any more to hear about the endless war between Israeli and Palestine with a large casualty count. The blame game is more of political and revolves around the US support to Israeli against the strong tide of the larger Arab dominated region. There are a lot of thing that makes the Middle East special such as, its strategic geographic location, its significance in world history and culture, its role in the global economy, its relations with the United States. All this things makes the Middle East very important for more than one thing. It is therefore imperative that some of the issues taking place in this region are given international attention. The Middle East is also role in the global economy, because it has all the stuff that is needed to get money and also to trade with other countries so the Middle East is dominating the economy for many years because it’s the only way to go through Europe to Asia that’s why the economy in the Middle East is so strong. Their crude oil and central role in OPEC gives them a head start in influencing the world economy in various ways. Besides, the increasing foreigner settlement in Middle East indicates its strategic importance to various communities in the world.4 The Middle East has a good relation with the United States there are a lot of examples for this one of them is the UAE relations with USA, the UAE is the U.S single largest export market in the Middle East and North Africa region, also there is 50 weekly non-stop flights between them. And according to one U.S Embassy official in Abu Dhabi, there are some 40,000 American citizens living in the United Arab Emirates in 2011, up from some 30,000 a few years ago. This trend has been on the rise and this explains the deep interest Americans have in Middle East. The picture painted all over the print and electronic media expose the Middle East as a region where there is dire need for socio-economic reforms due to several challenges experienced. The fragile politics that has been in the region for decades significantly affects its economic policies and political climate. In the Middle East the dominant religion is Islam and their doctrines prevail over other social concepts. It therefore explains the increasing political policies that are skewed towards Islam principles. The business ethics are more refined in the Muslim community than other communities and since this influences economic policies, it has always generated heat within and outside most Arab Nations. The economic ideology in most Middle East states has been more of communist but with the increasing influence of globalization, the trend has been changing towards capitalism. In the course of these policies some faction of the Muslims faithful are discontented and have always initiated revolt against authorities. This explains the frequent civil unrest in the Arab Nations experienced even in the recent Past. The divergent religious belief between the Arab nations and Israeli has equally brewed misunderstanding which is seen in their longstanding fights. The US is entangled into this conflict through their support of Israeli and defense against media criticism. There is more blood that has been shed in these two communities but little seems to be done by the US to tell off the Israeli.5 There is a significant difference between the GDP in the Arab league and the industrialized countries and this is ground for exchange of goods and services. This difference explains why the Arab league countries are exchanging the education and the health care by the oil with the industrialized countries. Recent economic review that features in business journals indicates that the taxes in G7 states in the Arab league countries there is little or no taxation fiscal policy on the other hand the industrialized countries are matching the OPEC revenues by the taxes.6 The war and conflicts in the Arab countries for example, in January 2009 study by India’s strategic foresight group, estimates that conflict has cost the Middle East $ 12 trillion during the last twenty years. This is a significant amount when it comes to economic analysis. The big oil companies; the OPEC which make the price of the oil and how much it has to be, puts this region at a central place within the economic plans across the world. The European countries are able to recycle some of the petroleum products and resell it to the Middle East and this creates the existing relationship they have with other countries. This can be seen in the petrodollar recycling by countries like china and some of the Europe countries which are making a lot of goods from this oil after they recycle it and the Arab countries buy these goods from them. Technological advancement of the developed economies is much needed by the Arab countries and this has been attained by exchanging oil for the services. There importation of skilled personnel and other forms of cheap labor costs Arab countries indirectly since the money paid is taken out of their economies. Their control over oil and the booming economy has significantly raised inflation and the media exposure of corruption in the Arab countries is destroying the economy. 