Gates Assures Israel that Arms Sale to Saudis is in their Best Interest

Defense Secretary Robert Gates traveled to Israel recently and was the first American defense secretary to do so in eight years. He discussed the American plan to sell arms to Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Persian Gulf. Israel is concerned about these countries having greater military strength; the U.S. has been selling sophisticated arms to Israel for years, but has not yet sold sophisticated arms to the Saudis. Gates assured Israeli leadership that America would continue their strong support of the Israeli military, but also told them “that they ‘needed to take into consideration the overall strategic environment’ in the Middle East and that Russia and other countries might sell arms to Persian Gulf countries if the United States did not” reported the New York Times. The negotiations with Iran to stop their nuclear proliferation would be more difficult without support from countries such as Saudi Arabia, and Americans are attempting to gain favor with them while possible.

Gates cited a concern that Israelis would “turn to its allies in Congress to block the sale,” which could lead to another power struggle over foreign policy between the executive and the legislative. Support for Israel has traditionally been bipartisan and the specific policies for supporting Israel by both the legislative and the executive branches has yielded relatively little tension, especially when both branches were run by the same party. In this case, however, the Congress and the President differ on how best to support Israel.

In contrast to Speaker Pelosi’s recent trip to Damascus, it is Congress that would be taking a harder line against the Arab world than the uncharacteristically conciliatory Bush administration. This perhaps stems from the Bush administration’s ties to Saudi oil. Much like the Reagan administration’s arms sale to Syria in the 1980s, this episode shows that defense revenues (not unconditional support for Israel) lies at the heart of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.