Reality Check: U.S.-Israel Relations under GOP Presidents

David Streeter — April 10, 2012 – 12:20 pm | Israel | Republicans | Stop the Smears Comments (0) Add a comment

Yair Rosenberg provided important historical context on the state of U.S.-Israel relations under Republican presidents—including conservative hero President Ronald Reagan—that helps place relations under President Barack Obama into perspective. Rosenberg wrote in Tablet:

‘The policy of publicly humiliating our traditional ally has made us no new friends in the Arab world and removed the trust needed to encourage Israel to take risks for peace,’ argues a prominent conservative columnist. In his piece, he castigates the American administration for its policy toward Israel: ‘You’d think the heaviest cross [the President] had to bear was the Star of David.’

You could be forgiven for thinking the above was clipped from a column penned by William Kristol about President Barack Obama. But in fact, those are the words of William Safire criticizing Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Safire, the Nixon speechwriter and New York Times columnist, was none too pleased with the Republican administration’s treatment of the Jewish state. Under Reagan, the United States had withheld promised warplanes from Israel to punish it for destroying Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in June 1981 and voted to condemn the action in the United Nations Security Council. It had publicly criticized Israel’s July bombing of the PLO headquarters in Beirut and the ensuing civilian casualties. And it had suspended discussion of a memorandum of strategic cooperation after the Knesset voted to extend Israeli civil law to the occupied Golan Heights.

Safire wasn’t the only one outraged by the White House’s conduct. On Dec. 20, 1981, six days before Safire wrote his piece, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin summoned the American Ambassador Samuel Lewis to read him a prepared statement. Begin did not mince words. ‘What kind of expression is this-“punishing Israel”? Are we a vassal state of yours? Are we a banana republic? Are we youths of fourteen who, if they don’t behave properly, are slapped across the fingers?’ Israel and its legislators, said Begin, would not be bullied by the United States. ‘Let me tell you who this government is composed of. It is composed of people whose lives were spent in resistance, in fighting and in suffering. You will not frighten us with “punishments.” He who threatens us will find us deaf to his threats.’...

Don’t know much about this history? That’s no surprise. Open up a right-leaning editorial page, and you’ll find claims that Barack Obama is the most anti-Israel president ever-or at least since Jimmy Carter….

Yet as the Reagan-Begin showdown demonstrates, these ... myths, while serving the purposes of political partisans, have little basis in historical fact. The U.S.-Israel relationship has weathered far greater tensions than those experienced under Obama, and Israel has had far more conservative leaders than Netanyahu. Such extremist caricatures-promulgated by editorialists and advocacy groups-aren’t just factually wrong, they stunt our ability to have sensible discussions about the United States, Israel, and their special relationship….

One wonders what Krauthammer and the Emergency Committee would have made of Reagan’s strong-arming of the Jewish state. Beyond the incidents chronicled above, the Gipper also sold Airborne Warning and Control System surveillance planes to the Saudis, over the strenuous objections of Israel and its supporters in Congress. (Sen. Ted Kennedy called it ‘one of the worst and most dangerous arms sales ever proposed.’)

Reagan was not the only president willing to put daylight between the United States and Israel. His successor, George H.W. Bush, made waves at a 1990 news conference when he said, ‘My position is that the foreign policy of the United States says we do not believe there should be new settlements in the West Bank or in East Jerusalem.’... But unlike Obama, Bush took this controversial position a step further, conditioning $10 billion of loan guarantees to Israel on a total cessation of settlement building. He later compromised and allowed the loans to go forward, but with deductions commensurate with Israel’s construction in the occupied territories.

His son George W. Bush is often held up as a model of unwavering support of Israel. But he took after his father when it came to settlement policy. As the New York Times reported in November 2003, the Bush Administration rescinded $289.5 million of loan guarantees to Israel as ‘punishment for illegal construction activities in the West Bank.’ These sentiments were also expressed in international forums. Bush’s hawkish ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, serving as the president of the Security Council in 2006, issued a statement on its behalf declaring: ‘The Security Council underlines the need for the Palestinian Authority to prevent terrorist attacks and dismantle the infrastructure of terror. It reiterates its view that settlement expansion must stop and its concern regarding the route of the [Israeli security] barrier.’

Taken together, these incidents paint a more accurate picture of the American-Israel relationship and its attendant tensions…

Indeed, many more examples could be marshaled to demonstrate that America and Israel have always had their strategic and diplomatic differences, despite their shared values. President Obama’s more critical stance toward Israel, in other words, is well-represented in the American political tradition-and the robust U.S.-Israel relationship has survived far worse friction than anything that has taken place under this ‘most anti-Israel president.’ Seen in historical context, Obama’s prodding of Israel looks less like throwing the country under a bus and more like poking it tentatively with a salad fork….

There are many questions one could ask about the choices Obama and Netanyahu have made…

But while such topics and others are worthy of serious consideration, shrill accusations of unprecedented extremism against the leaders of America and Israel are not. They don’t advance the conversation, and they don’t hold up to the historical record. So, next time you see Barack Obama called the most anti-Israel president, or Benjamin Netanyahu called the Jewish state’s most impudent prime minister, remember Reagan and Begin.

Click here to read Rosenberg’s full piece.

Click here for a list of Obama’s pro-Israel achievements along with praise from Israeli leaders. 

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