7 From the religious front, the Prophet Muhammad is the light for all Muslims; he is the guide which they follow in a lot of situations in their life time, because if anyone is trying to make the Prophet Muhammad as his/her role model, he/she will be living the best life in earth. It is evident that the muslin community believes that Prophet Muhammad is the perfect human being who knows and learn directly from his God so there is no way to get something wrong from him and this puts the Prophet Muhammad at the center stage of religion and politics. In the religious path the Prophet Muhammad is respecting the other messengers and he is considering them as his brothers for example, Say [Prophet], ‘We [Muslims] believe in God and in what has been send down to us and to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes. We believe in what has been given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets from their Lord. We do not make a distinction between any of the [prophets]. It is to Him that we devote ourselves.’ Quran 3:84.In the political way the Prophet Muhammad is always trying to send massages to the countries which are nearby to tell them about the Islam, but if they refuse to be Muslims for whatever reasons he will make them by force, and if heard something about anything he would make sure before punishing anyone. For example, “Believers, if a troublemaker brings you news, check it first, in case you wrong others unwittingly and later regret what you have done” Quran 49:6. This strong sentiment can be seen to explain the provocative campaign the Muslims have been holding around the world and the terrorism activities.8 Several research studies indicate a close tie between US and Israeli and there is an increasing pressure against US to back out in their continued support for atrocities committed by Israel against Palestine. This has always heightened the tension between US and some powerful Arab states like Iran, Iraq among others. Taking a picture of the Iraqi invasion by US and the ultimate removal and execution of Saddam Hussein, the Arab nations have been very careful with the actions of the US. When we take a look at the UN Security Council activities which is indirectly dictated by the US, it can be seen that their policies seek to promote the west to the world. This idea has been seen by Middle East as unfair and has continued to raise a strained relationship they have. I think every American needs to know about Israel state lies and plans. They manipulate the media to air less information concerning the civilian attacks they carry out against the Palestine. The state of Israel is killing thousands of civilian and they are keeping this as secret for example, “129 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians and 1,519 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis since September 29, 2000” from the website. This example is made certain years ago and if you think about it since 1948 you will find a lot of civilians who have been killed from that time until now. A lot of American people are supporting the state of Israel when they don’t know how they are supporting and why, they think this is right because of what we see through the media and some of them are supporting because they don’t know about what Israel is hiding from the whole world. The United states are paying a lot to support the Israel state and it will pay more for example, In 2013 the US is likely to paying at least 8.5 million per day in military aid to the state of Israel this is one of the biggest issues for the drop of the United states economy. It is therefore important that US take a neutral stand in its social, economic and political stand in the issues related to the Middle East for them to have better diplomatic relations.9 References Abu-Lebdeh, Hatem Shareef. 1997. Conflict and peace in the Middle East: national perceptions and United States-Jordan relations. Lanham, Md. [u.a.]: University Press of America. Covarrubias, Jack. 2007. Strategic interests in the Middle East: opposition or support for US foreign policy. Aldershot [u.a.]: Ashgate. Emad Mekay. IRAQ: War Launched to Protect Israel – Bush Adviser:Inter press Services News agency. Wednesday, November 13, 2013 Harms, Gregory. 2010. Straight power concepts in the Middle East: US foreign policy, Israel and world history. London: Pluto Press. JTA Staff. AIPAC calls for swift action to block U.S. companies supporting Iran:The Global Jewish News Scource. March 10, 2010 3:22pm Kemp, Geoffrey. 2012. The East moves West India, China, and Asia's growing presence in the Middle East. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=467048. Marmura, Stephen M. E. 2008. Hegemony in the digital age the Arab/Israeli conflict online. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10404813. Mu?ller, Johannes. 2007. Israel as a constitutional democracy? The "Constitutional Revolution" and the High Court of Justice in the political system of Israel. Mu?nchen: GRIN Verlag GmbH. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:101:1-2010081515658. Pascual, Carlos, and Jonathan Elkind. 2010. Energy security economics, politics, strategies, and implications. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=472685. Starrett, Gregory. 1998. Putting islam to work: education, politics, and religious transformation in Egypt. Berkeley [u.a.]: Univ. of California Press. Read More