Minoru Mochizuki writes: > Alan, I still don't have your answer on the reason why US is supporting > Israel in the relation between Palestine and Israel. I realize the > possibility that you don't have the answer.
I am very sorry about being remiss in answering your question. To be frank, it is not an easy question and so I had to think about it. Naturally, I do not make US foreign policy so I cannot surmise the exact reasons for all US policy decisions. I think it is an overstatement and an oversimplification to say that the US supports only the Israeli side in relations between Israel and the Palestinians. As far as I know, the US has provided nearly the same amount of foreign aid to both sides and has tried to remain a position as a neutral broker to the conflict. But this was mostly when Arafat's Fatah faction was in charge. The situation changed when Hamas was elected in Gaza and began to solidify their rule over Gaza by killing many Fatah leaders, actually throwing many of them to their deaths off of buildings. I believe that the US cut off foreign aid to Hamas, in disgust at this barbaric behavior, but continued to provide aid to the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank. I believe the specific reason for the US giving a "green light" to Israel for their current offensive against Hamas in Gaza was because of this behavior by the Hamas leaders, their smuggling of arms and their rocket attacks against civilians in Israel. Now getting back to your original question: > John M. in the meanwhile stated that it's > because US's interest in oil that's behind its support to Israel I tend to agree with John M. in that oil is probably the main US national interest in the Middle East, and a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will help assure a continued, uninterrupted supply of oil and continued economic prosperity in the US and other Western economies that are dependent on oil. Now this is very general, and the connection between the oil interests and the current conflict is probably not very direct. But my guess is that the US government probably considers Hamas to be a destabilizing influence in the region, and thought that direct military action by Israel against the Hamas leadership and its fighters may permit the less-extremist Fatah faction to regain control over Gaza as well as the West Bank. Presumably it will be easier to achieve a lasting peace between Israel and a unified Palestinian Authority governing all of the Palestinian territories, rather than trying to broker negotiations with two separate "Palestines." But it remains to be seen whether the current conflict will make the situation better or worse. Regards, Alan Siegrist Orinda, CA, USA --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Persons posting messages to not_honyaku assume all responsibility for their messages. The list owner does not review messages prior to posting, and accepts no responsibility for the content of messages posted. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
