America's Israel Policy Stuck on 1949

Ted Belman
American Thinker
19 December '10

American policy regarding the Arab/Israel conflict has not changed since the Armistice Agreement in 1949. U.S. policy has sought to achieve a holy balance in the conflict.

This policy had its origins in the tripartite U.S.-British-French declaration in 1950, against arms sales to either side. The Soviets exploited this policy to sell arms to the Arabs, and the French looked after their own interests when they supplied weapons to Israel, but the Americans preserved an outward appearance of egalitarianism.

So reported Haaretz in 2007 based on then-recently released documents.

Washington's support for the existence, independence and territorial integrity of all the states of the region was translated into adherence to the armistice lines of 1949: not to allow Egypt, or any combination of Arab states, to destroy Israel, but also not to allow Israel to expand westward, into Sinai, or eastward, into the West Bank. The American pressure in this regard brought the IDF back from El Arish in Operation Horev in 1949 and from Sinai in 1956. A version of it would appear in Henry Kissinger's directives after the IDF encircled Egypt's Third Army at the end of the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

America even had plans for intervention should intervention be needed to maintain their policy. In late May 1967, these plans were dusted off with the intention of updating them. But events unfolded so quickly that they had to be scrapped in favor of working as quickly as possible through the U.N. and Russia to establish a ceasefire.

(Read full "America's Israel Policy Stuck on 1949")

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