us, israel, and the arabs exam

Phases in U.S. Policy

Pre-World War II

Cold War (1946-73)

Diminishing Cold War (’73-90)

Post-Cold War, or American Hegemony (’90-2010)

American Retreat (’10-now)

Falk’s Constants in U.S. Policy

Primary Concerns

• Containing Soviet expansion

• Ensuring security of Israel

• Guaranteeing flow of oil to the West

• Resolving Arab-Israeli dispute

Secondary Concerns

• Ensuring security of ‘moderate’ Arab regimes

• Containing terrorism

• Containing Islamic fundamentalism

• Promoting democracy and human rights

Barbary Wars: Key Figures

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson

• presidents during Barbary Wars

Barbary Wars: what

The Barbary states (Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli) demanded tribute from the U.S.

American ships no longer had British protection

Barbary states benefited from pirates who would unofficially attack U.S. ships for them

U.S. realized importance of having a strong navy

First major U.S. conflict with MidEast

Other early interactions with MidEast

Religious missions: Christian missionaries traveled from U.S. to MidEast, performing education, aid, and ministry. Dr. Daniel Bliss, of Amherst College, founded what would later become one of the most prestigious universities in the MidEast, the American University at Beirut

Mark Twain: traveled to MidEast, thought missionaries were annoying. Wrote Innocents Abroad to satirically discourage Americans from visiting MidEast. Responsible inventing some of the first imaginative geographies of the MidEast that were featured in American pop culture.

Early figures in MidEast

Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson: presidents during Barbary Wars

Dr. Daniel Bliss: founder of American University at Beirut

Mark Twain: traveled to Palestine, wrote Innocents Abroad

David Porter: first U.S. envoy to Constantinople

James Longstreet: was nearly bankrupted while serving as Minister Resident to Ottoman Empire

When did Jewish immigrants begin entering the U.S.?

Late 1800s, early 1900s, primarily fluttering pogroms and persecution in Eastern Europe

Who was Leon Pinsker?

A Jewish man from Eastern Europe, writer of Auto-Emancipation, one of the founders of Zionism; argued that Jewish people would always be seen as foreigners outside of a Jewish homeland. His ideas failed to catch on.

Who was Theodor Herzl?

Western European Jewish man, journalist. Covered an antisemitic scandal and became disenchanted with non-Jewish European Society. Made many of the same arguments as Leon Pinsker in The Jewish State. His ideas caught on, and several organizations were founded advocating for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

Personally lobbied several governments for a Jewish state. Got close with Britain, then died of stress.

World War I

Balfour Declaration issued by Great Britain: a letter indicating England’s support for a Jewish homeland

• Arthur James Balfour: issued declaration

• Chaim Weizmann: advocated for declaration

Became obsolete in inter-war period

Woodrow Wilson

Idealistic, progressive, believes in cooperation, peace, and self-determination (tho a virulent racist domestically)

Edward M. House: advisor to Wilson, wanted to play “both sides” of Zionist question

U.S. publically declared support for Balfour Declaration while he was president

Saw Britain & France going to implement Sykes-Picot agreement post WWI, sent out King Crane Commission

King Crane Commission: found that there would be no way to successfully implement a Jewish state without violating the rights of indigenous people; findings disregarded by basically everyone

Sykes-Picot

Post WWI: Britain promised land to both Arabs and Jewish people. Lied to both of them.

Instead divvied up land with France in Sykes-Picot agreement.

Four approaches according to Spiegel

Systems: We react to the whims and wildness of global systems with our foreign policy; we prioritize security, thus explaining consistency

Bureaucratic-organizational: U.S. govt. is giant bureaucracy – State Dept., Congress, various agencies, etc. Behaves like a stable, albeit slow, organization, thus explaining consistency

Pluralist: U.S. policy captured by outside interests like lobbyists, the media, academia, corporate interests. Americans across the political spectrum have been captured, thus explaining consistency

Presidential elite: American foreign policy can best be explained by examining the motives, wants, and ideals of the President and his closest advisors. U.S. politics are broadly center-right and most Americans have the same opinion on the MidEast – this extends to presidents, thus explaining consistency

Which approach is best, according to Spiegel?

Presidential elite. If there are constraints on the President, it’s just because the President feels like there are. Who’s going to stop the President, after all? The courts don’t get involved in foreign policy, and Congress has little foreign policy power compared to the President.

Examples: Reagan & AWACs purchase, Eisenhower & Suez crisis

• Reagan motivated by ruthless pursuit of money, Eisenhower motivated by respect for international law

April Glaspie

Top Arabist. Ambassador to Iraq. Met with Saddam Hussein, reinterated the U.S.’ formal position on Arab-Arab conflicts: “We have no opinion.”

Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Glaspie blamed. Much of the blame was misogynistic in nature.

Kaplan: Glaspie’s biggest fault was her pro-Arab sentiments, which all Arabists hold. It’s not because she was a woman; any Arabist could have done this. Also the fault of the executive branch for not issuing her new orders or policy – it looked like things were heating up but the President was silent

Bring in other perspective (the Arabist, can’t remember his name): Not Glaspie’s fault, she was just doing her job, which is to serve as the President’s mouthpiece.

Congressional Veto

Bureaucratic Organizational approach: Congress has Congressional Veto, which gives Congress the ultimate say

Counter: It has been overcome many times, and no presidents have actually ever recognized its legitimacy – and presidents have as much power as they imagine. Reagan also overcame the veto by personally pressuring members of Congress to vote in his favor during the AWACs deal with Saudi Arabia. It’s also relatively easy for presidents to throw their weight around to persuade members of their own party to vote how they want. After all, who wants to be on the President’s bad side?

Today, Congressional Veto basically dead after INS v. Chadha; it hasn’t been used in recent years at all.

OPEC

Oligopoly, controls oil prices

Bernard Louis

Famous Orientalist, beef with Edward Said

Martin Kramer

Critical of Arabists & academics, argued their attachments to Arab cultures & nations made them not impartial, we do not understand the MidEast

Hollywood

Exodus film, several documentaries & films about Israel, especially when it was first born, drumming up support for the new nation; no major Hollywood films with Palestinian perspective

Presidential doctrines

All Cold War doctrines very similar, but I think because of presidential personal attachments (capitalists), not because of Systems approach

Creation of Israel

President Truman; sympathetic to Zionists but annoyed by lobbyists, persuaded by friend Eddie Jacobsen. Big debate in UN: Res. 181 – to partition or not? Break over Thanksgiving, Truman exerts U.S. power and pushes it thru, partitioning Palestine and beginning the first Arab-Israeli war; following the war, Palestine loses even more land

U S. presidents have habits of utilizing UN to see out their own ends

Truman Admin

Pro-Partition: David Niles (advisor), Eleanor Roosevelt, Max Lowenthal (advisor), Clark Clifford (advisor), Eddie Jacobsen (personal friend)

Anti-Partition: George Marshall (sec. of state), Loy Henderson, James Forestall – state dept.