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

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Dore Gold - * 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." In 1981, Israel destroyed the nuclear reactor of Iraq's Saddam Hussein. In October 1991, Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney 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 combat techniques. 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. Given the ultimate destination of those petrodollars in recent years (the propagation of Islamic extremism and terrorism), a serious investigation of those lobbying efforts appears to be far more appropriate than focusing on relations between the U.S. and Israel.
2006-03-24 00:00:00
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