Israeli prime ministers have always taken care to manage the 'U.S. portfolio' themselves
Photo: AP
On processes and maneuvering
Israel should continue to push its relationship with Washington to new levels
When the prime minister visits Washington in the coming months he will have a chance to see first-hand just how worried Israel's friends there are.
The latest storm is a study released by Harvard professors Stephen Walt and the University of Chicago's John Mearsheimer. Their central claim is that the high level of coordination between Israel and the United States does not serve U.S. interests, and in practice stems from agitation by the country's "Zionist lobby."
White Supremacy
Associated Press
Former U.S. Congressman David Duke says work by Harvard, University of Chicago professors 'validates' position that Israel lobby helps control media, U.S. government; Harvard Prof. Dershowitz: paper is 'recycled garbage'
The pair base their explanation of the high-level relations between the countries on writers and opinion-makers inside the United States. Many have pointed out the paper's hostile tone, critical superficiality and weak analysis, but apart from the authors' worthless claims, not to mention the anti-Semitic undertone, their claim is absurd at the most basic level.
Personal relationships
The study ignores the roles the activities of prime ministers Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon to advance ties between the two countries. The truth is that the web of U.S. – Israel relations rests on joint interests and values, and that those ties have been built – as is customary between countries – and developed by governmental personalities on both sides.
The architects of those ties – again, as is customary – have been U.S. presidents on one side, and Israeli prime ministers on the other, just as the "special relationship" between Britain and the United States has been guided by ties between Roosevelt and Churchill, Kennedy and MacMillan, Thatcher and Reagan and Bush Sr., Tony Blair and Clinton and Bush Jr.
Israeli prime ministers have always taken care to manage the "U.S. portfolio" themselves, and since the 1960s they have steadily ramped up the level of ties to their present level.
Using leverage
The main tool for improving relations has been Israel's ability to leverage: Since 1967 Israel has been able to leverage its ability to withdraw from territory captured in the Six Day War, in exchange for diplomatic, security, economic and military gains. This dynamic grew into a characteristic feature of the overall structure of Israel's current relations with the United States.
For example, in exchange for the 1975 interim agreement, Yitzhak Rabin gained important advances to strengthen the IDF. And as part of the peace treaty with Egypt, Menachem Begin managed to increase levels of economic and security aid.
Benjamin Netanyahu got significant strategic "understandings" with the United States in exchange for the Wye River Accord that continue to be in force, and Ehud Barak conditioned a peace deal with Syria on further jumps in U.S.- Israel ties, including a mutual defense pact and a package of other benefits. And Ariel Sharon got the U.S. to make important diplomatic statements in exchange for the Gaza disengagement.
Future ties
Now, as Israel coordinates future diplomatic moves, including possible territorial sacrifice, with the United States, Israel is faced with the challenge of ramping up relations between the countries even further, including strategic ties.
Because the U.S. always says Israel must have secure, defensible and recognized borders, but bases that approach on the 1967 border with slight adjustments. This is also the approach of presidents Clinton and Bush.
The understandings, then, with the United States should bear expression not only in obtaining Washington's approval for diplomatic moves, but should also include a formula for exacting concrete concessions.
This goal is not simple because, as mentioned above, some forces in the United States are pushing in the opposite direction – to lower the ties between the countries and to distance Washington from Jerusalem.
The agenda, too, between the countries is complicated, with a central feature being a joint concern about Iran's nuclear threat. But in the near future, the existence of a friendly president such as George Bush and the existing infrastructure of the relationship and broad public support (amongst Christians as well as Jews), allow Israel to maneuver and to push ties between the countries even higher , and perhaps even to the highest possible level.
This should be the goal, despite the forces pushing against it.
Prof. Uzi Arad is the Founding Head of the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya
