Israel–United States relations

Since the 1960s, the United States has been a very strong supporter of Israel. It has played a key role in the promotion of good relations between Israel and its neighbouring Arab states—namely Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, along with several others in the 2020 Abraham Accords—while also holding off hostility from other Middle Eastern countries such as Syria and Iran. Relations with Israel are a very important factor in the U.S. government's overall foreign policy in the Middle East, and the U.S. Congress has likewise placed considerable importance on the maintenance of a close and supportive relationship.

Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid: until February 2022, the United States had provided Israel US$150 billion (non-inflation-adjusted) in bilateral assistance. In 1999, the US government signed a Memorandum of Understanding through which it committed to providing Israel with at least US$2.67 billion in military aid annually, for the following ten years; in 2009, the annual amount was raised to US$3 billion; and in 2019, the amount was raised again, now standing at a minimum of US$3.8 billion that the US is committed to providing Israel each year.

Since 1972, the United States has also extended loan guarantees – a form of indirect U.S. assistance to Israel, as they enable Israel to borrow from commercial US banks at lower rates – to Israel to assist with housing shortages, Israel's absorption of new Jewish immigrants and its economic recovery following the 2000–2003 recession, caused in part by the Second Intifada. Moreover, the United States is Israel's largest trading partner, and Israel is the United States' 25th-largest trading partner; two-way trade totaled some $36 billion in 2013. Bilateral trade increased to nearly $50 billion by 2023.

In addition to financial and military aid, the United States also provides large-scale political support to Israel, having used its United Nations Security Council veto power 42 times against resolutions condemning Israel, out of a total 83 times in which its veto has ever been used. Between 1991 and 2011, out of the 24 vetoes invoked by the United States, 15 were used to protect Israel.

The United States' readiness to stand on behalf of Israel has, among other factors, been linked to the influence of Zionist lobbies in U.S. politics, most notably AIPAC.

Bilateral relations have evolved from an initial American policy of sympathy and support for the creation of a Jewish homeland in 1948, to a partnership that links a small but powerful Israeli state with an American superpower attempting to balance influence against other competing interests in the region, namely those of Russia and its allies. Some analysts maintain that Israel is a strategic ally for the United States, and that relations with the former will strengthen the latter's influence in the Middle East. Israel is designated by the United States as a major non-NATO ally, and was the first country to be granted this status alongside Egypt in 1987; Israel and Egypt remain the only countries in the Middle East to have this designation. Then senator Jesse Helms, argued that the military foothold offered by Israel in the region alone justified the expense of American military aid; referring to Israel as "America's aircraft carrier in the Middle East". As of 2021, the United States remains the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to have recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and moved its embassy to the disputed city from Tel Aviv in 2018. The United States is also the only country to have recognized the Golan Heights (internationally recognized as Israeli-occupied Syrian territory) as non-occupied Israeli sovereign territory, doing so via a presidential proclamation under the Trump administration in 2019. However, under the subsequent Biden administration, the U.S. State Department’s annual report on human rights violations around the world once more refers to the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights as territories that are occupied by Israel. Nevertheless, in June 2021, in response to a claim by The Washington Free Beacon that it had "walked back" its recognition, the Near Eastern Affairs account of the U.S. State Department tweeted that "U.S. policy regarding the Golan has not changed, and reports to the contrary are false."