The Policy of the United States toward Israel regarding the Arab-Israeli Dispute over the Jordan River Water from 1953 to 1964

This paper examines the US response to Israel's water development policy in the context of general US foreign policy regarding Israel between the years 1953 and 1964. During this period, the American perception of Israel changed from that of "a burden and a hindrance to US interests" to a country deserving "special relationship". The paper begins with a review of the substantial literature dealing with American Israeli relationship in general as well as with waterdevelopment in Israel and the Jordan basin. The core of the inquiry is the examination of State Department records. This enables tracing the change in the American perception considering theappropriate policy for water development in the Jordan basin. Israeli diplomatic records from the State of Israel Archive are scrutinized in order to see the impact of this perception in the diplomatic activity between the two states.

Most researches point to two factors, shared values and shared strategic interests, as explaining the tightening of ties between the U.S. to Israel. The cultural factor is based on the connection between two democratic states sharing western secular values, a connection bolstered by the role played by the US Jewish community, which favors close ties between the states. The strategic factor is the result of Israel's situation as a regional power, committed to the West, in a Middle Eastern geopolitical arena in which other actors do not share that commitment.

The novelty in this paper is in presenting two additional factors that played a role in theestablishment of special relations between the US and Israel. The first one was Israel's compliance with norms of development of the frontier region perceived by the US to be "right" according to American norms. The second was Jerusalem’s acceptance of the conditionsimposed by Washington on the form of Israel’s development policy. These two additional factors were paramount in the establishment of the American commitment to Israel.