The United States and Israel

Many people think that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict dates back to several centuries ago, but in truth, the conflict began with the creation of Israel in 1948. Tensions first arose between Jewish people and Palestinians after World War II, after many Jewish people immigrated to Palestine. The Palestinian people consisted of more than one faith, including a majority of Muslims and some Christians as well. Palestinians wanted the Jews to live in Palestine as a minority, however Zionist organizations wanted at least a partition to be approved by the U.N. General Assembly. The idea of a Jewish state became relevant to the United States in the 1940s, specifically when President Truman was preparing for re-elections. The United States has taken several different stances on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict dating back to the early 1900s – during the Zionist movement and preparation of creating a Jewish state - until today, and its stance has always been changing and inconsistent throughout history. Some U.S. Presidents have supported Israel from its creation while some have opposed Israeli settlements and put effort into achieving peace and giving Palestinians back their rights.

The Zionist movement in the United States was pushing to create a Jewish state in Palestine around 1916. President Woodrow Wilson, a Presbyterian Christian, was inclined to the idea of a Jewish state, but his meetings with Zionist leaders were never documented by the State Department, most likely because Congress did not share his views and opposed the creation of a Jewish state. President Wilson also offhandedly approved the Balfour Declaration in one of his speeches, which was a British document giving support for a Jewish national home in Palestine. History shows this back-and-forth support and disapproval for a Jewish state in Palestine has frequently existed between the president and State Department. Ultimately, the U.S. did not support the creation of a Jewish state openly during President Wilson’s administration, although President Wilson himself supported Israel discreetly.

Harry S. Truman was President at the time of the creation of Israel and preceding it. President Truman supported the immigration of 100,000 Jews - a number he declared in a speech - during his elections for presidency. He also issued a statement of support for the UN Partition Plan, which would withdraw the United Kingdom from Palestine and establish Jewish and Arab states in Palestine. However, it became apparent after his victory that he was simply trying to win the Jewish and Zionist votes. President Truman first agreed that a partition would be impossible to impose, but he was later pressured to back the partition because supporting “a Jewish state would not threaten peace or American interests in the Middle East.” Establishing a Jewish state and supporting it would also guarantee a U.S. ally in the Middle East. President Truman’s fickle views are reflective of the United States’ views on Israel throughout history.

Around 1957, Congress started turning to Israel with greater sympathy due to effective lobbying by Jewish groups. There were two reasons that congressmen – and the American public – began looking at Israel with sympathy. First off, the United States had just pressured Israel to withdraw from Sinai Peninsula, which was under Egyptian territory; Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser was not a close American ally, partly because Egypt recognized Communist China. Secondly, Israel could easily go under Soviet threat because Israel had just attacked Nasser. The Soviet threat existed because the 1950s was a time of increasing tension during the Cold War, and the idea of containment dominated all U.S. foreign relations. Also in 1957, President Eisenhower then approved a strategy known as the Eisenhower Doctrine, which provided military and economic assistance to any nation that requested aid against “armed aggression from any nation controlled by International Communism.” This later brought the United States much closer to Israel.

Ten years later, Israel would conquer new territories that are “still subject to negotiation.” In 1967, the U.S. State Department pursued a resolution hoping for peace between Israel and its neighboring Arabs countries. However, the Israeli government “had been told unofficially” that the United States “would not object” to Israel’s attack on Egypt. So when Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran, Israel had a justified reason to attack Egypt. Israel presented its arguments for war to the United States and Johnson accepted them on the condition that Israel would return the territories it would occupy. Israel was victorious in the Six-Day War not only in occupying Sinai, but also Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. Prime Minister of Israel, Levi Eshkol, then stated that Israel would not return the territories, but President Johnson did not seem concerned, especially since his advisors suggested that he “not insist on the restoration of the territorial status quo” because the new situation in the Middle East could gain approval domestically.

In October 1991, a conference was held in Madrid between Israel and their Arab counterparts from Lebanon, Syria, and a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation to negotiate a peace process. The panel discussions were based on U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338 as well as the Camp David Accords of 1978, which were authorized by President Jimmy Carter. U.N. Resolution 242 was the first to establish peace between Arab nations and Israel, and it also called for withdrawal of armed Israeli forces from occupied territory in recent conflict. U.N. Resolution 338 called for an end to the Yom Kippur War and implementation of Resolution 242. Despite the importance of the Madrid talks, the results produced little progress. In fact, violence between Palestinians and Israelis worsened from the time of the Madrid talks in 1991 to 1993, and the security of both Arabs (including Palestinians) and Israelis continued to decline.

In March 2001, Ariel Sharon became Prime Minister of Israel shortly after George W. Bush entered the White House. Bush praised Sharon for his “marvelous sense of history” and “assured Sharon that the United States would not interfere in Israeli-Palestinian affairs. President Bust met with Sharon at the White House eight times for the next two years, white never inviting Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader. President Bush, like Sharon, held Arafat responsible for the violence in Israel. Furthermore, in 2002, Arafat was discredited when Israel seized “the Karine A, a ship carrying fifty tons of weapons and explosives that Israel claimed had been sent from Iran for Palestinian use.” However, the White House accepted Arafat’s involvement in the Karine A scandal without questioning Israeli evidence, “although official Israeli and American press accounts often were highly misleading.” In June 2002, Bush made “Arafat’s replacement as head of the Palestinian Authority a condition for American support of negotiations.”

