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 Kennedy's 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 Eisenhower's inauguration and
Kennedy's landmark decision to sell the Hawk anti-aircraft missile
to Israel, Ben-Zvi shows how the warming of American-Israeli
diplomatic relations began with Eisenhower's second term. In his
first administration, relations between the two countries reached a
nadir with the Suez War, but in 1958, Israel's reaction to an
intensifying crisis in Jordan caused Eisenhower to reevaluate
Israel's 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 Israel's growing strength and political stability.
He analyzes Eisenhower's 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 Israel's nuclear weapons
facilities to failed attempts to influence Israel's 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.
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