Bret, don’t feel embarrassed hoping President Quisling, despite most evidence to the contrary, had some idea of good, practical, knowledgeable governance. That he had at least one workable plan. That he wasn’t a draft dodging, incompetent business man who was born with a silver spoon in his hand and lying whenever he speaks ( still waiting to see his taxes- who knew audits took so long). The 26 percent of eligible voters who voted for him also shared those forlorn hopes. The president is, to put it simply, a phony and a fool. You might be forgiven for believing in Santa Claus, but not for believing this fake president will do anything to enhance our country or this world. So, try not to be embarrassed.
25
it is time for american jews to come to the realization that not everything that is good for Israel is good for the US. the strategic interests of the two countries are often in direct conflict. so one has to ask oneself given the heretofore nearly unquestioning support that Israel gets from the american jewish community whether it time for us to support some level of support for a US foreign policy that runs counter to Israel's security interests in favor of our own. in particular its time for american jews to allow the US government to put more pressure on Israel to stop settlement building and to move forward with the two state solution both of which are clearly in the bests interests of the US
27
The only nations in the world to benefit from trump's madness - foreign and domestic are: Russia, N.Korea, Philipines, Syria, Iran, plus you can now add ISIS to that list. What do they all have in common? Let's see now.
13
Mr. Stephens: Please be more specific when you write:" U.S. policy toward Israel -the hectoring, the incompetent diplomatic interventions, the moral equivocations & the backstabbing at the U.N." I understand your disagreement with the Iran deal but the former criticisms need further elaborations.
15
Stephens deftly avoids dealing with the regrettable things going on in Israel itself that have made things far worse for the future, particularly the Netanyahu government, its pandering to right wing fundamentalists and its embrace of Trump. So long as those circumstances prevail anti-Israeli and anti-semitic forces will continue to find it easy grow rapidly and when the Trump disease is cured in the U.S. attitudes in Washington may also be more hostile. There's nothing good to be said about the boycott advocates or antisemites but Israel also has to come to its senses.
16
Ridiculous Mr. Stephens,as Schachtel wrote," by moving the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, President Trump helped the Jewish state restore its rightful claims to sovereignty over its lands. President Trump’s leadership on the Jerusalem issue, coupled with his unapologetic defense of the U.S.-Israel alliance, has encouraged other countries,even Arab-Muslim states in the region to forge diplomatic cooperation with Israel, some for the first time. That only increases Israel’s economic independence.Israel still faces many diplomatic and military challenges. Hezbollah and the Iranian regime continue to encroach on its borders, heightening the prospect of a coming regional war of unprecedented proportions. However, should Israel once again be forced to defend itself against radical Islamist actors, it will find that it has no greater friend than President Trump in the White House." As well as not having the constraint if a conflict does erupt, of American soldiers in the way.
2
Always look to the last paragraph for Bret's parting shot at Obama and/or liberals. Never change, Bret.
8
Why is anyone surprised?
Surely people must have realized what Trump would do in the Middle East : charge around blindly like a bull in a china shop.
What is more,two criminal families are united in the US ,mafia style: the Kushners and the Trumps. Joined up now with fraudulent Netanyahu and diamond- dealing oligarchs .
It's a dreadful mess.
9
I found it interesting that the Editorial comments regarding Trump's capacity to destroy the planet, was closely followed by Bret L. Stephen's summary of the affect of Trump's Presidency on Israel. I take it as a given that Trump (who was touted as Israel's protector and friend) was incapable of loyalty to only those bribing him or flattering him. Bibi was conned by a greater con artist than himself although he might beat him in the race to see who gets behind bars first. As one of the world's populations which bore the consequences of mad dictators who were determined to commit genocide against them, Israel should be the world's leader against the proliferation of national socialism (aka Nazis) whatever its guise and promises. In my more lucid moments I see images of Trump embracing Bibi, Putin, Erdogan, Duerte, Kim, Xi, etc.,etc. It isn't either\or. The fate of individual peoples and that of our planet is irretrievably bound. It is time we acknowledged that. This time it isn't a zero/sum game a la Trump. It will be a zero/zero game with only losers. Our children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren will either bless us or curse us for giving up so easily and some of us will have a life span limited by our own stupidity and/or neglect.
4
“It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism...”
I see he omits Israel from that list.
