The Arab-Israel Conflict and the United States - Term Paper Example

Policy Paper on the Arab-Israel Conflict Executive Summary In the past few years, the global community has been of great help in resolving the Arab and Israel conflict. However, France, United States, and Britain have continued to play an important role towards putting this conflict to an end. It has been through the formulation of foreign policy whose intention was to ensure the fighting groups were at peace. The conflict between Arab countries and Israel started decades ago. Even though the two factions are of different religion, religious issues are not the cause of their conflict. It all began with conflict over land. Palestine is the land that the two factions have been fighting for ownership. The Jew asserts that Palestine is theirs based on the biblical promise. On the other hand, the Arabs claim that the land is theirs since they have continuously been staying in that place for a long time. It is an important aspect for the policy makers and the society to address the pre-existing feud so to cultivate peaceful co-existence between the two groups. The purpose of this paper is to propose relevant policies that will strengthen the United States foreign policy in the Middle East. The significance of this policy is that it will minimize instances of conflict and spread of weapons of mass demolition. The context of this paper is the prolonged boundary conflict between the Arabs and the Jews. Background The conflict involving the Zionist Jews and Palestine Arabs is a recent phenomenon that began in the end of the 19th century. Even though the two groups are of different religious belief, religious disparities are not the main reason of the conflict. The conflict started as a struggle over land where both groups had claimed ownership of Palestine (Primer on Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, p.1). Before the beginning of the 20th century, majority of the Jews existing in Palestine were concentrated in four cities. They were more inclined to their religious beliefs and customs. They believed that their attachment to Palestine was religious. The further migration of the Jews from other parts of the world was due to the desire of finding their origin. Consequently, this led to the rise of the Jew population to approximately sixty thousand. At the time, the Arab population was at 683,000. The sudden rise in the number of Jew inhabitants occupying Palestine greatly provoked the Arabs (Primer on Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict,p.5). During the period of conflict, the British government had made a number of promises to both the Arabs and Palestine. However, they went ahead to divide Palestine into two, the east and the west. This greatly, angered the Arabs. Consequently, war broke out between the two factions. In the need end the conflict, the United nation adopted a partition plan. The Jews region increased to fifty-six percent while the Arab region reduced to forty-three percent. Afterwards, the Arabs invaded the Palestine with the claim that they wanted to save it from the Zionist. This led to intense fighting that resulted to causalities from both sides. However, the Jews emerged winners and increased their possession of Palestine to 77%. Furthermore, majority of Palestine population became refugees (Primer on Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, p6-13). Afterwards, there emerged another war between the Jews and Arabs. The escalated arms race involving various countries was the cause. Their main aim was to strengthen their forces against future attacks. In 1956 the British, France, and Israel forces led an attack on Egypt with the aim of reversing the government attempt of nationalizing the Suez Canal. This evidently revealed that the British and France were inclined in the side of Israel. As a result, this prompted the United Nation in resolving that there will be no acquisition of territory by use of force. Attempts aimed at ending the conflict have been fruitless due to failure of the United States and Israel in offering a meaningful response (Primer on Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: UN Security Council Resolution 242). However, the United States became more determined in ending the Arab-Israel conflict. Other set of conflict resolution steps consisted of Oslo Accord and the 2002 peace plan. Despite the existence of various plans aimed at resolving, the conflict there has been minimal achievements. The failures of these steps are due to the weaknesses of various resolutions adopted. There are various stakeholders in the Arab-Israel conflict. They consist of the United Nation, Israel, United States, Britain, France, Russia, European Union and Palestine Liberation Organization. More than once the stakeholders have played an important role by coming up with strategies that were aimed at ending the conflict (Primer on Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict). Framing The Arab-Palestine conflict is an issue that needs great attention because it greatly limits peaceful coexistence of Palestine Arabs and the Israelites. By resolving it there will be the eradication of possible repeat of the effects brought by the feud. Numerous effects have resulted from war. First, majority of the Palestine citizens who have undergone lots of torture will be free to go about their normal duties freely. Initially, the Israel forces attacked the Palestine’s and at some point undressed their women out of their own will, this is a great violation of the human rights. Furthermore, there will be an end to the damaging of infrastructure and crops that always occurs during invasions. It makes the conditions around the Palestine’s (The Impact of the Conflict, p.6). Second, there will be the release of the children, women and men who are under detention in Israel so that they can positively contribute to the growth of the country. Third, it will bring about the end of the continued attacks by the Israel Soldiers to the Citizens of Palestine. For instance, the Israel forces invaded Gaza strip and West Bank where they restricted free movement (The Impact of the Conflict,p.6). Finally, the Palestine will be free from the control of nearly all facets of their life. Whereby, it was not easy for children access their schools, the sick to the hospital, and workers to their respective workplaces (The Impact of the Conflict, p.3). Reason being, there are numerous checkpoints established by the Israelites in an effort to minimize the movement of Palestine’s within their country (The Impact of the Conflict, p.6). Successfully resolving the Arab and Palestine conflict might prove to be difficult task due to various reasons. First, the conflict has been on for a long period. As an illustration, the conflict began in late eighteenth century and it has been on since then. Therefore, coming up with a different solution might not be easy (Yehoshua, p.2). Second, since the conflict involves international countries it implies that previous efforts aimed at ending the conflict existed. For instance, the president of the United States personally tried to mediate the countries but the results were fruitless. So did the United