Israel and the USA – the story of a complicated relationship of convenience

Criticism of Israel is often equated with criticism of the United States. Because both countries are considered to be pretty best friends on the political stage – apart from a few differences of opinion. One example is Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reform, which Joe Biden and his supporters did not approve of. Or the UN resolution for humanitarian ceasefires in the Gaza Strip, which the USA supported – to Israel’s dismay.

What counts in the end is unbroken solidarity – even in difficult times. Tel Aviv and Washington are managing exactly this balancing act so far so well. Biden has reiterated that his country is on the side of the Israelis, and not just since the bloody attack by Hamas on October 7th. But that was not always so.

In the 1940s, Americans did not like the fact that Palestine should be divided for the state of Israel. In the decades that followed, it was others who supported the still young state. Closer relations with the USA only developed in the 1960s. A look into the past:

Israel’s early allies

Initially, people in Washington were not particularly enthusiastic about the founding of the State of Israel. Theodore Roosevelt was against it because Palestine was to be divided without the consent of the majority Arab population. He had assured the Arabs that the decision would only be made with them. His successor, Harry S. Truman, who took over the US presidency three years before the founding of Israel, saw it differently. The reason for this was probably his sympathies for the Holocaust survivors who lived as “displaced persons” in American camps in Germany after the end of the war in Europe, and those Jews who fled from a new anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe. Together with the Soviet Union, the USA voted for the UN resolution during the first Israeli-Arab war, which sealed the division of Palestine and expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the region, some of them forcibly (read more about this here).

The USA was the first country to recognize the State of Israel after its founding in 1948. However, they immediately imposed an arms embargo and were initially content to observe events in the Middle East with skepticism. When Israel, along with France and the British, invaded Egypt during the Suez Crisis in 1956, the United States and the Soviet Union demanded withdrawal.

France supplied Israel with planes, tanks and ships and built the nuclear power plant with which Israel would develop its nuclear weapons. Israel produced plutonium at the Dimona plant in the Negev Desert. No matter how often the government could emphasize that it only had “peaceful intentions” – the USA remained skeptical, not least because the CIA was certain that Israel would build nuclear weapons there.

The relationship only warmed after the Six-Day War in 1967, as Paris turned away from Tel Aviv to improve its relations with Arab countries. At the same time, the French imposed an arms embargo on Israel and refused to deliver 50 fighter jets that had already been paid for.

Fragile Peace Part 1

Nevertheless, Israel emerged from the war successfully. The Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and the West Bank were occupied. This impressed the USA, but at the same time it was assumed that the Arab world had now sided with the Soviets – a reason for Kennedy’s successor Lyndon B. Johnson to intervene himself. The US President committed his country to maintaining Israel’s military advantage in the Middle East, thereby laying the foundation that makes the Israeli military competitive to this day.

In the following decades, the USA became more involved in Middle East events – but always in fear of antagonizing the Arab countries. When Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in 1973, the United States did everything it could to keep Egyptian losses as low as possible. This was also intended to keep the Soviet Union out of the war. The Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement was finally reached with Washington’s mediation. Israel withdrew from Sinai and released the occupied Palestinian territories.

A turnaround followed under President Ronald Reagan: Israel and the USA signed strategic military agreements. Weapons, officially belonging to the US military, were stored in Israel so that they could be handed over to the partner in an emergency. However, the attack on the Iranian nuclear reactor in 1981 caused unrest because Tel Aviv acted without Washington’s consent. This also applied to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

The USA then withdrew its weapons and concentrated on peace talks between the conflicting parties. They culminated in the Oslo Peace Accord in 1993 and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. The assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin destroyed peace efforts.

USA takes side with Israel

At the Camp David summit in 2000, US President Bill Clinton tried again to mediate the dispute between Palestinians and Israelis – and failed. According to negotiators at the time, Washington and Tel Aviv were not entirely innocent. Israel’s then foreign minister is said to have expressed understanding that the Palestinians rejected the proposals. In addition, a US official admitted years later that Washington had not positioned itself neutrally but on Israel’s side.

Clinton’s successor, George W. Bush, attempted to limit the damage with a proposal for an independent Palestinian state. Israel praised the plan only to boycott it afterwards.

Fragile Peace Part 2

The relationship between the two states remained similarly volatile in the following decades. The largest military aid package for Israel was put together under President Barack Obama. Nevertheless, there was anger in Tel Aviv because Obama moved his first visit to the region to Cairo and promised the Arab world a “new beginning” after the Iraq war. Addressing Netanyahu, the US President, however, called for a halt to Jewish settlement construction and peace talks with the Palestinians. Israel refused.

Even Donald Trump was only able to calm the situation somewhat temporarily. More or less despised by the rest of the world, he gained popularity points with Netanyahu because he moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, thereby recognizing the city as the country’s capital. In addition, he could not avoid interfering in the peace issue and put forward his own proposal. Israel should therefore annex 30 percent of the West Bank and the Palestinian state should be composed of several enclaves surrounded by Israel. However, relations between Netanyahu and Trump quickly cooled after it emerged that the US president had described his Israeli counterpart as an obstacle to peace in the region.

With Joe Biden in the White House, the relationship continues to plod along. In an interview, Joe Biden described Netanyahu’s cabinet as “one of the most extremist” he has ever seen. At the same time, the president never tires of emphasizing full solidarity with Israel – but clouding the mood: Contrary to expectations, Washington voted for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Once again, this doesn’t sit well with the Israeli president. It remains a complicated relationship.

Sources: , , ““, ““