17
......You can never accuse Donald Trump of being A: anti semitic, nor B; non pro gay rights. Thirty plus years of the "Donald"under the press's microscope bear this out. Does one have to like our president? Or agree to his views?
The last run, 2016, spawned this current administration. I posit that the same lens, on HRC, put us where we are.Now.
NYC Jews supported Trump, albeit quietly.
Israel is a failed democracy. It continues to build settlements in lands that the Palestinians owned. in the past 6 months , Israel military has killed hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza and wounded over 18,000. Gaza is Israel's Gulag.
Israel has used its American allied lobbying power AIPAC to
encourage over 20 states to hire consultants who refuse to
Boycott, Divest and Sanction any of Israel's offensive acts.
Watch THE OCUPATION OF THE AMERICAN MIND.https://www.occupationmovie.org/?utm_source=Mondoweiss%20List&utm_campaign=834750a79a-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b86bace129-834750a79a-398591357&mc_cid=834750a79a&mc_eid=6ab1b2f8fc
10
Trump bad for Israel; bad for the USA: bad for Europe: bad
for Asia: bad for the entire world.
Trump is all around a very bad human being.
When will the GOP get their act together and dismiss this
maniac from office;
Amendment 25: Section 4....insanity is a cause for being medically unfit to hold office of President.
Proof that Trump is medically unfit...ask the members of The
American Psychiatric Association who agree about Trump's
dangerous psychiatric diagnosis of extreme narcissism..
Also; Editors re print proof of this assessment;
Letter to The Editors of The New York Times dated February 13,
2017 from Harvard Professor of Psychiatry Lance M. Dodes M.D.
Please Bret Stephens have the courage to re print this letter or
I will think you are as gutless as Mitch McConnell...who is a heinous coward...just re print this letter...and stop all other
conjectures you make : when the professional diagnosis is FACT.
10
Israel is a racist country: their legal system advances the rights of Jews over other humans. This is a serious wrong and antipathetic to the core values of the US..
13
He's clearing the way for Israel to make a move.
2
Uh..... Yes......... Really when you think of it, its not just not good for Isreal, it's not good for anyone or anything.....A nightmare we are watching in real time...
7
Brett, give it a rest. The Israelis love trump and I have got no idea where you came up with this except your trying to sell more newspapers to NYT readers.
4
Perhaps Brett Stephens is right; but has it also occurred to him and the Trump-hating progressives who overnight suddenly turned into neo-cons an opposite scenario:
The Russians, the Iranians, and the Turks all want Syria as their zone of influence for different reasons. How long will their present alliance last?
Is Trump's decision the last act in what's left of American credibility? OR will it more likely turn into something resembling the famous last scene in the "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in which these three regimes face off ready to blow each other's brains out for a seeming pot of gold called Syria? With the US getting the last laugh as the three of them go at it?
And Israel and the world waking up to the something unimaginable just two years earlier: Arab Gulf states so spooked by the idea of Iran controlling Syria, that MBS --seeking a way to expiate the Kashoggi murder while in total fear of Iran controlling Syria -- pulls a "Sadat" and flies to Jerusalem to address the Knesset announcing it's time to negotiate full peaceful relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel for real.
Funny how Netanyahu is also under investigation for misdeeds while in office. But, moving the embassy to Jerusalem got us nothing, leaving the Iran agreement got us nothing, so I don't see where Mr. Stephens is going with his faint praise of the wandering mind of DJ trump.
Face it, trump is bad for the world. He's bad for our friends and allies, but good to our enemies. He's unfit for any reason to lead America. Parsing his foreign policy is a pointless exercise. There is no policy unless it's to build hotels somewhere.
10
Donald Trump, has thrown Israel, our only ally in the Middle East into the frying pan, Iran has been planning to use Syria as a way station into Lebanon, to bring heavier arms to the Israeli border. With US troops gone, this becomes much more likely and the chance of a real war between Israel and Iran, between Israel and Lebanon and between Israel and Syria, with the possibility that Russia could get involved. Israel will not stand by and let Iran import major arms into Lebanon, that is for sure. All this talk I see about how Neo-Cons are bad people, Whether Israel is a good country, Whether Netanyahu is a bad man; None of this measures up to the possibility of an out of control war in the Middle East and how many people will die, including Americans when we inevitably get involved.