Nation in their plan to partition Palestine (Yehoshua, p.3). Third, even though the leaders of both countries come to a partial agreement they always go back to picking arms and fighting due to new conflicting issues (Yehoshua, p.4). The dominant actors in the Arab-Israel conflict had vital interests. First, the Suez Canal offered Britain a shorter sea path to its territory. Furthermore, it gave them a shorter route to Persian Gulf, where they easily accessed oil fields. This made the British determined to protectr the canal. Second, United Nation and European Union interests in conflicts is usually to find amicable solutuions. Therefore, their interest in the Arab-Israel conflict was to come up with an appropriate solutions that will ensure peaceful end of the conflict.Third, the French played a significant role in the conflict by supplying the Israel forces with war weapons. The main purpose of their support was to gain the control of the Suez Canal.Finally, the United States wasmore interested in endingthe conflict since it wasa limitation for them to achieve their interest in oil (Shlaim “Israel, the Arab States and the Great Powers”,p.6). Alternative Solutions Recent Efforts Aimed at Addressing the Conflict The Kerry Arab-Israeli Authority Peace Talks is the most recent effort aimed at ending the conflict. These talks began in 2013 and continued until April 2014. The United States Secretary of State was the leader in that negotiation. However, the leader of Gaza, Hamas, was not a participant in the talks. On several occasions, the conflicting factions met the United States representative as a way to make the nine-month negotiation period a success. Regardless of promising achievements, the talks ended after the rivaling Palestinian groups formed a unity government. Afterwards, Hamas maintained their stand regarding destroying Israel. Because Hamas and Gaza were already in a coalition, it was not easy for Gaza to oppose the stand they had taken (Timeline of the Arab-Israeli Conflict and Peace Process,pg.10). Alternative Suggestion The only solution to conflict that is achievable is the adoption of the two-state .However, its success will only be attained if the following factors are but into consideration. First, the Palestinians should have a representative that unifies all their tribes, clans, and families. He or She should be a leader who is acceptable by entirely all the citizens of Palestine. Reason being, if the leader is acceptable by the entire Palestine it will be easy for Him or Her to enforce the recommendations of the peace committee. For instance, what troubles Israel is the continued terror and violence acts from the Palestine. Therefore, if there is representative that can be listened by the entire Palestine he can easily bring violence and terror acts to an end. Second, the Israelites should be willing to agree to the solution and have no further disagreements that will influence the restart of the conflict (Failure of the Two-State Solution, p.2-6). The strong proposition of the two-state-solutions underlies the fact that people from the two regions share different religious beliefs and more than once religious beliefs have always conflicted. In addition, people from these regions meet in rare occasions because of their differences. Therefore, the two-state solution will offer the most appropriate resolution that will give rise to the realization of the Palestine rights. Whereby, Palestine will be able to concentrate in developing their country. Furthermore, its citizens will be able to move freely from one place to another without any form of restriction, as it is presently where Israeli forces have roadblocks in Palestine to minimize movements of Palestinians. Conclusion The conflict involving Arabs and the Israelites began in the 19th century. The main cause of their conflict was the fight over Palestine. The Israelites claimed that Palestine belonged to them due to the biblical promise. On the other hand, the Arabs claimed ownership of the land since they had occupied it for a long period. The conflict has continued right from the beginning to date. As a result, the conflict has led to the displacing of the Arabs from their geographical location. In addition, there have deaths from both the Arabs and Israelites. In the need to resolve the conflict, there have been numerous efforts to end the conflict from both international organizations and nations with interest in conflicting countries. The key interest of nations that desired end of the conflict was generally for protecting their interests. A notable example of the nations that participated in ending this conflict consists of the United States, France, Britain, and Russia. On the other hand, the global bodies that were involved consisted of the European Union and United Nations. The successes of various conflict resolution processes have been unachievable due to various reasons. However, the most reliable solution is the adoption of the two-state. The two-state solution is more appropriate since the conflicting parties are of different religious beliefs. Nevertheless, this success will only come handy if Palestine possesses a leader that whole of Palestine accepts him or her. Clearly, this will give the ability to put to end what Israel greatly fears (violence and terrorism). Furthermore, the Israelites should be willing to give the Palestine’s their freedom. When adopting the two-state solution, the policy makers should ensure that a leader who represents Palestine is the choice of all the tribes, clans and families. This will make it possible for him/her to fully incorporate the agreed upon resolution with great ease. The choice of the two-state method as a solution was due to the assessment of the factors that led to the failure of its initial adoption. The main failure was that the representatives of the Palestine in the mediation were not unanimously accepted all the tribes, clans, and families. Therefore, this made the adoption of the agreed upon issues to be unachievable. Furthermore, the Israelites were not fully into the adoption of the two-state solution. Reason being, they perceived the solution as being too fast. In addition, the Israelites and Arabs share different religious beliefs. Even though the two religions might share similarities in acts but differences will always exist. Therefore, this makes the two-state a more reliable solution. Appendix The Second Ten Year table: Future Israel’s Aid from the United States Military Arabs and Jews Population from 1449 to 2006 Work Cited "Failure of the Two-State Solution." November 2013. Algemeiner. Wednesday December 201 . "Primer on Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict." 2013. Middle East Reseach and Information Project. Wednesday December 2014 . Shlaim, Avi. "The Middle East: The Origins of Arab-Israeli Wars." OX. Wednesday December 2014 . "The Impact of the Conflict." 2012. If Americans Knew. Wednesday December 2014 . "Timeline of the Arab-Israeli Conflict and Peace Process." 2014. ICS Resources . Wednesday December 2014 . Yehoshua, A B. "Why the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Refuses to be Resolved ." April 2011. Haarezt. Wednesday December 2014 . Read More