Israel and the United States: Chips Off The Democratic Block

Recurrent violent attempts to eradicate the Jews birthed the modern Zionist movement. Jews began to flee Eastern Europe to escape the Czar’s oppression and pogroms in the late 1800s. After the devastating genocide of World War II, the broken people searched for a homeland. Many found retreat in Palestine where they identified with several thousand years of ancient history. Out of the ashes of the Holocaust, the concept of the state of Israel, a homeland for the Jewish people, was conceived.

Despite a seemingly palpable notion to give the trodden people a refuge from the prejudice and persecution that still penetrated Europe, the British made it increasingly challenging for Jews to immigrate from the danger. In 1942, Zionist leader David Ben Gurion overtly declared to the world the intention to make Palestine the Jewish homeland, so as to ensure free Jewish immigration. Heavy British and Arab opposition severely obstructed the efforts.

On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly held a special session at Lake Success in New York to draw up a partition, known as Resolution 181, of the British-ruled Palestinian Mandate into a Jewish state and an Arab state. At the time, the world minus the Palestinians and Arabs were in total favor of the state of Israel. The British leaned toward the side of the Palestinians for fear of loss of oil. When asked about the same issue, President Truman responded, “I will handle this problem not in the light of oil, but in the light of justice.”

May 14, 1948 marks the much objected to establishment of the State of Israel. The dawning of the second half of the twentieth century has been stamped with the blood and turmoil characteristic of the region that has yet to cease. Despite profound resistance to her very existence, Israel has valiantly pulled her way to the surface of the global playing field. As the years have passed by, international opinion has shifted toward an anti-Israel stance. The United Nations has consistently leaned on the side opposed to Israel, with the United States being the only country to consistently support the tiny nation.

Since her birth, the United States has played a key role in supporting the State of Israel, the only democracy in a region governed primarily by totalitarianism. However, despite the strong relationship the countries maintain currently, the United States first held Israel at an arm’s length and progressively drew it under her wing. “Over a period of time, this has come to rest on deep-seated factors, including historical memory, Judeo-Christian values, the Holocaust, societal ties, strategic interests and the tenacity of Israel.”