March 12, 2010
by Dr Hanan Chehata and Samira Quraishy - MEMO Middle East Monitor - 11 March 2010
Introduction: A call for the normalisation of relations
A mere eleven minutes after Israel declared its independence in 1948, US President Harry Truman recognised the newly created state. That instantaneous public support has never really wavered and ever since then the two countries have shared a “special relationship”, one that is unlike any other. America has stood by Israel through thick and thin; right or wrong; supporting it on all fronts: financially, politically, diplomatically and militarily. However, many observers have for a long time now believed that this has become a toxic association, whereby America’s entrenched and unwavering support for Israel is actually doing the United States more harm than good. In 2003 the European Commission conducted a poll across Europe in which 59% of those interviewed said they felt that Israel, America’s staunchest ally, was in fact the greatest threat to world peace.
Seven years on, a slow realisation finally seems to be dawning on Americans that it is time for a serious re-evaluation of their country’s “special relationship” with Israel; at last, the discourse is beginning to take place where it really counts, in the United States of America. On 9th February 2010 there was an Intelligence Squared debate at New York University in which the motion was, “The US should step back from its special relationship with Israel”. At the start of the debate the audience poll was 33% in favour of pulling back on the special relationship; by the end of the debate that figure was 49%.
This is by no means a new call. In their book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt argued that Israel is now “increasingly a strategic liability” (p15) which has done considerable harm to US interests and that, as such, “It is time for the United States to treat Israel not as a special case but as a normal state, and to deal with it much as it deals with any other country…” (p341) In that respect, “treating Israel as a normal state means no longer pretending that Israel and America’s interests are identical, or acting as if Israel deserves steadfast US support no matter what it does”. (p341) There is nothing particularly radical about this call for the normalisation of relations and yet when the book was published in 2007, the thesis was met with widespread hostility and aggression.
Today, however, public perception has shifted incrementally and powerful ripples seem to be spreading throughout the political, academic, media and public arenas. It seems as though people are far more ready now than ever before to discuss the danger that Israel poses to world peace, and are far more willing to examine critically the role that America plays in supporting the Zionist state. This change seems to have come about largely as a result of the negative public perception of Israel’s horrific attack on the civilian population of Gaza during Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9. Perhaps for the first time, people saw Israel for what it was capable of and the lengths it was willing to go to in order to advance its own aims. The result is that more people appear to be more open to having the moral legitimacy of Israel and its actions brought into question, as well as asking why America sits back and lets Israel act with such apparent impunity. Serious discourse on this subject is long overdue and action is required immediately if America is to repair the damage to its international standing and credibility, especially if it hopes to maintain its role as a legitimate global leader.
This report looks briefly at how the special relationship between the two countries manifests itself, how this relationship affects America adversely and where the call for change is coming from.
Download the full report
Also in the report:
2. How deep is the special relationship and how does it manifest itself?
3. How is the US-Israel alliance harming America?
4. The call for a change in policy towards Israel; where is it coming from and how is it manifesting itself?
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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