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The U.S.-Israeli Relationship Really Is Too Big to Fail
(RealClearWorld) Aaron David Miller - President Obama was six years old in 1967, when most of the pro-Israeli narratives surrounding the 1967 War solidified American support for Israel among American Jews and non-Jews alike. Instead, Obama's view of Israel was shaped in the 1980s, when Palestinian grievances began to turn the image of Israel as David into the perception of the Jewish state as Goliath. In the president's perception is a strong sense that the Israelis must be the magnanimous party. Indeed, unlike his two predecessors - Bill Clinton and George W. Bush - Obama is much less inclined to give Israel the benefit of the doubt. The Iranian nuclear issue is a source of tension that will continue. For Netanyahu, a deal with Iran will sow more disorder into an already chaotic region, and it will threaten Israel. For Obama, a deal brings order - it creates a framework to avoid war and press Tehran to cooperate on a variety of other regional crises such as those in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. America has few friends in the Middle East these days. Despite its imperfections, Israel is the only democratic ally there that shares American values and some of its interests, and is stable too. The writer, a vice president at the Woodrow Wilson Center, served as a Middle East negotiator in Republican and Democratic administrations.