Israel's standing in the United States is not a function of any particular administration because it has remained a largely bipartisan issue, a panel of experts said during the second day of the Herzliya Conference 2019 at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.
The panel, which focused on US-Israel relations included Israel Hayom Editor-in-Chief Boaz Bismuth, former US Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and David Makovsky, who is a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
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"Ehud Barak, when he was the defense minister, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister, both said that security relations had never been better, so what you want is a president on both sides of the aisle – Republican or Democrat – who thanks the United States as Netanyahu did," Makovsky said.
"I don't think it helps anybody to demonize the Democrats when they've been so supportive in the past," he continued.
Senator Kirk said that "Netanyahu has correctly adjusted the relationship between Trump and himself. We see that the president is very attached to personal relationships, so the relationship between Netanyahu and Trump, I would call it a full-blown bromance."
Bismuth concurred that both parties have occasionally shifted their views on Israel and hence it would be unwise to consider only one side of the political spectrum as pro-Israel.
"We all remember amazing friends of Israel among Democratic senators and you also had Republicans who did not have good relations with Israel, so again, let's not rush with our conclusions, but rather understand that we do share the same values," Bismuth said. "The immense strength of those relations between Israel and America [is clear here] – this is the same America which took a Democrat, [former President Harry] Truman 11 minutes to recognize the State of Israel."
