How the US and Israel can avoid further clashes over Iran

Photo: Amos Ben Gershom, GPO

Academics Graham Allison and Shai Feldman predict a “Coming Clash over Iran” between the United States and Israel in the National Interest. Significant developments during the next 6 months — further Iranian nuclear progress; potential reinvigorated attempts at diplomacy by the US and Iran; more Israeli apprehension about Iran’s nuclear program; and an Israeli election that may result in an even more right-wing Israeli leadership — may result in further strain in US-Israel relations over the Iran issue.  The authors accordingly discuss how the two countries can avoid further strain, such as by agreeing on “rules of engagement” for conducting future dialogue about Iran:

…Specifically, they should agree to avoid the kind of public squabble on Iran in which they were engaged before the U.S. elections. Instead, their discussions of this issue should follow the quiet manner in which Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President George W. Bush dealt with Syria’s nuclear reactor, destroyed in 2007.

A subtle caveat is found in the conclusion:

Despite the depth and breadth of the U.S.-Israeli alliance, each is a separate national state with its own national interests. Each has a democratically-elected government that is responsible for protecting its nation’s vital interests as it sees them. And neither can be expected to subcontract its survival to the other.

Jasmin Ramsey

Jasmin Ramsey is a journalist based in Washington, DC.

SHOW 1 COMMENTS

One Comment

  1. Jasmin, I have a smile on my face for two reasons. 1- Firs, is that these men have to remind themselves that Israel and US are two different countries. 2 – I was just reading Haaretz headlines and I encountered this one: “US to sell ammunitions to Israel to replenish the depleted depots after Gaza operations” or something like that. So the ammunition that killed, maimed and pulverized was American too?

    Elsewhere I have noted that to distinguish America from israel as separate entities is an exercise in futility. They are not. Israel is a creation of US. It is like another state of the Union, albeit the most influential one. Allegorically speaking West Bank is a continuation of our “conquest” of the West. I am always reminded of this when I hear a Uzi carrying settler with three young kids and a pregnant wife speak in Brooklyn accent.
    Recent so-called transgressions of Bibi in American politics come as a surprise to those who are ignorant of history. The interference has always been there and will be because these two countries are really two faces of the same coin. Period.

Comments are closed.