4
Oxymoron alert: "...smart conservative reluctantly inclined to give Donald Trump a pass..." I guess I could have stopped after the second word, but the rest clinches the deal. And I used to think I was a smart conservative, but that was before voodoo economics ruined the very concept all those years ago.
4
Netanyahu and Sheldon Adelson are huge supporters of Donald Trump, and we're supposed to feel sorry for Israel when Trump's policies are not in Israel's best interest? I don't think so. Let Israeli voters repudiate the right-wing militants, and then maybe I'll care what impact Trump has on Israel.
10
The left said from day one that iDJT wasn't a friend of Israel. No news here. And just because Obama tried to get Israel to stop the destruction of the Palestinian people and the theft of their land didn't make him their enemy.
Open your eyes to the future. How long can Israel seriously expect to continue on this path? America isn't going to protect them forever. And let's face it, if the U.S. pulled out our support Israel wouldn't last a week.
To put it bluntly, Israel needs to stop biting the hand that feeds it.
6
The thing about the right is, it's basically anti-semitic. Sad, but true.
Any warmup to Israel or Jews in general by the right was simply an alliance of convenience because they dislike Muslims even more.
5
If Trump is bad for Israel, the Palestinian so-called leaders, with their so-called liberation groups, are even worse, not so much for Israel, but for the future of the Palestinian people. Hamas fully understands Israel and its Jewish citizens aren't leaving, regardless of the terrorism. But they still prefer to make life for the ordinary Gazans so miserable that the only recourse is to foment trouble at the border with Israel (for which they earn some $, provided by Iran). Fatah will never rid their charter of the clause to force Israel to take in millions of Palestinians who were never born or lived in pre-67 Israel. And they ignore that Israelis in the West bank have children and grandchildren who need housing, just as do newer Palestinians growing up there. The longer these idiotic PA unelected "leaders" ignore the birthrates, and the need to reach a peace deal sooner than later, the more ingrained Jewish residents will be. In 30 years time all original Palestinian refugees will be dead, and just from natural birth/marriage there will be well over a million Jews in eastern Jerusalem and historic Judea/Samaria. Without any newcomers.
Do the so-called liberal readers think these million + people are going to be ousted out? The Palestinians know the answer to that, and waiting will not only destroy any chance of two states, but their phony secular bi-national gambit, too.
2
What is “Biibi” saying about Trump now? Not that what he has to say really counts.
2
First of all, some of the evil doers in the world are Assad, Erdogan, Netanyahu, Putin, bin Salman, and Trump. None of them are good for their own people, nor are they good for Israel. Ignorance of this by those in each of those countries shows how far down the rabbit hole things have gone when it comes to leadership in the world, and human decency!
3
The left said from day one that iDJT wasn't a friend of Israel. No news here. And just because Obama tried to get Israel to stop the destruction of the Palestinian people and the theft of their land didn't make him their enemy.
Open your eyes to the future. How long can Israel seriously expect to continue on this path? America isn't going to protect them forever. And let's face it, if the U.S. pulled out our support, Israel wouldn't last a week.
To put it bluntly, Israel needs to stop biting the hand that feeds it.
1
"Suppose you’re the type of smart conservative reluctantly inclined to give Donald Trump a pass for his boorish behavior and ideological heresies because you like"...
...his radical Republican domestic and foreign policies.
Good news! "[S]mart" or not - wagging a reproving finger at his "boorish" FORM vs. fist-bumping the CONTENT of his radical right policies is fine!
Whether you be lowbrow or highbrow, splitting form from contents lets you rationalize voting for him in the same way!
1
Notably missing from your collection of religious fundamentalists are the right-wing religious fundamentalist parties currently in power and policy making for the Israeli Government: Shas, Jewish Home, and United Torah Judaism. Neither of them could be considered a moderating influence on their thuggish Prime Minister, his serial financial lawbreaking or my-way-or-the-highway mode of governance.
10
Thank you, Mr. Stephens! I have been at a loss to understand why my conservative friends are giving Trump's obvious character, moral, and intellectual failings a pass. You explained it. For some, 'He's good for Israel' is actually their main argument. It's great to have a statement of why even that isn't true; now, will they listen to you? If only.
7
Whether it is Israel or Saudi Arabia, our military support yields mass slaughter.
7
@bnc
Israel has been defending itself. Self-defense is not slaughter.
