op-ed<\/a> in The New York Times, Jon Finer, the deputy national security adviser under President Joe Biden, was blunt about the direction that Democrats would take in the coming years. While he thinks opposition leader Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, a retired chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, would be marginally better than Netanyahu, he rightly points out that no conceivable Israeli government would be willing to yield to the American left\u2019s diktats about territorial withdrawal and the empowerment of Palestinian forces bent on the Jewish state\u2019s destruction.<\/p>\nFiner isn\u2019t much interested in Israeli democracy. He just wants an Israeli government that will do as it\u2019s told.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s important to remember when you think of all the Democrats, liberal think-tank scholars and pundits who spent the months before Oct. 7 weighing in on Netanyahu\u2019s efforts to reform Israel\u2019s out-of-control judicial system. At that time, they were all for Israeli democracy.<\/p>\n
That was made easier by the way the Israeli government\u2019s domestic political opponents had picked up on the Democrats\u2019 2022 midterms \u201cdemocracy\u201d talking point. Like their attempt to depict Republicans as authoritarians bent on destroying democracy, they smeared Netanyahu in the same manner. That was made even more ironic by the fact that the issue on which this battle was joined was the prime minister\u2019s efforts to stop the Israeli Supreme Court from essentially invalidating democratic rule to preserve the country\u2019s traditional liberal elites\u2019 hold on power that they lost at the ballot box.<\/p>\n
Without a trace of irony or hypocrisy, American opponents of Netanyahu called for granting the Israeli judiciary powers that they would have fought to the death to oppose if anyone had suggested giving them to the U.S. Supreme Court. In both countries, it\u2019s fair to say that the political left largely defines democracy as being whatever allows their side to rule, while opponents are made to fall into line.<\/p>\n
Few actually cared about the issue itself. They were just eager to assist Netanyahu\u2019s foes because they wanted him replaced by someone willing to resume efforts toward Palestinian statehood. Once Hamas launched a war on Oct. 7, the debate on judicial reform was put aside as the nation pulled together to fight a genocidal foe. Meanwhile, Netanyahu\u2019s U.S. opponents concentrated their criticism on efforts to hamstring Israel\u2019s war effort or on spreading blood libels against the Jewish state.<\/p>\n
Competing visions<\/p>\n
Still, a difference exists between foreign-policy establishment types like Finer and the intersectional left wing of the Democratic Party, which appears to be holding the whip hand over the party these days. What\u2019s left of the party\u2019s establishment is still talking about reining in Israel, while retaining a downgraded alliance. The progressive caucus and the growing ranks of the \u201cSquad\u201d in the U.S. House of Representatives\u2014or those hoping to join it, like Michigan senatorial aspirant Dr. Abdul El-Sayed\u2014disagree. They aren\u2019t so much interested in a compliant Israeli government as they are in aiding the effort to have no Israel at all.<\/p>\n
The seeming split between Trump and Vance also betrays competing visions for the relationship with the Jewish state among Republicans.<\/p>\n
Trump expects Netanyahu or whoever succeeds him not to oppose Washington\u2019s diplomatic initiatives and will bluster at Jerusalem when it hesitates to do so. But he values Israel as a strategic partner that can defend itself. Trump also recognizes that as America\u2019s Western European allies go into a steep decline while distancing themselves from the common fight against Islamist enemies like the regime in Iran, Israel has become a unique asset. It\u2019s the only U.S. ally willing to pitch in and effectively fight alongside America, as well as being an irreplaceable source of intelligence-sharing, technological innovation, and cooperation when it comes to security and defense.<\/p>\n
Though not personally an antisemite like his close friend, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Vice President JD Vance is, at best, less enthusiastic about the alliance. His isolationist tendencies put him closer to the Democrats when it comes to dealing with enemies of America like Iran. And like them, should he become president, Israelis should expect more tension between Washington and Jerusalem on a host of issues. And the fact that he is unwilling to ditch Carlson, a purveyor of antisemitic conspiracy theories as well as an avid opponent of the U.S.-Israel relationship, from his inner circle, bodes ill for both Israel and American Jews.<\/p>\n
That means that if Vance or any of the Democrats likely to run in 2028\u2014whether hardline left-wingers or supposed moderates\u2014are elected, relations with Israel may become even frostier than they were a decade ago under former President Barack Obama, when more \u201cdaylight\u201d between the two allies was his objective.<\/p>\n
End the military aid<\/p>\n
Although the alliance is of immense value to Washington and the annual military aid package is almost all spent in the United States\u2014making it in effect as much aid to American arms manufacturers as to Israel\u2014it is increasingly a political liability for the Jewish state. It gives both Democratic and Republican critics a way to falsely depict Israel as a drain on American resources as well as a source of leverage that undermines Israeli security.<\/p>\n
That puts Israelis, both in the Netanyahu and anti-Netanyahu camps, on notice that they need to become less reliant on U.S. military aid and better able to produce more of the arms and weapons they need to fight off Iran and its terror proxies.<\/p>\n
Complete independence is impossible. Israel is never going to be able to manufacture everything it needs to defend itself. And no other power shares its common values and is therefore sympathetic to the country or able to help. Still, the next Israeli government and those that follow it need to make good on Netanyahu\u2019s past promises to end the flow of military aid from the United States as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, no matter who prevails in America in 2026 or 2028, Americans need to respect the verdict of Israel\u2019s voters. They don\u2019t have to like Netanyahu, Eisenkot or anyone who might become prime minister. But they do need to stop falling prey to the notion that Washington\u2019s role is to give orders to Jerusalem against its interests or to help those Israelis who can\u2019t win an election there.<\/p>\n
The two countries aren\u2019t always going to agree. As much as they currently are and should be aligned in most respects, their national interests are not identical. Sometimes, as has frequently happened in recent decades, Israel\u2019s government must act to defend its people when it might serve America\u2019s interests to avoid any conflict, even if that strengthens bad actors like Iran. It\u2019s also true that politicians like Trump or Vance know the American people don\u2019t like wars or the higher gas prices they can cause.<\/p>\n
The United States is the senior partner in the alliance and due some deference. Yet the notion that Americans are a better judge of Israeli national interests than the Israelis\u2014the conceit of U.S. Middle East policy under almost all administrations not led by Trump\u2014is simply wrong. Unlike most Americans, the Israeli people have been paying attention to events in their region over the course of the last three decades since the Oslo peace process became the centerpiece of Clinton administration policy. And, unlike the Democrats and Vance, they are aware that the Palestinians and Iran don\u2019t want peace; they want Israel\u2019s destruction.<\/p>\n
No conceivable Israeli government will ever go along with a withdrawal from Judea and Samaria or from parts of Jerusalem. And no American government will ever have the power to persuade their leaders otherwise. The better part of wisdom for any administration is to listen to the Israeli people and treat their choices\u2014whether they keep Netanyahu in power or not\u2014as something they do not have the right or the power to overturn.<\/p>\n
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS. Follow him: @jonathans_tobin.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Oct. 24, 2026 \/ JNS) With the U.S. midterm elections following only a week after Israel holds its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-656319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}