America is probably the most tolerant, liberal, and democratic empire ever seen in international relations. The founding father George Washington cast it as a new world that would have nothing to do with the old ways of the corrupt Old World. He saw the ocean as the best way to protect it.
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President James Monroe championed isolationism but broke with it in 1823 when he sought to prevent European inroads in South America. Theodor Roosevelt flirted with the idea of imperialism in the early 20th century, but ultimately isolationism carried the day and made it difficult for the US to join both world wars.
After World War II, its sheer power made the US the world's de facto juggernaut, forcing it to act as an empire to block Communist Russia. But compared with other empires before it, the US imperial dominance has been moderate, and it has often turned a blind eye to its allies not falling in line. Its forgiving attitude to Germany and Japan also attests to this.
Israel, as a darling of Washington, has enjoyed the US empire's kid-glove treatment like a child who gets away with mischief because his parents love him.
But things have not always been perfect. When Israel captured a swath of land in Sinai at the end of the War of Independence in 1949, then-US ambassador all but forced Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to relinquish that territory. In 1956, after Israel captured Sinai in the Suez Campaign, all it took was a reprimand from President Dwight Eisenhower to disabuse Ben-Gurion of the notion that Israel could hold on to the Straits of Tiran.
The biggest analogy to what could unfold in the near future in the relationship is the post-Yom Kippur War period. Back then, the master of US diplomacy, Secretary of State Henri Kissinger, suggested Israel withdraw from part of Sinai in an interim deal with Egypt. But then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who had supported the idea as ambassador to the US, refused, even though the plan was originally drafted by Moshe Dayan, the former Israeli general and defense minister.
As the Haaretz correspondent in Washington, an outraged Kissinger told me, "America doesn't need to shout in order to for it to be heard all around the world." Kissinger eventually showed how this is done: He exerted pressure on Israel without confronting it in public, and this proved effective. Rabin eventually caved and embraced the plan; the interim deal was finalized. It ultimately became the critical foundation for the most important peace deal Israel has: the Israel-Egypt peace treaty signed by Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat in 1979.
Anyone who doesn't see how President Joe Biden's administration is quietly marching toward the same pressure point with Israel doesn't know US diplomacy or is willingly blind.
Washington is not going to let Israel get away with action on settlements that would contradict its pledges in the Aqaba Summit several days ago. Nor will it turn a blind eye to cases where the IDF, which depends on US funding for some of its weapon systems, shows inaction in the face of Jewish rioters carrying out pogroms against Palestinians.
The US is moving toward the junction where it will force Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do things, just like Kissinger used his leverage on Rabin. Netanyahu knows more than anyone else what impact the US can have simply by changing how it votes in the UN.
Netanyahu has, for all intents and purpose, entered a period of political incapacitation. He has been holding on to his seat like a criminal grabbing the horns of the altar during biblical times. He should get a plea bargain that would allow him to clear the stage. This would pave the way for Likud to form a reasonable right-wing government that would safeguard the high-tech sector, restore security and revive the mutual respect and friendship with Washington.
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