First Name:
Tia
Last Name:
Joyce
Major Department:
History & Political Science
Thesis Director:
Rennie Brantz
Date of Thesis:
May 2014
The relationship between the United States and Israel has always been an interesting one, and one that has played a focal point in the foreign policy of many of the nation's presidents since Israel became an independent state. Often, US-Israeli policy has tended to fall along ideological lines. However, President George H. W. Bush broke this mold. His policy, which included working for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and territorial concessions by Israel in exchange for peace, was much more pragmatic than that of any other Republican president to occupy the White House during the lifetime of the State of Israel. President Bush had limited success in implementing his two major policy goals, as he realized while in office just how difficult it was to mediate between two factions that had essentially no common interests, particularly when the leaders of those two factions were hardcore conservatives whose definitions of the word "compromise" meant getting everything that they wanted without having to give up anything to the other side. Despite his inability to mediate a long-term peace settlement between the two sides, President Bush was successful in maintaining a relatively peaceful status quo between the Israelis and the Palestinians, a feat for which he should receive credit.