Egyptain Foreign Policy In Regards To Israel & The United States. Essay

The History of the conflict in the Middle East is long and well documented. To both, and to many biased observers the history of the Egyptian/Israeli conflict is very one sided, with one government, or one people causing the continued wars between the two neighboring states. But, as any social scientist of any reputation will state, all international conflicts have more than one side, and usually are the result of events surrounding, and extending over the parties involved. Thus, using this theory as a basis, we must assume that the conflict between Israel and Egypt is more complicated than a partial observer would see it. For the purpose of this paper, we are going to examine the basic factors of Egypt’s Involvement and conflict with Israel, with some emphasis on the involvement of the United State, and the Western Nation in this conflict. Also, I wish to pay particular attention to the question of who, or what brought these countries into conflict. Were they both victi ms of their situation, or did they become actively involved in promoting conflict, or perhaps a third party source, such as the US pushed them into conflict? In 1948, the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel was read by David Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv. The Egyptians, like most of the Arab states saw this as a creation of a Western State, backed by the British Empire, and thus an imperialistic entity in the Arab homeland. Considering the past 20 years of the Egyptian state, and of most of the Arab nations, was a continual conflict again imperial powers, the Egyptian were naturally weary and afraid of any new imperialistic powers developing in the Middle East. In September 1947, the League of Arab States decided to resist by force the plan for the partition of Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish State, and when the Jewish state was created, the armies of the various Arab states entered into Palestine to save the country for the Arabs again "Zionist" aggression. The Arabs were defeated and the Arab Countries saved a small amount of land, the Transjordon, and the West Bank. Similarly Egypt saved strip of territo ry around Gaza. The causes of this war, and Egypt’s involved can be examined in several ways. Obviously, the creation of the State of Israel ... ... Israeli withdrawal from Sinai took place as scheduled. A multinational force of observers took up positions in Sinai to monitor the peace. Egypt was allowed to station only one army division in Sinai. Since then, Egypt has had a decent relationship with Israel and the United States, and it has been seen by many Arab Countries as the traitor in many circumstances. It is perceivable that without the influence of the United States the peace in Israel would have been different, if not sooner. The United States, in order to push the cold war policies saw Israel and Egypt as pawn in their global game of politics. Especially in the early years, neither country saw the United States as a enemy nor as a ally, and thus depended on it for little. Yet, both countries saw the possibility of gaining resources from the great western power, or at least its enemy the USSR. Under Carter, however the United States, perhaps for the first time, played a peace-making role in the Middle East. Perhaps Carter was being the peaceful President, or more likely he realized the need for peace in the middle east in order to lower the gas prices, and for the US to harness the immense resources of the region.