ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of the United States (US) in Israeli strategy and Israeli politics. In an attempt to get Israel to be more amenable to US policy, Barack Obama decided to engage directly with the Israeli public. The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) has been surveying Israeli public opinion toward peace and security since the 1980s. The high standing of the US is also demonstrated by the fact that the Israeli public ranks relations with the US as more important to Israeli security than any factor other than the military power of Israel itself. Indeed, perhaps the most significant and surprising results from the 2014 Begin-Sadat (BESA) survey concern attitudes toward an Israeli military strike on Iran in the event that diplomacy fails to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. Only a narrow plurality thought that Israel should attack in such circumstances, by a margin of 41 percent to 37 percent.
