Friends Allowed to Disagree – Even Israel and U.S.

Modern day prophets are preaching the end of the special relationship between the United States and Israel. They are false prophets. They are wrong.

They are looking to make headlines — and at that, they are succeeding. But they are misreading the situation.

There is no question that the Biden administration is disappointed with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Washington has made its feelings publicly known.

The White House does not like the new Israeli cabinet, composed, as it is, of a coalition that includes vocal and very pushy right-of-center parties. Biden has called the Israeli coalition “the most extreme” and “the most right wing” in memory.

Biden’s observations happen to be correct.

But that right wing government was duly, fairly and squarely, elected. The results were not challenged by Israelis. The only complaint losers in this election could muster is that they are extremely disappointed with the resulting government — not that it doesn’t deserve to be in power.

Governments in Israel rise and fall all the time. Given that Israel is a parliamentary democracy with a 120-member parliament, or Knesset as the Israeli parliament is called, a vote of “no confidence” gaining 61 or more votes topples the government and sends Israel back to new elections. And, since it’s formation six months ago, that has not happened.

One of the most recent great prognosticators of doom and gloom for Israel and the United States is The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman. According to the invective he spewed, President Joe Biden will reassess the relationship between the United States and Israel before the 2024 election. According to Friedman, the time has come for Biden to show Israel some tough love.

Friedman writes:

But I have no doubt that the U.S. president will arm the Israeli president with the message — out of sorrow, not anger — that when the interests and values of a U.S. government and an Israeli government diverge this much, a reassessment of the relationship is inevitable.
I am not talking about a reassessment of our military and intelligence cooperation with Israel, which remains strong and vital. I am talking about our basic diplomatic approach to an Israel that is unabashedly locking in a one-state solution: a Jewish state only, with the fate and rights of the Palestinians T.B.D.
Such a reassessment based on U.S. interests and values would be some tough love for Israel but a real necessity before it truly does go off the rails. That Biden is prepared to get in Netanyahu’s face before America’s 2024 election suggests that our president believes he has the support not only of most Americans for this but of most American Jews and even most Israeli Jews.
He is right on all three counts.

Well written, but not as well-thought-out or accurate.

It might be a good idea for U.S. political leadership and pundits to remember recent history and to watch Israel carefully before attempting to publicly meddle in the internal affairs of the Jewish State. They should offer their critique to Israel behind closed doors. But they won’t. Why not? It’s called good old U.S. arrogance.

The United States sincerely believes that they can bully and embarrass Israeli leadership, forcing Jerusalem to change direction.

For some absurd reason, the United States believes that if the decisions taken by Netanyahu and his government are not decisions approved by the United States, the United States will be weakening internationally. That enemies will extrapolate and conclude that the power and influence of the United States is weakened in the region.

If the administration was really watching what was happening in Israel — not just peering through their narrow lens — they would recognize that there is significant internal pressure being brought against the government from within Israel. Yes, from within Israel — without outside pressure or involvement. And that internal pressure, the legal, democratic, organized, protest movements that are sweeping the country, have been very successful.

Regular, daily, mass protests are having a serious impact on Netanyahu. And indeed, because of the protests, the original judicial reform package — the impetus for Biden’s claims of “extremism” has changed dramatically. The package now takes into account the concerns of the opposition.

And if they paid closer attention and did their research, U.S. naysayers and prophets of doom would understand that because of the way Israel’s democracy works, those very compromises may actually be the catalyst that causes right-wing elements in the Netanyahu government to bolt from the coalition. And if that should happen, the result will be the toppling of the Netanyahu government sending Israel back to the ballot box.

If that happens it will not be because of Joe Biden in his Washington White House or because of Tom Friedman in his New York Times Ivory Tower. It will be the result of a successful democratic process in a stable democratic country.

There have been many periods when U.S. administrations and Israel did not get along. And yet, their special relationship continued.

Who can forget the obscenities blurted out in 1992 by James Baker in the Oval Office to then President George H.W. Bush. He said “ F*** the Jews — they don’t vote for us anyway”. And the relationship did not come to an end.

Bush 41 and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir did not get along. Bill Clinton, who followed Bush 41, despised Bibi Netanyahu, finding him haughty and arrogant. Obama, too, had serious issues with him. And the relationships did not come to an end.

Israel and the United States disagree about significant issues. They have in the past and they will in the future. The big difference between then and now is that previous U.S. leaders were mature enough to handle the differences.

Friends are allowed to disagree. Sometimes, those disagreements make the relationship even stronger.