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Two furious statements in 1973, pouring out of the White House as if its doors and windows were Mississippi levees during a flash flood, illustrate the often misunderstood -- now more than ever -- relationship between the United States and Israel.

The first: "If the president's personal pledge to Brezhnev fails because of Israel and American Jews, we will take them on."

The second: "Get the hell out of here and get the job done. ... [expletive] ... use every one we have. Tell them to send everything that can fly."

Readers probably recognize the tone of the second statement as distinctive of Richard Nixon. Don't bother trying to identify the utterer of the first, because it was anonymously provided to Rowland Evans and the late Robert Novak for their column that appeared in the March 20, 1973 edition of The Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg, Va.

Headlined "Nixon-Golda Meir trouble brews," the famed tag team of Evans and Novak (wishfully) opined on the fragile state of U.S.-Israel relations due to American Jews' vocal support for the "Jackson amendment" -- pushed in the Senate by Democratic Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson -- that would deny most favored nation trade status to the Soviet Union unless and until Brezhnev repealed the onerous emigration taxes levied for the purpose of keeping Jews in the Soviet Union.

That first statement, a less-than-veiled threat directed at the American Jewish community (and hence given anonymously) supposedly came from a "top presidential assistant," according to the columnists. This official believed Nixon would be angry with the Jews -- and take that anger out on Israel, then led by Golda Meir -- for interfering with Nixon's attempt at detente with the Soviets.

The second statement was Nixon quite literally in the act of saving Israel during the Yom Kippur War with his massive arms transfer called Operation Nickel Grass. Not since Harry Truman's gutsy recognition of Israel in 1948 -- despite the opposition of many in his cabinet and the international community, as well as his own well documented anti-Semitism -- had a U.S. president risked near-unanimous international opprobrium while having such an undeniable effect on Israel's continued existence.

Was Nixon angry about Jewish intervention in his dealings with the Soviet Union? Almost assuredly he was. Would he turn his back on Israel, in the throes of war, because of it? Absolutely not.

"It was Nixon who did it," said Nixon's acting special counsel, Leonard Garment, as referenced in a recent article on Commentary magazine's Web site. Garment mentioned the bureaucracy and interdepartmental turf wars that were keeping the White House's hands tied as Israel needed planes and other materiel. "Nixon said, this is insane. He just ordered Kissinger, 'Get your [butt] out of here and tell those people to move'."

And though the Obama administration has been at loggerheads with the Israeli government throughout his tenure, thankfully not that much has changed. Barry Rubin reported on May 3 and again on May 14 on the U.S. administration's policy of, despite the tension, helping Israel maintain her qualitative military edge in the region.

"In fact, the United States is equipping Israel with GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs for its F-15I fighter-bombers and this will be followed by the same system on F-16I planes," Rubin writes. "These 250-pound bombs are called bunker busters because they are smart bombs that will go through more than six feet of reinforced concrete.

"In addition, Israel has equipped F-15Is to carry the 5,000-pound-class GBU-28 Hard Target Penetrator, designed to burrow 100 feet into earth or 20 feet into concrete.

"The Israel Air Force is also receiving the Laser-Guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions (LJDAM), developed by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems and Israel's Elbit Systems and able to direct smart bombs more accurately."

Less than two weeks after that, the U.S. provided $205 million for Israel's missile shield, known as Iron Dome.

This isn't intended to downplay the diplomatic donnybrooks that ensue on a far-too-regular basis between the administrations of Obama and Bibi Netanyahu. Rather, it is a reminder that although the "special relationship" between the U.S. and Israel has many facets, it is doubtful there is a more powerful one than military and strategic cooperation.

To put it simply: It is about security. The security interests of both the U.S. and Israel are intertwined. They face many of the same threats from the same foes, and Israel's ability to manage and defeat those threats often portends what the West, led by the United States, will do when their turn arrives (as it inevitably does).

Of course the U.S. and Israel share a moral imperative, mutual values, and resistance to militant secularism. But those are subjects on which Bibi and Obama find scant common ground.

Despite the so-called "realists" and their obsessive focus on the Israel lobby and protecting Arab oil imports, Israel's strategic military alliance with the U.S. continues to be a given. Truman, Nixon, Obama -- what do they have in common? Ironically enough, not much besides their commitment to Israel's military strength.

The arguments over settlements and building in Jerusalem are unnerving. But as they say, Laser-Guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions speak louder than words.

Seth Mandel is the managing editor of The Jewish State.