Joining the conservative brotherhood: Israel, President Nixon, and the political consolidation of the ‘special relationship’, 1969–73NoamKochavi holds a Ph.D. in American history fromthe University of Toronto (1999). A Lecturer of international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he is the author of A Conflict Perpetuated: China Policy during the Kennedy Years (Praeger, 2002) and Conservative Partnership: Nixon and the

Abstract

This article analyzes an important turning point in US–Israeli relations – Nixon's shift in the direction of Israel. The article argues that the standard array of factors employed in the ‘special relationship’ discourse – namely, strategic partnership, a sense of shared values, and skillful practice of interest-group politics by Israel and its American Jewish champions – does not fully explain Nixon's shift. Another salient factor was Israel's manifest support of Nixon in the contexts he valued most, Vietnam and prevalence over political opposition at home. These Israeli policy choices assuaged Nixon's hitherto lingering suspicion that Israel was under the sway of his perceived domestic enemies. Moreover, these choices had important longer-term consequences, as they contributed to the new bond between Israel and the more conservative (and neo-conservative) segments of American society, a bond still much in evidence today.