Since the 1960s, the United States has been a very strong supporter of Israel. It has played a key role in the promotion of good relations between Israel and its neighbouring Arab states, namely Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, along with several others in the 2020 Abraham Accords, while also holding off hostilities from other Middle Eastern nations such as Syria and Iran. Relations with Israel are a very important factor in the U.S. government's overall foreign policy in the Middle East, and the U.S. Congress has likewise placed considerable importance on the maintenance of a close and supportive relationship.
Since 1985, the United States has provided nearly US$3 billion in annual grants to Israel, which has been the largest recipient of annual American aid from 1976 to 2004 and the largest cumulative recipient of aid ($146 billion, not inflation-adjusted) since World War II; approximately 74 percent of these funds are spent on the purchases of American goods and services. More recently, in fiscal year 2019, the United States provided Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid. Israel also benefits from around $8 billion in American loan guarantees. While the United States has disbursed significant financial aid for Israel in the past, the primary form of American aid for Israel at present is military-oriented (see Israel–United States military relations) rather than economic.
In addition to financial and military aid, the United States also provides large-scale political support to Israel, having used its United Nations Security Council veto power 42 times against resolutions condemning Israel, out of a total 83 times in which its veto has ever been used. Between 1991 and 2011, out of the 24 vetoes invoked by the United States, 15 were used to protect Israel.
Bilateral relations have evolved from an initial American policy of sympathy and support for the creation of a Jewish homeland in 1948, to a partnership that links a small but powerful Israeli state with an American superpower attempting to balance influence against other competing interests in the region, namely those of Russia and its allies. Some analysts maintain that Israel is a strategic ally for the United States, and that relations with the former will strengthen the latter's influence in the Middle East. Israel is designated by the United States as a major non-NATO ally, and was the first country to be granted this status alongside Egypt in 1987; Israel and Egypt remain the only countries in the Middle East to have this designation. Jesse Helms, an American senator with the Republican Party, referred to Israel as "America's aircraft carrier in the Middle East" when explaining why the United States viewed Israel as such a strategic ally, saying that the military foothold offered by Israel in the region alone justified the American military aid and grants to it every year. As of 2021, the United States remains the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to have recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and moved its embassy to the disputed city from Tel Aviv in 2018. The United States is also the only country to have recognized the Golan Heights (designated as Israeli-occupied Syrian territory by the United Nations) as non-occupied Israeli sovereign territory, doing so via a presidential proclamation under the Trump administration in 2019. However, under the subsequent Biden administration, the U.S. State Department’s annual report on human rights violations around the world once more refers to the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as being territories occupied by Israel. Nevertheless, in June 2021, in response to a claim by The Washington Free Beacon that it had "walked back" its recognition, the Near Eastern Affairs account of the U.S. State Department tweeted that "U.S. policy regarding the Golan has not changed, and reports to the contrary are false.”
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