1,016 B
1,016 B
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U.S. ambassador to Israel present at the pivotal 1981 Reagan White House meeting where Begin and Sharon proposed a sweeping U.S.-Israeli strategic alliance. |
Samuel W. Lewis was the U.S. ambassador to Israel, assigned in 1977. He was present at a meeting in the Ronald Reagan White House in September 1981 where Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon presented a far-reaching agenda for U.S.–Israeli strategic cooperation. Lewis recounted that Begin suggested a formal alliance, and Reagan agreed, shocking others present. Sharon then outlined a plan that included joint use of airfields and Navy ports, and shared intelligence, including formal Israeli access to the KH-11 satellite for its nuclear targeting of the Soviet Union.1
Footnotes
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Hersh, Seymour M. The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21. ↩︎