H.R._____
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Representative Sam Uyeno introduced the following bill which was referred to the Committee on____________________.
Palestinian State Bill
Section One:
This bill will set specific conditions in the interest of peace between Israel and Palestine that must be met by Israel in order to receive its annual three billion dollars in essential aid from the United States.
Section Two:
Congress hereby finds that withholding further aid to Israel until it complies with the conditions to be laid out in this bill will ensure that the United States has a stronger role in peace negotiations between Palestine and Israel so that a mutually beneficial two state solution may be reached. The United States gives Israel three billion dollars in direct foreign assistance each year, coming out to nearly seven million dollars a day, and amounting to roughly one-fifth of America's entire foreign aid budget. This staggering amount of money is excessive as America faces a stalled economy and rising national debt. The money is also funding Israeli policies that are often contradictory to American interests. It is time that we use this aid, that Israel has become reliant on, as a strong bargaining chip to make Israel reevaluate refugee proposals, withdraw its settlements in the West Bank and Gaza strip, keep Israel safe from terrorists, and ultimately establish a peaceful two state solution.
Modern Israeli-U.S relations have developed from an initial U.S. policy of sympathy and support after World War II and the Holocaust. Since then the U.S. has continued to place considerable interest on Israel as a key player in their Middle East policy. Is...
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Clyde R. Mark. “Israeli United States Relations.” 10/17/02. Access 10/28/10
IfAmericansKnew.org, “U.S. interest and Israel/Palestine” 12/3/2009. Access 10/28/10
Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy. “Is the U.S. Israel Free Trade Agreement Harming America? Myth versus Facts” 12/3/2009. Access 10/28/10
MidEastWeb for Coexistence and Ami Isseroff. ”In a Nutshell: Israeli Palestinian Conflict.” 2003-2007. Access 10/28/10
Bob Hawke once said; “Unless and until something concrete is done about addressing the Israeli-Palestinian issue you won't get a real start on the war against terrorism.” Perhaps Hawke put into a few simple words one of the most complicated issues within our world today, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As Israel continues to strip the Palestinians of their land and fears it’s very existence because of the Palestinians terrorist acts, there seems to be no solution in sight. The world appears to be split and all over the place when it comes to this matter. According to The Middle East Institute for Understanding approximately 129 countries recognize Palestine as a state while many others do not. Over all the political matters within this issue not only affect Palestine and Israel but the world as a whole, as the Middle East and the West seem to disagree. This has had and will continue to have an enormous impact on many political affairs all over the world particularly in the current fight against terrorism. Personally I feel that the Israeli Palestinian conflict while being a very complicated matter has a simple solution. Within this issue I am a firm believer that the occupation of the West Bank by Israeli forces is extremely unjust and must come to an end. Once this is achieved a two state solution will be the most effective way to bring peace to the area. The occupation of the West Bank violates political and legal rights, human rights, and illegally forces Palestinians who have lived in the area for hundreds of years from their land. This conflict is at the height of its importance and a solution is of dire need as nuclear issues arise in the Middle East due to the tension between Israel and it’s surrounding neighbors, and the...
The Human Rights Act of 1998 came into power in October 2000, and it represent an honourable epitome of ethical and moral ideologies. As for any idealistic expectations, one must query the effectiveness of the Human Rights Act of 1998 at meeting all its aims in the context of aiding, safeguarding and supporting those in need of assistances from the Social Services in the UK.
This marked the beginning of the Palestine armed conflict, one of its kinds to be witnessed in centuries since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and World War 1. Characterized by a chronology of endless confrontations, this conflict has since affected not only the Middle East relations, but also the gl...
The United States has for over two centuries been involved in the growing world economy. While the U.S. post revolutionary war sought to protect itself from outside influences has since the great depression and world war two looked to break trade restrictions. The United States role in the global economy has grown throughout the 20th century and as a result of several historical events has adopted positions of both benefactor and dependent. The United States trade policy has over time shifted from isolationist protectionism to a commitment to establishing world-wide free trade. Free trade enterprise has developed and grown through organizations such as the WTO and NAFTA. The U.S. in order to obtain its free trade desires has implemented a number of policies that can be examined for both their benefits and flaws. Several trade policies exist as options to the United States, among these fair trade and free trade policies dominate the world economic market. In order to achieve economic growth the United States has a duty to maintain a global trade policy that benefits both domestic workers and industry. While free trade gives opportunities to large industries and wealthy corporate investors the American worker suffers job instability and lower wages. However fair trade policies that protect America’s workers do not help foster wide economic growth. The United States must then engage in economic trade policies that both protect the United States founding principles and secure for tomorrow greater economic stability.
Since the inception of an Israeli nation-state in 1948, violence and conflict has played a major role in Israel’s brief history. In the Sixty-One year’s Israel has been a recognized nation-state, they have fought in 6 interstate wars, 2 civil wars, and over 144 dyadic militarized interstate disputes (MIDs) with some display of military force against other states (Maoz 5). Israel has been involved in constant conflict throughout the past half century. Israel’s tension against other states within the Middle East has spurred vast economic, social, and political unity that has fostered a sense of nationalism and unity in Israel not seen in most other states. Over the next several pages I will try and dissect the reasons for why the nation state of Israel has been emerged in constant conflict and how this conflict has helped foster national unity and identity among the people of Israel.
