Dwight Eisenhower

Jason Maoz, senior editor of The Jewish Press, describes President Eisenhower’s relationship with Israel as ” irritable ambivalence straining for proper cordiality.” Eisenhower was horrified by the Holocaust, but said he would not have supported the creation of Israel if he had been president in 1948. However, once the state had been established he was committed to supporting it.

During Eisenhower’s term a few incidents strained the relationship between the US and Israel: the Jordan River irrigation project, an accidental killing of Arabs in Qibya, and the Suez War. Gradually the relationship became tension-free and mildly friendly, but Eisenhower’s administration was never a true friend of Israel.

Maoz begins his article by stating that Obama’s position on Israel is similar to Eisenhower’s and that this represents a large step back in US-Israel relations. Surely he wants to be proven wrong.

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