Over and over again, we will see recycled concerns that too close a relationship with Israel will harm our ties to the Arabs and damage our position in the region. What will emerge from the review is remarkable continuity-not of policy, necessarily, but of arguments.
I will outline each president’s basic instincts or mind-set toward Israel and toward our policy in the region, as well as the basic assumptions that seemed to guide the national security establishment and senior officials about Israel and the region-and whether there was unanimity or division. I will offer a narrative of the policy and the key developments in each administration, starting with Harry Truman’s. To do so, I will examine the policy and approach of every administration since Israel’s birth. And to understand where the relationship is today and where it is going, particularly during a period of transition in the Middle East, it is important to understand why the relationship changed. Although Nixon eventually provided a massive resupply of arms to Israel, his decision had more to do with cold war concerns that Soviet weapons could not be seen to defeat American weapons than with any special relationship that existed between our two countries.įrom the perspective of history, the relationship has clearly evolved. Later, during the first week of the 1973 war, Richard Nixon initially resisted Israeli near-desperate pleas to resupply weaponry, following the major losses of aircraft and tanks the Israelis had suffered. Similarly, selling or providing arms to Israel was taboo until President Kennedy decided to do so-again, a controversial decision within his national security apparatus. Harry Truman faced enormous resistance within his administration to his decision to recognize the Jewish state. We take it for granted that presidents will stress their commitment to Israel and to the ties that bind us.
Today, the relationship between the United States and Israel is extolled by American presidents.
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