September 11th and U.S. Foreign Policy - Essay Example

Insofar as many Arab Muslims, not least of which are the perpetrators of 9/11, are concerned, the United States' bias towards Israel and the aggressive stand it has adopted towards Arab Middle Eastern states is at the heart of the anger which fuelled the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The United States, as the primary mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict, is ethically bound to adopt a neural stand and support international law but, public statements by American politicians expresses clear bias towards Israel.

For example, on the 1st May, 2003, the U.S. Congress Majority leader publicly stated in a televised speech that he was "content to have Israel grab the entire West Bank there are many Arab nations that have many hundreds of thousands of acres of land, soil, and property and opportunity, to create a Palestinian state" (qtd. in Pomper, Foerstel and Broder). Apart from being an expression of clear bias from the conflict's chief mediator, such statements deeply anger Arab and Moslem populations because they exhibit an utter disregard for international law.

That the United States is, within the . Security Council Resolution 242"). Not only has Israel refused to respect this resolution but, to date, the United States has exploited its veto power to prevent the passage of ten resolutions which reiterated Resolution 242 and demanded ("U.S. Has A Long History"). Added to that, the United States has further vetoed resolutions which not only called upon Israel to respect international law but which condemned its killing of innocent Arab civilians and children.

In total, the U.S. has vetoed 77 resolutions which condemned Israeli actions against Arab people and territories, and which demanded the withdrawal of Israel from Occupied Territories. With hardly any exception, the resolutions vetoed by the US had obtained near-unanimous Security Council and General Assembly approval (Reilly). From the Arab viewpoint, therefore, the United States is denying them justice under the law.The nature of the resolutions vetoed by the United States is fully expressive of the extent to which it is determined to deny Arab states justice under the law, and the degree to which it is biased in favor of Israel.

This statement is amply supported by facts. For example, in 1990, the United States vetoed a resolution condemning the murder of seven unarmed Palestinian civilians by an Israeli, and in December 2002, vetoed another resolution condemning Israel's killing of UN employees ("U.S. Vetoes of UN Resolutions Critical of Israel"). Indeed, the United States has further vetoed resolutions whose intent was the "affirmation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinians," and the murder of Palestinians as they prayed inside al Aqsa Mosque.