US-Israel ties ‘unshakeable’

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has said the US has an unshakeable and unbreakable bond with Israel.
 
Her statement comes after more than a week of strife between the two allies. An Israeli diplomat had described US-Israeli relations as at a 35 year low.
 
Last week, Joe Biden, the US vice-president was embarrassed during his visit to Israel when the Israeli government announced plans for 1,600 more settler homes to be built on occupied land in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
 
Both Clinton and Biden had issued strong statements condemning Israel’s latest actions and suggested they could inflame tensions further.
 
But Hillary Clinton has said since that US-Israeli relations are not in crisis and they had “a close unshakeable bond.”

An US military report to their senior command said that there was a growing perception among Arab leaders that the US was incapable of standing up to Israel, that CENTCOM’s mostly Arab constituency was losing faith in American promises, and that Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardising US standing in the region.

With the US top brass speaking out, can they tip the balance as the pro-Israel lobby sends a mixed-message?

Presenter Nick Clark is joined by Daniel Levy, a senior fellow and co-director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation, Ezzedine Choukri Fishere, a professor of International Politics at the American University in Cairo, and Scott Carpenter from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

This episode of Inside Story aired on Wednesday, March 17, 2010.