(Ynet News) Uzi Arad - When the Israeli 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 professor 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." The truth is that the web of U.S.-Israel relations rests on joint interests and values, and that those ties have been built and developed - as is customary between countries - 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 U.S 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. Prof. 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.
2006-04-07 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive