December 27, 2018
HE'S GREAT FOR ISRAEL:
Donald Trump Is Bad for Israel (Bret Stephens, 12/27/18, NY Times)
[C]onsider the Trump presidency from a purely Israeli standpoint. Are Israelis better off now that the U.S. Embassy is in Jerusalem? Not materially. The move was mostly a matter of symbolism, albeit of an overdue and useful sort. Are Israelis safer from Iran now that the U.S. is no longer in the Iran deal and sanctions are back in force? Only marginally. Sanctions are a tool of strategy, not a strategy unto themselves.What Israel most needs from the U.S. today is what it needed at its birth in 1948: an America committed to defending the liberal-international order against totalitarian enemies, as opposed to one that conducts a purely transactional foreign policy based on the needs of the moment or the whims of a president.
Mr. Stephens labors under the common enough delusion that Israel shares our liberal democratic values. All one need observe is that Bibi, like his fellow Nationalist, Donald, has cultivated relationships with anti-democratic regimes like Putin, the Sa'uds, etc. to oppose self-government in places like the Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, etc. to understand what a godsend Trumpism has been. An America that does not seek to vindicate liberal democracy in Israel is Bibi's dream.
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 27, 2018 9:11 AM