The Palestine-Israel Conflict and the United States - Essay Example

The Palestine-Israel Conflict and the United s The core of the Palestine-Israel conflict is the exile of the Palestinian refugees in 59 UN registered camps that were expelled from their country in the year 1948. Today, the population of Jewish settlers in Palestine-Israel is about 5.9 million. There are approximately 11.6 million Palestinians including both Muslims and Christians that have Palestine as their native country. To date, the Palestinian refugees have sustained their struggle of returning to their country but Israel has been consistently denying them their right to return to Israel occupied Palestine.

Israel is using its military and political dominance to impose a highly discriminatory system to withdraw the non-Jewish citizens from the territories it has occupied. The gravity of the situation can be estimated from the fact that “Israel has at least 150 nuclear weapons (“Israel has 150”). Ever since the occupation of Palestine by Israel, the native Palestinians have been subject to intense discrimination and abomination. “Palestinians face systematic discrimination merely because of their race, ethnicity, and national origin, depriving them of electricity, water, schools, and access to roads, while nearby Jewish settlers enjoy all of these state-provided benefits” (Bogert cited in “Israel/West Bank”).

The day-to-day life of the native Palestinians is controlled by the discriminatory policies of Israel without any conceivable security reason. For instance, the Israeli authorities have made Palestinian children walk to other villages for schooling because there is none in Jubbet al-Dhib that is a Palestinian village accommodating over 160 Palestinians. The Israeli authorities did not provide any electricity to the village and also rejected the provision of solar-powered streetlights in the village.

Villagers have no electricity and accordingly, no means of refrigerating food. All non-Jewish citizens of Israel are denied its nationality. The US has played a major role in strengthening Israel economically and in power but today, Israel has become more of a liability for the US than an asset. “The engine that has run the Israeli economy for decades has been American aid…Israel is heavily in debt to the U.S. Treasury, its commercial banks, and its Jews and other citizens and organizations that have purchased millions of Israel bonds or donated money to Jewish causes” (Tivnan 217).

Israel is not only costing the US billions of dollars every year but is also bringing the image of the US down in the international media. Thousands of years ago, both opponents occupied the same Promised Land as one group of people. The fundamental cause of conflict between Israel and Palestine is the right of ownership. Both believe that their right to this territory is God-given on the basis of the pact in the Old Testament of Bible that God made with Abraham. The peaceful solution to this problem is mutual consensus of both nations to live together peacefully.

Clearly, neither Israel nor Palestine would agree upon a solution that requires the slaughter of their respective people. If Palestinians do not resume terrorism, the US is in a position to incorporate them in the Israeli economic system and help them participate completely in the commercial life of Israel. Works Cited:“Israel has 150 nuclear weapons”. BBC News. 26 May 2008. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. . “Israel/West Bank: Separate and Unequal.” Human Rights Watch. 19 Dec. 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. . Tivnan, Edward.

The Lobby: Jewish Political Power and American Foreign Policy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987.