Why does the US support Israel? What benefit does the US get out of this alliance?
See also: Why is the USA so pro-Israeli?
37 Answers
Disclosure: I am Israeli. Despite that, I try not to be biased as best I can when informing myself and others. I hope this answer will hold to those standards - the reader be the judge.
First we must dispel two misconceptions, or even myths:
Now that we're done with what is myth, let's turn to some history: In the wake of WWII, two very large and very strong countries were on the verge of becoming super powers - the U.S and the U.S.S.R (soviet Russia). They both realize that the way to consolidate and increase their power is to gain as much possible control over international relations by means of collecting as many ally and proxies as possible. At the same time, two former super powers which had exercised influence over most of the world were disintegrating - France and the UK. They were being kicked out of their provinces, and the U.S. and Russia wished to enlist as many of the new independent countries rising in the aftermath to their side.
The Middle East was split between France and the UK (Lebanon, Syria - France, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine - the UK). However, Russia moved in quickly and efficiently into the Middle East after they left, and bought the alliance of virtually all the Arab countries. This is evident from the fact that in 1948, when all these Arab countries attacked Israel in what became its independence war, they were all bearing soviet arms (Israel was using European arms, which they procured mainly from the Czech Republic). America had no proxy through which to exert influence in the Middle East. When the U.N voted on the partition plan (which recommended giving half of Palestine to the Jewish people and half to the Arabs) both the U.S and Russia voted for it. This was unprecedented and to the best of my knowledge has never happened since. This can only be explained by the fact that both were debating endorsing the Jewish state.
However both Russia and the U.S were suspicious of Israel, and were not inclined to endorse them at first. The Russians didn't want to aggravate their Arab allies. The U.S on the other hand suspected Israel of having leanings towards Russia. This suspicion was not unfounded. Most of Israel's early leaders came from Russia and Eastern Europe and had ties there, and many of them wished to court Russia's allegiance over the U.S. Israel's prime minister, David Ben Gurion insisted however that Israel try to create ties with the U.S. (they say that this is mainly due to the U.S's democratic nature). The tipping point occurred when Israel managed to obtain a recording of a secret speech given by the Russian leader Khrushchev in 1956 and gave it to the U.S as an act of good faith. Thus begun the intelligence bond between the U.S and Israel, a bond which is highly mutually beneficial still today. Only in the 1960's was the first real aid received from the U.S. After the 1967 six day war, Israel found great support with the American general public, and the government became more open about its support too. In 1972, following Egypt's defeat second defeat by Israel, the U.S managed to broker a deal for peace between the two by means of promising aid to Egypt, hence efficiently buying Egypt away from the soviets. The only thing sustaining the peace between Israel and Egypt is the formers dependence of U.S aid, despite enormous animosity in Egypt towards Israel. In many ways, Israel was the gateway for the U.S into the Middle East.
In the meanwhile, what was happening with the Jews in the U.S? The reform movement, the vast majority of U.S Jewry than and the second largest movement today, fully shunned Jewish nationality until the mid-late 20th century, and proclaimed it to be a religion only. Most Jews avoided expressing support of Israel because they were afraid of being considered unpatriotic. In the 1950's the Jewish people in the U.S suffered from a great deal of suspicion from the government due to their Russian and East European origins (Indeed, two Jews were executed in the U.S for espionage on behalf of Russia in 1953). Though AIPAC was founded in the 1950's, it only gained any form of influence in the 1970's following th 1967 six day war in Israel (see Michael Oren (2007). Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present, p. 336.). It is only after the U.S government and public became openly supportive of Israel that U.S Jews became vocal in promoting Israeli affairs.
In sum, the U.S supports Israel because it is in their best interest, or in the least perceived by them to be in their best interest. The day that is no longer the case, Israel and the U.S will part ways. We in Israel would rather never see that day (though it is a scenario we prepare for).
First we must dispel two misconceptions, or even myths:
- The U.S. supports Israel because of the Holocaust - countries, the U.S included, do not make foreign policy choices based on sympathy, surely not sympathy for things which occurred over half a century ago. Governments act according to what they perceive to be their best interest (the short list of cases in which the U.S. orchestrated a "Humanitarian intervention" vs. the long list of cases where such a thing was called for and never happened is a good demonstration of this rule).
