At the heart of the national security equation of Israel and the Jewish people lies a strategic triangle of immense value. One side is the relationship between Israel and the United States; the second, the relationship between American Jewry and the US administration; the third, the relationship between Israel and American Jewry.
For years, Israeli governments understood the dynamics among these three sides and what those dynamics required, including preserving bipartisan support for Israel and nurturing solidarity with American Jewry in all its diversity.
After many years in which this strategic triangle proved to be a vital force multiplier, troubling cracks are now appearing and deepening.
Every Israeli government must keep one fact firmly in mind: Israel has no great-power ally other than the United States.
Our great advantage is that the United States is home to a remarkable, prosperous and influential Jewish community.
Its influence is far greater than its small share of the American population would suggest. American Jews play prominent roles in government, academia, business, the media, law and culture. They are well organized and leave a significant imprint on policy, public narratives and social norms.
In today’s polarized America, preserving bipartisan support has become increasingly difficult. Yet Netanyahu, rather than navigating sensitively between the two political camps, chose to align himself with the Republican camp, helping turn Israel from a consensual issue into a partisan one, while alienating the majority of American Jews, who hold liberal views.
Three illusions weakening Israel’s strategic relationships
To rebuild the triangle, we must first rid ourselves of three illusions.
The illusion of Hasbara (Public Diplomacy). Campaigns portraying Israel as a “strategic asset”, a “front-line outpost against radical Islam”, or the “Start-Up Nation” are searching for the coin under the streetlamp.
The coin, however, was lost elsewhere, at the substantive points of friction. Israel’s government is increasingly perceived as undermining democratic norms, offering no political horizon on the Palestinian issue, and widening the values gap with liberal and younger Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish alike.
The illusion of symmetry. There is no symmetry in the Israel-US relationship. We are the ones existentially dependent on the United States for weapons, diplomatic vetoes, legal backing, and economic support.
Arrogant conduct, bypassing the administration, and publicly confronting American presidents are perceived in Washington as impudence, and they accelerate the erosion of support for Israel.
The illusion that “nobody understands America like Bibi”. While bipartisan support for Israel has collapsed, one need look no further than the test of recent events: Kushner, the son-in-law of Bibi’s loyal friend Donald Trump, was sent to Cairo to negotiate with... Hamas. So much for “understanding America”.
The next government must rebuild the triangle
If the coming elections produce a responsible government that is not hostage to the political blackmail of the far right and the ultra-Orthodox parties, a historic window of opportunity will open to rescue the strategic triangle.
Netanyahu’s departure alone would remove much of the personal baggage that has weakened it, but that would not be enough. The next government must take substantive initiatives.
First, it must demonstrate a willingness to chart a path toward resolving the Palestinian issue. The absence of any route toward ending the occupation is turning support for Israel into a political and moral burden, even for some of our closest friends.
Second, it must embrace the values of Israel’s Declaration of Independence: protection of the rule of law, separation of powers, judicial independence, individual and minority rights, and a constitution anchoring the rules of the democratic game.
Third, it must recognize Jewish pluralism as a component of national security, by implementing the Western Wall compromise and recognizing conversion and personal-status arrangements conducted by all streams of Judaism.
Beyond the intrinsic importance of these measures, why should we assume they would also strengthen support for Israel? Few organizations are as attuned to the American political pulse as AIPAC.
On its website, the lobby itself emphasizes precisely these attributes of Israel: democracy, equality before the law, human rights, pluralism, and even... the pursuit of a two-state solution. (Here is another example of why hasbara is doomed to fail: how can hasbara persuade when policy itself moves in the opposite direction?)
Repair requires policy change, not better PR
The next government must make repairing the triangle a top priority. It must recognize that this cannot be achieved through public relations or the supposed magic of more sophisticated hasbara. Repair does not depend on packaging but on substance - on a change of direction in Israel's domestic and foreign policy.
If Israel changes in substance, not merely in its PR image, its standing will change as well, and the strategic triangle’s resilience will be restored.
The writer is a former director-general of the Foreign Ministry. His latest book, The Leviathan Option: A Deep State Story, is available on Amazon