Israel and Reagan: Looking Ahead

Abstract

.here have been two previous times in U.S.-Israeli relations when Republican presidents took over the responsibility of governing from Democratic administrations: in 1953, when Dwight David Eisenhower succeeded Harry S. Truman, and in 1969, when Richard M. Nixon replaced Lyndon Baines Johnson. Longtime pro-Israeli activists in Washington are recalling those earlier shifts in the wake of Ronald Reagan's smashing landslide over President Jimmy Carter. They are hoping that Reagan will honor his ringing series of supportive commitments made to Israel during the course ofthe long campaign. But native cynicism, resulting from often bitter experience, is tempering any overly glowing sense that U.S.-Israeli ties will now be set on a perfect