Published February 25th, 2007 by Future Atlas
Experts on US support for Israel
In the November 2006 Atlantic Monthly, 39 experts were asked about U.S. support for Israel.
“How do you think U.S. support for Israel will change over the next decade?”
- 68% “It will stay about the same”
- 30% “It will decrease significantly”
- 3% “It will increase significantly”
In the “about the same” majority, one respondent said that the support will be relatively constant, but, “as our power and influence in the region bleed away, Israel will not find our support as reassuring as in the past.”
From the decrease camp, comments included:
U.S. power will diminish globally and in the Middle East. As that occurs, we will be forced to be more critical and strategic in our relations with Israel in order to advance the broad spectrum of our interests. Today’s almost unquestioning support is not sustainable.
The experts were also asked to describe U.S. support for Israel under the Bush administration. They responded:
- 62% Too strong
- 38% About right
- 0% Not strong enough
Remarks by the majority included:
The Bush administration … believes that the only way to demonstrate America’s commitment to Israel’s security is to unquestioningly back all of its policies. That belief is profoundly mistaken. … Ultimately, nothing threatens Israeli security more than America’s uncritical support of unwise Israeli policies.
We have now become so closely identified with Israel … that we may actually be hurting Israel’s longer-range interests. Our ‘honest broker’ role is diminished, and we therefore have less clout with Israel’s foes and less capability to moderate violence directed at Israel.
The Bush administration has chosen to treat Middle East diplomacy as a zero-sum game, in which gains by Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, or Hamas are by definition American losses, and vice versa. The result, of course, is that the United States always loses, because if you insist that the [people] of the region choose between Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, on the one hand, and the United States and Israel, on the other, they are going to choose the other side every time.
Curiously, a plurality of Israelis agrees with the “too strong” opinion, or did in polling a couple of years ago. Forty percent said that US support for Israel is excessive, perhaps reflecting the sense among some Israelis the Bush administration was failing differentiate among Israeli policies and factions.