Israel Policy is Key to Defeating Islamic Extremists: A Coercive Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Abstract
The Israeli-Palestine conflict is one of uniquely immense complexity and enormous international political significance. Basic fear of failure and myriad political risks have caused many US administrations to avoid efforts to resolve the conflict. Unfortunately, continuation of the historical US position on the issue makes continuation of the conflict a dangerous national security risk to the US. This paper will examine the conflict in light of US national security and propose that the current administration take a new approach to resolution in the interest of US national security. While Israeli/Palestinian leadership may not appear poised for an immediate solution, the present world situation is otherwise ripe for US action and should be quickly exploited before international dynamics shift to complicate resolution efforts. The United States has historically provided unprecedented support to the state of Israel, but now finds itself in a unique position to finally use this historical support to great advantage. This paper asserts that the US should utilize coercive diplomacy to force resolution of the conflict in a manner that generally favors the current Palestinian position. Four relevant factors will be addressed to support this assertion: 1) the US maintains incredible leverage over Israel, 2) the end of the Cold War eliminated any real US interests justifying the high levels of support to Israel, 3) resolution would greatly improve lagging US credibility and legitimacy internationally and particularly in the Muslim world, and 4) an updated US stance in the conflict is critical to success in the current fight against radical Islamists. Before a discussion of these relevant factors, it is necessary to roughly define what a "resolution that generally favors the current Palestinian position" would look like.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- AD1019116
Entities
Organizations
- Air Command and Staff College