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Prospects for U.S.-Israel Relations

(Foreign Policy) Aaron David Miller - In the last 20 months of the Obama administration, are we going to see a collision between the U.S. and Israel? I'm not all that sure that confrontation is inevitable. Right now the Obama administration's main priority is negotiating, selling and implementing the Iran deal. The last thing the president wants or needs now is to open a second front with Israel on either Iran or the Palestinian issue. Once the Iran deal is concluded, we'll be entering a fairly prolonged period where implementation of the deal will be key. The administration has begun to dial down its public fight with Israel. There appears to be more adult supervision in handling the U.S.-Israeli relationship in the White House. And it makes sense, particularly in the aftermath of Netanyahu's reelection. The president can't afford to create the impression that he doesn't accept the results of a democratic election. The Palestinian issue will remain an area of prospective tension between Washington and Jerusalem. But a major confrontation over a non-existent peace process? Or a big row over a peace plan that's just a thought experiment or fantasy in someone's mind? What would be the point? Israel will remain a close ally in a region where America has few stable friends and where even America's partners and certainly its enemies are behaving far worse than Israel. The writer is vice president and distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
2015-05-14 00:00:00
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