ROSS: An arms embargo, in fact, and even threats during Suez to expel Israel from the U.N. The best example of that is Eisenhower in the 1950s, who went out of his way to distance from Israel. Those that did it actually never gained with the Arabs. So you've had administrations who felt they had distance themselves from the Israelis. ROSS: I think there's a tendency to believe that somehow, our relationship with the Arabs depends on what our relationship with Israel is. What, typically, is that misunderstanding? SIEGEL: In your telling of the ups and downs of U.S.-Israeli relations, you frequently see misunderstandings in Washington about what Arab states will do as opposed to what they might say they will do.
The last thing you need at a time when the region is really unraveling, the state system is under assault, there's a conflict over basic identity is for us to have a problem with the Israelis, who represent the one country in the region that is really based on institutions, separation of powers and independent judiciary and the like. I think when they meet on November 9, they will try to mend fences because the region is in such turmoil. I think they will try to keep the relationship within bounds.
It's, I think, mostly a function of the two not really trusting each other.
The relationship between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu is not a close one. ROSS: Well, this is certainly not a high point in terms of those relations. What is the current state of U.S.-Israeli relations in your view? SIEGEL: Your book is called "Doomed To Succeed," the irony being that, as you see it, U.S.-Israeli relations are very close despite lots of foreign policy establishment thinking that close ties to Israel are detrimental to U.S.
After a career working on Mideast policy in several administrations and many years trying to mediate a Middle East peace, Dennis Ross has written a book about U.S.-Israeli relations, and he joins us now.
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