The Middle East and International Relations: Arab-Israel Conflict - Term Paper Example

Middle East and international relations Middle East is one of the most volatile and vulnerable region as far as global peace is concerned. Iraq problems, US-Iran problems, Israel-Palestine problems etc are some of the major issues which are causing big headaches to the global peace efforts. The recent Iran- US conflicts over the issue of nuclear arsenal development by Iran almost put the world into another war. However, the peace efforts conducted by some peace loving nations and United Nation helped the Middle East people to avoid a war at least in the recent future. Iraq seems to be settling back to the normal life. The American troops are going to withdraw from Iraq in near future itself. At the same time Israel-Palestine conflicts seems to be never ending. An amicable solution for these problems seems to be not in the distant dreams of the political observers. Having an independent state like all other countries is a dream for the Palestinians for a long period. They strongly believe that they have every right to have a free state, but Israel on the other hand thinks that a free Palestine state may be harmful to their political interests. Jerusalem is a sacred place for the Jews, Muslims and the Christians. In fact there may not be any other place in the world which is equally important for all these three religions and beliefs. Arab – Israel conflict is one of the main threats for the world peace because of the multi dimensional aspects it covers. Lot of people around the world believed that the current trends of terrorism have its roots in the Arab – Israel conflict. The US foreign policy towards this issue is questions by many because of the soft corner it keeps towards Israel. Though US tried immensely to convince the world that it has taken a neutral policy on this issue, nobody takes this claim seriously. This paper briefly analyzes the Israel –Palestine conflict specifically to learn more about the Middle –East and international relations. This paper also analyses the foreign policy of US in Middle East the possibility of an intervention from EU in Middle East. In my opinion, even though the Iran-US conflicts is heating up, the Palestine- Israel conflict seems to be creating more headaches to the world at present and most probably in future also. Arab-Israel conflict is mainly because of the conflict between Palestine and Israel. In fact this conflict has been taken some dangerous dimensions since the entire Muslims in the world consider it as an intrusion of Jews culture into the Muslim beliefs. There was no conflict till the latter half of the 19 th century. In the 19th century the land of Palestine was inhabited by a multicultural population – approximately 86 percent Muslim, 10 percent Christian, and 4 percent Jewish – living in peace. In the late 1800s some Zionists (an extremist minority in Jewish community) decided to colonize this land. Their goal was to create a Jewish homeland, and from then onwards the conflicts between Palestine and Jews began to erupt (A Synopsis of the Israel/Palestine Conflict) The recent intrusion of Israel into the Gaza city and killing of many innocent people has made this problem worst now. The solution for this conflict is dangerously complicated since it is associated with so many political, social, cultural and religious aspects. Most Palestinians believe that the West Bank and Gaza are entirely belonging to their authority and Israel has no claim at all on these cities. On the other hand Israel is not ready to recognize these claims. For them most parts of these cities are belonging to their territory and Palestine’s claims are not justifiable. The border of Jerusalem is the most disputed issue in this conflict. Jerusalem is equally important for Jews, Christians and Islam because of Abraham who is believed to be a sacred person for all these three communities. Israel doesn’t want to divide Jerusalem and they are trying to establish their supremacy over other religions regarding this holy city. Now the majority of the people staying in this city are Jews and hence Israel not ready to give up their claims on this city. Palestinians nowadays strongly believe that Israel is trying to conquer the entire Palestine and they will never allow creating an independent Palestine state. On the other hand Israelis believe that Palestine wanted to control the entire Palestine region. Both parties have their own reasons also to believe like these. The mutual belief and confidence are at the lowest level and hence it is even difficult to bring them around a table for discussion. In other words even a peace discussion seems to be difficult between these two parties. Both the Israel and the Palestine have moderates and extremists in their side which make reaching a resolution more complicated. Any compromise made by any side will be viewed as a failure in the respective countries and hence due to the fear of losing the political advantage, no party wants to compromise on any issues. Moreover religion and religious beliefs are associated with this conflicts which makes the conflict even worse. Any compromise made on any of the disputed issues will be analyzed under religion’s perspective in the respective countries. Since religion is more actively involved in politics in this part of the world, nobody wants to lose. In my opinion, US cannot leave Middle East because of the immense natural resources available in this region. US is currently struggling to find enough fossil fuels for their automobiles and also they have lack of fresh water or drinking water resources. On the other hand, Middle East is blessed with all these things and hence there is no reason to believe that US may leave Middle East at least for another couple of decades. “There are several lenses through which one can interpret US policies aimed at the Arab-Israeli conflict like, contrasting national interests, special relationship politics with Israel, bureaucratic politics and individual beliefs.” (Shannon, p. 3) Because of these multi dimensional aspects of the conflict the reaching of a compromise is extremely difficult. The conflict is filled with regional, religious, political, cultural and communal aspects. It is not easy to address each problem separately. Avineri Shlomo, in his article, A Realistic U.S. Role in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, wrote that in the post-September 11 context, Israelis hope that the United States-now a victim of massive domestic terrorism-will have more sympathy for them while Palestinians hope that the United States will revive peace talks, and thus solidify Arab support for the war on terrorism. (Avineri) The September 11 attack on the trade centre has in fact turned out to be a blessing for Israel. It is only after this attack the communal dimensions of terrorism has come to exist. The Israelis succeeded in convincing US that the seeds of terrorism are planted in the Arab world and hence they should be treated differently. US have started its war on terror only after the September 11 attack. Till that incident though US has been accused of political bias towards Israel, they never came out publicly against the Arabs as seen currently in Iraq and Afghan border. Arab people believed that the September 11 attack may force US to revive the peace talks about the Arab – Israel conflict to gather the Arab’s support. They were proved to be wrong as we have seen the silent stand taken by the US, in the recent occupation and bloody activities done by Israel against the Hamas and the Palestinians. The current US policy towards the Arab – Israel conflict is definitely biased towards the Israel. It is a curse since such a bias has divided the world communally. The Arab Muslims strongly believe that the US has no respect towards them and it is only because of the communal similarities the US is more aligned towards the Israelis rather than anything else. Such a belief will be extremely dangerous for the peace efforts exercised by some neutral agencies like the United Nations. The US attitude towards this issue must be focused on solving the issue rather than utilizing it for own advantages. On the other hand the Palestinians must realize that violence is not the best way to achieve freedom. They must take lessons from the great Indian freedom fight in which the father of Indian nation, Mahatma Gandhi has led the non violent agitations against the British. Violence will deepen the conflict and if gone out of control it can attain fearful propositions. I don’t think the European Union may try to challenge United Sates in this region. It is a fact that EU is trying to spread their wings, however, they may not challenge United States because of their close relationships and tie up with US on many of the global matters. Most of the administrations in EU countries are democratic and hence they will try to cooperate with US in as many issues as possible. In my opinion, we have many reasons to worry about the future of Middle East. When we are able to settle the issues in one place conflicts seems to be starting from another place in the Middle East. For example, the Iraq problems were on the verge of settlement, however, unexpectedly the Iran-US problems started to develop. At the same time the Arab –Israel problems continue to be remain solution less. In short, we have many reasons to worry about the future of Middle East. Works Cited 1. Avineri, Shlomo, “A Realistic U.S. Role in the Arab-Israeli Conflict” 2001. Web. 09 December 2010. 2. “A Synopsis of the Israel/Palestine Conflict”. Web. 09 December 2010. 3. Shannon, Vaughn P. “Balancing Act: Us Foreign Policy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Us Foreign Policy and Conflict in the Islamic World)”. 2003. Ashgate Publishing (August 2003) Read More