Ronald Reagan’s Mixed Record On Israel

Photo Credit: Saul Jay Singer

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) received the highest percentage of the Jewish vote of any Republican presidential candidate, before or since (39% in 1980). In particular, Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn voted overwhelmingly for him, the first time that the Jewish vote split along religious divides within the United States, and he is generally viewed as one of the most pro-Israel presidents in American history. While it is true that his strong personal support for Israel, the compatibility of the Reagan and Israeli perspectives on terrorism, security cooperation between the nations, and the Soviet threat, all led to dramatic improvements in bilateral relations between the United States and Israel – and, lest we forget, he was a regular columnist for The Jewish Press – Reagan’s record on the Jewish State was actually quite mixed.

As early as 1948, Reagan resigned from the Lakeside Country Club in Los Angeles because of its refusal to permit Jewish membership. As California governor (1967-1975), he was the featured speaker at a pro-Israel rally in the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles; he was instrumental in passing a law authorizing lending institutions to invest in Israel bonds; and otherwise was a vocal supporter of Israel. In this June 30, 1967 correspondence to Jim Newton of the Hamilton (Ohio) Journal-News, he writes:

Your words of support for my position on the conflict in the Middle East were greatly appreciated.

I think it is incredibly important that the United States recognize two things: The sovereignty of Israel and the fact that international communism is the real aggressor in the Middle East.

In this September 27, 1967 draft correspondence, which Reagan has edited and signed “RR,” the President writes to Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol:

This letter will introduce Mr. and Mrs. William French Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Holmes Tuttle, and Mr. and Mrs. Taft B. Schreiber. They are planning a trip to Jerusalem soon.

These gentlemen are prominent and respected business and community leaders as well as close personal friends of mine. [Reagan has crossed-out: “They are all respected citizens of California. Any courtesies which are extended to these visitors during their stay in your city, will be greatly appreciated.”]

Reagan’s handwritten final paragraph reads:

I have asked them to please convey my best wishes to you and to express the friendship and admiration so many of us feel for your nation & your people.

William French Smith (1917-1990) was an American lawyer and businessman who, after serving as Reagan’s personal attorney, was later appointed by Reagan as the 74^th Attorney General of the United States, a position he held from 1981-1985. At the time of this letter, Smith was director of the Pacific Lighting Corp. of Los Angeles (a position he held until 1981).

Holmes Tuttle (1906-1989) was a successful California businessman and automobile dealer who later headed President Reagan’s unofficial “Kitchen Cabinet” and screened potential nominees for cabinet positions in the Reagan administration.

Taft Schreiber (d. 1976) was a director and vice president of the powerful Music Corporation of America (MCA), who was Reagan’s Hollywood agent, his political mentor, and another member of his “Kitchen Cabinet.” Many commentators attribute Reagan’s transformation from a lifelong Democrat to a strong anti-big government Republican to Schreiber’s direct influence.

Levi Eshkol (1895-1969), Israel’s third Prime Minister, is perhaps best remembered for shepherding Israel through the Six-Day War. Though he had taken over the defense portfolio and played a key role in preparing the army for future wars, the public demanded on the eve of the Six-Day War that he either resign or cede the Defense Ministry to Moshe Dayan. Although he is given little credit, most of which went to Dayan and his generals, Eshkol’s careful preparation and able administration were responsible in large part for Israel’s incredible success in the War. Eshkol subsequently oversaw the re-unification of Jerusalem, the fresh wave of immigration, and the economic boom, before becoming the first Israeli Prime Minister to die in office.

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Likely motivated by his viewing the Arab-Israeli conflict through Cold War lenses, as president he routinely shielded Israel from international criticism, and his administration cast no less than 18 vetoes of U.N. resolutions critical of Israel, including nine resulting directly from the Security Council’s attempts to condemn Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Despite pressure from his own administration, he maintained grant aid to Israel at $3 billion annually and implemented a Free Trade Agreement (1985). Also in 1985, as a byproduct of Reagan’s meetings with USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev aimed at creating a thaw in the Cold War, conditions for the liberation of Ethiopian Jews improved, as they were rescued and brought to Israel in Operation Moses between November 19, 1984, and January 5, 1985, with some covert U.S. assistance.

