Israel-Palestinian Conflict and the Middle East

QUESTION 1

The current threat of terrorism in the United States is linked to its activity in the Middle East. It is an unfortunate issue of our own making and cannot simply be seen as a domestic issue rather it has international origins. For instance, when Israel launched a bombing campaign in Beirut in 1981 that led to the demise of a score of civilians, the US was among the multinational force that oversaw the process of a ceasefire in 1982. As retaliation for being expelled, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) launched a massive suicide truck that struck the US and French headquarters on 23 rd October 1983 in Lebanon. Consequently, two hundred and forty-one Americans and fifty-eight French soldiers lost their lives. Another detrimental terrorist attack on the US due to its activities in the Middle East occurred on 11 th September 2001 where terrorists targeted the world trade centers, the Pentagon, and possibly the Capitol. The nineteen terrorist hijacked four commercial planes which they used as guided missiles. The Al Qaeda terrorist group claimed responsibility citing the UN sanctions against Iraq, the US soldiers in Saudi Arabia, and the US support of Israel as the reasons leading to their attack. Also, the US activities in Lebanon made the local people see Shah Mohammed Reza as an American puppet out to westernize their culture. Thus, they overthrew his Monarchy rule and replaced him with the Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. On 4 th November 1979, infuriated youthful demonstrators overran the United States Embassy and held fifty-two American diplomats hostage. They held the hostages for four hundred and forty-four days in Tehran.

QUESTION 2

The United States role in the Israel-Palestinian conflict is profound. For many years, The United States has been an effective partner to the Israeli’s continuous effacement of Palestine in the Middle East. The partnership dates back to the period of creation of the Jewish State that the United States recognizes. The issue at hand is that Israel continues to occupy land belonging to the Arab state and the United States continues to support the Israel state with a military, fiscal, political and intelligence support. Additionally, the US has constantly opposed the United Nations resolutions that may serve justice to the Palestinians. The opposition is in favor of Israel even when the state is found guilty of human rights atrocities. Particularly, the US has rejected thirty-two UN resolutions targeting the Israel State. More prominent is the one Israel is accused of mass murdering over one hundred Lebanese civilians at the UN compound in Qana. The US went ahead to reject the second term election of UN secretary General Butrus Ghali as retaliation for his decision to make public in the UN report that Israel massacred the civilians intentionally. Additionally, the US has turned a blind eye to several other atrocities committed by Israel such as the shooting of children by Zionist settlers, burning of Muslim places of worship, and brutal beating of Palestinians. Thus, Israel’s actions even though with impunity, does not shudder the support from the United States. Recently, President Trump publicly announced that the conflicted city of Jerusalem is the capital of the Israel state. The city has been a conflicted issue with both the Israel and Palestine claiming it to be their capital. But president trump siding with Israel removed the element of neutrality of US. Therefore, the US is incapable of brokering any peace deal without making Palestine feel that the US is biased since it promotes Israel interests. Thus, more divergence will emerge if the US remains the broker of a peace deal in the Israel-Palestine conflicts.

QUESTION 3

Today, finding and promoting a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict is essential. There exist numerous reasons why the US should promote peace in the Israeli/Palestine conflicts, but the key one is the national security. The conflict poses a national security threat to American people. Scores of Americans have lost their lives because of the perpetuation of the conflict in the Middle East. Continuation of the conflict has created anger, frustration, and humiliation to the enemies who have, on several occasions, focused their anger on the US citizen both at home and abroad. Moreover, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict weakens America’s allies who have shifted sides to join the United States in finding an amicable solution to the conflict. 

If the US does not find a secure, just and fair peace agreement then extremism and anger will aggravate and multiply thus producing recurring threats to the US citizens. For instance, the most significant terrorist attack that shows the extent to which extremist groups are willing to go to ensure that American lives are lost is the Mumbai 2008 attack. The ten Pakistan terrorist targeted specific places in Mumbai among them being an American Jewish Chabad house. With the enormous size of Mumbai finding a Chabad house is very entailing. But with the help of an American citizen, David Headley, they finally located one after months of search. If it takes that patient for this extremist to search for a Chabad house, then the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a national security threat. Additionally, the Mumbai case shows how radicalization is taking roots. Therefore, there is a need for the US to finding a long-lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Moreover, it has been established on several accounts by Al-Qaeda leaders that the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts are an ideology of the extremist group. Therefore, stopping the conflict implies crippling the influence of Al-Qaeda in the Middle East. Isolation of the extremist groups will lead to a trustworthy collaboration with allies to flush out the terror cells in these respective states. In turn, there will be reduced cases of both domestic and international terrorist attacks. 

QUESTION 4 

The link of both domestic and international terrorist attack targeting American citizen has always been linked with the military and monetary aid of the US to the Israeli state. In most of the attacks, the terrorist point fingers on the support of US to Israeli’s oppression of the Palestinians. For instance, former Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was always quoted saying that attacks such as the 9/11 were due to the unwavering support of the US that prompted the group to fight and oppose the United States. If the extremist is attacking the US citizens because of the role of the country in the Middle East, then I believe that withdrawal of the United States troop and minimizing of foreign aid will lead to a decline of attacks targeting Americans. On the other hand, the consequence of withdrawal may lead to an increased perception that American might and influence is declining in the Middle East. This will lead to a perception by American adversaries such as Al-Qaeda, Iran, and Russia that they have succeeded to drive away the United States from the Middle East. Consequently, they may opt to use the same mechanism, which is attacking US citizens, to drive the US from other conflict struck countries. In addition, the radical Islamic forces may believe they have gained victory and therefore hardly act magnanimously. Rather they may act in a dictatorial and tyrannical way. The result will be more attacks from the terrorist groups will increase their attacks in homeland America and abroad, and against allies of US as they attempt to amass themselves with power. 

QUESTION 5

The Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) is on the verge of being won. The government’s dedication in executing the President’s objectives as outlined in the National Strategy for Homeland Security along with the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism is playing a major role to root out terrorism both domestic and globally. Additionally, the Administration’s focus on forming alliances, improving response abilities, destabilizing terrorism funding, enhancing medical countermeasures, and improving protective infrastructures is playing a critical role to fasten realization of reduced terrorism. Furthermore, the inter-agency collaboration is significantly leading to reduced terror attacks on American soil due to sharing of critical intelligence. Moreover, the efforts by both local and global coalitions have led to the removal of top leaders such as Osama Bin Laden, Khalid Shaykh Muhammad and Muhammad Atef. With the disruption of the leadership of organization such as Al-Qaeda, the war against terrorism has achieved a great milestone. Particularly, the death of top Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was a major blow to the terrorist organization. He provided overall direction for campaigns of terror and his demise destabilized the sect’s ability to plan and execute terror attacks. Consequently, the US and allies used the loophole to bring a score of terror masterminds such as Ramzi Bin Al Shibh (9/11 conspirator), Yusif Saleh Fahd Allyari, and chief Hambali (associate of Khalid Shaykh), among others.