Simone Viteri
Israeli/Palestine Conflict
November 20, 2018
The United States’ Impact on the Creation of the Israeli State
Foreign involvement from the United States was highly influential to both the development of Israel as a country as well as the oppression and exile of Palestinians from the area. The most important points would lie within the acknowledgment of Israel as a state by the United States, the confusion within the Truman presidency on their Middle Eastern foreign policy, and the continuous economic support the U.S. has provided the Israel Defense Force (IDF). All of these factors negatively impacted the Palestinian population given that the acknowledgement of Israel and economic funding of the IDF gave them less power, and further promoted their exile from their homeland. The U.S.’ military funding of the IDF is something especially detrimental that continues to occur in massive proportions to this day.
Truman acknowledged Israel as a state in 1947, even before its official foundation as a country. He had expressed interest in the region due to its key location in terms of oil wealth and trading, and after seeing Israel’s “military capacity after its unchallenged territorial expansion,” (Middle East Policy Council). The biggest turning point in the creation of Israel by way of the United States’ foreign policy would be the passage of the UNGA resolution in 1947, where the U.S. had influence over other countries that voted in favor of using Palestinian territory to house advocating Zionists as well as, ultimately, Jewish migrants. According to Sarsar, Truman advocated for other countries to vote in favor of the resolution as well, which must’ve been greatly influential given the United States’ power as a first-world nation and as one of the winning Allied powers after World War II. Truman did this despite many advisors’ recommendations against the U.S. getting involved with the issue of Palestine because of “intense Zionist pressure and propaganda” as well as “hopes of being reelected in 1948,” for which he needed Jewish support both in the government and within the American population.
The U.S.’s influence and backing of the Israeli state in the UN conference was very important to the future of the state moving forward, given that having a superpower behind Israel motivated other countries to back them as well. Also, the alliance formed with Israel due to the U.S.’s early support of their creation formed a patronage type of relationship between Israel and the United States, which has lasted until today. The ally ship between the two states also influenced the amount of funding Israel gets from the U.S., as the amount is exponential. Without the original support of the U.S., I would argue that the creation of the Israeli state would not have been possible, even with the aid of the British due to the internal conflicts between Zionist groups and the British. The U.S. gave Israel and the Israeli government a non-colonial sense of freedom in governing themselves while obtaining almost unlimited funding.
The U.S. government almost completely shifted its foreign policy in regards to
Palestine from 1945 to 1948. Gordon Merriam who was Truman’s Chief of the State Department's Division of Near Eastern Affairs, warned that if the Palestine territory dispute wasn’t settled soon, it would result in “bitter altercation and bloodshed,” which was already mentioned as early as 1945 . This was also in relation towards the U.S.’s interest in making money off of Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves at the time, yet Merriam as well as the Special Subcommittee on Petroleum of the House Armed Services Committee emphasized that it was crucial to solve the issue of Palestine/Israel before making any more moves onto the petroleum reserves in the Middle East. In 1946, the Joint Chief of Staffs also warned Truman against providing military funding in terms of managing the situation with Palestine/Israel. Finally, the CIA and State Department also showed concern towards the foundation of Israel and most importantly how Palestine would be divided because they argued that those who wanted to found Israel would be expansive, and try to take as much territory as possible. This all was not enough to prevent the U.S. from voting for the Israeli state in the 1947 vote on the UNGA resolution which allowed for the creation of the state.
In contrast to this side of the U.S.’s view on the Israeli/Palestine conflict, there were many Americans in power who did in fact advocate for the foundation of the state of Israel before its creation. This could be seen as early as 1942, most markedly in the Biltmore Conference in New York City where Zionist and non-Zionist organizations created the Biltmore program (Sarsar, Saliba). This was extremely influential to the creation of Israel as the eight steps in the Biltmore program were what future Zionist/Israeli leaders used to argue in favor of the creation of the Jewish state in Israel.
The importance of the United States economic funding towards Israel is implicit as originally, the Israelis were extremely outnumbered by the Palestinians (an “issue” they continue to try and fix by promoting emigration of Jews to Israel via birthright trips, guaranteed citizenship and other benefits), and it was necessary for them to have a more advanced military in order to force the Palestinians out of their new land, and onto the smaller territories. To do this, the U.S. follows a plan to provide Israel with a “qualitative military edge” (QME), which means that Israel’s military has to have a significantly more advanced military in terms of technology and size to make up for its small territorial occupation and population .
Another aspect of U.S. economic funding, although much lesser than the military aspect was their contribution towards promoting Israel’s local economy. According to Sharp of the Congressional Research Service, “U.S. economic aid helped subsidize a lackluster Israeli economy”. In addition to other foreign power’s help and Israel’s own trade relations, in forty years the country officially became an industrialized nation.
In conclusion, the United States’ role in the creation of the Israeli state was influential to a large extent. Due to mostly economic factors, which continue to this day in terms of supporting the IDF financially as well as contributing to Israel’s economic success, the United States has played a massive role in both founding the state and maintaining it. Truman’s policies towards Israel also contributed although his motives may be confusing, since ultimately it was his influence which lead to the vote that created the Israeli state, and motivated other countries to follow in the United States UN representative’s footsteps. The U.S. is also directly responsible for many of the consequences that came with the foundation of Israel, such as the oppression and exile of the Palestinians, because Truman was completely aware that there was a high chance making an allegiance with Israel/Zionist organizations would lead to devastation in the Middle Eastern sector.