Why US support for Israel is “unconditional and unwavering”

“U.S It is next to the city of Israelwe will never stop supporting them… and my administration’s support for Israel’s security is solid and unwavering.”

With these words, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, made clear his country’s support for Israel following the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7.

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To reaffirm this support, Biden will visit his closest ally in the Middle East this Wednesday, after a week of intense diplomacy from Washington to try to prevent Israel’s war against Hamas from spreading in the region.

A spokesperson for the US president confirmed the trip this Tuesdayafter an attack on a Gaza hospital, for which Israel and the Palestinians blame each other, left hundreds dead.

After the attack, the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas said he will not meet with Biden as plannedat the same time that Jordan announced the cancellation of the meeting at which this meeting would take place.

A BBC correspondent in Washington highlighted that the attack on the hospital complicates the US president’s visit to Israel, given the White House’s unconditional support for the Israeli government.

This “unwavering support” from Biden has been seen in recent days in sending two of the United States’ most advanced aircraft carriersthe USS Gerald R Ford and the USS Eisenhower, to the Mediterranean, sending squadrons of F-15 or F-16 fighters and A-10 attack aircraft to the region, and sending additional equipment and ammunition.

“The world has just witnessed a great evil: the deadliest attack on civilians in the history of the State of Israel and the bloodiest day in Jewish history since the end of the Holocaust,” said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a visit to Israel after the Hamas attack.

“So make no mistake: the United States will ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself,” he said, reiterating that his country’s support for Israel remains “non-negotiable.”

This “non-negotiable support” for Israel and its powerful armed forces is not new. U.S sends billions of dollars in military aid to Israel every year.

The US sent its aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to the region (file photo). / GET IMAGES.

Since World War II, Israel has been the largest global beneficiary of American foreign aid.

According to data from the Departments of Defense and State, from 1951 to 2022 (the most recent year for which data exists) U.S. military aid to Israel, adjusted for inflationis from the USA$225.2 billion.

But where did this relationship of “unwavering support” between Israel and the United States come from?

The historical ties

At the end of World War II, the United States supported the creation of a Jewish state. With the largest Jewish population in the world at that time, the North American country quickly positioned itself in favor of the new nation and recognized it.

But in the first decades of Israel’s existence, the link was not particularly notable.

It was President John F. Kennedy who, in 1962, emphasized what he called a “special relationship,” based on what he said was a shared commitment to Israel’s right to exist in peace.

But it was only in 1967, during the Six-Day War, that This relationship began to blossom.

In that war, Israel defeated a coalition of Arab states and, in the process, suffered comparatively few casualties with little help from outside forces.

Additionally, it occupied swathes of new territory, including Gaza and the West Bank.

In the midst of the Cold War, and competing with the Soviet Union for post-war global hegemony, it became clear to the United States that Israel could be decisive in inflicting defeats on Soviet interests in the region.

“The main aspect of the war of ’67 was that Israel defeated the Arabs in six days, with absolutely no American military assistance,” he said. Vox.com Joel Beinin, professor of Middle Eastern history at Stanford University, in the United States.

“What it showed America was, ‘These guys are good.’ We are a mess in Vietnam. Let’s connect with them. And things developed gradually over time.”

And it was then that the United States, during Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, agreed for the first time to hand over military equipment to the Israelis.

From then on, US diplomatic, financial and military support for Israel increased exponentially.

military ties

“My administration’s support for Israel’s security is solid and unwavering,” Joe Biden said after the Hamas attacks. (Getty Images)

In the decades that followed, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, the United States and Israel began to cooperate in weapons research, development and production.

In 1999, a few years after then-US President Bill Clinton helped draft the Oslo Accords to bring peace between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors, Washington signed the first of three so-called Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) committing up to provide billions of dollars in military aid to Israel annually.

Today Israel is designated as one of the United States’ main allies outside of NATO.

It is one of the largest buyers of American military equipment and continues to be involved in the development of military technology and regularly participates in joint military exercises with forces from the United States and other countries.

