Lloyd Green, theamericanconservative.com
Image from article, with caption: Dennis Ross in the Oval Office with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, September 1, 2010.
Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama, Dennis Ross, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 474 pages
Excerpt:
Over the last four decades, Dennis Ross has spent his time serving five Presidents, and watching the Middle East roil. Now he has penned a bird’s-eye view of the relationship between the United States and Israel that also sounds like an audition to become Hillary Clinton’s Secretary of State. ...
Ross argues that despite marked misgiving among members of America’s defense and foreign policy establishment, bilateral U.S.-Israel relations have grown close over time. ...
Ross also contends that closer ties between the U.S. and Israel have been attained with little cost to America’s standing among Arab states. ...
Ross tries to de-couple Muslim hostility towards America from America’s bond with Israel. Still, Ross notes that this is a view that has retained its currency among the Pentagon Brass, and within the Obama administration. In that vein, he recounts how Obama rejected Ross’s entreaty for coupling the president’s visit to Cairo with a stopover in Israel. ...
He ticks off data on Israel’s relative unpopularity among America’s minorities and younger voters, and urges Israel to demonstrate particular sensitivity to their concerns. Similarly, Ross takes Netanyahu to task for his speech to Congress in opposition to the Iran Deal. ...
Doomed to Succeed ... omits some of the postscripts to Netanyahu’s reelection that continue to echo. In June, Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes, the wife of Israel’s vice prime minister and interior minister, Silvan Shalom, and a well-known media personality in her own right, tweeted out: “Do u know what Obama coffee is? Black and weak.” Nir-Mozes’s tweet was quickly removed, but the damage was done.
Past can be prelude, and Netanyahu is again in hot water over an aide having shared his thoughts about Obama and the U.S. It turns out that Ran Baratz, Netanyahu’s recent choice to lead Israeli public diplomacy, branded Obama an anti-Semite, and labeled Secretary of State John Kerry a clown.
On March 3, Baratz wrote on Facebook: “Obama’s response to Netanyahu’s speech—this is what modern antisemitism looks like in western liberal countries.” Netanyahu announced his selection of Baratz right before the prime minister left for the United States. Talk about timing. ...
Ross concludes by stating that with “the right kind of continuing management and commitment on both sides,” the U.S.-Israel partnership “will remain certain, if not doomed, to succeed.” Yet, the words “right kind” hint at Ross’s unease with what the future may portend. Like taxes, abortion, and Keystone XL, the Jewish state is now one more flashpoint in our political firmament.
Against this backdrop, Israel may be on its way to becoming an updated version of Taiwan, a country that once earned America’s affection but over time became a casualty of realpolitik and a less concerned public. ...
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