In school we learned a little about this over the last week. We've been taught that we had nothing to do with that situation and, in the last fifty years, have especially had done nothing. I feel this is untrue, but I don't have the words or the knowledge to change views. What did America do?
It is absolutely untrue. I can't say that I can sum up 50 years of history, especially since the last 20 are off-limits, but the thirty that I can talk about included such events as:
Involvement in the Madrid Conference, the first meeting of Israeli and Palestinian negotiators face to face
Helped set the stage for the Oslo Accords, though they were not necessarily involved in much of the negotiations themselves
Provided assistance to Israel (via an airlift) in the Yom Kippur War to counter a Soviet airlift to the Arab states attacking Israel
Was involved in the Lebanon war that Israel was involved in, until the Lebanon barracks bombing
Began providing military deals to Israel after the Six Day War in 1967
Put pressure on the Palestinian Liberation Organization to halt terrorist activities and renounce terrorism to encourage negotiations with Israel
Each of these events, and the events before 1967, all have significance. The United States has been involved in the conflict since at least the end of WWI, though it gradually became more involved as it assumed prominence as a superpower. Its involvement has certainly been open and subject to debate over time. Its leanings after 1967 were towards Israel, but prior it had been less clear, and indeed during the 1920s and 1930s (and up to Truman) it can easily be said there were far more sympathies with the Arab cause than the Zionist one.