Inside US-Israel Diplomacy from Truman to Today

What you'll do in this course:

• Learn directly from collections at the American Jewish Archives and Cincinnati Art Museum
• Explore ongoing news and media reporting on US-Israel relations
• Analyze and contextualize contemporary US-Irael relationship in depth through a historical lens

Try this course if you:

• Are interested in the evolving state of US-Israel relations
• Want to get hands-on experience working with archival materials

The ties between the United States and Israel are often described as a "special relationship." Interestingly, however, while the leaders of both countries routinely reference "shared values," "mutual interests," and a "commitment to democracy" as the foundation of US-Israel relations, the two countries do not have a formal alliance. Indeed, as the historical record demonstrates, relations between the two countries--notwithstanding a series of US-Israel bilateral agreements--have been and continue to be punctuated by significant divergences and differences.

The aim of this course is to explore the evolution of US-Israel relations from the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 to the present day. Owing to the geopolitical context of interactions between the US and Israel (past and present), much of the course is organized around key moments of crisis and transformation. We will also consider case studies that allow us to take a deep dive into opportunities, controversies, and tensions that have influenced and shaped US-Israel relations.

It is also important to explain what this course is not. It is not a course on the Middle East, the Israel-Arab conflict, or the peace process. In the foreground is the bilateral relationship between the United States and Israel; the Arab states and the Palestinians, and their own complex relations with American society, are part of the broader context but they are not our focus. For this reason, too, our primary interest is the perspectives of Americans and Israelis. Other perspectives will be factored into our discussions as warranted.

The course utilizes interdisciplinary scholarship and underscores the value of varied intellectual and methodological approaches to the subject matter through lectures, discussions, assigned readings, films, in-class activities, and field trips. We will study a variety of primary texts (archival documents, visual images, vintage recordings, historic newspapers), secondary literature (analytic materials), and key works of fiction (short stories, TV shows, cinema).