Support to Israel Through Conflict and Controversy
Just days after the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, President Joe Biden visited Israel to express solidarity with the Israel. Biden described Hamas as “pure evil” and said the United States “stands with Israel.”
Since the October 7 attack, Israel has relentlessly bombed the Gaza Strip and is currently carrying out a ground invasion that has already killed at least 8,700 Palestinians.
The United States also vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a humanitarian pause in Israeli attacks and voted against a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire, which was adopted by a majority. overwhelming.
This is not surprising given the history of US-Israel relations. Aside from minor personal conflicts between their leaders, the United States firmly supports Israel, at least since 1967, and does not respect its actions.
What are the origins of relations between the United States and Israel?
US needed support of Israel in initial years to counter the Arab growing influence in the region and the pressure it had from Jewish lobby back in their own country.
The United States had already supported the idea of a Jewish homeland before the proclamation of the State of Israel in historic Palestine in 1948.
On March 3, 1919, two years after the Balfour Declaration in which the British government declared its support for establishment, President Woodrow Wilson declared of a “Jewish homeland in Palestine”: “
The allied nations most compete with our government and ours. The people agree that the foundations of a Jewish Commonwealth must be laid in Palestine.” In 1922 and 1944, the United States Congress passed resolutions supporting the Balfour Declaration.
The United States was one the first few countries to recognise Israel since its inception. The recognition came 11 minutes after the proclamation “I believed in Israel before its founding. and I believe in him now,” said President Harry Truman on May 26, 1952.
Discontent in Initial years of Relations
Although the United States offered support to the State of Israel from the beginning, the first two decades of their relationship were not very smooth.
The Eisenhower administration was displeased when Israel, along with France and Britain, launched the Suez War. Washington has threatened to reduce its aid to Israel if it does not withdraw from the conquered territories.
The Soviet Union also threatened to fire missiles if Israel did not cooperate with Drew, and Israel was eventually forced to withdraw from the territories it had conquered. Similarly, the Kennedy administration had expressed concern about Israel’s secret nuclear program in the 1960s.
But the 1967 war, in which Israel defeated Jordan, Syria and Egypt in six days and seized large swaths of territory, caused a paradigm shift in the way Washington viewed the Jewish state. So the United States was trapped in Vietnam.
Israel defeated the Arab countries without much help from the United States and the war ended quickly.
Furthermore, two of the Arab countries that Israel defeated – Egypt and Syria – were Soviet allies. From then on, the United States viewed Israel as a stable ally capable of stopping the spread of Soviet influence in West Asia.
What is the current state of relations between the United States and Israel?
Today, Israel is an exceptional ally of Washington. The United States provides virtually unconditional financial, military, and political support to Israel.
Israel is an undeclared nuclear power, but it has never come under global scrutiny or rejection by the international institutions thanks to the protection provided by the United States from time to time.
Israel is also the largest recipient of American aid, having received more than 150 billion USD since the WW2 ended.
Israel currently receives $3.8 billion in military aid from the United States each year since 2019 which was $2.7 billion is 1999 and $3 billion in 2019 under 10 year agreement between them , representing more than 15 percent of Israel’s total military budget.
According to the recently published SIPRI report, the US accounted for more than 60% of Israel’s imports of major conventional arms between 2019 and 2023 then followed by Germany with 30%
The United States is also Israel’s largest trading partner, with an annual bilateral trade volume of approximately $50 billion.
Israel and the United States also maintain a deep defense partnership that includes joint research and development and weapons production.
For example, the Iron Dome, Israel’s famous missile shield, is made up of parts built in the United States and the system is partially funded by the United States.
With help from the United States, Israel built a state-of-the-art defense production base that made the country the world’s 10th largest military exporter.
Also, Israel and the US keep conducting military exercises such as Juniper Oak in 2023 which is the largest-ever military exercise between the two nations. The exercise was conducted to prepare Israel for missile attacks from multiple fronts.
Since the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the United States has also offered strong military support to Israel in its conflicts.
After Israel was caught off guard by Egypt and Syria’s surprise attack in 1973, American supplies proved vital in allowing Israel to repel enemy forces from the occupied Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula.
After the first Intifada, the United States supported the Oslo process and the two-state solution, but without jeopardizing its relations with Israel. The current issue in Washington is supporting “Israel’s right to defense.”
The previous US administration, under Donald Trump, recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the US embassy to the disputed city.
The Trump administration also recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory conquered in 1967 and kept under occupation ever since.
Have there ever been tensions between Israel and the United States?
Although personality clashes have occurred between American presidents and Israeli prime ministers, such clashes have never led to a breakdown of what President John F. Kennedy called “the special relationship.”
In the 1970s, President Jimmy Carter increased pressure on Israel to make peace with Egypt and make concessions to the Palestinians.
Israel would eventually agree to sign the framework peace agreement as part of the Camp David Accords which was signed in late 1970s , which would lay the groundwork for the Oslo process with US acting as mediator between both the parties.
During the Second Intifada, President George W. Bush urged Israel to show restraint in the occupied West Bank and, in return, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused him of appeasing the Arabs.
In 2002, Bush called on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and end a military operation “without delay,” but the Israelis never followed through on this commitment.
President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also clashed over the Iran nuclear deal.
Netanyahu went to the Republican-controlled US Congress and attacked Obama over his Iran policy. But Obama himself vetoed all but one resolution critical of Israel during his eight years on the UN Security Council.
In his final months in office, Obama also approved a $38 billion aid package for Israel.
The Biden administration had previously criticized the Netanyahu government’s plan to reform the country’s judicial system stating they are trying to control the judiciary.
But after the Hamas attack on October 7, the United States supported the Netanyahu government’s war against Gaza on international forums.
Why does the United States still support Israel?
One possible explanation is that Israel’s strategic value in a volatile but critical region makes it attractive to Washington.
During the Cold War, the United States viewed Israel as a powerful bulwark against possible Soviet expansion into the Arab world.
After the Cold War, when the United States began to become increasingly involved in West Asia, it continued to view Israel as a force for stability alongside Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
With Iran coming into the picture in Arab politics and trying themselves as the leader of the Arab world and its long-standing anti-Israel stand, the US keeps supporting Israel in fighting against Iran-backed Militias like Hamas and Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
Strategic value explains a close partnership or alliance, such as the United States’ relations with Japan, South Korea, or Germany.
Also there are other factors which includes public opinion, electoral politics, and the powerful pro-Israel lobby which include industrialists, senators in US Congress in the United States, play a role in shaping the country’s Israel policy by exerting great influence on American policy towards Israel.
Historically, Israel has enjoyed near unanimous support in the US Congress, and a large majority of Americans have a positive view of Israel.
American Jews and evangelical Christians are two powerful and politically active groups in the United States.
