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Time to Reset Israel-U.S. Ties

(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon - The angst in Israel about what President Obama would do in his final weeks in office is now yesterday's concern. The diplomatic process the French tried to ignite in Paris will go nowhere without U.S. support, and that support will not be forthcoming under Trump. In recent weeks Secretary of State John Kerry kept repeating his arguments about the settlements killing the peace process. He dedicated not a word to the impact that Palestinian terrorism, incitement and political division and dysfunction have had on that same process. At his final press conference on Wednesday, Obama indicated that the U.S. abstention at the UN was a shot across Israel's bow. It is doubtful the new president or his national security team will be taking public shots across Israel's bow. Not because there won't be differences between the countries, there will be. Israel and the U.S. are different countries, with different interests. Although these interests thankfully overlap most of the time, sometimes they don't. But will those differences be put out there for all the world to see and for Israel's enemies to gain comfort from, or will they be dealt with more discreetly. Obama magnified the differences. In Trump's inner circle there will be people who will advocate for the policies championed by the current government of Israel to a degree that was sorely lacking in the Obama administration, at least since Dennis Ross left the White House as a key Middle East adviser in 2011.
2017-01-20 00:00:00
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