The Bipolar State Department Policy In Israel-Gaza

However you feel about the current fight in Gaza, it's gotta bug you that America is funding both sides.

What? You hadn't heard?

"How is that possible?" you ask. Let me count the ways.

On the Israeli side, I don't have the time or space to list all the ways the U.S. government has supported Israel. Whether it's through military technology sharing, financial aid, or geopolitical backing, America has been one of Israel's best friends. Just Google "American support of Israel to get an amuse bouche. (Link for the Lazy, here)

But the Palestinian side as well?

Yup: we, the American people, ponied up hundreds of millions of dollars in support of the Palestinian refugees, just in 2008?! Through the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, the U.S. has piped in millions of dollars into Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, &c. The United States was easily the largest individual contributor to the agency, providing close to a third of the entire budget.

Now, although it may seem like sending money to destitute refugee families is a noble pursuit, there's reason to believe that the generosity can be blamed (in part) for creating the state of perpetual conflict in the region. Allow a brief explanation: The majority of Palestinians have been living lives of extremes: on one hand is perpetual armed conflict with Israel*; on the other hand is a life of subsidy**.

But let's look at the deeper effects from both sides.

What does the subsidy do? It shelters the Palestinians from the abject poverty of their situation.

In a market society, families that are unable to feed the children they have will cease to bring more children into the world***. When there are insufficient resources, a free society will adapt: they'll either find more resources or, over time, create less mouths to feed. Not so in Palestine: even though it's one of the poorest groups in the world (scroll down to the 150's, in between Somalia and Kosovo), Palestinians continue to produce at very high levels (number 27, at over 5 children per woman). And, with the aid of UN-sponsored vaccines and food supplies, the Palestinians aren't a group that, unlike most of Africa, will die off in the usual "acts of God" and man-inspired violence that is tragically too common in poor regions.

And what is the deeper effect from the other half of the Palestinians lives, the perpetual battle with Israel? It raises a generation of boys and girls to only see their neighbors as an uncompromising enemy. It creates a people that can't even conceive of peaceful co-existence with people only 20 miles apart.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is a twisted snarl of emotions, politics, religion, and geography. What doesn't help, however, is the absolutely schizoid personality of America's foreign aid policy. I think it can be said that in this case, the U.S.'s profligate policies hurt people more than help them.
----------
*terrorist attack, subsequent IDF response, subsequent missile firing...rinse and repeat

**since there are unfathomably high unemployment numbers, the men of Gaza live on foreign aid. Since foreign aid is the only thing available, no one works...rinse and repeat

***yes, I'm aware this is a generality. When you get into demography, however, that's all you can use.