The US Role: From Truman to Biden

From Recognition to Alliance

The United States recognized Israel eleven minutes after its declaration of independence on May 14, 1948, making it the first country to do so. President Harry Truman's decision was driven by a mix of humanitarian sympathy for Holocaust survivors, domestic political calculations (the Jewish vote in key states), and Cold War positioning. His own State Department had advised against recognition, fearing it would alienate Arab states and their oil.

The US-Israel relationship was not always as close as it is today. In the 1950s, President Eisenhower forced Israel to withdraw from the Sinai after the 1956 Suez Crisis, siding with Egypt and against America's own allies Britain and France. The special relationship truly solidified after the 1967 war, when Israel's military prowess made it an attractive strategic asset in the Cold War. US military aid began flowing in large quantities under Nixon and has continued ever since.

By the 1970s, the US had become Israel's primary diplomatic protector. It used its UN Security Council veto to shield Israel from critical resolutions — over 50 vetoes on Israel-related resolutions since 1970. It also became the dominant mediator in the peace process, brokering the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt (1978) and later facilitating the Oslo process (1993).

The Peace Process Era

Every US president from Carter to Obama attempted some form of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, with varying levels of commitment and success.

Jimmy Carter brokered the Camp David Accords (1978), achieving peace between Israel and Egypt — the first Arab state to recognize Israel. The Palestinian dimension was addressed only vaguely.

George H.W. Bush convened the Madrid Conference (1991) after the Gulf War and applied real pressure on Israel, withholding loan guarantees over settlement expansion. This led to the election of Rabin and the Oslo process.

Bill Clinton invested heavily in the Oslo process and hosted the Camp David 2000 summit. Clinton's parameters, presented in December 2000, remain the most detailed American peace proposal ever offered.

George W. Bush was the first US president to explicitly call for a Palestinian state (in 2002) but did little to advance it, focusing instead on the 'war on terror' and largely deferring to Ariel Sharon's unilateral approach.

Barack Obama attempted to restart negotiations and gave a landmark speech in Cairo calling for a freeze on settlements. He clashed repeatedly with Prime Minister Netanyahu but ultimately signed the largest military aid package in history ($38 billion over 10 years) in 2016. In a final act, the Obama administration allowed UN Security Council Resolution 2334, condemning settlements, to pass by abstaining rather than vetoing.

Trump, Biden, and the Shifting Landscape

Donald Trump broke dramatically with decades of bipartisan consensus. He recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved the US embassy there (2017), recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights (2019), declared that settlements were 'not necessarily illegal,' and released a 'Peace to Prosperity' plan (2020) that would have given Israel sovereignty over all settlements and the Jordan Valley while offering Palestinians a fragmented entity with limited sovereignty. The plan was developed without Palestinian input and was rejected by the PA. Trump also brokered the Abraham Accords normalizing relations between Israel and several Arab states, bypassing the Palestinian issue.

Joe Biden restored some traditional positions — reaffirming support for a two-state solution and reopening a US consulate for Palestinian affairs — but did not reverse Trump's Jerusalem embassy move or Golan Heights recognition. The Biden administration's response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack and subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza dominated his final year in office, generating intense domestic and international debate about US complicity in the humanitarian catastrophe.

The US role in the conflict is defined by a fundamental tension: America is simultaneously Israel's closest ally and military patron AND the primary mediator expected to be an honest broker between Israelis and Palestinians. Palestinians and much of the international community view this as an inherent contradiction. US domestic politics — including the influence of pro-Israel lobbying organizations like AIPAC, evangelical Christian Zionism, and a growing progressive movement critical of Israeli policy — ensure that the conflict remains a significant issue in American politics.