US Foreign Policy in the Middle East Undermines our National Security

My partner and I stand in firm negation of the resolution: Current U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East threatens our national security. We would like to provide the following definitions: Foreign Policy:The diplomatic policy of a nation in its interactions with other nations. Source: American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 2012 The US currently faces many national security threats from the Middle East, however, none of these are caused by current US foreign policy. They are caused by U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East for the past several decades" of support for Israel. As a result, the inherent distrust and hate that Islamic Middle East countries are not cause by current policies, and nothing we can do can change the way that that they feel. This is especially true because the media sources in other countries are biased toward the U.S. and the U.S. cannot combat this. Therefore, we do face many national security threats, but the Pro Side will be unable to link them to current U.S. foreign policy or show that U.S. foreign policy could be changed to solve the national security threats. Contention 1: The US is distrusted by Middle East countries; and that distrust is shared globally. Julian Borger and Tom Clark of The Guardian write on September 11, 2012: American influence on the world stage is being sapped by widespread distrust of USintentions, not just in the Middle East and south Asia but also among traditional European allies, according to a survey of global opinions. Suspicion of America outweighed faith in its good intentions by large margins in the Arab world and Pakistan, and even its heavyweight European ally Germany was more sceptical than trusting, a YouGov survey found. British and French opinion was more positive but still deeply divided.Negative Arab and Pakistani perceptions of America as overweening and untrustworthy clearly pose a daunting foreign policy challenge for the Obama administration. The fact that 78% of Pakistanis questioned by YouGov said they did not trust America to act responsibly underlines Washington's serious lack of soft power in the region as it attempts to extricate itself from Afghanistan. The Jews and Arabs hate each other; this is a result of thousands of years of fighting each other. There is no one policy that the US can have that will undo thousands of years of history. Zvi Bar'el, writes an article, poignantly remarks on the current attitude of Jews and Arabs in the Middle East in his article entitled "A good Jew hates Arabs" from August 2012 states: Israeli "literature" promoting hate of Arabs predates the occupation. The children's book series "Danidin" by Shraga Gafni is full of expressions and illustrations that laid excellent infrastructure for Arab-hatred. The "Mikraot Yisrael" (Israeli Readers ) series, which helped educate hundreds of thousands of Israeli children, is striking in terms of the "incitement" concealed within it.Similar books published in the Palestinian Authority keep those who monitor Palestinian incitement very busy. But there isn't really a need to list all the recipes for Arab-hatred that have been fed to us, and which we developed on our own, in order to come up with a defense for those criminals in Jerusalem, whose "only crime" was to do what Israeli pedagogy and the "Death-to-Arabs" ethos directed them to do.This is an ethos that will continue to be an integral part of the Israeli-Jewish national identity, even if the occupation were to end tomorrow. Because "Death to the Arabs" isn't an expression of "routine" hatred of those who are different, or the loathsome slogan of some "price tag" gang. It does not resemble the xenophobia or the fear of Muslims that characterizes European racism.Hatred of Arabs is part of the test of loyalty and identity that the state gives its Jewish citizens. A good Jew hates Arabs. A loyal Israeli will leave an Arab to die, because "he's an Arab." And someone who isn't like that, as we know, "sleeps with Arabs." The Israel-Palestinian conflict is a national security threat to the US. Bruce Riedel, Frank Anderson, Philip Wilcox, Brian Katulis, argue in an article entitled Israeli Palestinian Peace: What is the US national security interest? How can it be achieved? Middle East Foreign Policy Council, on January 20, 2011: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a national security threat to America. Indeed, American lives are being lost today because of the perpetuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A peace agreement is a, if not the, key to achieving most of our goals in the greater Middle East. It is not the solution to everything; it is not a panacea. But that is an unrealistic standard. "Solving the Arab-Israeli conflict won't solve every problem between Morocco and Bangladesh" is, frankly, a stupid reason not to try to move ahead and solve it. This is a false issue, a red herring, if I've ever seen one. The reasons why this conflict is a threat to the United States are multiple. I'll start with a very simple one. If you believe that Israel is a national security interest of the United States and an ally and partner of America, as every American president since Harry Truman has affirmed, then a conflict that threatens Israelis every day must be a threat to the national security interests of the United States as well. Because the US cannot solve the underlying source of hatred between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East, current US foreign policy is not responsible for undermining our national security. Therefore, the resolution is false.