After the travesties that happened to the Jewish people during the World War II, the U.S. pushed the British government to go before the United Nations with the problem of Palestine. All the Jewish immigration was causing violent problems in this area of the Middle East.  The nation of Israel was born, and the U.S. because of the Cold War would back it. The Soviet Union was trying to expand Communism in the Middle East after World War II, and because the Arabs that were supported by the Soviets had conflict with the Israelis, the United States took the opportunity to oppose the Soviets without direct conflict.  An example of U.S. support for Israel since the beginning would be the economic aide the U.S. gave to Israel in 1950.

    The United States has had to walk a thin line in the Middle East because of the Arab and Israeli conflicts.   In 1956, Israel attacked Egypt with the help of the French and the British who were angered by Egypt’s nationalization of the Suez Canal.  Israel was motivated to attack due to the Egyptian blockade of the port of Eilat.  The U.S. and Soviet Union stepped in and persuaded Israel to give back the land they had taken by promising that the United States would help keep the Gulf of Aquaba open to ships traveling to and from Israel.  The U.S. began supplying Israel with arms to level the playing ground with the neighboring Arab nations. By 1965, the U.S. was Israel’s main arms supplier. The U.S. was sure that the key to peace and the world was equal power among nations.  But while selling Israel weapons, it also made secret deals with Arab nations in selling them the same weapons.

    The United States has made another bond with Israel in the way of counter terrorism cooperation.  The U.S. and Israel share information, training, and research and development to deter terrorism. Many of the terrorist groups that the U.S. and Israel go after are supported by Arab governments such as Iran and Iraq, but this doesn’t affect the U.S.’s standings with the Arab’s since many of the countries deny the ties to terrorism.

    The United States supports peace between the Arabs and the Israelis.  The presidency has held many summits between the two groups. Israeli and Palestinian leaders have signed a peace agreement with the help of President Clinton.  Similar agreements have been made earlier between Israel and Egypt. The Middle East will, hopefully, be able to come to peace with the help of United States intervention.
 


Links

 International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism

 Israel Activist Center

Index of Israeli-Arab Human Rights Organizations


Bibliography

"Arab Israeli Wars." The 1998 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Online. [database online] (cited 16 April 1998); available from http://gme.grolier.com.

"Israel." Encyclopedia Arabica. [database online0 (cited 16 April 1998); available from http://www.sn.no/~tkjeilen/ea/lexicon.htm.


Authored by Nathan Schumacher
Fueled by Dave Matthew's Band.