8
Once again...if you do not learn from history; you are doomed to repeat it. Prioritizing instant gratification, over long term goals is foolish. And a fools price will be paid.
1
Tell me, Bett, will Netanyahu be able to perform his normal duties, which of course is destroying Israel from the inside, from prison? Can David Friedman, the lawyer and spokesperson for Israel’s settlement movement disguised as an American Ambassador be stopped before he starts another war in the region. And can Donald Trump, who is destroying America from the inside, survive another year as we idiots try and figure out why he ISN'T a traitor to his country.
8
Most Israelis think Donald Trump has been good for Israel.
17
@Diogenes Yes - but they don't have to live in an America where he is the president and the senate is controlled by rigid, self-interested cowards, who put party and personal gain above country. We need to sweep them from office like dirty rubbish.
11
@Diogenes
Most kids love sugar. Doesn't mean its good for them.
25
@Diogenes
That may be changing as they digest the effects of this latest impetuous unconsidered action likely designed to distract the press from other bad press.
7
"Donald Trump Is Bad for Israel"
The headline did not need the last two words...
5
Haim Saban, billionaire donor to the Clinton is fond of saying...
"I'm a one issue guy, and Israel is my issue."
I've read Bret Stephens off and on for a few years. I've always thought that it was always Israel with him...people who didn't buy his whole Israel package were vile and/or lacked character.
It's nonstop, nobody loves Israel enough with Stephens.
I miss Roger Cohen.
11
"I write this as someone who supported Trump moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and who praised his decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal as courageous and correct."
I should have stopped reading with this ludicrous statement. A man who advertises his stupidity is not someone I'm likely to give much credence to on anything else he says. But I went ahead and read on. Silly me. Somehow in his mind the 1948 theft of Palestinian lands and the imposition of an apartheid system to control the people is somehow representative of a liberal world order. Every once in a while Stephens has something to say worth listening to. But those times are rare events and hardly worth wading through the rest of the blather he throws out.
13
What is bad for Israel is building more settlements.Say nothing happens in 50 years Israel will have 2 million settlers.Instead of being a Jewish state it will be a Jewish Moslem Country.
2
Donald Trump Is Bad for the World
3
And the rest of the world as well.
1
Mr. Stevens (ok, Bret, if you like), for once, just for once, vocalize this opinion/thought/belief: Israel was created in that part of the world, by taking land away from the Arabs who have been living there for centuries. Ben Gurion had said as much.
The Arabs did not willingly give up their land and invite the Zionists in, even though they were quite aware that 'Yahweh' had promised that piece of land to them in antiquity and had actually helped them defeat/annihilate the people who had been living there before they wrested it away from them.
And then the Romans came in, and even though they knew that it was 'God's' will that the Jews would own that land, drove them out, or if you will, the Jews dispersed because they were not ready to live under the repressive conditions.
And the Arabs moved back in and proliferated. And they do not want to give up that land simply because the Jews want it back now and the western countries, i.e., America, supports them in this quest.
That might be a big step in the reconciliation process.
11
@Dreamer
When the first Zionists arrived in 1882, the population of Palestine was 452,789. Israel + Palestinians territories today is over 13,000,000. Clearly, there was room for both peoples. Zionists were buying land from Arabs happy to sell. There was no need for Zionists to take any land by force.
6
This US citizen/Secular Jewish Zionist sees three:problems:
1) Balance of Power - we do not need a Russian client-state on Israel's border until the country signs adequate protective treaties with that nation - it will draw the US in deeper. I would love nothing more than to see the WW II Allies, the ones with veto power in the Security Council, all sign meaningful treaties to protect Israel's sovereignty over land now under its control, won fair and square in a series of wars AGAINST IT.
Then again, I would love to see Labour back in power in the Knesset, the Religious Parties reduced to the point where their votes don't matter, and many illewgal settlers ORDERED to leave - leaving all their improvements and homes behind for new residents, and portions of the West Bank placed under local-authority/Jordanian/Israeli control - take Northern Ireland pre-Brexit, and a similar Gaza/Egypt/Israel treaty established, with numerous secure checkpoints opened to permit back/forth transit and employment long enough for stability to set in and the OLD degree of US/Canada border security.
2) Justice - Syria has an autocratic genocide in power.. The Kurds deserve their homeland, denied them by Ottomans, British Colonial and current governments. We created a 24-nation bloc aimed at al-Assad and ISIL, to provide them and the anti-nerve-gassers power they need.
