Israel and the United States in the 2000s

Political relationship between the United States and the state of Israel

The relationship between Israel and the United States maintained its status as one of the most conspicuous in the arena of international relations throughout the 2000s. In addition to the United States’ continued diplomatic support of Israel in its ongoing conflict with the Palestinian Arabs, the importance of the US-Israeli alliance was often a major factor in the course of American foreign policy in the Middle East throughout the decade.

Israel and the Clinton Administration

The years 2000 and 2001 marked the last period of Bill Clinton’s presidency of the United States. Clinton was a staunch advocate of Israeli interests throughout his entire eight-year term as president. He successfully brokered a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan in 1994, establishing peace, mutual recognition of sovereignty, and security cooperation between the two nations after nearly fifty years of conflict. The president entered the waning years of his term with hopes of similarly reigniting efforts to end the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, simmering with varying degrees of intensity since the violent establishment of Israel in 1948 displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs who fled to surrounding countries and the Israeli-occupied territories known as the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Clinton hosted the third and final summit of his presidency between Israel and Palestine in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, in July of 2001. The talks failed to produce any significant progress in the decades-old issues at the center the conflict, which continued to be the major cause of violent conflict between the two peoples. These issues included Palestinian sovereignty, land ownership rights in the city of Jerusalem, the status of Palestinian refugees, and the establishment of permanent borders separating the two parties. The failure of Clinton’s final summit to set forth any definitive plan for resolution was further damaged by continued violence between Israeli and Palestinian forces throughout the summer of 2001.

The Quartet and Bush’s “Road Map” for Peace

The United States’ support for Israel and the Middle East peace process would continue following the inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001. In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Bush issued several public statements decrying terrorist violence in the Middle East, a tactic utilized by both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian forces for decades.

Bush also urged Israel to offer support in the international manhunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, who remained at large. Debate regarding the United States’ influence in the region among Middle Eastern leaders and their populace reached an all-time high during the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, an action that was never publically supported or objected to by Israeli state officials.

Bush’s 2003 peace plan, which would come to be known as the “road map for peace,” was constructed by the United States in concert with the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia, a collaboration that came to be known as the Quartet on the Middle East, or simply the Quartet.

Bush traveled to the Middle East in May of 2003 to discuss the measures of the peace plan with Israeli and Palestinian leadership. The ambitious, three-phase proposal addressed the conflict in diplomatic, geographic, and military terms. Most notably, the plan called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and for the creation of commercial, environmental, defense, and border agreements between this newly sovereign Palestine and Israel.

The Israeli government agreed to the stipulations set forth in the road map only after offering fourteen concessions to accompany the plan, including their desire for a demilitarized Palestinian state and ultimate authority over the security of its borders. The road map also called for the appointment of a Palestinian prime minister to help negotiate the peace process; however, both the United States and Israel stipulated that longtime Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat would be unqualified for the post given his long-running involvement in military action against Israel.

Despite the ambitious nature of the road map proposal and the positivity surrounding its conception and development, the possibility of implementing the plan was short-lived. In the weeks following the departure of Bush and other world leaders at the closure of the diplomatic negotiations, new eruptions of violence between the opposing factions once again put a halt to the peace process.

The Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank and Gaza, and four of the main pro-Palestinian military factions under its influence agreed to a tentative cease-fire at the end of June 2003. This fragile peace was marked by more US-led meetings between the two parties, this time helmed by US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

American domestic support for a US-led solution to the Israeli-Palestinian peace effort did not waver, despite Bush’s wavering approval ratings. However, by the end of 2003, the first phase of the road map continued to stall, due largely to the failure of the cease-fire. Terrorist violence against Israel continued from pro-Palestinian factions, and Israel refused to consider any negotiations that required the state to wholly abandon its settlements in the territory of Gaza.

Yet, following a series of letters between President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon over the winter of 2004, Israel began to back off its hard-line stance on Gaza and other territorial disputes.

US-Israeli Response to New Hamas Majority

Hope for the road map was born anew in August of 2005, when Israel, under joint agreement with Palestinian officials, began abandoning settlements in the Gaza Strip. However, when the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, classified by the United States and many other countries as a terrorist organization, won majority control of the Palestinian Legislative Council in the beginning of 2006, talks once again stalled, as Israeli officials refused to negotiate with the new Palestinian majority.

In 2006, the Quartet outlined three rules that they required of the newly Hamas-led Palestinian Authority in order for Israel and the international community to return to the negotiating table. These included formal diplomatic recognition of the state of Israel, an immediate stop to all military action against Israeli interests, and formal acknowledgement of all previous treaties, among them the road map for peace. The Hamas-led Palestinian Authority rejected each condition, which resulted in the formal suspension of US negotiations with the group.

