The American-Israeli Alliance under New Administrations: The Israeli Perspective

I will begin by defining the term “alliance.” We actually do not have a formal American-Israeli alliance. I think that the right term to use would be “special relationship.” There have been discussions in the past about formalizing this relationship in the form of a pact or an alliance, or by having Israel join a group like NATO, which would create a formal defense relationship between the United States and Israel. Actually, at the time of the Clinton administration, when in early 1996 it seemed that an Israeli peace settlement involving full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights was on the horizon (which would result in massive repercussions for Israeli security), the issue of negotiating a formal defense pact between the United States and Israel was finally put on the table, although on both sides there was no universal enthusiasm for the idea of such a formal commitment. The predominant view in the Clinton administration held that the United States might be willing to establish a formal defense pact as the final act of ending the Arab-Israeli conflict, and not just the Israeli-Syrian conflict. It maintained that formalizing the relationship and offering a US defense guarantee to Israel when other aspects of the Arab- Israeli conflict, particularly the Palestinian question, had yet to be resolved seemed premature and harmful.