3) Trump's embassy move, with anti-Semitic churchmen in tow, was designed to support his base, which believes all of John the Divine.
4
@Eatoin Shrdlu
Should all the people of the Americas who are not Native Americans have to leave the Americas?
4
@Eatoin Shrdlu
The first settlement on the West Bank after the Six Day War was Kfar Etzion. The land was bought by Jews in 1927. In 1929, Palestinians destroyed the settlement. In the 1930, Jews rebuilt the settlement, but again it was destroyed by Palestinians. It was rebuilt in 1943, but destroyed again in 1948. 157 Jews were murdered. 4 Jews survived. It was rebuilt by the survivors in 1967. Why is Kfar Etzion illegal?
4
Israel's policy of toppling and sewing chaos in every Arab government except Saudi Arabia and Jordan is going to be its undoing as Russia consolidates power in the region and the U.S., under Vladimir Putin's control, cedes the region to Russia. Israel is entering a unipolar world, with Russia calling the shots. In the process, Russia corners the market on oil and gas and gains globa hegemony. Russia is now in control of Venezuela and its Citgo refinery in Texas because of the Mad Hatter's ignorance, rage, corruption and confusion. Russia bought a former NATO sub base on Norway's coast and is encroaching on North Sea oil. With its still powerful Navy, Russia should easily take control of Indonesia's oil. I would not even be surprised if Russia elbows us out of Mexico's oil production. Russia already has a leg up on Europe through its gas pipeline. Given that geo-political scenario, who on Earth is going to come to tiny Israel's aid? Certainly not the Mad Hatter! Mazel Tov, Bibi!
3
@Big Text
Arabs fighting Arabs.
Muslims fighting Muslims.
Who gets blamed?
The Jews.
Tradition!
6
Ah Mr. Stephens. You love so much about Trump and now you want to complain. I have no sympathy for you or any of your fellow conservatives. It is all Trump or no Trump. You cannot parse this. You got what you voted for.
6
Mr. Stephens, I don't think you realize just how reminiscent of the 1930's recent developments appear to some American Jewish supporter of Israel. I am all too aware that America turned away Jewish refugees who would have brought skills, displayed loyalty, would have been supported by their relatives, and were fleeing murder. For decades, my family intoned that FDR would never have persuaded an understandably inward looking US from entering the war if he had saved Jews, and they were probably right; certainly my Mother (US Army Nurse Corps) marched off to World War II surrounded by Americans saying "I don't like Hitler, but he sure knows how to handle them Jews". And what do I see now? A bunch of Americans who went wide eyed and said "I believe" that it was a wonderful achievement to tell Iran that they had to wait 15 years for an atomic bomb to eliminate Israel, but here's a bunch of unmarked bills to foment terrorism with in the interim. A British potential Prime Minister who says that Jews cannot be loyal to Britain and also support Israel, and publicly berates a senior lady Minister who objects to anti-Semitic street displays in London. Identifiably Jewish students mutilated, faces slashed, beaten up in Berlin, Paris, Manchester. I want a foreign policy that worries about American interests first, and I'm grateful that this includes keeping Israel and the Kurds alive in the Middle East. Iraq wants us out, they said today; this does not leave much choice.
1
Trump is a fine employee of Israel. He has just communicated to them that while he will give them whatever they need from the US (as long as he gets paid), for international needs they should attend to his oversupervisor in Moscow.
3
You say "resist interloping aggressors" - Wow. Have you ever talked to Palestinians about how they view the Israeli take-over, invasion, seizures of land and water and resources, settlements, and ongoing exhausting occupation?
Mr. Stephens, you need more information.
8
@Naomi Shihab
“Water shortages in the Palestinian Authority are the result of Palestinian policies that deliberately waste water and destroy the regional water ecology. The Palestinians refuse to develop their own significant underground water resources, build a seawater desalination plant, fix massive leakage from their municipal water pipes, build sewage treatment plants, irrigate land with treated sewage effluents or modern water-saving devices, or bill their own citizens for consumer water usage, leading to enormous waste. At the same time, they drill illegally into Israel’s water resources, and send their sewage flowing into the valleys and streams of central Israel. In short, the Palestinian Authority is using water as a weapon against the State of Israel. It is not interested in practical solutions to solve the Palestinian people’s water shortages, but rather perpetuation of the shortages and the besmirching of Israel.”
