The U.S.-Israel deal represents a significant change in Israel’s longstanding security paradigm of profiling and restricting the entry of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim visitors.
Those measures were put in place because of airline hijackings 50 years ago, ongoing hostilities against Israel in the region and Israeli efforts to prevent an influx of Palestinians to the Jewish state.
Israel already phased in the measures this summer, allowing entry to Americans with origins or dual citizenship in countries like Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Israel also accepted U.S. requests to place restrictions on granting passports to new immigrants, due to concerns that the U.S. would receive an influx of Russians who gained expedited Israeli citizenship since Russia’s war in Ukraine began last year.
In 2014, when Israel lobbied to join the visa-waiver program, U.S. intelligence officials reportedly warned lawmakers it would help Israeli spies conduct espionage on U.S. soil.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was ousted in an election, and after years of his sour relations with Democrats, a new, moderate Israeli governing coalition was formed that the Biden administration wanted to support, and the U.S. began working on the visa-free program for Israel.
The original article contains 895 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 79%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!