How will Israels election change its relationship with America?
When Americans talk about the wider world, they picture the Great Wall of China, the Kremlin, the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben.But when an Israeli politician talks about “the world,” they are almost always referring to the few square miles between Capitol Hill and the White House.
Europe can complain, and South America can flip between political camps, but what happens between the Oval Office and the Senate floor is the only thing that truly dictates the fate of the State of Israel.The next government established in Jerusalem, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, will have to navigate the greatest challenge to US-Israel relations this century — perhaps since Israel’s founding.What Netanyahu’s American haters fail to understand is that he is not a dictator.
The man has run in 12 elections and never once seized power by force.His positions are the positions of the Israeli mainstream.
In fact, the opposition that ran against him this week was forced to adopt his security playbook, essentially attacking him for not being hawkish enough.They vowed never to establish a Palestinian state, demanded an earlier and fiercer ground invasion of Gaza and pushed to strike more Iranian energy facilities.Netanyahu is merely the voodoo doll for the new, post-Oct.
7 Israel.We are standing at a unique moment in time since Oct.
7: Just as fierce opposition to a Palestinian state has become an absolute consensus in Israel, the Palestinian issue has been thrust right back onto center stage globally.The timing is especially difficult for Israel given how rapidly we are approaching the 2028 US presidential election cycle.A train wreck between a Democratic administration — any Democratic administration — and any Israeli government is inevitable.The real complication, however, is the growing rift between the Israeli right and the American right.Sadly, it must be said that the average Israeli today speaks less English than in the past and has a poorer grasp of the global arena.
There is a...