These days, the U.S. seems to offer unequivocal support to Israel and has been for decades. The U.S. officialdom perceives that country as a strong, reliable ally in the region. But behind the scenes, there were disagreements, at times, with Israel simply ignoring American advice regarding foreign policy while accepting its arms, intelligence, and funding. Furthermore, American public opinion appeared to be more divided in the past than it is today.
U.S. historians Stephen Ambrose and Douglas Brinkley write about this relationship during the Cold War:
«The difficulty was that the Israelis, although eager to accept American arms and willing to cooperate with the Americans on military intelligence, viewed Arab nationalism and the PLO [Palestinian Liberation Front], not the Russians, as the chief threat.»1
In other words, Israel would accept American support but pursue its own goals rather than those of the U.S. The relationship was complicated further by the status of the Palestinian Arabs. According to these historians:
«[I]n direct defiance of strongly stated American wishes, [Israeli Prime Minister Menachem] Begin continued to encourage Jewish settlement on the West Bank [in the early 1980s], turning it from a potential homeland for the Palestinians into a perhaps a permanent part of greater Israel.»2
One telling incident from this period comes to mind during the Ronald Reagan presidency.
Continue reading
Nina Byzantina 