When President Barack Obama came into office, he promised to actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace” between Israel and Palestine. However, his attempts at peace proved to show more sympathy and give more support to Israel than any other U.S. President had given before. During the 2008 Israeli attacks and siege on Gaza that left an estimated 1,300 Palestinians dead, President Obama failed to act firmly as expected. Also, in exchange for “a three month extension of the partial settlement freeze, the Obama administration reportedly offered to sell Israel 20 F-35 jets, to veto a declaration of Palestinian statehood at the U.N., to offer long-term security guarantees in the event of a peace deal, and to never request another extension again.” According to former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer, that offer would be “the first direct benefit that the United States has provided Israel for settlement activities” that the U.S. had opposed for 40 years. The President had taken office determined to take a stronger stance against Israeli settlements, yet he offered more reward than any other administration had.

There are many inconsistencies with the creation of the state of Israel, with the first being the initial document that encouraged Jewish people to immigrate to Palestine, the Balfour Declaration. Although the Balfour Declaration was not written by the United States, it gave the Jewish people a documented right to exist in Palestine. However, the Declaration did not state that Jewish state building was the intention anywhere in the document. Also, when the state of Israel was created, it never created a constitution, partly because it would define its boundaries, and that would place a limit on its territories. In addition, when the Jewish people created Israel, they invited all Jewish people from the diaspora to live in Israel. They caused over 200,000 Palestinians to flee from their homes in exile, and about 190,000 Jewish members populated the West Bank by 2000. The creation of Israel began as an occupation and remains an oppressing occupation that controls the space and natural liberties that Palestinians should have the right to enjoy: the land, water, and air. Secondly, the occupation and exile of thousands of Palestinians is unlawful according to U.N. Resolution 242 and immoral and unjust from a humanitarian perspective. Over 100,000 Palestinians had to leave the West Bank in 1967, many of whom had to live in refugee camps in the Jordan Valley, and over 600 were exiled from Jerusalem to make room for Jewish people to pray on Sabbath. By 2002, the West Bank was cut into 64 isolated sectors and Gaza into four by “trenches, earthen ramparts, and concrete barriers, with an estimated 450 checkpoints, barriers, and roadblocks.” Around 680 similar obstacles were in place by 2004. Many Palestinians retaliated by taking part in suicide bombings and assassinating leaders of different groups. The Palestinians were retaliating for the harassments and beatings at numerous checkpoints or ambiguous killings of Palestinian civilians. One suicide bombing led to the Israeli assault on Jenin in April of 2002, leaving 4,000 Palestinians homeless and the Israeli army “blocked access to the camp by relief and medical personnel for six days after the fighting stopped.”

In 1977, Prime Minister Begin of Israel visited President Jimmy Carter. Carter stated, “I outlined my key proposals to him… compliance with U.N. Resolution 242; open borders and free trade; Israel’s withdrawal from occupied territory to secure borders; and a Palestinian political entity to be created.” President Carter wanted Israeli forces to return to the pre-1967 borders, and “Begin did not reject this or [his] other proposals outright.” Begin said that he could “possibly agree with all except the Palestinian entity.” After President Carter emphasized to Begin that Israeli settlements were illegal and “the primary obstacle to peace,” Prime Minister Begin recognized some of the West Bank settlements as permanent when he returned home.

Before President Carter’s next visit by Begin and Israeli foreign minister Moshe Dayan, Carter wrote six observations about Israel to present to them:
“They were not willing (1) to withdraw politically or militarily from any part of the West Bank; (2) to stop the construction of new settlements or the expansion of existing ones; (3) to withdraw Israeli settlers from Egypt’s Sinai or leave them under U.N. protection; (4) to acknowledge that U.N. Resolution 242 applied to the West Bank – Gaza area; (5) to grant the Palestinians real authority or a voice in their own future; or (6) to discuss the issue of the refugees.”
Dayan attempted to argue some of Carter’s statements while Begin did not comment on their accuracy. President Carter was ready to give up on the Middle East entirely when he decided to give one last attempt at peace proposals. The final results were better than expected, “including written Israeli commitments to honor the provisions of U.N. Resolution 242, to withdraw their political and military forces from the West Bank and Gaza, and to grant Palestinians ‘full autonomy’ and a right to participate in the determination of their own future.” These peace accords became known as the Camp David Accords. Moreover, Egypt recognized Israel and Israel withdrew from Sinai.

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan called for a “fresh start” and urged Jordan to work with Palestinians to “achieve self government” after Israel attacked the PLO in Lebanon and Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, was assassinated. Later in 1991, President George H. W. Bush called for the Madrid talks, which – although they accomplished very little – were the first talks for a peace process in a long time and provided a framework for communication. In 1993, peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat were held and created the first treaty between the two sides, the Oslo Accords. “They recognized one another and charted a five-year plan for Israel to cede control of the territories to a new Palestinian Authority and Palestinian leaders to crack down on terrorism before a final peace agreement. In 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated just after becoming a strong advocate of a two-state solution. The Oslo Accords were no longer in action. In 2000, President Bill Clinton convened Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to address Oslo, but the meeting was a disappointment, and the second Intifada movement “exploded in violence.” President Bill Clinton was the last U.S. President to push for peace in Palestine. President Barack Obama’s attempts at the peace process fell into pressured traps, and he gave more power to Israel rather than achieving substantial peace. Furthermore, United States Presidents should agree to the existence of a Palestinian population and work to achieve peace between both parties by abiding by the U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338. The United States is a leading power in the world, and often it claims to be the most powerful nation in the country. The United States of America plays the role of an international police power and its duty as that peace-broker is to achieve peace between Israel and Palestine. That is why the United States’ involvement in the Palestinian-Israeli issue is so significant. Representing the leading nation of the world, U.S. Presidents and Congress have a moral and political duty to eliminate injustice and find the truth when both sides are presented. U.S. Presidents’ roles in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are documented because they shape history, and they will forever be remembered.

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