Abstract

The origins of the relationship of the United States to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict emerge in the immediate aftermath of World War II. At the end of the war, Americans were publicly focused on the Holocaust and Jews in the European displaced persons’ camps and on the waning British role in Palestine. There was a fundamental dichotomy in American attitudes towards the emerging conflict in the region. The public and Congress were generally more sympathetic towards the Zionist movement. The government, especially the national security bureaucracy (National Security Council, Defense and State departments, and the intelligence community), on the whole saw the nascent dispute in the context of American policy towards the Arabs and even the Muslim world.