ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the course of United States (US)-Israeli relations from 1948 to 1995, takes a close look at US-Israeli relations from 1995 to 2007 and, in the process, compares the policies of the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, which, during their tenures in office, dealt with six Israeli prime ministers. US secretary of state George Marshall and secretary of defense James Forrestal, with the cold war in full swing, saw Israel as a major political and security liability for the United States. Israeli security ties with the United States were to remain cool during most of the 1950s under the Eisenhower administration, and personal ties between the American president and Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion were very chilly as well. Israel’s relations with the Hamas-led Palestinian government continued to deteriorate, with stepped-up shelling of Israeli territory from Gaza and Israeli retaliation.
