I have heard that the US is Israel’s greatest ally.
Surely we have financial ties, and do we also have ties of direct military aid?
If the US really wanted to get Israel’s attention, say if Bush had wanted to stop the recent war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, could he have put an end to Israel’s actions in 24 hours?
Ummm…Israel will never work against what it percieves to be essential for its own survival.
The US could force Israel to do many things, the question is at what future cost. Ultimatums often have unintended consequences.
To part one of the question, Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid: approximately $2.6 billion per year, the vast majority of which is Foreign Military Financing assistance.
There is no way to know whether ‘the US could have ended the war in 24 hours.’ It is like asking how long WWII would have lasted if the atomic bomb wasn’t dropped on Japan.
The U.S. is the primary Jewish nation in the world in lots of ways. Having the biggest Jewish population of any country (40% of the world total) plus having many of the most influential Jews in residence are two of the big one. Israel has the second largest population of Jews in the world at about 35%. Between the U.S. and Israel, most of the Jews in the world are covered and the remaining countries tend to have insignificant Jewish populations. Without getting too deep into stereotypes, many Jews tend to be influential and vocal in world politics although not all U.S. Jews care that much about Israel. Then, there is the very strong defensive blanket that the U.S. holds over Israel preempting any strong aggression by the Arab countries that wish it harm. Israel is unofficially a nuclear power and the assumption is that the U.S. could also strike any country that has a nuclear confrontation with Israel.
All of this ties together to mean that the U.S. does have significant influence in Israeli affairs although Israel has demonstrated that it is independent minded many times like in parts of the ongoing Palestinian conflict.
Despite the amount of cash going from the US to Israel, that doesn’t mean the US could stop Israel from doing something its perceives to be in its vital interests. If it actually came to a point where the US pulled all of its military aid to Israel, Israel would look for new allies and start producing more of its military hardware domestically.
I don’t think Israel can find many new allies based on the whole situation. Like I said, the U.S. and Israel share over 75% of the Jews in the world (about 13 million total in the world). The rest are scattered and the next highest population is Russia with 5% of the Jews and it drops off sharply from there.. European countries like France were the big drivers for the creation of Israel in the first place but they pulled away long ago. Europe has a thriving anti-semitism sentiment and other countries just don’t have any reason to care much because they don’t have a significant Jewish population. The view we get here in the U.S. tends to be distorted compared to the way other countries see Israel. In Europe, you will find that Israel is often viewed as the bad guys and the Palestinians are the victimized population which may have some basis in reality but you don’t hear that much in the U.S.
I seriously doubt that this can be answered in General Questions. Moved to Great Debates.
samclem GQ moderator
I’d agree that Israel probably couldn’t find another ally that would be as bff close to them as the US is, but I don’t think a Jewish population has much to do with it. Israel already has a very strong military relationship with India.
hey alright, is your username taken from Been Caught Stealing by Jane’s Addiction?
I seriously doubt the US could stop Israel from doing anything it really wanted to do. We might be able to pressure the country lightly as a friend (“hey, this is a mistake–cool off for the next 72 hours, and let’s see if we can’t all find a peaceful solution”) but we could probably never, in my opinion, turn off the tap (“stop bombing Lebanon or we cut off all foreign aid for the next 3 years … and make you pay back every dollar we’ve ever given you”).
The dialogue regarding Israel in this country is always Pro-Israel vs. Anti-Israel. There’s no way to have a meaningful debate that might involve Pro-Israel’s-Government’s-Actions vs. Anti-Israel’s-Government’s-Actions-but-still-a-friend-of-Israel. So I don’t think any politician could ever demand that Israel do anything that Israel doesn’t want to do, or suggest that we stop funding Israel in order to change the current Israeli government’s behavior. Such opposition seems to always be immediately labeled as anti-Semitic, and any US politician who seriously opposed Israel would face a firestorm in the press, from their constituents, and from their financial backers in campaign fundraising.
The OP’s question implies that there is something that Israel should be doing that it’s not doing.
What would that be?
Short answer, the US has substantial influence upon but not control over Israeli actions. Israel is no one’s puppet. It is likely that the right discouragement before full engagement in Lebanon would have influenced an Olmert administration to back down after receiving an impotent assurance from the Lebanese President that the Lebanese government would impose order on the Southern militias. But the US could not, for example, force Israel to give up control over Jerusalem. Or to not answer the kidnappings, murders and Katusha rocket attacks in any way.
Many American Jews agree with Soros that America can be a better friend to Israel by not just supporting anything she does. Just as “friends don’t let friends drive drunk” America should occasionally better use her influence to stop Israel from doing things that are not in Israeli and American best long-term interests. (cough … settlement expansion … cough)
This is a good point, that I oversimplified–I should have said, “The PUBLIC dialogue regarding Israel in this country is always Pro-Israel vs. Anti-Israel.” Many people (Jewish or otherwise) hold opinions on the subject that are not so black and white, but they are rarely heard in the loud public debate–just as people who oppose the war in Iraq are often labeled “unpatriotic,” “not supporting the troops,” or “friends of the terrorists.” It’s hard to have a nuanced discussion with so many blowhards at the podiums.
Are you baiting the OP, or did you just not read his/her post? It’s right there.
So let’s say that the US stopped the war against Hezbolah in Lebanon. Hezbolah would just continue to lob rockets into Israel and kidnap soldiers until eventually Israel was forced to act anyway. Any progress in the ME is going to have to start with the Palestinians. If they get their act together then the US will put pressure on Israel. I wish Europe would grow a pair, acknowledge their antisemitism, and stop treating the murderous Palestinian thugs like victims.
I don’t quite understand how Israel is supposed to stop the war in Lebanon. You mean the current one between Sunni extremists and the Lebanese government? What does Israel have to do with that?
Seriously, I’m not quite understanding what people expect Israel to be doing right now. Perhaps if we started with some concrete actions the OP thinks Israel should be taking but isn’t, we can debate whether the U.S. has enough influence to dictate that those actions be taken.
No,Sam Stone I’m pretty sure the OP is talking about the recent affair between Israel and Lebanon. As in the one that almost (did?) bring down the Israeli Prime Minister.
And I don’t think this should be a debate about specific actions Israel has taken as that will obviously devolve into arguing about whether that action should be stopped or not.
The OP just wants to know whether it could be.
Well, there was, of course, a case fairly recently where US influence stopped the Israelis from doing something they wanted to do, and that was during the first Gulf War. After Iraq launched Scud attacks on Israel, they wanted to respond with airstrikes, but the US was afraid that Israeli attacks on Iraq would hurt the US-led coalition, so the US convinced Israel not to respond.
Well, actually we’re pretty testicular here in Europe. In fact 99% of European men have more than the average number of balls ! On the other hand the population as a whole does show less than one testicle per capita… I blame it on a lack of red meat in our diet.
There is of course some ‘anti-semitism’ in Europe, but it ranks way behind ‘anti-arabism’ as the racism-du-jour. You can probably deduce from this that any political support for Palestine isn’t predicated on the dominant racist mindset.
By and large it isn’t the ‘murderous thugs’ that we treat like victims - that consideration is generally saved for the victims - you know, women, children, bystanders, these guys - Most of the Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes have been militants, but 11 civilians are reported to have been killed.
Getting back to the OP - certainly the US has substantial influence with Israel, being a close ally, huge contributor, main creditor and biggest trading partner. In the instance of the latest war with Lebanon, I don’t believe the US was necessarily opposed. It would be interesting to know if Israel actively consulted with the US before launching the hostilities.