U.S.- Israel Relations

This critical examination of American-Israeli relations from the last year of the Kennedy administration to the last year of Bill Clinton's tenure in office is a companion volume to Herbert Druks' previous book The Uncertain Friendship: The U.S. and Israel from Roosevelt to Kennedy. Based on extensive research of archival sources and interviews of those who made this history happen, such as Harry S. Truman, Averell Harriman, Yitzhak Rabin, and Yitzhak Shamir, this study provides a challenging examination of key events and issues during the last three decades, including JFK and Israel's nuclear research, Johnson and the Six Day War, Kissinger-Nixon and the Yom Kippur War, the rescue at Entebbe, Begin's decision to liberate Lebanon from the PLO, Bush and Iraq and the "Land for Peace" formula.

Since its independence in 1948, Israel has enjoyed a special relationship with the United States, as successive administrations have reaffirmed America's unshakable commitment to Israel's security. This study reexamines this relationship now that the Cold War and the Persian Gulf War have ended and the Israeli-PLO Declaration of Principles and the Israel-Jordan-Washington Declaration have dramatically altered the strategic and political balance in the Middle East.

The Holocaust continues to be a defining event for understanding not only the course of history during the 20th century but the course of human events in general. Perhaps the most contentious issue is that of how the Holocaust continues to be understood, explained, and appropriated. The chapters focus on questions arising from the Holocaust and that have to do with the American understandings of the interrelated web of history, religion, and meaning. In addition, the contributors, from a variety of disciplines, express views that range across several dimensions of receptivity and both support and challenge other views of how the Holocaust should be commemorated and/or historically situated.

Schoenbaum's book is a history of one of the most remarkable liaisons in international experience, a portrait of the special relationship between the last remaining superpower and the tiny Jewish state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, and a study of how that relationship grew and works. From Truman to Bush, the United States has assured Israel's existence, while providing billions in military and economic support. Over the same period, no U.S. president has ever submitted a formal treaty of alliance to the Senate, or even moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In fact, cross-purposes and mutual doubts have always coexisted with shared values, complementary interests, great expectations, and real achievements. Schoenbaum's book traces Israeli-American relations from their roots in both American and Jewish experience to the risks and opportunities of the current peace process. It also examines the relationship in the perspective of two world wars, the Cold War, the Gulf War, European colonialism and Middle Eastern nationalisms, global policy, and domestic politics in both countries. The result is the story of one of history's oddest international couples, hard-pressed to live together, but unable to live apart.

United States aid to Israel averages a staggering $21 billion per year. Yet, as this insightful volume explains, that aid has failed to serve both U.S. and Israeli interests. Rabie discusses how the appropriation of foreign aid is often controlled by lobbyists and U.S. domestic concerns rather than by Israeli needs. His clear and thorogh examination begins with a description of the objectives, major programs, and historical background of U.S. aid to Israel. He analyzes the effect that foregin aid has had on Israel and predicts the role that aid will play in Israel's future. Finally, Rabie provides suggestions about how to change the role of lobbyists in influencing foreign policy.

"Feintuch's book is a well-researched and competent monograph, laboriously going through the many and often inconsequential debates on the subject in the U.N. Following the course of U.S. policy over the years, he finds it ill defined and bumbling. It is hard to disagree with that conclusion." Foreign Affairs

Goldberg presents a detailed comparison of American and Canadian Jewish lobbying organizations over the past 15 years, offering a careful assessment of their influence on foreign policy decisions affecting the Middle East. He focuses primarily on the two most prominent Jewish foreign policy interest groups: the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Canada-Israel Committee. He examines the response of these organizations to a series of crisis issues, beginning with the Arab-Israeli war of 1973 and including the current Palestinian uprising. Using a set of analytical criteria, he correlates their response with the conduct of U.S. and Canadian foreign policy during the same period.

Harry S. Truman sensed something profound and meaningful in the Jewish restoration to Palestine, something which transcended other considerations. As the president recorded in his Memoirs, the Palestine question was "a basic human problem." In the end, Truman was willing to go against the current of his most trusted foreign policy advisers, who were absolutely opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state in the Middle East. These advisers argued that however humanitarian a Jewish homeland might seem, such a proposition posed a real risk to American interests in the Near East and to United States national security in the late 1940s. Despite their continued opposition, Truman stood his ground and maintained that he would decide the entire issue based on what he thought was right. Of interest to historians, and students of Israel and of the U.S. presidency.