Why Defend Israel?
NEWMAN, WILLIAM J.
Realism and principle are involved Why Defend By William J. Newman By William J. Newman Why defend Israel? Of what use is it to the Administration's policy of safeguarding oil and preventing...
...It is necessary to consider the case for Israel on the ground of American national interests and military power...
...One should be a little closer to the seat of trouble...
...If Syria erupts in the face of the West, then one of two choices can be made: a pipeline out of Iraq to Turkey, or out of the southern Arabian rim to the Mediterranean Sea via Elath...
...Much as the American Government would like to ignore Israel, it cannot escape the issue for freedom which it presents...
...We will not let Israel go under, but we will not help her stay alive...
...Of what use is it to the Administration's policy of safeguarding oil and preventing Soviet intrusion in the Middle East...
...Egypt or Israel...
...For in discussions of U.S...
...But America may some day have to look for a friend in the Middle East to provide it with a place from which to operate...
...Once the Suez base was given up, Malta and Cyprus could serve at best as an exterior staging area for invasion...
...Middle East policy Israel assumes an uneasy place as a protege of the West—at best an embarrassing relative, at worst an unmitigated danger to Western security...
...The precise effect the fleet is supposed to have on, say, Syrian politics or on a Jordanian mob has not yet been made clear...
...But of course troops aren't necessary...
...If the State Department sees no way in which Israel can strengthen the U.S...
...there is a whole paraphernalia of forces which think Saud is a hindrance to Arab unity...
...But then why bother to defend Israel at all...
...Either this or a large, expensive fleet of big tankers —or oil famine for Western Europe...
...It is important for America to know...
...We refuse to face the commitment because the cost might be heavy (that it would be as heavy as the Administration thinks is doubtful), and, sadly, because we really don't see the issue...
...But what will be the importance and use of such bases as a means of saving Iraq from subversion, warning Syria to behave, or saving the throne of Jordan's king...
...We have invited Saud to Washington, but no Arab nationalist is impressed...
...None of this is to say that America should bomb Moscow because it strangles Hungary...
...And today's United Nations troops on the periphery of Israel can do more than keep Egypt and Jordan from Israeli throats...
...The Israelis themselves are anxious to exploit their land for oil-carrying purposes and are now constructing a small pipeline from Elath to Beersheba for their own use...
...The world is so constructed that if one small nation goes under, most of the other small nations—and some medium-size nations—shudder and run to the side of the state which did the crushing...
...We have a moral commitment to Israel because we have opted for freedom, and Israel is part of that freedom...
...It is time to ask whether or not it is essential for America to care about Israel at all...
...This is not to suggest that the United States can or should inject a foreign enclave full of Air Force bombers as in Morocco...
...power position in the Middle East...
...Tired as they are of Anglo-Saxon wooly-headedness, they are planning to spend francs to build an oil line from Elath to Beersheba to keep their Renaults and factories going...
...Air Force, like the British RAF, is persona non grata anywhere in the area...
...Can Israel also provide a substitute for Suez in regard to oil...
...Thanks to our willingness to play along with the King of the Arabians, we too will maintain a fingerhold on the southern rim...
...The best argument which U.S...
...to the Middle East in full force, but where precisely would they be able to return...
...Whatever commitment the West has to Israel is thereby left clouded, hesitant and inconclusive...
...But if our interests lie in having some sort of base or oil line in Israel, then why are we not following our interests...
...policymakers present for their refusal to exploit the opportunities presented by Israel is the fear of antagonizing Arab opinion...
...Why not liquidate Israel—or allow someone else to do the dirty job...
...It exists, and now Washington must decide what it is going to do not only about Israel's freedom but about America's freedom...
...The State Department regrets that it exists, but regrets are irrelevant...
...Support of Israel might, after all, mean that troops might be sent there—although with the Eisenhower Administration one can't be sure...
...And the troops might be involved in a war—the imagination boggles at the thought...
...Today, the British have not only been pushed out of Suez, they are being pushed out of their bases in Jordan—Mafraq, Amman and Aqaba...
...What, in fact, has the United States done to raise the strength of our best Arab ally in the Middle East, Iraq...
...But this fear has not galvanized the State Department into any kind of significant action...
...Of course...
...If America wants to watch a small nation collapse, it has every right to do so...
...It can also get away from the area in a hurry in case there is trouble...
...the U.S...
...The Marines are floating around the Mediterranean Sea in the Sixth Fleet, a magnificent collection of machinery...
...The French think so...
...And the United States...
...But one thing can be said for the Seventh Fleet: It does not take much manpower...
...Good or bad, these are the reasons for the Administration's refusal to realize that Israel might be of use to America...
...One thing was made clear in the recent fiasco of Britain and France—the need for bases in the Middle East in order to control it...
...Is there a possibility that Israel can be used to strengthen the U.S...
...It is to say that where we do have power and refuse to face the problems freedom poses, we no longer believe in freedom...
...power position, what rational arguments can be put forward for supporting it in these circumstances...
...The other reasons for disregarding our possible interests in Israel are even less worthy: a fear of home opinion and a belief in floating strength...
...Today there is only one reason: Israel's only use to America is moral...
...A potential base in Israel is at least worth some consideration...
...But let us at least know what we are doing...
...Certainly in the event of a full-scale war the Western powers could return william J. Newman, an associate professor of government at Boston University, has contributed to numerous periodicals, including Twentieth Century and Time & Tide...
...and thereby we encourage her enemies to try to push her under...
...And if Iraq comes under attack in one way or another the British use of airfields there—already restricted—will become meaningless...
...The British will then be left clinging desperately to the southern edge of Arabia...
...Since it cannot get through the Suez Canal to protect the oil fields of the southern Arabian rim, its efficacy is even more questionable...
...In truth, should a major war break out in the Middle East, which would be our most reliable and efficient ally—Saudi Arabia or Israel...
...Given the present lack of power-realism on the part of the Republican Administration, the belief in freedom is the only argument which can be made for the existence of Israel...
...These are some of the power possibilities which Israel offers to American foreign policy and American national strength...
...they are potentially a military weapon which, under the leadership of the United States, may carry out more than simple police operations...
...It lies in the value which America puts on small nations...
...for then one is not for freedom but for oneself—quite a different thing...
...That state will control the Middle East which has bases in the area, at Suez, in Jordan, in Iraq, in Aden—or in Israel...
...One does not say, "Freedom for ourselves and no one else...
...In turn, we thus bring closer the time when we will have to act on our commitment, without preparation and in more difficult circumstances than at present...
Vol. 40 • March 1957 • No. 10
