\u201cI love Israel, and I hate Netanyahu\u2019s government and his policies,\u201d she said. She is entitled to that view. Netanyahu has plenty of critics in Israel, and Americans certainly do not surrender their freedom of opinion when the subject turns to Israeli politics.<\/p>\n
![\"American](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/433149.jpeg\"\/)
American Jews [Illustrative] (credit: REUTERS)<\/p>\n
But Clinton did not stop there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the Israelis want to vote for that again,\u201d she said, \u201cthen I think the United States has to take a very tough position.\u201d She added that the United States \u201ccould work with a new government.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is a very different proposition.<\/p>\n
Clinton was not saying that Washington should respond firmly to a particular future Israeli policy. She was linking America\u2019s posture toward Israel to the choice Israeli voters make at the ballot box.<\/p>\n
Vote one way, and Washington could work constructively with your new government.<\/p>\n
Vote the other way, and the US should get \u201cvery tough.\u201d That sounds uncomfortably close to a warning.<\/p>\n
To be clear, Clinton does not make American foreign policy today. She is a former secretary of state and former presidential candidate expressing her own view. But she remains one of the most prominent figures in American public life, particularly in the Democratic Party, and her formulation deserves scrutiny.<\/p>\n
The issue is not whether Netanyahu deserves reelection \u2013 that is for Israelis to decide on October 27. They may return him to office. They may send him home. I would make the same argument regardless of which Israeli candidate an American political figure was attempting to help or hinder.<\/p>\n
The issue is whether a friendly democratic country should be told that the quality of its relationship with Washington may depend upon its voters producing an acceptable result.<\/p>\n
Israel is an American ally. It is not an American protectorate.<\/p>\n
There is, of course, nothing unusual about governments preferring one foreign leader to another. Presidents and prime ministers are human beings. Some work well together. Others can barely tolerate being in the same room.<\/p>\n
Nor is there anything improper about the US opposing an Israeli policy. Allies disagree. Washington has every right to pursue American interests, just as Jerusalem has every right to pursue Israeli ones.<\/p>\n
But there is an important line between disagreeing with the government a democracy elects and suggesting that voters themselves should contemplate foreign-policy consequences before choosing it.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, US President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a> recently came close to stating the correct principle.<\/p>\n Asked about endorsing someone in Israel\u2019s election, Trump said, \u201cI think it\u2019s most appropriate for me to stay out of the Israeli elections.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘I may endorse somebody’<\/p>\n He then immediately weakened his own argument by adding, \u201cI may endorse somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, his first instinct was right: stay out.<\/p>\n That principle should apply whether the American politician involved is Trump, Clinton, or anyone else.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, American political involvement in Israeli electoral politics has precedent.<\/p>\n In March 2024, then-Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer used a major Senate speech to call for new Israeli elections, arguing that Netanyahu had \u201clost his way.\u201d Schumer went further: he said that if Netanyahu\u2019s coalition remained in power after the war, the US should take a more active role in trying to change Israel\u2019s course.<\/p>\n Imagine reversing the countries.<\/p>\n Suppose a senior Israeli politician announced shortly before an American election that Americans ought to replace their president, and warned that if they failed to do so, Israel should reconsider its approach to the United States.<\/p>\n Americans would quite properly tell him to mind his own business. Israelis are entitled to the same respect.<\/p>\n Clinton\u2019s comments were made more troubling by another part of the interview. Referring to reporting that Netanyahu had received a warning before the October 7 massacre, she speculated that perhaps he \u201cwanted to see what they could plan so that he could then come down hard and it would enhance his position.\u201d<\/p>\n She also conceded: \u201cI don\u2019t know what his thinking was.\u201d<\/p>\n