Arms Transfers to Israel – The Strategic Logic Behind American Military Assistance

This book dispels two common myths about the US-Israeli patron-client relationship: that arms transfers to Israel have been motivated by US domestic politics rather than national interests, and that these arms transfers have come without any political strings attached to them. The first part of the book describes and analyzes the institutionalization of the US-Israeli arms pipeline during the Johnson administration, demonstrating conclusively in the process that arms transfers to the Jewish state were based primarily on US national interests. The second part of the book consists of four case studies that clearly reveal that US arms transfers to Israel, whether in wartime or in peacetime, have always come with a diplomatic price tag attached to them. The book is based largely on US government documents from the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series, from the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, and from the US National Archives.