Shortly after October 7, the US Navy deployed Carrier Strike Group 12 to the Mideast, deterring Iran. The Wall Street Journal reported that the US sent more than 250 C-17 cargo plane flights to Israel and 20 ships, packed with, among other things, 57,000 artillery shells and 15,000 bombs.
Overall, US aid to Israel since 1948 totaled $300 billion, the most given to any country – nearly double that supplied to Egypt.
US political support for Israel has historically been unflinching. The daily Haaretz reported in February that “fifty-three times since 1972, the United States has cast a veto in the UN Security Council against anti-Israel resolutions or condemnations of Israel.” The latest was on February 21.
The most vetoes, 21, came under president Barack Obama, who was regarded by some Israelis as unfriendly.
Special relationship
Over 60 years ago, in December 1962, president John F. Kennedy told Israeli foreign minister Golda Meir: “The United States has a special relationship with Israel in the Middle East, really comparable only to that which it has with Britain over a wide range of world affairs.”
Yet according to [US Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer, arguably Israel’s best American friend for decades, the top Senate Democrat, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States, speaking on the Senate floor: “Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel. He has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.”
In an interview on March 9, US President Joe Biden said: “Netanyahu has a right to defend Israel…but he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken. In my view, he is hurting Israel more than helping Israel.”
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman wrote that Netanyahu is “making Israel radioactive,” calling him “the worst Jewish leader in history.”
And in early March, the CIA’s Annual US Threat Assessment stated that “Netanyahu’s government could be in jeopardy over its war management in Gaza.”
Banana republic
Responding to Senator Schumer, Netanyahu’s Likud party said, “Prime Minister Netanyahu leads a determined policy that is supported by a huge majority of the people. Israel is an independent and proud democracy that elected Prime Minister Netanyahu, not a banana republic.”
Two falsehoods there.
A clear majority of Israelis oppose Netanyahu and his crumbling far-Right coalition. A recent Channel 12 poll showed that in a national election, a coalition led by Benny Gantz would gain 69 Knesset seats, compared to a Netanyahu-led bloc that would secure only 46. The remaining five Knesset seats would go to an unaligned Arab bloc, Hadash-Ta’al. And for months, polls have shown a similar result.
It pains me to say it – technically, Israel is becoming a banana republic.
In 1904, American author O. Henry coined the term “banana republic” to describe Guatemala and Honduras, at the time exploited and manipulated by the United Fruit Company. Political scientists today define a banana republic as a politically unstable country, with stratified social classes, ruled by an oligarchy, dependent on exports of natural resources.
Israel fits the definition.
Democracy? Barely, after an eleven-month assault on democratic norms by the far Right, delayed for now but not ended, by war.
Political instability? How about five elections in four years, culminating in a shaky coalition government whose tail is twisted by a fringe party of far-Right radicals?
Stratified classes? How about ultra-Orthodox, Orthodox, and secular?
Natural resource exports? Our brains. Israel exports its brains, through acquisition of start-ups by foreign companies (exits) instead of growing blue-and-white global giants. Government is complicit because it reaps tax windfalls.
And bananas? Bananas have been grown in the Land of Israel since the 16th century. They grow year round, and we eat them all – no exports. So, technically, we are not a banana republic but rather a banana parliamentary democracy. (See Below)
US-Israel spats
Historically, Israel and the US have behaved like an elderly married couple, sharing common values and abiding affection, facing challenges together, while engaging in bitter spats from time to time.
After each spat, fences were repaired, and like small children do, the two countries figuratively locked little fingers and chanted, “Shalom, shalom, le’olam; be’rogez be’rogez me’olam” (peace forever, grudges never). But the latest spat will take far more than locked fingers to make this right.
US public opinion
How do Americans perceive US-Israel relations? The respected Pew Research Center surveyed attitudes on US-Israel relations in the spring of 2022 and 2023, before the Gaza war.
