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U.S. and Israel: such good friends
'Quite an extraordinary relationship'
By John Christensen
CNN Interactive
(CNN) -- Israel and the United States have been the best of friends since 1948, and despite heated differences over the Mideast peace process, the friendship is in no danger even as Israel elects another prime minister.
"The basic relationship is as strong as ever, perhaps even stronger," says Zalman Shoval, Israel's ambassador to the United States. "And I say that from having more than 20 years experience."
Ties between the countries go back to the 1940s, when the United States pressured Britain and the United Nations to partition Palestine and create a Jewish homeland.
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Six minutes after Israel became a nation on May 14, 1948, the United States became the first country to recognize it.
Reasons for American support ranged from horror at the Holocaust and a penchant for rooting for the underdog to a desire to have a stable democracy in a volatile region. The United States also wanted a strategically situated military partner as the Cold War unfolded.
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Since then, the U.S.-Israeli relationship has developed what Kenneth W. Stein, an Emory University professor and Middle East Fellow at The Carter Center, says are "intertwined relationships in military, intelligence, bureaucracies, politics and health. It's rather extraordinary, all the connective tissues."
"For sheer volume and depth it's quite an extraordinary relationship," says Howard Kohr, executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a U.S. lobby group. "'Family' is not a bad characterization, either. Israel shares U.S. values on democracy, freedom of the press, the treatment of women and so on."
Books, subsidies and $3 billion a year
Among factors contributing to Israeli-U.S. ties:
- Of nearly 15 million Jews worldwide, more live in the United States (5.6 million) than in Israel (5 million).
- Many American Jews study in Israel, while many Israelis -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu among them -- have done the same in the United States.
- Some American Jews have dual citizenship and vote in Israeli elections.
- A free-trade agreement allows Israeli products to enter the United States without a tariff.
- American Jews contribute heavily to Israel, and some contributions are tax-deductible, an indirect subsidy by the U.S. government.
- Israeli politicians use American consultants, polling and media techniques.
- U.S. and Israeli military share intelligence and weapons technology, and Israel is said to have carried out such covert operations for the United States as funneling arms to the contras in Nicaragua.
- At $3 billion a year, Israel receives more U.S. aid than any other country, and 40 percent of the U.S. foreign aid budget.
Hawkish policies
Noting that Israel has one one-thousandth of the world's population and the 16th highest per capita income in the world, critics question the aid -- and surprisingly, Israel agrees.
Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked in 1996 that the U.S. begin cutting back, and for 1999 the amount has been reduced to $2.94 billion.
Of that amount, $1.86 billion will buy military equipment in the United States. The rest, according to Ohad Marani, minister for economic affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, goes to debt payments for earlier military purchases.
Stephen Zunes, assistant professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, says that despite Israel's affluence, the aid it receives is "the least controversial line item in [Congress'] foreign affairs budget. There's an incredible bipartisan consensus for it."
There have always been differences between the two governments, and no issue has been more contentious than the building of Jewish settlements in occupied territories.
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Critics say the settlements violate U.N. Security Council resolutions and that the United States has been, as Zunes puts it, "too timid in challenging [Israel's] hawkish policies."
Many American Jews also have misgivings about Israel's policy but are loathe to do anything to compromise Israel's security.
'A special case'
Of concern to Jews of the Conservative and Reform denominations in both countries is the increasing power of the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox factions in Israel. Although comprising just a small part of the population, the fervently religious faction has enormous political clout, as well as the power to perform marriages and other rituals.
It has persuaded the Knesset, Israel's parliament, to pass a law requiring Reform and Conservative members of municipal religious councils to abide by rulings of the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate. Another issue, now in Israeli court, has been the attempt to have the Orthodox monopoly on the conversion of Jews in Israel formalized by law.
Michael Fischbach, associate professor of history at Randolph-Macon College and director of the Palestinian-American Research Center, says there is a perception that the United States regards Israel as "a special case."
He said Arabs see "hypocrisy" in America's war with Iraq for invading Kuwait "while Israel's occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and [eastern] Jerusalem doesn't merit the same kind of action."
U.S. officials such as National Security Adviser Samuel Berger have contributed to the perception by calling Israel "a close and cherished ally." Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has said, "There is no time limit on our commitment to Israel."
Jon Alterman, program officer at the U.S. Institute of Peace, says American support for Israel is based "on the rationale that Israel is an island of democracy in a very dangerous neighborhood, that it's a good friend of the United States and that it's in U.S. interests that it remain secure."
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