The Basis of the U.S.-Israel Alliance - An Israeli Response to the Mearsheimer-Walt Assault

Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs ^ | Mar. 24, 2006 | Dore Gold

[Alouette]

On December 27, 1962, President John F. Kennedy told Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir: "The United States has a special relationship with Israel in the Middle East really comparable only to what it has with Britain over a wide range of world affairs."

The U.S. and Israel had a joint strategic interest in defeating aggressors in the Middle East seeking to disrupt the status quo, especially if they had Moscow's backing. In 1970 when Syria invaded Jordan, given the huge U.S. military commitment in Southeast Asia at the time, it was only the mobilization of Israeli strength that provided the external backing needed to support the embattled regime of King Hussein. That same year, Israeli Phantoms downed Soviet-piloted MiG fighters over the Suez Canal, proving the ineffectiveness of the military umbrella Moscow provided its Middle Eastern clients.

In 1981, Israel destroyed the nuclear reactor of Iraq's Saddam Hussein, severely reducing Iraqi military strength. Ten years later, after a U.S.-led coalition had to liberate Kuwait following Iraq's occupation of that oil-producing mini-state, Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney in October 1991 thanked Israel for its "bold and dramatic action" a decade earlier.

In the 1980s, several memoranda of understanding between the U.S. and Israel on strategic cooperation were followed by regular joint military exercises, where U.S. forces were given access to Israel's own combat techniques and vice versa. The U.S. Marine Corps and special operations forces have particularly benefited from these ties, though much of the U.S.-Israel strategic relationship is classified.

Saudi Arabia has tried to tilt U.S. policy using a vast array of powerful PR firms, former diplomats, and well-connected officials, with the result being that America is still overly dependent on Middle Eastern oil.

[Alouette]

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[dervish]

Gold, the author, forgot to mention that Israel turned over lots of captured Soviet planes, tanks, etc to the US.

"In addition to cooperation on matériel, cooperation between the two countries on intelligence matters had begun in the early 1960s, when Israel furnished the United States with captured Soviet missiles, antitank weapons, and artillery shells for evaluation and testing."

http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-6860.html

http://home.sprynet.com/~anneled/Defections.html

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[Convert from ECUSA]

Dore Gold nailed it, as usual! Right on the head!