James M. Dorsey
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has fractured a long-standing pillar of Israeli foreign policy that dictated it always needed to ensure the backing of the United States. Fixing the pillar may prove easier said than done.
US President Joe Biden’s insistence that US support for Israel is “ironclad,” despite the conditioning of arms sales, is rooted as much in the president’s deep-seated commitment to Israel as it is a reminder of the risk to Israel of surrendering a principle that enabled Israel to do what it wanted.
To be sure, past US presidents, including Ronald Reagan, have put the US-Israeli relationship on the line to pressure Israeli leaders.
Mr. Netanyahu’s defiance of US insistence that it refrains from launching a full-blown offensive in Gaza, saying that 76 years ago when Israel declared independence, “We were alone. We had no weapons, there was an arms embargo on Israel… Today, we are much stronger… If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone,” echoes his predecessor, Menahem Begin, Israel’s first right-wing prime minister.
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