The passionate attachment

In his Farewell Address, George Washington admonished his fellow citizens to steer clear of a "passionate attachment" to another nation, as such could create "the illusion of a common interest ... where no common interest exists." This warning echoes through the pages of this unflinching examination of our four-decade entanglement in the web of Middle East politics. The distinguished authors here trace the sequence of events that brought the United States into a relationship unique in its history, with its foreign policy often manipulated by another, much smaller nation. The costs have been financial: American aid to Israel well exceeds the total of U.S. payments to reconstruct postwar Europe. The costs have been political and moral: denouncing arms sales as destabilizing to the Middle East, the United States has poured weapons into Israel; while championing national self-determination, the United States has failed to do anything effective to halt Israel's colonization of the West Bank. Israeli forbearance from entering the Gulf War in 1991 and thereby undoing the coalition of Arab States put together by the Bush administration further intensified our passionate attachment. To achieve a durable settlement in an area beset by age-old disputes, the authors call for an end to our unquestioned acquiescence in Israeli action and a broadened role for collective security.