US stops aid to Isreal following the attack on the U.S.S Liberty

What would be the effects of the US cutting of aid to Israel after 34 sailors were killed in an attack on the U.S.S Liberty?
What are the effects on the Israelis?
Any effects on US politics?
I wonder if a stronger response to an attack on a US intelligence ship would effect later incidents like the Pueblo?
 
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What would be the effects of the US cutting of aid to Isreal after 34 sailors were killed in an attack on the U.S.S Liberty?

Little.
Israel's prime ally was at that time France. Relations between USA and Israel were distant, and the aid to Israel from from USA was almost entirely not state aid but money from private persons. Remember Suez war 1956 - when USA pretty much threatened to militarily support Egypt against Israel/France/UK if these don't back off? Yes it was THAT frosty. At the same time France and Israel had joint nuclear programs.

If France didn't make the economically-based decision to abandon it's alliance with Israel 1967 (it still haunts them), The US/Israel relations would at best stay sililar to US/Irish relations - USA would stay for Israel a rather indifferent distant country where a few millions of sympatisants happen to live.
 
I'm curious as to how it would change our Mideast policy. We wouldn't be as beholden to Israel as we have been for a long time. (We'd be still involved in the peace process, but about as much as in other conflicts' peace processes...) We'd still be involved in other Mideast Conflicts, thanks to FDR (Saudi Oil agreements), Carter (Carter Doctrine) and Reagan (Reagan Doctrine), but we would take a more even-handed approach to Israel.
The biggest change would be the US not using its veto power in the UNSC to stop resolutions critical of Israel. This could lead to greater international pressure on Israel, and Israel's policies may change as a result...
 
I'm guessing the US stops aid because Isreal isn't a real country?


It's Israel, my friend. A typo is one thing, but constantly typing Isreal in your posts is annoying.
 
I'm guessing the US stops aid because Isreal isn't a real country?

But it says it Is Real...right there in the name! :p


I'm curious: assuming the incident leads to the US never adopting Israel as their chosen ally in the area, does the US end up closer to Egypt? Other? How does US ME-policy steer now? Is the US no longer the chosen "great satan" or will other policy choices (the Shah/Iran) simply give different reasons for hating us?
 
Would animosity with the Arab world be more connected to the status of many of these nations as Soviet clients?
Perhaps earlier and deeper animosity between the US and Bathist states like Syria and Iraq?
 

The Vulture

Banned
Dropping Israel in favor of Egypt might potentially have huge butterflies. A fair number of people who became radical extremists OTL might come to see the US as a benefactor state.

This might even butterfly away Osama bin Laden founding Al-Qaeda (or at least attacking the United States) and result in domestic terrorism becoming a bogeyman for the US.
 
What I think would be most interesting is that if the USA decides to become allies with an Arab state, then what happens when France drops Israel? They may turn to their good friends at the USSR...
 
This wouldn't butterfly away OBL (who was mad about the US's basing troops in Saudi Arabia and the US Sanctions on Iraq, as well as its support of Israel) or butterfly Iran's distrust for the USA (they hate us for propping up the Shah and overthrowing Mossadeq).
 
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