What does Israel want from the United States and for how long?

Early in February, JINSA took Gen. John Foss, USA (ret.), Lt. Gen. Anthony Burshnick, USAF (ret.) and Maj. Gen. Jarvis Lynch, USMC (ret.) – all of the Advisory Board – on a brief, very intense trip to Israel. With the help of Uzi Landau and Yuval Steinitz in the Knesset, and the Israeli Embassy in Washington as well as the Foreign and Defense Ministries, they met with political figures from the government and the opposition, as well military officials and academics.

Early in February, JINSA took Gen. John Foss, USA (ret.), Lt. Gen. Anthony Burshnick, USAF (ret.) and Maj. Gen. Jarvis Lynch, USMC (ret.) – all of the Advisory Board – on a brief, very intense trip to Israel. With the help of Uzi Landau and Yuval Steinitz in the Knesset, and the Israeli Embassy in Washington as well as the Foreign and Defense Ministries, they met with political figures from the government and the opposition, as well military officials and academics.

In their official statement, the JINSA Advisors noted that a secure and durable peace between Israel and Syria would benefit both countries as well as the U.S., and that the best agreements are those based on trust between the parties. Since that appears impossible in this case, the U.S. has been asked to bridge gaps between Israel and Syria. Such a role for the United States will likely have long-term implications for U.S.-Israel bilateral security relations, some of which could be negative. The JINSA group was in Israel to discuss the implications of any Israeli request for large-scale and long-term American commitments of money, technology, arms and/or personnel. Hence the question, “What does Israel want from the United States, and for how long?”

Crucial points involved the potential use of American personnel. [Most Israelis used the terms “troops,” “monitors,” and “peacekeepers” almost interchangeably. When told the U.S. has no “peacekeepers” as such, but assigns combat soldiers to a peacekeeping role within a military chain of command (Bosnia and Kosovo), several people expressed surprise.] There were spirited discussions about the nature of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Would a formal alliance be appropriate or beneficial? Would America’s “special relationship” with Israel suffer if the U.S. acted as an honest broker with Syria? How would an American presence in the Golan differ from the Sinai – and is the fact that the Sinai MFO remains there after 19 uneventful years an indicator of how long a deployment in the Golan might last? Potential U.S.-Syrian relations; Lebanon; Iran and Iraq; Turkey; and the Palestinians were also on the table.

The group met with Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh; Director General of the Ministry of Defense Amos Yaron,; Chairman of the Likud Party Ariel Sharon; and spoke with military intelligence officials. The Knesset meetings included the Golan Caucus and separate meetings with Natan Sharansky (Minister of the Interior and head of Yisrael Ba’aliya Party), Dan Meridor (Center Party), Moshe Arens (Likud Party), Naomi Chazan (Meretz Party), Yitzhak Mordecai (former Defense Minister, now Minister of Transportation and head of the Center Party), and Tommy Lapid (Shinui Party). MK Yuri Shtern (Yisrael Beytenu Party) arranged a session with a cross-section of Russian immigrants, including academics, politicians and journalists. Prof. Ephraim Inbar arranged the closing session at the BESA Center at Bar Ilan University, bringing together academics, military professionals, diplomats from a variety of countries, and journalists.