Summary
The memorandum of 30 November 1981 between the United States and Israel establishing a framework for strategic cooperation directed, in its own terms, solely against the threat to the region’s peace and security caused by the Soviet Union or Soviet-controlled forces from outside the region introduced into it: the parties reaffirm their common bonds and mutual security relationship, agree to act cooperatively and provide each other military assistance against that threat, set the fields of cooperation — military cooperation, joint exercises including naval and air exercises in the Eastern Mediterranean, joint readiness activities, research and development, defence trade and prepositioning — and create a coordinating council of the Secretary of Defense and the Minister of Defence with joint working groups to carry it out, with entry into force on exchange of notifications and termination on six months’ notice (Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the United States and the Government of Israel on Strategic Cooperation (30 November 1981), lines 25-98).
What the file is
The Avalon Project (Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School) reproduction of the memorandum as one web page, © 2008. About 913 words in the text copy counting the whole page, within 141 lines including Avalon navigation at the head and tail; the substantive text runs lines 25-98. The text copy is clean apart from one slip in Article V, “pervious agreements” for “previous agreements”, which is also the reading of the HTML original, as printed. The reproduction carries no signature block, no place of signing, and no signatories’ names; the two governments are named only in the title and the preamble.
Section by section
- Preamble (lines 34-38). The memorandum reaffirms the common bonds of friendship between the United States and Israel and builds on the mutual security relationship that exists between the two nations. The parties recognize the need to enhance strategic cooperation to deter all threats from the Soviet Union to the region, and establish a framework for continued consultation and cooperation to enhance their national security by deterring such threats to the whole region.
- Article I (lines 40-48). Strategic cooperation as set forth in the memorandum is designed against the threat to peace and security of the region caused by the Soviet Union or Soviet-controlled forces from outside the region introduced into the region. Its broad purposes: (A) to enable the parties to act cooperatively and in a timely manner to deal with that threat; (B) to provide each other with military assistance for operations of their forces in the area that may be required to cope with it; (C) the cooperation is not directed at any state or group of states within the region and is intended solely for defensive purposes against the above-mentioned threat.
- Article II (lines 50-62). The fields of cooperation: (A) military cooperation between the parties, as may be agreed; (B) joint military exercise, including naval and air exercises in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, as agreed upon; (C) cooperation for the establishment and maintenance of joint readiness activities, as agreed upon; (D) other areas within the agreement’s basic scope and purpose, as may be jointly agreed. Details are to be worked out under Article III; the cooperation will include, as appropriate, planning, preparations, and exercises.
- Article III (lines 64-86). The Secretary of Defense and the Minister of Defence shall establish a coordinating council to coordinate and provide guidance to joint working groups, monitor implementation in the agreed fields, and hold periodic meetings in Israel and the United States, with special meetings at either party’s request, chaired whenever possible by the two ministers. Joint working groups will address military cooperation including joint exercises in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea; joint readiness activities including access to maintenance facilities and other infrastructure; research and development, building on past cooperation; defence trade; and other fields within the basic scope and purpose, such as questions of prepositioning, as agreed by the coordinating council. Their future agenda, composition and reporting procedures are to be agreed by the parties.
- Article IV (lines 88-90). The memorandum enters into force upon exchange of notification that required procedures have been completed by each party. Either party may terminate it by notifying the other six months in advance of the effective date of termination.
- Article V (lines 92-94). Nothing in the memorandum shall be considered as derogating from previous agreements and understandings between the parties — “pervious agreements”, as printed.
- Article VI (lines 96-98). Nothing in the memorandum is intended to or shall in any way prejudge the rights and obligations which devolve or may devolve upon either government under the charter of the United Nations or under international law. The parties reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and their aspiration to live in peace with all countries in the region.
Key passages
- “is designed against the threat to peace and security of the region caused by the Soviet Union or Soviet-controlled forces from outside the region introduced into the region” (Article I, lines 40-48)
- “The strategic cooperation between the parties is not directed at any state or group of states within the region. It is intended solely for defensive purposes against the above-mentioned threat.” (Article I(C), lines 40-48)
Evidence the work relies on
A negotiated instrument, not an evidentiary work. It cites no reports, statistics or testimony; its only external references are to the parties’ previous agreements and understandings (Article V, preserved) and to the UN Charter and international law (Article VI, not prejudged).
Analysis
The memorandum’s defining move is its threat definition. Every field of cooperation in Articles II and III — exercises, readiness, maintenance-facility access, research and development, defence trade, prepositioning — is expressly scoped to a single external threat, the Soviet Union or Soviet-controlled forces from outside the region introduced into it, and Article I(C) states the cooperation is not directed at any state or group of states within the region. Within that scope the instrument is a framework, not an operational agreement: nearly every substantive item is qualified “as may be agreed” or left to the coordinating council and its working groups, it commits no forces, funds or equipment, and either party may exit on six months’ notice. It nowhere mentions Palestine, the Palestinians, the occupied territories, or any Arab state.
People, organizations, places and events
US-Israel Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Cooperation (1981), United States, Israel, Soviet Union
Concepts
How it relates to other sources
This is the primary text for the 1981 strategic-cooperation memorandum, not previously held as a source in the wiki. Earlier sources describe the United States-Israel military relationship the memorandum formalizes in general terms — Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace traces a private orientation toward joining an American military framework from 1947, whose author reports Dulles telling the Senate in 1956 that the USA never seriously considered a military alliance with Israel, and Israel: The Hijack State — America’s Watchdog in the Middle East describes the United States after Vietnam depending on Israel as its main surrogate in the Middle East — but neither text is this instrument, and this file, a framework against a Soviet threat only, is narrower than an alliance: it names no regional adversary, commits no forces, and is terminable on six months’ notice.
Open questions
- The reproduction carries no signature block, signatories or place of signing; who signed for each government cannot be settled from this file.
- Whether the exchange of notifications that would bring the memorandum into force under Article IV took place is not stated in the file.
- Article V’s “pervious” is as printed in the Avalon reproduction; whether the slip is in the underlying instrument or only in the reproduction cannot be settled from this file.
Coverage
lines 1-141 of 141, read in full.