Israel-Palestine: The Never Ending Peace Process and U.S Influence

The conflict in the Middle East has been going on for so long that it seems as if there will never be peace.

One aspect of the process is how the United States has had such a prominent role. As the United States and Israel are such close allies, I don't see how the U.S can be impartial, particularly as they supply a huge amount of aid, especially military aid to Israel.

Altogether, since 1949, Israel has received more than $106 billion in assistance.

Israel does receive aid on more favorable terms than other nations. For example, all economic aid is given directly to the Israeli government rather than allocated under a specific program. Also, starting in 1982, Israel began to receive all its economic aid in a lump sum early in the fiscal year instead of in quarterly installments as is done for other countries.

Jewish Virtual Library

The United States has provided aid directly to the Palestinian Authority (PA) three times; $36 million in FY1994, $20 million in FY2003, and
$20 million in FY2005.

U.S. economic aid to the Palestinians has averaged about $85 million per year since 1993; there has been no military aid.

United States Aid to the Palestinians


Would it not be better for a neutral country such as Sweden to act as a negotiator or as some kind of go-between. I realise Sweden may not hold as much political sway as the United States does, but I fail to see how the U.S can be involved in negotiations without being biased.

I was reading Noam Chomsky recently (love him or hate him) and he made the point that Israel and Palestine should be given equal amounts of aid and if one side refuses to take part in talks then they should have their aid suspended. Or on the other hand why not have a set amount of aid which both sides receive and have a ban on providing military aid to either side.

The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu received a warm welcome from the U.S Congress when he delivered a speech there fairly recently.

I don't know whether all world leaders receive such a welcome, but I question whether Mahmoud Abbas, the current President of the Palestinian Authoruty would have recived the same level of rapturous applause





In discussions about the Israel-Palestine situation i've often heard the argument that Hamas/Hezbollah constantly fire rockets into Israel. Do rockets hit Israel EVERY day? On average each year how many rocket attacks are there against Israel and how many Israeli's die as a result? Are there any Israeli ATS members who could shed some light on this situation?

This topic is very divisive I realise, but how much more blood needs to be spilt on both sides before Israel and Palestine can finally come together and make peace? They both need to recognise each other and their mutual rights to exist. Israel as a Jewish state and Palestine as a state as well.

Originally posted by Kram09
In discussions about the Israel-Palestine situation i've often heard the argument that Hamas/Hezbollah constantly fire rockets into Israel. Do rockets hit Israel EVERY day? On average each year how many rocket attacks are there against Israel and how many Israeli's die as a result? Are there any Israeli ATS members who could shed some light on this situation?

according to wikipedia, thousands have been launched since 2001. 31 deaths.

en.wikipedia.org...

given that the next step in the argument you seem to be poised to make is that you will ask, if they are not doing any real damage, why does Israel fight back with so much more firepower, the only response I can offer is the one that always seems to be ignored in this discussion - how many times would you allow me to throw a rock at your home before you would retaliate?

Israel does not want clear cut borders their goal is to expand to a much greater size. There are "settlers" right now expanding their claim of the lands, burning olive trees and such. When an arab fights back they point the finger and say "hey see i told you, they don't want peace".

Here is a portion of the documentary "the ultra zionists" .. for SOME reason I cant find the full version anymore on youtube. It was a BBC special, sure you can find it somewhere.

Israel is US, unofficially.

Ironic that people act like the Israelis are sailing on the moral high road between them and the Palestinians, when the people that lived their were forced of the land and cleared, because someone read a book that was written thousands of years ago that says that land belongs to someone else

reply to post by Crakeur


Yes you have a point.

People often argue that Israel's use of force is often excessive, however considering that the arms that Israel have will inevitably be of a far more sophisticated nature than what Hamas/Hezbollah use, it seems almost inevitable that casualties on the Palestinian side will be large.

That's not to suggest I condone Israel's use of force, but the Palestinians do not have access to fighter jets. However if they did, would they resort to using them in the same indiscriminate way as they do rockets?

reply to post by mayabong


I remember wanting to watch that documentary at the time, but missed it. I'm going to try and look for a full version.

Yes, I read that the Israeli settlements were still going on.

Originally posted by Kram09
The conflict in the Middle East has been going on for so long that it seems as if there will never be peace.

There will never be peace until either, all of Israel is destroyed and every jew is dead; or every person that hates the jews and hates Israel is dead.

This massacre (world war 3) will happen.

It seems that todays world leaders, Christian soldiers, arms dealers and muslim extremists want this Gog Magog war.

