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Trump and Netanyahu Can Find Common Ground in a Policy of Restoring Israeli Strength and American Deterrence

(Wall Street Journal) David Wurmser - As Prime Minister Netanyahu meets President Trump this week, the two leaders have a chance to set the contours of a new strategic framework. Since launching its response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas, Israel has redefined the dynamics of the Middle East. It has contained the plague of Iranian power, which spread throughout the region for nearly five decades, and established itself as a regional power - perhaps one without a clear rival. The Trump administration plans to support these developments via a novel foreign-policy framework: The U.S. will reduce its global footprint, empower its allies and enhance its own strength. For most of the past 16 years, previous administrations complicated and undermined Israel's position in the Middle East. Their fear of escalation and entanglement - and belief that the region's most radical ideologies could be domesticated - led them to seek a series of ceasefires that spared Israel's mortal enemies, left conflicts to fester, and continually shackled the Jewish state. American efforts to tether Israel have restricted Israel's ability to vanquish its enemies. In the Middle East, no ally is identified as a symbol of the West more than Israel, nor is any country as capable of fighting and defending itself even without American boots on the ground. The writer is a senior scholar at the Center for Security Policy.
2025-02-04 00:00:00
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