Danielle Lackey
Ms. Duquette
AP Government
Rotation B
15 November, 2010
Israeli/ Palestinian Conflict: Republicans vs. Democrats
Before the recent election, the Democrats were thought to be in the process of making peace with the Middle East, but now that there has been a change in power within the House of Representatives and the Senate, where the whole Israeli/ Palestinian Conflict is going to go can not be foreshadowed. At the same time there are certain elements that are noticeable regarding the possible actions and decisions that will be made by each of the political parties.
It is said that the more conservative a Republican is, the more they do not care about the conflict, however that does not mean that Republicans do not care at all about the conflict (Alpher). There have been a few Republicans such as Henry Kissinger and James Baker, who have been more involved and concerned with the conflict than the Obama administration is today. Even after the recent election the Democrats have still continued to attempt to make peace with the Middle East. Having a Republican majority within the House now will actually help to mend relations with the Middle East even though it may take several months to fully achieve. A Republican majority will help because Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is more comfortable with the Republicans as he had stated “I speak Republican” a year and half ago (Alpher). He had stated this because he felt that the Republicans will be able to explain his policies to the Democrats better than he could himself. There are several ways that people feel the Republicans will be able to help, one including “pressuring the administration to reduce it’s demands on the Netanyahu government regarding concessions to Palestinians” or “to weaken pressure on Netanyahu to block right-wind initiatives to constrain civil liberties and judicial independence in Israel” (Alpher). In another article, it shows that a majority of both Democrats and Republicans are “pro-Israel” and support providing Israel with military aid, money and the formulation of acts such as the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006 (Unknown). There are a select few Republicans that oppose the idea of the United States involvement in the conflict such one being Ron Paul who stated that the United States is “adding fuel to the fire” and that it is “foolish and unconstitutional” (Unknown). Many Republicans and Democrats also agree that Jimmy carter was not right in meeting with the Hamas as John McCain stated that the meeting was “a grave and dangerous mistake for an American Leader” (Unknown). The Democrats have stated that they are going to follow the “rule of law” and are giving civilian trials to accused terrorists (Greenwald).
For years the Israeli/ Palestinian Conflict has taken place with both parties arguing over how to go about the resolving the variance. The Democrats and the Republicans wish to make amends between Palestine and Israel as they have done everything they can to support Israel. The Democrats have been harping on the Netanyahu government about literacy tests and more, while the Republicans think that the Democrats should not be hasty and force them to do certain things. Both the democrats and Republicans wish to make amends but it is how to achieve this that they are fighting over.
Bibliography
Alpher, Yossi. "Change We Can't Forsee." www.bitterlemons.org.
N.p., 08 Nov, 2010. Web. 14 Nov 2010. http://www.bitterlemons.org/issue/isr1.php
Greenwald, Glenn. "Democrats and the Rule of Law."
www.salon.com. Salon Media Group, Inc., 14 Nov, 2010. Web. 14 Nov 2010. http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index
Unknown. "The Candidates on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict."
www.cfr.org. Council of Foreign Relations, 19 Sept, 2008. Web. 14 Nov 2010. http://www.cfr.org/publication/14756/candidates_on_the_israelipalestinian_conflict.html
No comments:
Post a Comment