American security interests shifted to focus on protecting the American market, first through a war on drugs, and then a tacit protection of oil interests during Gulf War 1 and veiled protection of US petroleum interests in Gulf War 2. Implicit in public support for both of these wars was the desire to secure continued economic power to protect American interests of an inexpensive (at least monetarily) and high quality of living through control of oil reserves and the acknowledgment that the fates of multinational corporations are directly tied to capitalist American hegemony. The enduring global free trade and protection of American global market security enforcement is a result of efforts by multinational corporations to meet the demands of Americans for cheap products, the needs of industry for cheap supplies. These efforts have led to free trade conditions that maximize outcomes for industry leaders while satiating the American public.
“There is no such thing as a Palestinian.” Stated former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir after three fourths of one million Palestinians had been made refugees, over five hundred towns and cities had been obliterated, and a new regional map was drawn. Every vestige of the Palestinian culture was to be erased. Resolution 181, adopted in 1947 by the United Nations declared the end of British rule over Palestine (the region between the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River) and it divided the area into two parts; a state for the Jewish and one for the Arab people, Palestine. While Israel was given statehood, Palestine was not. Since 1947, one of the most controversial issues in the Middle East, and of course the world, is the question of a Palestinian state. Because of what seems a simple question, there have been regional wars among Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, terrorist attacks that happen, sometimes daily, displacement of families from their homes, and growing numbers of people living in poverty. Granting Palestinian statehood would significantly reduce, or alleviate, tensions in the Middle East by defining, once and for all, the area that should be Palestine and eliminating the bloodshed and battles that has been going on for many years over this land.
Bourke, Dale Hanson. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Tough Questions, Direct Answers. Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity, 2013. N. pag. Print.
The Middle East has historically rebuked Western influence during their process of establishing independence. When Britain and France left the Middle East after World War II, the region saw an unprecedented opportunity to establish independent and self-sufficient states free from the Western influence they had felt for hundreds of years. In an attempt to promote nationalistic independence, the states of the region immediately formed the League of Arab States in 1945. The League recognized and promoted the autonomy of its members and collaborated in regional opposition against the West until 1948 when Israel declared independence. Israel represented then and now an intrusive Western presence in the Arab world. The ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict typifies this cultural antagonism. The Cold War refocused attention to the Middle East as a site of economic and strategic importance for both sides, yet the two hegemons of the Cold War now needed to recognize the sovereignty of the Middle Eastern states. With their statehood and power cemented, the Middle Easte...
Sørli, Mirjam, Nils Gleditsch, and Håvard Strand. "Why Is There so Much Conflict in the Middle East? ." The Journal of Conflict Resolution 49.1 (2005): 141-165. JSTOR. Web. 8 June 2011.
Lipsey, Richard G.. "Will there be a Canadian-American Free Trade Association? ." The World Economy 9 (2008): 218-238.
Gerner, Deborah J., and Philip A. Schrodt. "Middle Eastern Politics." Understanding the contemporary Middle East. 3rd ed. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008. 85 -136. Print.
The pro-Israel intervention represented the US foreign policy reaction when the violation to regional stability was committed by Israel. The cases discussed above were evaluated against the US reaction to Israel’s regional behaviour; in terms of whether the Israeli behaviour served or hampered US interest in maintaining regional stability and whether or not the US opposed Israel when it acted in ways that the United States deemed undesirable. It was concluded that, as a general rule, Washington was ready to intervene to address any violation to the status quo in the Middle East system except when this violation was committed by its regional surrogate. Israel had contributed directly in destabilizing the Middle East system (pushing the system out of its equilibrium point) in several cases, four of which have been discussed above. These crises, in spite of their negative effect on regional stability, witnessed minimal US reaction.
Also, the United States has a strong military force and a powerful leader. “Over the past sixty years, the United States and Israel have slowly developed a strategy partnership. The United States benefited when Israel destroyed the Egyptian and Syrian armies during the 1967 and 1973 wars.” (Bowman and Bourassa). The United States and Israel’s bond has been getting stronger and stronger as the years go by because the United States have been supporting Israel for almost five decades. If they continue to have this bond with each other; the two countries, Israel and Palestine, could possibly end up having peace together once and for all because the United states could help them through it like if it were a therapist. Bill Clinton, an ex president of the United States, attempted to fix the conflict between the two countries by making a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan; another country Israel has problems with, Clinton hoped that if there was a peace treaty with Israel and Jordan then tension between Israel and Palestine would calm down a bit, but it actually did not really work out as well as he thought it would be (Bowman and Bourassa). As Clinton tried managing this conflict his action shows the effort the United States put into as an ally of Israel. Clinton
The Hebrews are not only of undeniable historical significance but also a key factor and concern in contemporary politics. In order to begin to understand the nature of Israeli politics it is important to understand the rich history of the Hebrews and also the events surrounding and leading up to the formation of the nation of Israel. We will begin our investigation into the politics of the nation of Israel by reviewing key historical contributions and events pertaining to that nation and its people.