Few topics in our contemporary international landscape evoke such vehement emotion as the State of Israel, its history, its policies and its relations with the world community. For some, the conflict between Israel and its neighbors is the return of a people to their historical homeland and the violent rejection of that return. For others, the issue is an oppressed people struggling for self-determination. By no means do we claim that the foreign policy of Israel - or any other country - is angelic. Our goal is neither to condemn nor to defame, but to illuminate the modern role of the State of Israel and its importance to the United States. As both a Republican and a Democrat, we acknowledge imperfection and mistakes but join in recognizing Israel's right to defend its existence as well as its value to American interests.
The only democracy in the Middle East, Israel grants full rights of citizenship and provides substantial benefits to ethnic and religious minorities. The Israeli Parliament, or Knesset, has several Arab members and does not impose military service requirements on its Arab citizens, who have a significant stake in the Israeli economy. According to Efraim Karsh, a professor at King's College London, access to basic human necessities in the West Bank and Gaza has improved markedly since 1967, including running water (16 to 85 percent of homes), morality rate (fell by two-thirds) and electricity (20.5 to 92.8 percent of homes). This has occurred in spite of the desire by most Israelis to relinquish the territories and limit their role in day-to-day Palestinian life. Israeli technicians were among the first to develop cell phones, Intel's Pentium processors, pacemakers and computer motherboards. Israel's irrigation techniques are recognized across the globe, and observers regularly visit the state to study its advances in agriculture.
Israel has been an asset for peace in the region and desires basic respect and tolerance for its existence and rights of self-defense. Most Israelis, including the current political leadership, recognize the injustice and long-term impossibility of occupying another people. At the same time, Israel's continued military presence in the Palestinian territories is not a choice but a necessity based primarily on security concerns. Pullouts from Amona, parts of Hebron, Gaza and northern Samaria were supported by a majority of the Israeli public, despite the potential risks to Israeli civilians and infrastructure caused by such withdrawals. Israel also unilaterally withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, hoping this would facilitate peace on its northern border. Israel's security fence is based in necessity, specifically its need to thwart terror attacks and prevent civilian casualties on both sides by reducing the need for military incursions. Though there may be concerns about the impact of the security fence, the route of the fence has been altered numerous times by the Israeli Supreme Court in response to Palestinian petitions to ensure that it affects the lives of West Bank residents as little as possible.
These actions have not been met with reciprocity from the Hamas-led government. Instead of working to engage Israel and restart a process toward a sustainable peace, it has responded with violence and provocation. Since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that Hamas and other Palestinian militants have used that land to fire over 1,200 rockets into cities and towns in southern Israel, and these attacks continue today. The Hamas-led government has again declared its refusal to recognize both Israel's right to exist and past agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. It has also declared that unless Israel completely withdraws from all territories in six months, it is prepared to launch a massive violent uprising similar to the Intifada of 2000-2004. At the same time, the Palestinian people are facing a non-payment crisis, reduced social services and economic stagnation as a result of endemic corruption in the Palestinian Authority (currently, the Palestinian territories are still the largest per capita recipient of foreign aid in the world).
Israel's security concerns were also tried during the recent conflict in Lebanon.
Hezbollah, financed and supported by Iran and Syria, launched an attack across an internationally recognized cease-fire line and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. Following the shelling of towns 20 kilometers inside its borders, Israel responded by targeting Hezbollah strongholds inside Lebanon. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs reported that, over the course of the conflict, Hezbollah launched 3,970 Katyusha rockets and Fajr missiles into northern Israel, reaching as far as 40 miles south of the Lebanese border and forcing 1 million Israelis into bomb shelters.
Israel was caught between a rock and a hard place: respond with overwhelming military force and cause a morally unacceptable number of civilian casualties, or respond weakly and abandon the captured soldiers and the integrity of Israel's borders. The Israeli military attempted to craft a middle ground, limiting bombing to areas they deemed essential to degrading Hezbollah's military capacity and recapturing the soldiers. Whatever one thinks about the specific tactics, the Israeli military did make a genuine effort to reduce civilian casualties as much as they thought possible. The U.S. Congress acknowledged the legitimacy of Israel's response - the Senate, with a 98-0 majority, passed Resolution 534 "condemning Hezbollah and Hamas and their state sponsors, and supporting Israel's exercise of its right to self-defense," and the House passed a similar measure 410-8.
Israel's importance to U.S. strategic and economic interests should also be underscored. Israel has the distinction of voting with the United States consistently in the United Nations, standing firm with America after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and providing the United States tens of thousands of jobs through aid provisions, resulting in nearly 100 percent of American aid to Israel being spent in the United States, according to the Middle East Quarterly. Israel's collapse or regional destabilization would damage American security interests, and the right of Israelis and Palestinians to shape their futures without coercion is an important objective in line with U.S. foreign policy. Though the process toward peace between Israelis and Palestinians will require difficult decisions on both sides, a democratic and secure Israel has a right to exist and defend itself as it works toward peace with the support of its American ally.
Adam Axler '08 and Pratik Chougule '08 are vice presidents of the Brown Democrats and the College Republicans, respectively.
