Israel Bartal on U.S.-Israeli Relations

Israel Bartal on U.S.-Israeli Relations

On Monday April 25, 2016, Professor Israel Bartal met with students and faculty in an event run by the International Studies Program and the International Studies Leadership Committee. Professor Bartal is the Avraham Harman Professor (Emeritus) of Jewish History, and the former Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2006-2010). He also served as the Chair of the Historical Society of Israel (2007-2015). Professor Bartal taught at Harvard, McGill, University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers, as well as at Moscow State University. This semester, Spring 2016, he is teaching The Emergence of Israel at Johns Hopkins University.

In his talk, Professor Bartal specifically addressed U.S.-Israel relations of the post-war period from 1948 until 1963. Within this time frame, Israel had known Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, as well as a short interim with Moshe Sharett, while the United States had seen three presidents: Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. Ambassador Michael Oren, Israeli Ambassador to the United States from 2009-2013, said three things were important for Israel: power, faith, and fantasy. Professor Bartal added his own fourth component to Ambassador Oren’s list: historical contextualization.

One of Professor Bartal’s main points was that the United States misread the Israeli situation because the U.S. viewed it as unique, causing Israel to be singled out. The imperial disintegration of the early twentieth century lead to the emergence of smaller nation-states such as Greece and Serbia. Many believe that Israel did not follow this trend, but Bartal argued that Israelis are a people of the diaspora like other ethnic nations, but unlike countries such as Syria, Iraq, and Jordan, which have never been considered their own ethnic nations prior to their creation.

Until the 1970s, Israel was not considered an asset in American foreign policy. Professor Bartal emphasized this fact in his talk, especially when he discussed U.S.-USSR-Israeli relations during this time. He specifically mentions that the United States did not always staunchly support the creation of a Jewish state, as it needed the support of Arab nations during World War II. Bartal also mentions the fact that the USSR was selling weapons to Israel through Czechoslovakia throughout this time of American distancing, and that there was strong Zionist Socialist sentiment in the early Israeli movement.

The most important point Professor Bartal made repeatedly in his talk was that in order to understand how the U.S.-Israel relationship has changed over time, it is important not only to understand the side of the great power, but to also understand the perspective of the small nation. Small powers are not always granted the same leeway that large powers are permitted. Big powers can afford to be weak, Bartal said, but for smaller powers it is better to be able to defend oneself against enemies then be passive against aggression.