Reagan, Realism, and the Roots of Strategic Cooperation with Israel

In this episode of Reaganism, host Roger Zakheim sits down with Dr. Daniel Samet who is the George P. Shultz Fellow at the Ronald Reagan Institute, and the author of the new book, U.S. Defense Policy toward Israel: A Cold War History. The conversation explores the core thesis of Dr. Samet’s book, which directly challenges the claims made in John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s The Israel Lobby. Rather than attributing U.S. Middle East policy to undue influence by a pro-Israel lobby, Dr. Samet argues that American defense policy toward Israel has been driven primarily by national interest and strategic considerations—particularly during the Cold War.

Drawing from extensive archival research, Dr. Samet finds that lobbying efforts appear rarely in the historical record. Instead, U.S. presidents from Truman through Reagan made decisions based on national security, geopolitical strategy, and the containment of the Soviet Union.