re. cold war lens...
eisenhower administration's relations - particularly during first term - with israel were a bit testy, the prez himself questioned truman's decision to recognize the israeli state, some of his advisers thought being too-close to israel might be a liability, ike pressured israel to withdraw from the sinai peninsula following '56 war...
eisenhower by no means abandoned israel and, in fact, began to sow seeds of what would become the 'special relationship' during his second term, decision to do so was based on early success of pro-israel congressional lobby that emerged around sinai situation *and* changing perception about necessity of anti-soviet arab unity...
dulles told arab states they had to choose sides, resulting eisenhower doctrine of 'protecting' arab states from 'communist aggression' wedded u.s. to supporting regimes no less oppressive than those it has opposed
u.s./israeli 'special relationship' did not really begin until '67, direct result of conscious decision in aftermath of 'six day war', the quick success of this israel 'pre-emptive' strike - act of aggression that international relations types euphemistically call 'preventive war' - convinced u.s. policy elites of israel's abiliity to serve as regional deputy...
vietnam war costs led u.s. to consider the use of such deputies to police "radical nationalist" states, while israel was principal u.s. middle east surrogate, egypt became increasingly important as it reversed course from soviets to u.s. during the '70s...
shah pahlavi's iran was u.s. surrogate as well, purpose was to check 'radical' iraq, block soviet overland access to region, police oil-rich persian gulf...
algerian/bahrain/kuawaiti/saudi arabian regimes have had u.s. support to repress domestic popular movements, u.s. regional domination is domination sustained by relations with a handful of elites... mh