4
@Naomi Shihab
There would be no occupation if racist Palestinians had not attacked Israel.
The occupation is necessary to prevent racist Palestinians from murdering Jews. If Palestinians were willing to live in peace with Israelis, the occupation wouldn't be necessary.
If Israel were to end the occupation of the West Bank today, Palestinians would fire rockets & mortars from the West Bank just as Palestinians fired rockets & mortars from Gaza after Israel pulled out of Gaza.
5
Fun to watch all the Trump-haters turn into neo-cons overnight because it was Trump that called for a withdrawal of US troops from Syria rather than Obama. I hope Trump next advocates for single-payer so I can watch the progressive crowd suddenly develop strong support for health insurance provided by mega-corporations only.
3
My first experience with this. I'm impressed by Mr. Stephens's article for the clarity of his thinking and the corresponding clarity of his writing. I'm looking forward to more like this.
1
American foreign policy should be strictly guided by American national security needs, not the national interest of Israel, a small state which has cost the US nearly 200 billion dollars, engages in the oppression and collective punishment of stateless Palestinians, and ever since the end of the Cold War has been a strategic liability. That said, I disagree with the President's decision because it is not good for the US:
(1) American military presence has been an insurance on the ground to prevent ISIS from reconstituting in Syria;
(2) KURDS: the President's decision to withdraw forces severely damage American commitment to stick with allies fighting America's war. It is morally wrong to abandon the Kurds and, it will severely damage America's reputation as a reliable ally. ;
(3) Conventional deterrence: American military presence, albeit small, effectively deterred Russian and Iran's domination of Syria. It is not just the size of American forces, it is the symbolic value of American commitment on the ground that matters. Unfortunately, Trump lacks knowledge of and experience in geopolitics and militarystrategy, yet he refuse to take advice from his own advisors,including former defense secretary Mathis, and the result is a mess. Tragically, Fox News too has abandoned any conception of national interests, and keep feeding Trump supporters with Trump's 'gut' feeling as the right policy. Shame on Fox.
5
@Jim Bob
Former Supreme Commander of NATO and U.S. Secretary of State Gen. Alexander Haig described Israel as "the largest US aircraft carrier, which does not require even one US soldier, cannot be sunk, is the most cost-effective and battle-tested, located in a region which is critical to vital US interests. If there would not be an Israel, the US would have to deploy real aircraft carriers, along with tens of thousands of US soldiers, which would cost tens of billions of dollars annually"
4
Well, well, well, another duped early supporter of the cult of Trump has now seen the error of his lack of critical thinking prior to his vote in ’16.
At least he is partially admitting his error, which is more than the GOP stalwarts in congress can do.
5
It's true that Trump is terrible for Israel, but so is Netanyahu. Israel does not need an unconditional hardliner who was willing to snub American protocols in bypassing President Obama and taking his case directly to Congress to counter the severe threats posed by Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas.
Netanyahu needlessly has complicated Israel's situation on several fronts, including his intransigence on the Jerusalem capital question to which Trump so foolishly acquiesced. His unholy courtship of convenience with Mohammed bin Salman in which he gave away valuable Israeli technological advantages to Saudi Arabia, a historical enemy, is a more egregious example. Netanyahu did this in furtherance of combatting what he perceived to be a greater, more immediate enemy, Iran, which happens to be the Saudi's Great Satan as well.
Israel never will achieve peaceful coexistence with its regional neighbors so long as Hezbollah and Hamas are significant players. But neither will it find stability with leaders like Netanyahu and bin Salman calling the shots. The last thing Israel needs is dependence on notorious fair-weather friends like Donald Trump.
In the end, any lasting, meaningful solution only can be arrived at by the Israeli, Palestinian, Saudi, and Iranian people dispensing with their vested-interest, firebrand political leaders and working together toward finding common ground. With that core established, other regional players can be folded into the Middle East stability process.
3
@Peter G Brabeck
Palestinians leaders have become very wealthy. Arafat had a net worth of $1 billion, Abbas $100 million, Abu Marzouk $2-3 billion, Khaled Mashaal, $2.6 billion. It literally pays not to make peace.
