The Influence of the US and USSR in the...

During the period following World War 2.The new Zionist movement of Jews immigrating to the Middle East to establish a homeland for all Jews in what was now Israel after being displaced for many years. This led to conflict between the Arabs and the Jews about who had rights to this homeland, with both the Arab Muslims and the Jewish Israelis having biblical claims to the cities in the Middle East. This conflict was further fuelled by both the USA and the USSR as they were trying to spread their sphere of influence by supplying aid in the form of weapons, ammunition and support to gain access to valuable resources and water ways. However their involvement was not a direct factor leading to the conflict between Israel and the Arab states but rather prolonging it by supplying tools of war. To begin with the USA had strong interests in the Middle East due to its resource rich lands and strategic importance in the world and would secure these aims by aligning themselves with Israel to land a foothold in the Middle East. The USA had strong interests in the Middle East for two main reasons the first being oil. The USA has always put its sources of oil on a priority. So when the Middle East became unstable the USA’s first goal was to secure its source of oil. Secondly was the strategic location of Middle East being the link between three continents and home to the Suez Canal a vital shipping route from the Mediterranean to the Red sea. The USA also wanted to solidify the capitalist