On top of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, there is a war brewing in the Middle East, and its complicated origins date back decades. Iran recently carried out an attack on Israeli land, launching more than 180 missiles as regionwide fighting continues. Iran’s attacks on Israel are the byproduct of rising tensions between the countries and their allies and there does not seem to be an end in sight.
With a regional war seeming to be imminent in the Middle East, the United States has shown that they are prepared to support their longtime ally in Israel with President Joe Biden, vowing that the U.S. will help them in the face of any Iranian attacks.
In 1948, the U.S. was the first country in the world to recognize Israel as a state, and since then has been a loyal ally to the Middle Eastern country. Initially, the U.S. provided primarily economic aid to Israel to help bolster its young and budding economy, however, U.S. aid gradually began to shift during the 1970s due to surprise assaults from Syria and Egypt on Israel.
Following the Camp David Accords of 1978, the U.S. had a very different relationship with Israel — one that required a drastic American commitment to Israeli security.
Rapid growth in the Israeli economy during the 1990s meant that the country no longer needed economic aid from the U.S. but economic aid from the U.S. was not phased out until the early 2000s.
Since Israel has become a sovereign state, the U.S. has provided the country with about $300 billion, more than any other country. Currently, the U.S. provides about $3.8 billion to Israel annually in military aid.
While the U.S. must maintain healthy relationships with their allies worldwide, our unwavering and overwhelming support for Israel is beyond excessive and could potentially drag us out into further complications as we feed into Israel’s gluttonous need for “security” as the U.S. still faces many domestic challenges.
There have been growing protests for a ceasefire to the Israel-Hamas conflict, both worldwide and in the U.S., as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues.
Large calls to action against the genocide have been met with no solutions from Congress; lawmakers have blocked multiple efforts to implement conditions for U.S. aid to Israel, such as a report on how U.S. aid is being used by Israel and ensuring that the U.S. is not contributing to any human rights violations in the area.
Iran’s recent attack on Israel has done nothing but complicate the conflict even more as if it were not confusing enough. Iran chose not to retaliate after the July assassination of key Iranian ally Ismail Haniyeh, a political leader of Hamas, hoping that they could pressure the U.S. and Israel into a ceasefire in Gaza.
Instead, Israel broadened its attacks on another ally of Iran, the Lebanese political party Hezbollah, killing Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and provoking Iran into their recent attacks.
Our relationship with Israel and the Middle East requires serious revision. Transparency from our allies should be a certainty rather than an optional task when convenient.
Do we continue to turn a blind eye and mindlessly grant Israel ample access to money, weapons, and military aid as they commit harrowing war crimes? As the bloody conflict rages on, the U.S. needs to thoroughly re-evaluate its support of Israel’s work in the region. If genocide was not enough to get them to stop, what would be?
