THE PLOT

Two big themes here: the relationship between Israel and America’s Jews, and the relationship between Israel and the American government.

Most Americans rejected Zionism in the early years of the Zionist Movement (late 1800s/early 1900s) because they considered it unnecessary: for them, the United States was the new Jewish homeland where they could live free, happy, and productive lives irrespective of their religious identity. They were fully American, with civil rights, and believed that the Jewish future lay in America, not Palestine.

But by the middle of the second decade of the 1900s, several prominent Jewish leaders found a way for Americans to support Zionism while still remaining good American Jews. Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah, raised money to support the health and education of Jews in the Yishuv (the pre-state Jewish community in Palestine).  And Louis Brandeis, future Supreme Court Justice, became perhaps the most influential Zionist leader in the United States, insisting that one could both support Zionism and be a loyal American.

Although Jews were ecstatic when Israel was established in 1948, few moved there, for the above reasons. Ben Gurion couldn’t understand the American Jews’ reticence to make aliyah (immigration), and repeatedly called on American Jews to do so as a matter of destiny. Jacob Blaustein, head of the influential American Jewish Committee, pushed back. In 1950 the two leaders hammered out an agreement whereby Israel would not attempt to speak on behalf of America’s Jews (nor demand that they immigrate), and American Jews in turn would support Israel philanthropically and politically. Neither side would interfere with the internal politics of the other.

The 1960s saw increasing excitement about Israel amongst American Jews, thanks to things like the Eichmann trial and the Hollywood movie Exodus. There was also the recognition that Israel was the only democracy in the Middle East, and therefore a natural ally in the Cold War.

Under President Eisenhower, the United States was focused on containing communism and securing oil supplies, both of which required influence with the Arabs. So the United States maintained  a friendly-but-wary distance from Israel, keeping largely neutral in the conflict with the Arabs. Under President Kennedy the relationship warmed, thanks to Israel’s democratic counter-balance to communist influence in the Middle East. Kennedy also knew he had captured the Jewish vote in 1960 and wanted them again for the next election.

President Lyndon Johnson was even more friendly towards Israel, and had a particular affinity for the small country that went beyond politics. He had a Christian-based appreciation for Zionism and saw Israel — a proud, struggling nation with few friends — as a metaphor for his own presidency. Still, there was little appetite in America to get involved too deeply in Middle Eastern conflicts, and that limited Johnson’s ability to help Israel as the Six Day War approached in 1967.

THE PEOPLE

David Ben Gurion: Israel’s first Prime Minister, who forcefully insisted that American Jews should support Israel primarily by moving there. 

Jacob Blaustein: head of the American Jewish Committee and influential leader of the American Jewish community. He negotiated with Ben Gurion over the relationship between Israel and America’s Jews, famously declaring that, “there can be no single spokesman for world Jewry no matter who that spokesman might try to be.”

Louis Brandeis: prominent Jewish Zionist leader and future U.S. Supreme Court Justice who argued that one could be both a loyal, patriotic American while also supporting Zionism.

President Dwight Eisenhower: was focused on containing communism and securing oil supplies, so kept Israel at friendly-but-arms length to ensure good relations with the Arabs. 

President Lyndon B. Johnson: generally regarded as the president who was most friendly and supportive of Israel.

President John F. Kennedy: enjoyed warmer relations with Israel than Eisenhower, and sold the Jewish State American weapons for the first time. Was wary of Israel’s nucelar program. 

Henrietta Szold: founder of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, who raised millions of dollars to build health and education programs and institutions in Palestine for the growing Jewish community there. 

THE BIG IDEAS

The Pittsburgh Platform was written in 1885 by a group of American Reform rabbis. It hammered out a modern approach to Jewish ritual, practice, and belief that would fit the needs of modern American Jews. Included in the program was a rejection of the core tenets of Zionism — that Jews outside the Land of Israel were living in exile and ought to someday return to the ancient homeland. 

The Blaustein-Ben Gurion agreement in 1950 laid out the principles of the relationship between Israel and American Jewry. Ben Gurion acknowledged that Israel speaks only on behalf of its own citizens, not Jews in other countries, and that Israel would not interfere in the internal affairs of Jewish communities abroad.  Any decision by an American to move to Israel would be entirely up to the individual. In exchange, Blaustein agreed that American Jews would continue their support of Israel, philanthropically and politically, and that American Jews would in turn not interfere with Israeli politics. 

Successive American presidents were often sympathetic to Israel, but constrained by Cold War politics and the need to curry favor amongst the Arab countries. Although the 1950s saw a more distant relationship between the United States and Israel, by the late 1960s the two were drawn ever closer. In recent decades America and Israel have been thick as thieves, with a very close strategic, military, and economic partnership, backed up by shared values around democracy, multiculturalism, and political freedom.

FUN FACTS

Allegedly, the reason John F. Kennedy never invited David Ben Gurion for a State Dinner at the White House was because of the Israeli leader’s secrecy about the development of nuclear weapons. 

President Kennedy ended the American arms embargo on Israel by selling the latest antiaircraft missile, called the Hawk.

© Jason Harris 2020