Likud Group And Israel - US Relations

The Middle East has been a place where its po litical and secure enviro nment are extremely complicated, and thus it became the research focus of the international politics scholars. Since the Second World War, the U.S. played a unique role in the survival and development of Israel, which exerted a great impact on Middle Eas t affairs. At the same time, as one of t he major political forces of Israel, the Likud ruled Israel for many times and d irectly affected the development and changes of the Israeli-U.S. relations.Researchers at home and abroad have been conducting researches on the development and changes of Israeli-U.S. relations, but most of them perceived the issue from American Middle East strategy and the Middle East peace process, and they obviously lack substantial explanation on the existed im portant problems of Israeli-U.S. relations. Therefore, based on collecting and summarizing the existing results, this thesis used the Likud as entry point to investigate Israeli-U.S. relations and supplem ented for some weak links on the related researches. This is the most outstanding innovation and achievement of this thesis.Guided by the world outlook and m ethodology of Marxist dialectical m aterialism and historical materialism, and with the help of the related the ory of Politics and Inte rnational Politics, this thesis analyzed the specific historical facts, the inner connection and representation between the change s of the Likud and Israeli-U.S. relations. In the thesis, the historical data involved multiple levels, the research questions were from m icro and macro perspectives and the main research methods were geopolitical analysis, historical analysis and comparative analysis. The specific research methods and related contents are as follows:1. With the geopolitical analysis m ethod, the thesis investigated the establishment of geopolitical strategy target of Israel and U.S. during the Likud and its leaders’administration. Analyzing Israeli-U.S. Interaction from this angle of view ran throughout this paper.2. By using the historical analysis and comparative analysis, the thesis analyzed the historical roots of the mainstream ideology and organizational process of the Likud, differentiated and3. reviewed the separate periods of Israeli-U.S. relations from the Likud perspective, and compared the diverse impact which the Likud’s leaders put on Israeli-U.S. relations. It stated the objective relations between the two and then analyzed the two interactions’deep factors.3. In the fram e of the above, based on the gui da nce of the theory of Politics, th is paper analyzed the main policy and its features of the Likud under the influen ce of its m ainstream ideology; Combined with the evolution of the regional and global situation, the thesis analyzed the direct impact of the major diplomatic practices of the Israel in Lik ud ruling period on the development and cha nges of Israeli-U.S. relations through Political Realism; Also with the aid of Constructivism in international politics and the related logic of English School, the thesis made the reasoning of the co gnition of external forces and the pursuit of security of the Likud.It is believed that as Likud es tablished its political goal under the influence of "Revisionist Zionism", it produced corresponding diplom atic practices in the ruling period, which caused the changes of Israel and U.S. bilateral relation s. Its main manifestation was that either the Likud government’s foreign policy -making was in accordance with th e American’s Middle East and global strategies, or there was a division. Therefore, it appeared a relatively close or alienate relationship between Israel and U.S..Apart from the Introduction and Conclusion, this paper consists of five chapters.The first chapter is "Likud ideology roots a nd organization form", which analyzed the historical link between the Likud and the Revisionism. The second chapter is "The first ruling Likud and Israeli-U.S. relations", w hich analyzed Begin’s foreign policy and its im pact on Israeli-U.S. relations. The overall Israeli-U.S. relations in this period continued its previous good momentum and developed significantly. The third chapter is "Sham ir and the development of Israeli-U.S. relations", which emphasized that under the transformation of the situation of U.S.-Soviet cold war, Israeli-U.S. relations reached a s trategic cooperation summit based on their m utual strategic need s in the p eriod of Sham ir and Reagan administration. The fourth chapte r is "The readjustm ent of Is raeli-U.S. relations", which started from international situation in the 1990s and mainly discussed substantial fluctuations and declination of Israeli-U.S. relations during Shamir and Netanyahu administration. The fifth chapter is "The Likud and Israeli-U.S. relations in the new century", which analyzed the split of Likud and the close relatio ns between Israel and U.S. in Sharon’s administration. It emphasized Netanyahu’s negative attitude towards Israeli-Palestinian Peace and tough policy on Iran nuclear crisis, which made Israeli-U.S. relations hit rock bottom at the present stage.The introduction firstly raised the origin of the selected topic and its s ignificance, it is also believed that this topic not only could compl em ent the weakness of current academic achievements, but also had im portant practical meanings. In addition, it classified and summarized the related literature both at home and abroad, expl ained the research methodology and the th esis organization and put forward the innovatio n points and writing difficulty. In the conclusion, it is believed that the thought inheritance and stability of Likud’s major policies was rem arkable, and these polic ies were more conducive to Likud to m aster and consolidate the ruling position under the de teriorating secure environm ent. As Likud government made it difficult to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace, Israeli-U.S. relations in the future was not optimistic as well.