Why the US and Israel have had
such a close relationship for so long.
That’s a hugely controversial
question. Though American support for Israel really is massive, including billions
of dollars in aid and reliable diplomatic backing, experts disagree sharply on
why. Some possibilities include deep support for Israel among the American
public, the influence of the pro-Israel lobby, and American ideological
affinity with the Middle East’s most stable democracy.
The countries were not nearly
so close in Israel’s first decades. President Eisenhower was particularly
hostile to Israel during the 1956 Suez War, which Israel,
the UK, and France fought against Egypt.
As the Cold War dragged on,
the US came to view Israel as a key buffer against
Soviet influence in the Middle East and supported it accordingly. The
American-Israeli alliance didn’t really cement until around 1973, when American
aid helped save Israel from a surprise Arab invasion.
Since the Cold War, the
foundation of the still-strong (and arguably stronger) relationship between the
countries has obviously shifted. Some suggest that a common
interest in fighting jihadism ties America to Israel, while others
point to American
leaders’ ideological attachment to an embattled democracy. Perhaps the
simplest explanation is that the American public has, for
a long time, sympathized far
more with Israel than with Palestine:
One very controversial theory,
advanced by Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, credits the
relationship to the power of the
pro-Israel lobby, particularly the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC). Critics of this theory argue that AIPAC isn’t as strong as
Walt and Mearsheimer think. AIPAC’s failure to torpedo the Iran nuclear deal
during the Obama administration underscored the
critics’ point.
Regardless of the reasons for
the “special relationship,” American support for Israel really is quite
extensive. The US has given Israel $118 billion in
aid over the years (about $3 billion per year nowadays). Half of all American
UN Security Council vetoes blocked resolutions
critical of Israel.
Despite this fundamentally
close relationship, there are occasionally tensions between Israeli and
American officials. This was particularly true under US President Barack Obama
and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; the two leaders clashed
regularly over issues like settlements and Iran. The relationship reached a
particularly nasty point when Netanyahu planned, with congressional
Republicans, a March
2015 speech to a joint session of Congress that was highly critical of
Obama’s approach to Iran. The Obama administration was furious over what it saw
as Netanyahu conspiring with Obama’s domestic political opposition to undermine
his policies.
The Trump administration has
led to renewed warmth in the Israeli-American relationship, culminating in
Trump’s December decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The stark difference between Obama and Trump approaches to Netanyahu
reflects a
growing partisan gap inside the United States, with Republicans taking
an increasingly hard-line “pro-Israel” position. If Democrats end up
concomitantly becoming more willing to criticize the Israeli government, Israel
may well end up a partisan issue in America — which actually would threaten the
foundations of the US-Israel alliance.
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