Timeline: Reagan and the Jews

MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - The following are key events in the presidency of Ronald Reagan, focusing on his Middle East policy and relations with the American Jewish community:
  • Nov. 4, 1980: Reagan is elected president with 39 percent of the American Jewish vote. Incumbent President Jimmy Carter receives 45 percent of the Jewish vote and independent candidate John Anderson garners 14 percent.

  • June 7, 1981: Israel destroys the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq. The move is condemned by the Reagan administration, which suspends weapons shipments to Israel in response.

  • September 1981: Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin meets with Reagan in Washington. He raises concerns about the sale of AWACS radar aircraft to Saudi Arabia, which the United States finalizes later in the year. The Jewish community lobbies against the sale out of concern that the planes could be used to target Israel.

  • Nov. 30, 1981: The United States and Israel sign a memorandum of understanding for mutual security.

  • Sept. 1, 1982: The PLO flees Beirut. Reagan calls for a five-year period of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza and an end to Israeli settlement development there. It is rejected by Israel's Cabinet.

  • Nov. 1984: Reagan defeats former Vice President Walter Mondale to win a second term. He garners 31 percent of the Jewish vote.

  • April 22, 1985: Israel and the United States sign a free-trade agreement.

  • May 1, 1985: The United States gives Israel $1.5 billion in emergency aid.

  • May 5, 1985: Reagan visits the Bitburg cemetery in West Berlin, where Nazi SS guards are buried. American Jewish leaders lobby the White House to change the location for the event, marking the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II. Reagan refuses, but adds a visit to Bergen-Belsen to his itinerary.

  • May 3, 1986: Israel and the United States agree that Israel will participate in the Strategic Defense Initiative, a space-based missile defense program.

  • February 1987: The United States names Israel an official non-NATO ally and sells F-16 jets to the Jewish state. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir meets Reagan in Washington.


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