Israeli Conflict

The other day in my US history class we had a debate on the situation in Israel. I hadn’t really formed an opinion yet because I honestly didn’t know a thing about it. Apparently, our teacher assumed this was something we knew about. After not having much to say during the debate, I went home and did some research on the topic. The first website I went to was BBC News because they always have an updated article on the situation, even though I have never taken the time to read it before. I watched a video on it and it seemed to be saying that the Israelis were the main source of the violence. The Israel’s can’t physically move the Arabs off of “their” land so they are trying to make life for the Arabs miserable in hopes that they will leave on their own accord. The problem is that the Arabs feel that it is their land just as much as the Israeli’s land. One specific Palestinian man explained that his family has lived on the land as far back as he can remember and that they continue to live there today. He couldn’t imagine picking up and leaving the only home he has ever known, even though he knows that being a Muslim in Israel gets more and more dangerous every day. Muslims living in Israel aren’t even allowed to have many basic rights including the right to vote.

The United States is in a tough position right now because it is not clear who the land should really belong to. The Jewish people had the land centuries ago but in the most recent history, the land belonged to the Arabs. After World War two, when the world felt extreme remorse for the small numbers of Jews that had survived the Holocaust, the United States helped create Israel for the Jewish people. At the time, this seemed like a good idea. It meant that the Jewish people who had lost their family members in the Holocaust could have a home; it was something to keep them together. Anti- Semitism was still very high in some parts of the world and the Jewish people didn’t have anywhere else to go. It was a gift from the world that served as an apology for the Holocaust. Now though, the two religious groups (Muslims versus Jews) are fighting more than ever. They have proven that they can’t live together peacefully and neither of them are about to give up the land they believe was given to them by God.

Long story short, this is where we are at today: the United States wants the Jewish people to remain in control of Israel. Most of the rest of the world, including the United Nations, tends to side with the Arabs. Luckily for Israel though, it has the support of the United States which is far stronger than most of the countries it is up against. The support of the United States is what has allowed Israel to survive for so long. Unfortunately, for the United States, this has come at a high cost. It has led to most Muslim countries hating us. This makes the people of the United States wonder whether we should continue to support the Israeli’s. Even though the United States seems to be siding with the Israeli’s, I don’t necessarily think that it is the best idea. I am somewhat torn between which side to support because my country supports the Israeli’s while my religion has openly supported the Palestinians. I think when coming to a conclusion on which country to support we need to look out for the welfare of not only our country but the world. If we continue to support pushing the Palestinians out we may be asking for more trouble than we are able to handle.

I think that in order to come to a conclusion we need to look at all sides of the conflict. Just looking at the news in the United States is not enough. The news coverage in the United States is very biased towards the Israeli's. Upon watching the following video I realized that the United States doesn't give us the whole story.