Historians have long held that the Kennedy administration forged the American alliance with Israel as a way of courting political support from American Jews. In contrast, the Eisenhower administration is believed to have considered Israel a political and strategic liability. In Decade of Transition, Abraham Ben-Zvi now shows that the Eisenhower years were an "incubation period" during which the ground-work was laid for the eventual American-Israeli alliance. As a result, President Kennedys Israeli policy is understood as not the beginning, but a continuation of a process with foundations in the prior administration.
Focusing on the period between Eisenhowers inauguration and Kennedys landmark decision to sell the Hawk anti-aircraft missile to Israel, Ben-Zvi shows how the warming of American-Israeli diplomatic relations began with Eisenhowers second term. In his first administration, relations between the two countries reached a nadir with the Suez War, but in 1958, Israels reaction to an intensifying crisis in Jordan caused Eisenhower to reevaluate Israels strategic potential. Amid growing fears of unrest in the Middle East and a perceived Soviet threat, Israel could now become a useful ally and a new base of stability in the region.
Ben-Zvi argues that both Eisenhower and Kennedy sought an alliance with Israel not to satisfy domestic political concerns, but to invest in Israels growing strength and political stability. He analyzes Eisenhowers initial perceptions of Israel, and shows how they evolved along with his estimate of the increasing significance of the Middle East on the world stage. Ben-Zvi traces the process of deterrence and coercion used by both presidents to transform Israel into a strategic asset for the United States, from American insistence on inspecting Israels nuclear weapons facilities to failed attempts to influence Israels policy on Palestinian refugees.
Thoroughly researched and drawing on thousands of documents-many only recently made public- Decade of Transition provides a significant reevaluation of the nature and origins of the American-Israeli relationship and the shaping of the modern Middle East.
Decade of Transition: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Origins of the American-Israeli Alliance
Abraham Ben-Zvi
Published: 1998-04-15 | ISBN: 0231112637, 0231112629 | PDF | 250 pages | 3 MB
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