By Ryan Zhang '27
The Israel-Palestinian conflict has been waging for decades—undoubtedly, one of the most dramatic and violent scenes of the modern era. To the eyes of a regular person, this prolonged tension is a stage with two actors, each holding historical and cultural resentment towards the other. Likewise, the scenes presented to the world are simple: Hamas terrorist attacks, Israeli retaliation, and so forth. But the show never ended. Each day, the world saw the deployment of more troops, the use of more automated drones, and more weapons of mass destruction. In truth, we know that both states don’t have the financial capacity to fund and carry on this war. Only then do we realize these “main characters'' are nothing but puppets under the manipulation of more powerful entities.
Arguably, Israel has gained a reputation for the atrocities it has committed against the Palestinian people. On May 7th this year, the Health Ministry of Gaza recorded over 34,844 deaths of innocent Palestinian civilians, killed by full-scale Israeli attacks via ground and air. Given international structures like the International Court of Justice and the United Nations, surely a treaty can be drafted to force Israel to a ceasefire, right?
Smoke and flames billow after Israeli forces struck a high-rise tower in Gaza City, October 7, 2023. Ali Hamad of APAimages, for WAFA.
The answer to this question is an unfortunate no. Behind all the aggressive military action and brutality towards Palestinian civilians stands none other than the United States. According to a tally conducted by Al Jazeera, from 1946 onwards, the U.S. has spent 263.3 billion dollars (about $810 per person in the U.S.) funding the Israeli military. This included the sponsoring of top military-grade fighter jets and various destructive instruments that devastated the landscape of Palestine. Facing the growing number of protests and voices against this injustice, the U.S. continues to offer military support to Israel under the cover of “humanitarian aid”.
But the circumstances for Palestine are drastically different. As opposed to having one dominant figure funding its military, Palestine operates off the support from multiple allying Middle Eastern nations. The Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists exposed Iran for donating up to 100 million dollars in financial aid, supplying large numbers of firearms for Palestine to engage in war with. In addition, Iran is known to have spent immense amounts of effort training local military groups (e.g. Hamas, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, etc.), declaring direct rivalry against Israel and the U.S.
Why would two countries spend so much money funding and directing war against each other? Because that is where the true rivalry lies. For context, the U.S. and Iran have had geopolitical and diplomatic tensions since the early 1950s, engaging in prolonged periods of indirect warfare. This included notable events such as the Iran-Iraq war, a clash of political ideologies coming from two major oil-oriented nations; the U.S., of course, stood on the opposing side of Iran, directly challenging the legitimacy of their local government. This acted as the match that would set fire to the haystack. Further down the road, tension was strengthened as the U.S. threatened sanctions against Iranian nuclear programs; ultimately, competition led both nations to stand against each other. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was therefore a playground for both nations to indirectly engage in war; to see who had the better technology, and to see who had the most wits. In retrospect, both countries used manipulative measures and utilized vulnerable states to perform hostile acts towards one another. The border between the two states not only saw Palestinian blood, but also the rivalry between the American and Iranian governments.
Ultimately, there were valid reasons behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; however, the extensive duration and scale of this war were undoubtedly perpetuated by the underlying cold war between the U.S. and Iran. As Iran spends more resources trying to oppose the efforts of the United States, only more civilian casualties will follow. Let us hope that countries will cease to use violence as a means to end conflict.
Senior Editor: Richard Li '24
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