The United States and Israel have enjoyed an enduring relationship. Yet, this relationship is also one of the most controversial — a pairing that is often viewed by various (mostly non-Western) countries as the source of destabilisation, especially in the Middle East.

The US provides Israel billions of dollars worth of sophisticated military equipment and plays a leading role in the United Nations to negate any effort to call out Israel as an aggressor. It unquestioningly toes Israel’s line that it is a victim in most cases and not the perpetrator. 

To some analysts, though, US-relations seem to have gone beyond the pragmatism that usually shapes relations between nation-states. These analysts insist that the ‘blind support’ that Israel gets from the US is due to certain economic and strategic compulsions that do not come in the ambit of pragmatism alone. 

In January 1982, The Washington Post reported that, “Israeli intelligence agencies have blackmailed, bugged, wiretapped and offered bribes to American government employees in an effort to gain sensitive intelligence and technical information.” 

Then there are those who often take a more ‘Manichaean’ route to understanding US-Israel relations. They see the West and Israel as a dark ‘Judeo-Christian’ nexus working to extinguish the light of Islam. Of course, such manner of Manichaean thinking emerges from a conspiratorial mindset that views complex issues through the lens of myth and fantasy.

While often presented as a longstanding alliance forged by shared values, US-Israel relations are, in reality, a pragmatic, policy-driven marriage — a marriage that is now straining under growing international criticism and domestic misgivings in the US

The US wasn’t always as much of a supporter of Israel as it is today. The American president Woodrow Wilson (1913-21) was sympathetic towards Zionism but, according to the American professor of law John N. Moore, Wilson wasn’t willing to go beyond providing anything more than just lip-service. US president Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-45) wasn’t even willing to provide any lip-service. In fact, according to the American political scientist Dr Robert Freedman, Roosevelt was opposed to the creation of a Zionist state in Palestine. 

This was because, in the 1930s, Roosevelt had struck a relationship with the newly created (and oil-rich) Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Securing sources of oil was far more important to the US than championing the cause of Zionism. Freedman quoted a close aide of President Roosevelt as saying that Israel would not have been created had Roosevelt not passed away in 1945.

Nevertheless, the US under president Harry S. Truman (1945-53) became one of the first countries to recognise Israel when it emerged in 1948. This, despite the fact that Truman was advised against doing this by his Secretary of State and Defence Secretary. However, Truman imposed an arms embargo on Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israel War. 

The American attitude towards Israel during the Dwight D. Eisenhower presidency (1953-61) was largely lukewarm. According to Freedman, in the 1950s, Israel received most of its military supplies from France, not the US. President Eisenhower wanted to deter Arab countries from joining the ‘Soviet/communist bloc’ and to achieve this he kept Israel at an arm’s length. 

In 1956, the Arab nationalist regime in Egypt, headed by Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal and British economic interests in the country. As a response, Israel, British and French forces invaded Egypt. Eisenhower was livid. He immediately asked Britain, France and Israel to withdraw their troops or face sanctions. They withdrew. 

It wasn’t until 1962, during the John F. Kennedy presidency (1961-63), that the US began to sell some weapons to Israel — even though Kennedy too remained somewhat cautious towards the Zionist state, because America’s oil-rich Arab allies were anti-communist but also anti-Israel. However, according to the political scientist Vaughn P. Shannon, it was during the Kennedy presidency that the US began to imagine Israel as a possible US ally that could be used against the spread of Soviet influence in the Middle East. 

In 1967, the US under President Lyndon B. Johnson tried to restrain Israel from attacking Egypt. But Israel went ahead and defeated the combined forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan within six days. Egypt and Syria were being backed by the Soviet Union. This is when the US began to see Israel as a strong actor in the Middle East and a ‘special ally.’ 

In the 1973 Egypt-Israel War, when Egyptian forces succeeded in winning some major battles, Israel requested US president Richard Nixon to provide it with additional weapons. Fearing that an Egyptian victory would increase Soviet influence in the region, Nixon agreed. The war ended in a stalemate. The US was then able to convince Egypt to accept Israel’s existence and sign a peace agreement. Egypt slid into the US orbit. 

US political, financial and military support for Israel grew manifold from the 1980s and both worked to eliminate anti-Israel/anti-US regimes in Libya, Iran, Syria and Iraq, and also the left-leaning Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Sometimes, far-right Islamist groups were facilitated to achieve this. 

Yet, on certain occasions, the US also stopped the sale of weapons to Israel: in 1981, when Israel attacked Iraq, and in 1982, when Israel-backed militias, using American weapons, massacred hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. 

In the 1990s, much to the chagrin of far-right Zionists, US president Bill Clinton succeeded in brokering a peace deal between Israel and the PLO. However, after the 9/11 attacks, US aid to Israel increased. During the Barack Obama presidency (2008-2015), US-Israel relations began to slide a bit when Obama tried to stop far-right Israelis from settling on land snatched from Palestinians. 

US-Israel relations were reinvigorated by the first Donald Trump presidency, and then during Joe Biden’s tenure as president. The US sees Israel as a key player in maintaining ‘stability’ in the Middle East, particularly in countering threats from countries such as Iran and groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas. 

Two of the most powerful pro-Israel lobbies in the US, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Christians United for Israel, have significant influence on US policy. 

But recently, Israel’s ‘unilateral’ and indiscriminate actions against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran through brute force have put the US in a wait-and-see position. Israel is going all-out to wipe out these ‘enemies’ but public opinion is becoming more critical of Israel. In a Gallup survey taken in March 2025, only 46 percent of Americans expressed support for Israel. 

Israeli actions have become unhinged and are likely to leave the Middle East more unstable than ever. America in Trump’s second term seems unsure of exactly how to deal with an unhinged partner that claims to have a large part of the US economy in its pocket. US-Israel relations might be in for a reset, depending on the fallouts of Israel’s recent actions.

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 22nd, 2025