SHAFAQNA- Israelis and Palestinians conflict has long been one of the world’s most intractable. While the United States is a strong supporter of Israel, an outbreak of violence between Israeli forces and Palestinian in 2021 was an early test for the Biden administration’s diplomatic approach to Middle East.
The United States has been a central player in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for more than half a century. The United States has long been Israel’s ally and its leading security collaborator because the United States supports the existence of a Jewish state. Today, Israel remains the United States’ closest strategic partner in the Middle East. As a result of shared interests, the United States has pledged to help safeguard Israel’s military superiority in the region. In 2021, after days of renewed violence in which Israeli air strikes destroyed targets in Gaza, the Biden administration reportedly worked behind the scenes.
Biden reiterated US support for Israel’s right to defend itself. There are several reasons why the US gives so much aid to Israel, including historic commitments dating back to US support for the creation of the Jewish state in 1948. On top of that, the US sees Israel as a crucial ally in the Middle East.
US has not supported Palestinian bids for statehood at the United Nations
Multiple US administrations have proposed road maps for a peace process that would result in two states, one Israeli and one Palestinian. Despite its long-standing support for a two-state solution, the United States has traditionally not supported Palestinian bids for statehood at the United Nations, saying this matter should only be decided through negotiations with Israel.
Prospects for a two-state solution dimmed under Donald Trump, who implemented a slew of controversial policies regarding core components of the conflict. The Joe Biden administration has reversed some of those changes but left others in place, including Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
How much US aid goes to Israel?
Since the end of World War II, the United States has provided more cumulative foreign aid to Israel than it has to any other country, Cfr told. The United States gave Israel significant economic assistance from 1971 to 2007, but due to Israel’s considerable economic growth beginning in the 1990s, it now receives mostly military aid. By law, the US government must ensure that any arms sales to other Middle Eastern states do not “adversely affect Israel’s qualitative military edge over military threats to Israel”.
In fiscal year 2020, more than half of all US foreign military aid was headed to Israel, which uses most of it to purchase US arms. In 2020, the US gave $3.8 billion in aid to Israel, most of it for military assistance, as part of a long-term yearly commitment.
This support was given as part of an agreement signed by former US president Barack Obama in 2016 for an overall package of $38 billion in military aid over the decade (2017-2028), which was an overall increase of about six percent of the spending commitment to Israel over the previous decade.
In addition, the US gave $5 million towards resettling migrants in Israel last year. US aid, over the years, has helped Israel develop one of the most advanced militaries in the world. For instance, Israel purchased 50 F-35 combat aircraft, which can be used for missile attacks — 27 of the aircraft have so far been delivered, costing around $100 million each, The Daily Star mentioned.
Of the $3.8 billion given to Israel in 2020, $500 million was for missile defence, including investments in Israel’s Iron Dome and other systems which can intercept incoming rockets.
Analysts: US does not have to provide Israel with unconditional support
The latest round of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians ended in the usual way: with a cease-fire that left Palestinians worse off and the core issues unaddressed. After renewed violence, it also provided more evidence that the United States should no longer give Israel unconditional economic, military, and diplomatic support.
Stephen M. Walt, the Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of international relations at Harvard University wrote that the benefits of this policy are zero, and the costs are high and rising. In this connection, they cautioned instead of a special relationship, the United States and Israel need a normal one. New reporting from analysts in Foreign Policy, concludes that today, however, decades of brutal Israeli actions have demolished the case for unconditional US support.
Stephen M. Walt, the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University reiterated that Israeli governments of all stripes have expanded settlements, denied Palestinians legitimate political rights, treated them as second-class citizens within Israel itself, and used Israel’s superior military power to kill and terrorize residents of Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon with near impunity.
They went on to say that it is not surprising Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem have recently issued well-documented and convincing reports describing these various policies as a system of apartheid, and unconditional support for Israel today creates more problems for Washington than it solves.
Enduring cost of the “special relationship” for US
According to analysts’s approach enduring cost of the “special relationship” are as follows:
First, as the world have seen over the past week, unconditional support for Israel makes it much harder for the United States to claim the moral high ground on the world stage.
For this reason, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the UN Human Rights Council the administration was going to place democracy and human rights at the center of US foreign policy. But when the United States stands alone and vetoes three separate UN Security Council cease-fire resolutions, repeatedly reaffirms Israel’s “right to defend itself,” authorizes sending Israel an additional $735 million worth of weapons, and offers Palestinians only empty rhetoric about their right to live with freedom and security while supporting a two-state solution, its claim to moral superiority stands exposed as hollow and hypocritical.
Second, another enduring cost of the “special relationship” is the disproportionate foreign-policy bandwidth relations with Israel consume. Biden, Blinken, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan have bigger problems to worry about than the actions of Israeli regime. Yet here the United States is again, embroiled in a crisis largely of its own making that demands its attention and takes valuable time away from dealing with important problems.
Third, unqualified support for Israel complicates other aspects of US Middle East diplomacy. Negotiating with Iran to roll back JCPOA would be far easier if US administration did not face constant opposition from the Netanyahu government, not to mention the relentless opposition of hard-line elements of the Israel lobby in the United States.
The desire to protect Israel also forces the United States into relations with other Middle Eastern governments that make little strategic or moral sense. U.S. support for Egypt’s unsavory dictatorship, is partly intended to keep Egypt on good terms with Israel. The United States has also been more willing to tolerate abuses by Saudi Arabia (including its air war in Yemen and the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi) as Riyadh’s tacit alignment with Israel has deepened.
Fourth, decades of unconditional support for Israel helped create the danger the United States has faced from terrorism.