Nothing can stop them now.

reply to post by Kram09


The way I see it, the palestinians, with the backing (and prodding) from Iran, Syria and, most likely, a few other Arab nations, are firing those rockets into israel in an attempt to provoke israel into an attack, with the hopes that it will spark global outrage.

the problem is, the palestinians are not welcome in the countries arming them and pushing them to fight. They are being used as pawns by other nations and, as a result, they don't get the recognition they seek and, therefore, the global outcry is not happening.

The middle east will never be at peace. If israel were to up and move, giving all the land to the palestinians, there would be fighting with egypt and syria.

if the palestinians up and moved, giving all the land to israel, the new israeli borders would wind up being fought over with the neighbors.

it's an area that has lived and thrived on conflict for thousands of years. the bible has plenty of wars, battles, fighting and violence. much like you will never convince a texan that the ten gallon hat and cowboy boots are not necessary when you are visiting new york city, you will never convince the denizens of the middle east that they can have peace.

Old clip, seen it months ago. Nothing new here. Move along.

reply to post by lonewolf19792000


Thank you for your wonderful contribution....

American "aid" to Israel is immensely exaggerated. The annual 2.7 billion dollars the US transfers to the Israeli government amounts to approximately 2% of the Israeli GDP. This "aid" then returns to the US when Israel buys American sophisticated weaponry which Israel never actually uses. Three indispensable facts must be kept in mind when discussing the US' relation with Israel:

a) The US forbids Israel conducting businesses with countries like China and Russia, as it wishes that the Israeli military will solely depend on the American technology. In other words, the Americans oppress Israeli military independence (and by extension, economic independence as well) in order to sell Israel their advanced but unserviceable military technologies;

b) Israel has twisted Israel's arms in every single war Israel has conducted throughout the years, beginning with Israel's Independence War, in which the US had declared embargo on arms sales to the Middle-East, which only affected Israel; in 1956, when the US threatened to side with Egypt against Israel; in the Six Days War of 1967, when the US pressured Israel not to preempt (Israel was intelligent enough to disregard the Americans); in the 1973 Yom Kippur war, when again the US urged the Israel to refrain from a preemptive strike, thereby inflicting enormous injury on the Israeli public in this war, which by the way has lead to the rise of the Right in Israel; and so on American decidedly anti-Israeli policies;

c) American aid to Islamic countries, which vastly outnumbers the American "aid" to Israel: the aid to Egypt alone, even today, when the Muslim Brotherhood is in charge of the state, and the Salafists have a considerable amount of seats in the Egyptian parliament, is higher than that which Israel receives. Even Palestine, which is not a state and is not considered a country according to the US itself, receives aid approximately similar to the one Israel receives, never-mind that Hamas is now a part of the government (not that the PLO is any better than Hamas: it has butchered by far more Jews), and that virulent anti-Semitic propaganda continues to be displayed on every channel of the Palestinian media.

In comparison to these, the USS Liberty accident fades to annulment. And in addition to these three points, it is noteworthy that the US, in contrast to popular mythology, was against the formation of the state of Israel, while it is the Soviets who pushed for its establishment.

So why do the Americans support the "Peace Process" -- which has no relevance to "peace" whatsoever? Because it is a measure to keep Israel obedient to the US and subservient to its influences, and more substantially, because Americans are healthy in mind, and realize tha thet depression of other states equals the elevation of the US; and consequently, the Americans endeavor to oppress the little Israeli empire into being a feeble weakling state, dependent on the US entirely, and yet still serve as a trigger for arms sales businesses of the Islamic countries, which despise Israel's very existence, with the US -- and thus, Israel's continued survival-but-in-a-constant-state-of-war serves the US' economic and imperialist ambitions. The "peace process" is just a manner to milk Israel for unnecessary and outright impossible concessions and likewise pervade the US with Muslim money aimed at obtaining weaponry which will be directed solely against Israel, thus causing the unnecessary conflict to endure and strafe the American economy with money that otherwise would be delivered to other superpowers.

Those who believe that cutting American aid to Israel will do harm to the Israeli state, don't realize that this "aid", due to the reasons I've unfolded above, only brings detrimental phenomena to Israel, and Israel is certainly better off without it. Likewise, Americans who believe that the hoax which is called a "peace process" serves Israel's interest, clearly are incapable of comprehending the fact that it is the US, in direct contrast to the Israeli objectives, which pushes the Zionist entity into this shameful appeasement before the non-entity called "Palestine", ruled by the PLO and Hamas thugs.

I conclude that the "peace process" is, like the American "aid" which the US delivers annually to Israel, an American (and likewise Muslims) scheme to pressure Israel into accepting suicidal policies and depressing the Zionist state into becoming a wretched fiasco of wreckage to its on citizens. The "peace process" and the American "aid" to Israel are overwhelmingly detrimental to Israel, serving mainly the interests of the Americans.