ABSTRACT
While moral and cultural affinities, as well as the political power of domestic constituencies were important factors in forging what it is occasionally referred to as a ‘special relationship’ between Jerusalem and Washington, it is the image of Israel as a key ally, i.e. sharing common strategic interests, that generated the strategic, political, and economic support that the US has provided particularly since 1967.3
The US has acted as an important strategic ally of Israel over the years. In 1948, the US was the first country to recognize newly-born Israel. From the late 1960s, it was the US that provided Israel with much-needed diplomatic and economic support, as well as with access to modern weaponry.4 During the Cold War, Israel seemed to constitute a strategic asset which justified American largesse.5 It blocked the hegemonial aspirations of Abdel Nasser, the radical anti-Western leader of Egypt, a Soviet ally. In 1970, Israel deterred a greater intervention on the part of Syria, another Soviet ally, in an attempt to undermine the pro-Western Hashemite rule in Jordan. This event underscored in particular Israel’s strategic value in the eyes of the US.6