Upon assuming office as an anti-Communist conservative, he strongly opposed the notion of a P.L.O. state and supported a militarily strong Israel as America’s most reliable Middle East ally. Within a few months of his election, however, he had altered his position and began to encourage “moderate” P.L.O. leaders toward possible autonomy and statehood.

Reagan soundly condemned Israel’s June 7, 1981 destruction of the atomic reactor at Osirak, Iraq, after Syria moved SAM missiles into the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. When Israel detected a buildup of heavy weaponry by the P.L.O. in southern Lebanon and bombed the P.L.O., Reagan halted the delivery of F-15 and F-16 planes to Israel even though they had already been paid for, and he rebuked Begin during the prime minister’s first U.S. visit (September 1981). Although he had criticized Carter’s selling arms to Saudi Arabia, Reagan, in a bitter and controversial move, proposed the sale of AWACS surveillance planes to the Saudis, causing a major confrontation with Israel. Israel and the United States signed a Memorandum of Strategic Cooperation, which Reagan summarily decided not to implement after the Knesset voted to extend Israeli law to the Golan Heights.

In the wake of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon on June 6, 1982, many White House advisors wanted Israel out of Lebanon as quickly as possible, and their views largely prevailed, as the United States joined in a U.N. Security Council resolution on June 6 that called for “unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces (paragraph 1) while calling (paragraph 2) for cessation of all cross-border attacks.” (However, in explaining its vote, the U.S. made clear in its explanation of its vote that “paragraphs 1 and 2 are inextricably linked… there can be no Israeli withdrawal before there is a cessation of all cross-border hostilities.”) In September 1982, he promulgated his “Reagan Plan,” which envisioned autonomy and self-government by the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in association with Jordan – and opened the final status of Jerusalem to negotiation – and, toward the end of his presidency in December 1988, he became the first president to authorize the U.S. to enter “substantive dialog” with Arafat and the P.L.O.

Re-elected by a record margin, Reagan continued his mixed record on Israel. Israel and the U.S. reached important agreements on strategic and defense cooperation, including Israel being granted “major non-NATO ally” status giving it access to expanded weapons systems and providing preferential treatment in bidding on DOD contracts.

After an unhappy Israeli government criticized Reagan for his recent decline in support of Israel, Defense Minister Yitzchak Rabin wrote the president in an attempt to ease tensions. In this May 29, 1985 correspondence on his Minister of Defense letterhead, Yitzchak Rabin writes to his correspondent:

I have no doubt that President Reagan is a strong and dependable friend of Israel and I am convinced that he has understood that our criticism was specially painful as the action was made by one of our greatest friends.

The lowlight of Reagan’s second term was almost certainly his visit to the German military cemetery in Bitburg, Germany in May 1985, where, accompanied by West German Chancellor Helmet Kohl, he paid homage to S.S. officers buried there. The trip, which followed a scheduled visit to Bergen-Belsen, was intended to commemorate the 40^th anniversary of the end of World War II, but it aroused considerable criticism from Jewish communities worldwide when it became known that 49 of the 2,000 German soldiers buried at the site had been members of the Waffen-SS. Ironically, the president, who viewed early raw footage of the liberation of the concentration camps, referred to this during his Yom HaShoah address in the White House in 1981.

In this June 27, 1985 correspondence of White House letterhead, Nancy Reagan writes to G.L. Rambo:

Thank you very much for your kind letter and words of support. The president and I are truly grateful, especially for your approval of our recent European trip.

We were confident that his visit to Bitburg was morally right, and feel that even more that the trip is over. Your letter strengthens our convictions.

Rambo (1912-2010) served in the U.S. Coast Guard (1942-1945), where he led the Coast Guard effort searching for enemy submarines and other enemy ships trying to drop off saboteurs along the Pacific Coast.