After the September 11 attacks on the United States, Israel managed to develop one of the most advanced signals intelligence and surveillance technologies in the world and, according to experts, American financial assistance was vitally important for this.

In 2011, Israel deployed the so-called Iron Dome, a short-range missile defense system that uses radar technology to destroy rockets and other aerial threats fired by Hamas and other militant groups in the region.

The system was developed by the Israeli state-owned company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with components manufactured in the United States. And Washington helped finance it with a “subsidy” of 200 million dollars.

Even during the administration of Barack Obama, who repeatedly referred to Israel’s presence in the West Bank as an “occupation,” American military aid did not cease.

Obama sought to restore relationships with Middle Eastern countries after years of strained ties with George W Bush.

During his term, he vehemently opposed the construction of new settlements in the West Bank and, in 2010, he made attempts to bring the then Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, closer to Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority.

Obama also helped negotiate a historic nuclear deal with Iran in 2015, much to Netanyahu’s outrage.

But none of this stopped the Obama administration from committing to send Israel $38 billion in military aid over 10 years, subsidizing the purchase of F-35 fighter jets in what has been described as “the largest military assistance commitment in U.S. history.”

This military aid to Israel continues to this day.

In 2022, Washington gave Israel $3.3 billion in foreign aid. Around 8.8 million dollars of this amount went to the country’s economy and the 99.7% surrendered to the armed forces.

The geopolitical importance

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been on an eventful trip to the Middle East. (REUTERS).

For some analysts, the United States’ “unconditional support” for Israel is linked to the important strategic position of the Middle Eastern country.

Although the Cold War is over, the relationship between the United States and Israel has not changed, and many believe this is because the region continues to be a challenge for Americans.

Forty years ago, the US Secretary of State, Alexander M. Haig, appointed by then President Ronald Reagan, coined the following definition of his ally in the Middle East: “Israel is the largest US aircraft carrier, it is unsinkable, it does not transport US soldiers and is located in a region critical to the national security of the United States.”

Iran, an Islamic theocracy with great influence in the region and a controversial nuclear program, is Israel’s main antagonist. And it is also a historic ally of Hamas, the Palestinian group responsible for attacks on Israeli territory.

Kali Robinson, a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank, summed it up this way in a recent article: “The Middle East has been of central importance to the United States as successive governments have sought to secure vital energy resources, defend themselves against Soviet and Iranian influence, and ensure survival and security. “Israel and its Arab allies fight terrorism, promote democracy and reduce refugee flows.”

Although both Israelis and Americans have publicly speculated that Iran was behind the organization and financing of the October 7 attack on Israel, US intelligence has so far found no evidence of such involvement.

Recently, Iran has strengthened its ties with China and Russia, which has further increased the importance of having Israel as a US ally in the area.

A “powerful” minority

A woman at a demonstration at Columbia University in New York supporting Israel. (GET IMAGES).

It is currently estimated that the Jewish population in the United States is 7.6 million people, which represents 2% of the country’s total population.

According to the Pew Research Center, American Jews are a relatively high-income group.

Half of the American Jewish population has a family income of more than US$100,000 annually, while among Americans in general, the percentage with this same income reaches just 19%.

Furthermore, 36% of American Jews not only have a high school education but have also completed a graduate degree, compared to 14% of the general American population.

Being the economic and intellectual elite that they are, Jews have also found prosperous paths in politics.

According to the Pew Research Center, Jews, along with Christians, are overrepresented in the US Congress: a 6% of members of the current legislature identify as Jewish, compared to 2% of the total US population.

Some experts do not believe that the Jewish vote in the United States will be decisive.

But the powerful pro-Israel lobby, led by AIPAC, which Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman called “the most important organization promoting the U.S.-Israel alliance,” is an influential force in American politics that has often supported Netanyahu, with whom Biden is now being forced into an uneasy alliance.

Joe Biden knows he can’t allow yourself to alienate pro-Israel voters ahead of next year’s presidential elections.

Source: Elcomercio