- The power of the Jews in the U.S: The Jew's political power in the U.S., though certainly present, is highly overestimated. True, over 6mil Jews live in the U.S., however, one must remeber that one is considered a Jew based on their ethnicity, not their religion or sympathy to the Jewish people. Studies show that over half of the Jews in the U.S. are wholly unaffiliated, meaning that their Jewishness is of no significance to them. There are many wealthy Jews in the U.S., who all engage in philanthropy, but many of them don't give a dollar to Jewish causes, as this article by a Jewish NPO umbrella organization laments: The Top Jewish Donors and Jewish Giving: Why the Disconnect? . Of those Jews who do affiliate with Judaism, not all support Israel, and some are outright against Israel. See here: Jews Not Zionists and here: The anti-Israel Jews. Of those who support Israel. Many Jews in the U.S are fully against using political influence in order to promote Israeli causes. They see this as insincere and undemocratic. Of the remaining, there are many who are very active politically who try to influence the U.S's position towards Israel. They employ a very strong lobby known as AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee). These may have an influence on the particulars of the U.S policies towards Israel, but by no means do the have the power to determine the fact of whether or not the U.S maintains its allegiance to Israel, and could not hold up if it were no longer in the U.S's best interest to do so. As I will detail, American Jews had little to nothing to do with the U.S's initial decision to ally with Israel, the contrary is true - the American Jewish open support of Israel followed in the wake of the general American support of Israel, and not vice versa.
Now that we're done with what is myth, let's turn to some history: In the wake of WWII, two very large and very strong countries were on the verge of becoming super powers - the U.S and the U.S.S.R (soviet Russia). They both realize that the way to consolidate and increase their power is to gain as much possible control over international relations by means of collecting as many ally and proxies as possible. At the same time, two former super powers which had exercised influence over most of the world were disintegrating - France and the UK. They were being kicked out of their provinces, and the U.S. and Russia wished to enlist as many of the new independent countries rising in the aftermath to their side.
The Middle East was split between France and the UK (Lebanon, Syria - France, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine - the UK). However, Russia moved in quickly and efficiently into the Middle East after they left, and bought the alliance of virtually all the Arab countries. This is evident from the fact that in 1948, when all these Arab countries attacked Israel in what became its independence war, they were all bearing soviet arms (Israel was using European arms, which they procured mainly from the Czech Republic). America had no proxy through which to exert influence in the Middle East. When the U.N voted on the partition plan (which recommended giving half of Palestine to the Jewish people and half to the Arabs) both the U.S and Russia voted for it. This was unprecedented and to the best of my knowledge has never happened since. This can only be explained by the fact that both were debating endorsing the Jewish state.
However both Russia and the U.S were suspicious of Israel, and were not inclined to endorse them at first. The Russians didn't want to aggravate their Arab allies. The U.S on the other hand suspected Israel of having leanings towards Russia. This suspicion was not unfounded. Most of Israel's early leaders came from Russia and Eastern Europe and had ties there, and many of them wished to court Russia's allegiance over the U.S. Israel's prime minister, David Ben Gurion insisted however that Israel try to create ties with the U.S. (they say that this is mainly due to the U.S's democratic nature). The tipping point occurred when Israel managed to obtain a recording of a secret speech given by the Russian leader Khrushchev in 1956 and gave it to the U.S as an act of good faith. Thus begun the intelligence bond between the U.S and Israel, a bond which is highly mutually beneficial still today. Only in the 1960's was the first real aid received from the U.S. After the 1967 six day war, Israel found great support with the American general public, and the government became more open about its support too. In 1972, following Egypt's defeat second defeat by Israel, the U.S managed to broker a deal for peace between the two by means of promising aid to Egypt, hence efficiently buying Egypt away from the soviets. The only thing sustaining the peace between Israel and Egypt is the formers dependence of U.S aid, despite enormous animosity in Egypt towards Israel. In many ways, Israel was the gateway for the U.S into the Middle East.
In the meanwhile, what was happening with the Jews in the U.S? The reform movement, the vast majority of U.S Jewry than and the second largest movement today, fully shunned Jewish nationality until the mid-late 20th century, and proclaimed it to be a religion only. Most Jews avoided expressing support of Israel because they were afraid of being considered unpatriotic. In the 1950's the Jewish people in the U.S suffered from a great deal of suspicion from the government due to their Russian and East European origins (Indeed, two Jews were executed in the U.S for espionage on behalf of Russia in 1953). Though AIPAC was founded in the 1950's, it only gained any form of influence in the 1970's following th 1967 six day war in Israel (see Michael Oren (2007). Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present, p. 336.). It is only after the U.S government and public became openly supportive of Israel that U.S Jews became vocal in promoting Israeli affairs.
In sum, the U.S supports Israel because it is in their best interest, or in the least perceived by them to be in their best interest. The day that is no longer the case, Israel and the U.S will part ways. We in Israel would rather never see that day (though it is a scenario we prepare for).
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