Israeli-American relations researcher and former ambassador Yoram Ettinger says the recent strain between the U.S. president and Israel’s prime minister is mild compared with earlier confrontations. Speaking to Channel 7, he argued that in the long arc of U.S.-Israel ties, Israeli leaders who resisted American pressure often ended up strengthening Israel’s standing and winning later respect in Washington.
Ettinger began with the 1948 war, saying President Harry Truman and Secretary of State George Marshall used “brutal” pressure and financial and diplomatic threats on David Ben-Gurion to stop fighting in West Jerusalem, western Galilee, parts of the coastal plain and large areas of the Negev. Ben-Gurion answered the American envoy Robert McDonald with a single word, “No,” and Ettinger said the refusal, along with the expansion of Israel’s borders by about 40%, improved Israel’s position and even prompted the U.S. military chief to recommend special allied status for Israel, a move the State Department rejected.
He then moved to 1967, saying Levi Eshkol ignored President Lyndon Johnson’s warning that Israel would be alone if it attacked first, after presenting intelligence on Egyptian and Syrian intentions. Ettinger called the Six-Day War a turning point that changed Israel from a perceived burden into a strategic asset. He also cited Menachem Begin’s 1981 strike on Iraq’s nuclear reactor despite opposition from intelligence officials, Defense Minister Ezer Weizman and Shimon Peres, saying U.S. military aid and cooperation were suspended, but later restored, and that only after the first Gulf War did Washington publicly admit the attack served American interests.
Ettinger recalled similar pushback over the 1981 application of Israeli law to the Golan Heights, when Ronald Reagan reportedly sent Begin a list of sanctions. Begin told the American envoy Sam Lewis to tell Reagan that the Jewish people had survived thousands of years without U.S. help and would continue to do so. He also described Yitzhak Shamir’s years in office, when George H.W. Bush and U.S. officials criticized him almost daily over settlements, the Madrid talks and rejecting a Palestinian state, yet still respected his firmness. Ettinger added that Ariel Sharon’s son? Actually, he referred to Ehud Olmert’s bombing of the Syrian reactor, Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2015 speech to Congress against Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, and pressure from Joe Biden, including a freeze on vital munitions during the war. In his view, standing up to pressure, not yielding to it, is what builds Israeli deterrence and earns lasting respect.
