ABSTRACT
The Reagan administration avoided a major political defeat on the AWACS sale. However, it did so without having formulated, much less persuasively explained, a strategic framework encompassing both sales of advanced arms to Arab regimes and reliance on Israel as America’s key strategic ally. The reasons for disconnects between public rhetoric and policy decisions, and between Israel’s putative and real roles, were straightforward: reliance on Israel as a proxy or a platform in pursuit of American strategic interests was usually not feasible and sometimes counterproductive; and Israel used American aid and political support in pursuit of its own, sometimes quite different, beliefs.
