No country in the world is a closer ally to the United States than Israel, Michael Oren wrote author and Shalem Center senior fellow Michael Oren in the Wall Street Journal Wednesday. He noted that Israel is the only Middle East country where the American flag is not burned.
Oren wrote that before 1948, the United States government adopted a "hands-off" policy towards the Zionist dream of the re-establishment of a Jewish state. He said that former President Harry S. Truman ignored Israel in 1948 despite opposition from the State Department, which pressured him to slap an arms embargo in Israel during the War of Independence and force Israeli leaders to hand over more land to Arabs and re-admit Arabs who fled.
American anti-Israeli measures continued under most presidents, he wrote, until the Six-Day War in 1967 transformed Israeli into an asset to the United States. "The admiration which the U.S. inspires among Israelis is overwhelmingly reciprocated by Americans, more than 70 percent of whom, according to recent polls, favor robust ties with the Jewish state," Oren wrote.