November 25, 2022

With the Elections Over, the US-Israel Relationship Faces New Tests

By Jonathan Lord

The United States and Israel share a deep and enduring bond, although sometimes American and Israeli leaders have mixed like oil and water. George H.W. Bush and Yitzhak Shamir were famously incompatible. Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obamahad a notoriously fraught relationship. And while Washington and Jerusalem haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, our elected leaders have looked past discreet personality or policy disagreements because of broader strategic goals.

Elections in Israel and the United States are over. Now, political passions must be quelled and leaders must choose to prioritize their nations’ national security interests.

Simply put, there’s mutual benefit derived from working together, rather than apart. As political leaders from both nations emerge from the campaign trail and return to business, they would be wise to focus on finding ways to overcome differences and work together in support of our many shared goals.

Earlier this month, an Israeli journalist asked me how the U.S. midterm elections would impact U.S.-Israeli relations. My answer wasn’t particularly dramatic. I told him I believed that not much would change. Most of the hotly contested seats were in “purple” districts where support for Israel remains high across the political spectrum. And while over the course of years, Israel has become an increasingly divisive and partisan issue on the political margins, Israel still enjoys broad, bipartisan support in Congress.

Read the full article from The Hill.

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