to the Golan Heights. Furthermore, some of Presi-
dent Reagan’s chief advisers—including Vice Presi-
dent George H. W. Bush, Secretary of Defense Cas-
par Weinberger, and White House Chief of Staff
James Baker—were not enthusiastic about Israeli
policies, and they often persuaded the president to
oppose Tel Aviv on specific issues. When an Israeli
air strike destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981,
Washington suspended delivery of F-16 Fighting Fal-
cons to the country. The U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick, worked with the
Iraqi delegation to support a Security Council reso-
lution condemning the attack.
The administration, with the exception of Secre-
tary of State Alexander Haig, did not support Israel’s
concern over a buildup of Palestine Liberation Or-
ganization (PLO) forces in southern Lebanon in the
early 1980’s. Thus, when Prime Minister Menachem
Begin visited Washington, the president sought his
assurances that Israel would not violate Lebanon’s
sovereignty to strike at the PLO. Begin—who dis-
agreed with such U.S. peace initiatives as formal rec-
ognition of the PLO and providing Palestinian au-
tonomy under Jordan—provided Reagan with some
limited assurances that he would leave Lebanon
alone, but in June, 1982, Israeli forces crossed the
border, invading that country.
Initially, the United States refrained from con-
demning the invasion, but it soon sent strong mes-
sages to Tel Aviv, calling for the cessation of hostilities.
In August, the United States joined a multinational
peacekeeping operation to oversee the evacuation
of PLO forces from southern Lebanon. U.S. envoy
Morris Draper helped supervise talks between Israel
and Lebanon in December. Later that month, Wash-
ington called for a freeze on new Jewish settlements
on occupied Palestinian land. George P. Shultz, who
was less friendly to Israel than was Haig, had become
secretary of state in July, but he proved also to be a
supporter of Tel Aviv.
In 1984, Washington and Tel Aviv disagreed over
the usefulness to the peace process of a meeting be-
tween PLO leader Yasir Arafat and Egyptian presi-
dent Hosni Mubarak. Israeli prime minister Yitzhak
Shamir’s pragmatism, however, encouraged better
relations by the end of the year. In 1988, Washington
supported a U.N. resolution condemning Israel’s
expulsion of Palestinians into Lebanon. That same
year, however, the United States was the only nation
to join Israel in objecting to Arafat’s desire to ad-
dress the United Nations. Washington refused to
provide him with an entrance visa for that purpose,
but he was able to come to New York anyway, and he
held talks with some U.S. officials.
One of the most disturbing conflicts between the
two countries occurred in 1985, when Jonathan Pol-
lard, a U.S. naval intelligence officer was arrested
and convicted of selling secrets to Israel. In another
case in 1986, John Demjanjuk, a Cleveland auto-
worker, was extradited to Israel, where he was tried
and convicted of being a concentration camp guard
during World War II. Demjanjuk and his supporters,
who included Holocaust deniers, claimed he had
been misidentified, and his case continued through
twists and turns for many years.
Impact The United States, of all members of the
global community, had the most influence on Israel.
The links of the American Jewish community to the
Israeli state played a role in American politics, as well
as providing financial and moral support to Tel Aviv.
Furthermore, the sympathy for Israel generated by
memories of the Holocaust and by its status as a thriv-
ing democracy in the region resulted in a great deal
of support among the American public at large. The
Reagan and Bush administrations were somewhat
divided over Israel. While President Reagan was
wholeheartedly and genuinely committed to the
Jewish state, others in his administration were frus-
trated over Tel Aviv’s policies and wished for a more
balanced approach.
Further Reading
Aura, Nasser Hasan, Fouad Moughabi, and Joe
Stork.Reagan and the Middle East. Belmont, Mass.:
Association of Arab-American University Gradu-
ates, 1983. Analysis from the Palestinian point of
view, accusing the United States of an unfair bias
toward Israel.
Carter, Jimmy.Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. New
York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. Controversial as-
sessment by the former president of U.S. policies
toward Israel, including those of the Reagan ad-
ministration as well as his own.
Novik, Nimrod.Encounter with Reality: Reagan and the
Middle East During the First Term. Boulder, Colo.:
Westview Press, 1985. Analysis of Reagan’s initial
Middle Eastern policies by a respected Israeli
scholar.
Olive, Ronald J.Capturing Jonathan Pollard: How One
of the Most Notorious Spies in American Histor y Was536 Israel and the United States The Eighties in America