By the conclusion of Bush’s tenure in office, he spoke publically about the political and geographic concessions both Israel and the Palestinians would have to make in order to form a lasting peace in the region. Bush’s prediction that a signed peace treaty between Israel and Palestine would be in place prior to his departure from the presidency never came true.

Following his election in 2008, President Barack Obama offered overtures to both the Israeli and Palestinian people in a landmark 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt, less than a year after his inauguration. Obama’s speech made international headlines, primarily for its particularly empathetic overtures toward Palestinians, a tone rarely, if ever, taken by a sitting US president. Obama also insisted that the United States would continue to refute the legitimacy of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Economics, Defense, and Tourism

The 2000s marked a continuation of strong economic and cultural ties between the United States and Israel. Israel remained the biggest recipient of US foreign aid throughout the decade, a status it had maintained since its formation.

American financial aid to Israel in the 2000s was brokered in nearly every facet of industry, from economic and infrastructure development aid, to scientific and medical research, to defense and security purchases. In 2007, the Bush administration and the Israeli government agreed to a ten-year military aid package between the two countries worth approximately $30 billion, the largest such military agreement between the United States and any non-NATO ally.

In 2008, the United States opened a radar facility in the Negev Desert in southern Israel. The facility’s opening marked the first permanent foreign military base on Israeli soil. The US outpost was constructed to enhance the radar capability of the Israeli Defense Forces, giving it advance notice of any incoming long-range missiles, as well as to provide additional American military intelligence in the region.

The year 2007 was also marked by significant growth the American-Israeli Cultural Foundation (AICF), which added ten thousand new members that year. The AICF remained a major advocate of Israeli music, art, dance, and film in the United States throughout the decade, raising funds for a variety of scholarships and charitable interests in both nations.

American tourists continued to comprise the majority of visitors to Israel throughout the 2000s, despite the nation’s fragile tourist infrastructure. A record half a million Americans visited Israel in 2007. Over a third of these visitors were American Christians visiting the country’s numerous religious landmarks, such as the Jordan River, the Sea of Galilee, and other historical and archeological sites related to Christianity.

Impact

The diplomatic, political, and economic ties that make up the strong allegiance between the United States and Israel were strengthened in the 2000s. Israel remained a key foothold of the Western-style democratic tradition in a Middle East region continually battered by political upheaval, religious conflict, and anti-American sentiment. The 2000s marked a subtle change in the United States’ strategy toward the Israeli-Palestinian peace process: For the first time, as voiced by both Presidents Bush and Obama, the United States publically recognized that Israeli concessions would need to mirror those of the Palestinians if a lasting peace were to ever be achieved.

Bibliography

Butcher, Tim. “George Bush Predicts Deal on Palestinian State.” Telegraph [London]. Telegraph Media Group, 11 Jan. 2008. Web. 14 Aug. 2012. A report about Bush’s desire for a Palestinian state before he left office.

“Israel’s Response to the Road Map.” The Knesset. State of Israel, 25 May 2003. Web. 14 Aug. 2012. A list covering Israel’s concessions to Bush’s road map for peace.

“Joint Statement: US-Israel Joint Economic Development Group Joint Statement.” US Department of State. US Dept. of State, 20 June 2003. Web. 14 Aug. 2012. Discusses the plan for United States aid for Israeli economic growth.

Mark, Clyde R. “Israeli–United States Relations.” Federation of American Scientists. Congressional Research Service, 9 Nov. 2004. Web. 14 Aug. 2012. History and current status of relations between the United States and Israel, including work toward brokering peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Mearsheimer, John J., and Stephen M. Walt. The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. New York: Farrar, 2007. E-book. Web. 14 Aug. 2012. A discussion of the impact of the Israel lobby on US foreign policy, including how it has affected America’s relationship with the rest of the Middle East. The authors argue, controversially, that the United States’ immense support of Israel is neither in Israel’s nor the United States’ long-term interests.

Sharp, Jeremy M. “US Foreign Aid to Israel.” Federation of American Scientists. Congressional Research Service, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 14 Aug. 2012. A specialist report on US foreign aid to Israel, covering past support and support up to the date of the report, as well as an analysis of the issues involved.

Zeleny, Jeff, and Alan Cowell. “Addressing Muslims, Obama Pushes Mideast Peace.” New York Times. New York Times, 4 June 2009. Web. 14 Aug. 2012. Covers Obama’s 2009 speech to Israel and Palestine.