Daily Alert Archives

Restoring U.S.-Israel Meetings of the Mind

(National Interest) Robert Satloff - The Obama administration's record toward Israel underscores a counterintuitive reality: it is possible for the two countries to have close military and intelligence ties as well as tense strategic and political relations at the same time. From the opening days of the Obama White House, gone was the Washington-Jerusalem intimacy that characterized both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations - four-eyes meetings between leaders that were true meetings-of-the-mind, the sharing of speeches before delivery, and the informal and discreet exchange of ideas. It was the Obama team that came to power intent on changing the human dynamics of U.S.-Israel ties, making it a more "normal," less "special" relationship. This "normalization" extended to such truly strategic decisions as Washington's refusal to share with Israel information about the secret Iran nuclear negotiations. U.S.-Israel relations can be righted by a new administration determined to restore intimacy and common purpose to the partnership. Washington can even advance Israeli-Palestinian peace if the White House is willing to think beyond the failed, top-down principles enunciated by Secretary of State Kerry. Instead, there is real potential for progress if the new administration pursues creative ideas of bottom-up diplomacy, persistent state-building efforts, Palestinian institutional reform, and realistic understandings with Israel on settlement construction in areas almost universally understood to remain inside Israel under any future agreement. The writer is executive director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2017-01-04 00:00:00
Full Article