Among the findings: 55% of Americans had a favorable view of Israel, while 41% were unfavorable – already, a slippery-slope decline from previous years. Republicans and older Americans had more positive views. Two-thirds of Americans had a favorable opinion of Israel’s people, but fewer than half in favor of Israel’s government. And 42% said they had no confidence in Netanyahu “to do the right thing regarding world affairs.”
What about American Jewry? Are they solidly pro-Israel?
Writing in Haaretz, Alon Pinkas notes that “numerous exit polls and surveys indicate that US Jews vote on healthcare, women’s reproductive rights, the economy, and crime. Israel is never a top five issue. In this respect, they are no different than any other group in America.”
Foundations under threat
Bar-Ilan University professor Eitan Gilboa, writing in the journal Israel Affairs, has defined “three principal foundations” on which the US-Israel special relationship, expressed by president Kennedy, is based: strategic interests; joint values and ideals; and Jewish community support.
Each of the three is under threat.
First: America, Gilboa notes, is disengaging from the Mideast. Asia is taking its place. The US no longer needs Arab oil.
Second, American leaders have always praised Israel as the only Mideast democracy. But President Biden and others have warned Netanyahu that his government’s “judicial reform” contradicts democratic values.
And third, Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asian-Americans are growing proportions of the US population. Hispanics have mixed feelings about Israel, and increasingly so do Blacks. True, the Jewish population numbers nearly eight million, or 2.4%, but Arab-Americans comprise over half that and are increasingly active politically, especially in crucial swing states. And many young Jews have embraced anti-Israel sentiments that their parents and grandparents abhor.
Gilboa asserts that “the requirement for future [US-Israel] collaboration is listening. The two sides will have to better understand the interests and limitations of each side…to rebuild a new platform for close cooperation.”
America’s leaders, I believe, are patient listeners.
But Israel’s leaders? ■
Begin and the banana republic apology
Israel owes America an apology. America is a friend, not a foe. Always has been.
There is precedent for an apology. Prime minister Menachem Begin offended the US in 1981 and apologized. Here is the story, recounted by veteran diplomat Yehuda Avner in The Jerusalem Post in 2008:
In late 1981, prime minister Begin brooded in his modest Jerusalem apartment. Sadat had been assassinated. Syria ruled Lebanon. His beloved wife, Aliza, was sick. President Ronald Reagan warned Israel against invading Lebanon. The Israeli economy was stagnant. Syria’s Hafez Assad said he would not make peace with Israel even in a hundred years.
Begin decided to act. The next day, he engineered a two-thirds majority in the Knesset, to impose Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. This ignited a firestorm in Washington. President Reagan was furious. He had not been consulted.
US ambassador to Israel Samuel Lewis went to see Begin in his apartment. Begin’s foot was propped up on a stool – he had fallen and broken his hip and was still recovering.
“I have a very personal and urgent message to president Reagan,” Begin said. “After a PLO massacre of our people, one of them an Auschwitz survivor, we bombed the headquarters of the PLO in Beirut. Regretfully, there were civilian casualties. You punished us and suspended delivery of F-15s. …The Knesset adopted the Golan Law, and again you declare you are punishing us. Are we a vassal state? Are we a banana republic?”
As Lewis drove from Jerusalem back to his embassy in Tel Aviv, he heard on his car radio Begin’s trusted cabinet secretary, Yehiel Kadishai, repeating word for word, in English, prime minister Begin’s harangue.
The White House was livid!
Shortly after, Lewis again met with Begin. “The fact that you authorized the release of that urgent and private message was a violation of every diplomatic norm and practice. You made me feel I was being treated like an idiot,” Lewis said angrily.
Begin responded, “I felt that our public had a right to know exactly what was said and where we stood. I apologize if I embarrassed you personally. Please forgive me.”
Lewis told Yehuda Avner that never did he believe that the proudest of men, Begin, was capable of a humble apology.
Netanyahu and his government, the Likud loudmouths, and the far-Right instigators in his government, all owe the US an apology.
Don’t hold your breath.
The writer heads the Zvi Griliches Research Data Center at S. Neaman Institute, Technion. He blogs at www.timnovate.wordpress.com.