Exhibited here is an original newspaper photograph of President Regan presenting the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, to Middle East negotiator Philip Habib. Habib (1920-1992) was an American career diplomat who is considered to be one of the pre-eminent career diplomats in American post-war history. During his 30-year career as a Foreign Service Officer, he had mostly specialized in Asia but, in 1968, he became instrumental in halting the escalation of American involvement in Vietnam. However, he is perhaps best known for his work in the Middle East, including serving as President Carter’s chief negotiator between Egypt and Israel – in which capacity he is credited with convincing Begin and Sadat to meet with Carter at Camp David, which led to the signing of the Camp David Peace Accords on September 17, 1978 – and his work as President Reagan’s special envoy to the Middle East in 1981-83. After his retirement, however, it became abundantly clear that he carried a pronounced partiality against the Jewish State and, in particular, he manifested palpable disdain for Defense Minister Ariel Sharon.

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At its February 25, 1990 Los Angeles convocation, the American Friends of Tel Aviv University conferred an honorary doctorate upon President Reagan. Exhibited here is the complete January 1990 issue of Friends of Tel Aviv University magazine, signed and inscribed by Reagan: “To Rae Wilson / I enjoyed your Son’s joke,” signed “Ronald Wilson Reagan.” This is a particularly rare form of the president’s signature, as he only very rarely used his middle name (Wilson).

With over 30,000 students, Tel Aviv University (TAU) is Israel’s largest university. A public university located in the neighborhood of Ramat Aviv, it is a center of teaching and research, comprising 9 faculties, 27 schools, 98 departments and nearly 130 research institutes and centers.

TAU’s origins date back to 1956, when three independent research institutes – the Tel Aviv School of Law and Economics (established 1935), the Institute of Natural Sciences (established 1931), and the Institute of Jewish Studies – joined together to form TAU. Initially operated by the Tel Aviv municipality, the university was granted autonomy in 1963, and the 170-acre Ramat Aviv campus was established that same year. The university also maintains academic supervision over the Center for Technological Design in Holon, the New Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, and the Afeka College of Engineering in Tel Aviv.

In this April 20, 1982 correspondence to Rabbi Edgar Magnin, Reagan extends “mazel tov” on the 120^th anniversary of the Rabbi’s temple, Congregation B’nai B’rith (later, the “Wilshire Boulevard Temple”), and for the Temple being added to the National Register of Historic Places. The president also extends congratulations for the Temple sanctuary being named for Magnin.

Born in San Francisco to founders of the Magnin department store chain and ordained by the Hebrew Union College (1914), Rabbi Magnin (1890-1984) was considered “Rabbi to the Stars” who, over a long career, forged a Jewish identity for Los Angeles that joined pioneers and Hollywood moguls. Jewish Hollywood producers, mostly displaced New Yorkers with marginal religious interest, were attracted to Magnin’s image of a popular modern Judaism, and his 69-year tenure as rabbi of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple was characterized by his close ties to the motion picture and television industry; among the many life-cycle events he performed were the wedding of Norma Shearer and Irving Thalberg and funeral ceremonies for Adolph Zucker, Harry Cohn, Eddie Cantor, and Jack Benny. The guiding force behind the construction of the magnificent Wilshire Boulevard Temple, now a national historic monument, he was active in Los Angeles civic affairs and in interfaith dialogue; he participated in the inaugural ceremonies of Presidents Nixon and Reagan; he served on more than 20 executive boards and advisory councils; and he was a popular columnist for The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner for decades.

The Wilshire Boulevard Temple, founded in 1862 as Congregation B’nai B’rith, is the oldest Jewish congregation in Los Angeles. The Temple’s magnificent sanctuary, with its iconic dome and Warner Murals, contains the only depiction of human images in any synagogue in the world, and its immense Byzantine revival dome, a Los Angeles landmark since 1929, stands at 100 feet in diameter with its top 135 feet from the street. It was the grand vision of the building architect, A.M. Edelman, who was the son of the congregation’s first rabbi, Abraham Edelman, and funding for the dome’s interior decoration was donated by Irving Thalberg.

Rabbi Magnin foresaw the movement of the city, and especially its Jewish population, westward. In this, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple was both typical and prescient in anticipating the increased suburbanization of American Jewish life. Because the new synagogue was beyond the “car line,” it presaged L.A.’s near-total dependence on the automobile, an urban-suburban transformation that would affect most Jewish communities only after World War II.