Doomed to Succeed

July 27, 2015
One of the world’s strongest alliances emerged through fractiousness and misunderstanding, according to this insightful history of American-Israeli relations by a noted participant observer. Ross (The Missing Peace), a diplomat and policy maker in several American administrations, surveys presidential policy toward Israel as it oscillated through warm spells under Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush, and cold snaps under Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Obama. Ross deftly explores the contingencies of this history, which hinged on personality clashes, the chaos of events, and the personal attitudes held by presidents, while stressing broader themes. One is the steady strengthening of the relationship as America came to view Israel as a partner against Soviet influence and terrorism, and as domestic political sentiment embraced Israel. A countervailing dynamic, the author contends, has been the persistent belief in the State Department and elsewhere that close ties to Israel would damage U.S. relations with Arab countries; his well-argued conclusion is that Arab leaders consistently place other priorities above the Palestinian issue and give America no credit for distancing itself from Israel, instead expecting still more concessions. Ross’s fluently written account includes colorful firsthand recollections of crises and diplomatic wranglings. Readers of all political persuasions will enjoy this fresh, contrarian analysis of America’s Middle East policy. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM Partners.

Starred review from July 15, 2015
A history of the sometimes-fraught, occasionally tense, but always essential relationship between the United States and Israel. Ross is not only a recognized expert on Middle Eastern affairs. He also worked in the George H.W. Bush State Department as director of policy planning and has served as Bill Clinton's Middle East Peace envoy and a special assistant to President Barack Obama. So when he writes about American politics in the Middle East, readers should pay attention. The author provides a largely dispassionate history of American policy toward Israel, from President Harry Truman, who was present at Israel's birth as a nation-state, to the seemingly contentious relationship the Obama administration has cultivated with Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel. Yet Ross sees more continuity than disjunction in the relationship between the two countries, especially after presidents Truman and Eisenhower struggled to find a way to reconcile Israel's place in both Middle Eastern and Cold War politics. For the author, when foreign policy has shifted slightly away from its most Israel-friendly moorings, the purpose has been a concern for relations with the rest of the region. Ross sees this approach as being both shortsighted and ineffective. Yet he also points out that Obama is hardly as hostile to Israeli interests as some have painted him, even while the tensions between the two countries seem to have heightened. Throughout this illuminating book, the author writes clearly and elucidates the complexities of not only the U.S.-Israel relationship, but of the larger Middle Eastern picture. He comes neither to bury nor praise the administrations in which he has worked or those in which he did not; as a consequence, readers will benefit from a front-row vantage point without encountering a myopic perspective. Ross provides a learned, wise template for understanding the long-term relationship between two countries tethered to one another out of shared self-interest and geopolitical necessity and yet with sometimes-conflicting senses of the way forward.

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October 1, 2015

Ross, a distinguished professor (Georgetown Univ.'s Walsh Sch. of Foreign Service), author (The Missing Peace), and U.S. government advisor or envoy in both Democratic and Republican administrations, traces the history of the U.S.-Israel relationship through each U.S. administration, from Presidents Harry Truman through Barack Obama. He asserts that administrations that have attempted to put some "daylight" between the United States and Israel in order to improve relations with the Arab world have misunderstood the dynamics of Middle East politics and failed to gain favor with Arab governments while undermining relations with Israel. Drawing both on his personal experience in a wide range of negotiations and the diaries and writings of other diplomats and historians, Ross makes a strong argument for basing U.S. foreign policy on the understanding that the governments in the area consider their own interests (foreign and domestic) in relations with the United States much more important than variations in U.S. support for Israel. He points to cases in which this country was better able to influence Israeli policy when the Israelis were confident of U.S. backing. VERDICT Of great interest to readers on Middle East policy.--Joel Neuberg, Santa Rosa Junior Coll. Lib., CA

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