American Ambassador David Friedman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and their wives were hosted by Commander David Coles, and the speeches emphasized the close relations between the United States and Israel — specifically, between the two navies.
Amid the comradery, however, it was noted that the ceremony was the first U.S. port visit to Ashdod in twenty years.
The naval base at Haifa has seen more action. Most recently, in June, the guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook visited, following March visits by the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima and the Blue Ridge-class command and control ship USS Mount Whitney.
In that context, however, when the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush docked in Haifa in July 2017, it was the first carrier visit to an Israeli port since the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in April 2000.
The 1980s and 1990s were the heyday of the Sixth Fleet in Haifa. American ships did repairs at Israel Shipyards and brought the first Marines for training in Israel. The American government paid to refurbish the shipyards to enable them to handle the fleet’s larger ships. A well-used USO facility opened in Haifa in 1984 and the sailors contributed about $1 million a day to the Israeli tourist economy.
In 2000, however, after the bombing of the USS Cole near Yemen, liberty for American sailors in the Middle East was largely curtailed — in Israel as well as in countries that posed an overt threat to American interests.