4
By 2025, federal debt will be north of 100% of annual GDP. Then consider the student debt crisis, the debt crisis many state are facing (like Connecticut), and America is a nation drowning in debt.
Meanwhile, many Americans are obese and simply not fit for military service (and consider themselves above it). Over 50% of Americans are either overweight or obese, which results in diabetes, high blood pressure, etc., which in turn causes ever rising health care costs. Look at rising obesity rates and rising healthcare costs: a near perfect match.
With debt and obesity strangling this nation, we are simply not fit financially and physically to be the world's policeman. We have to downsize our military entanglements and focus on China's rising aggression in the South China Sea and Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, with Islamic radicalism a constant concern, but more of a secondary threat.
This is not about abandoning or neglecting Israel, this is simply about being mindful and acting according to realities in America.
5
Trump makes even Obama look good? What a contemptible bit of partisan nonsense.
9
Guess what? Israel is becoming closer, very slowly & carefully, with its Arab neighbors. Neighbors who don't care about the Palestinians at all.
6
Bret,
The Obama relationship which you cite in the closing was more than earned by the Netanyahu behavior and actions.
In the spirit of open minded reporting, suggest that you provide balanced reporting or forego your credibility.
5
Israel is lucky it gets what support it does from the US government.
A poll of 100,000,000 American adults taken evenly across all 50 states would probably show that 70% of those polled do not support Israel.
8
@Objectivist This non-Jew liberal midwesterner supports Israel 100%, and I am about as far from a neo-con as you can get.
4
@PrairieFlax
Fair enough, but I don;t see how neo-con or progressive or whatever enters into it.
It's a simple prediction, based largely on a gut feeling that the raw deal that the local residents got when they were shoved out of the way to create Israel doesn't carry as much support away from the Washington and the pro-Israeli lobbyists.
1
@Objectivist
A new Gallup poll finds 74% of Americans have a favorable view of Israel
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/poll-results-americans-favor-israel-at-highest-rates-since-1990s-1.5905998
3
I wonder why he didn't add promoting Putin in Syria?
Funny how trump complains about NATO and our Asian allies freeloading off us, but not a word or complaint about the high levels of aid the US provides to Israel. Israel is not a poor country - why can't they provide their own funding for their military?
Sure, trump may be bad for Israel, but so is their dependence on US aid. Interestingly, it leads natanyahu and his ilk to presume they can dictate our foreign policy, as if they own the president. With the current clown in chief, that may well be true.
7
@D
Major Gen George Keegan, Jr., former head of USAF Intelligence, said, "Between 1974 and 1990, Israel received $18.3 billion in US military grants. During the same period Israel provided the US with $50 - 80 billion in intelligence, research and development, and Soviet weapons systems captured and transferred to the US."
3
@D
The whole world benefits from Israel’s advances in science, medicine & technology, but we Americans also benefit from our access to intelligence from MOSSAD which is considered one of the world’s best intelligence agencies & from being able to pre-position military supplies in Israel in case we want to intervene in the Middle East & from Israeli expertise in developing weapons systems. We gave F-15's to Israel & Israel improved them, 700 modifications. Thanks to Israel, we now have better warplanes. Also, Israel is a laboratory & the Israelis are guinea pigs in learning how a democratic society can deal with terrorism. Israel is on the front line battling terrorism. The terrorists say “First the Saturday people (Jews) then the Sunday people (Christians.) Israel is the barrier island protecting the West.
3
And just whom is Trump good for?
6
Sure B. Stepehens is free to advance his pro-Israel stance. But it is bizarre (indecent?) that he would talk about: "advocating human rights, civil liberties, and democratic institutions" while he supports a country, Israel, that has literally reinvented Apartheid in the Palestinian occupied territories.
12
@Dauphin
No occupier has ever treated the occupied the same way that it treats its own citizens, but no one has ever called that Apartheid unless the occupier is Israel.
It's not Apartheid.
4
The primary question for all Americans is not what is best for Israel, but what is best for the USA.
10
The evangelicals thought trump was good for Israel, that’s why they closed their eyes to his infidelities, his crooked dealings, his collusion with the Russians. But now that he is about to bring the enemies of Israel to Bebe’s front door, how will the least Christian acting of all the denominations cover their tracks now?
6
Another bad faith article by Stephens, always using talking points about the Iran deal and never telling the reality. I will never forget the lie that Iran would be able to enrich uranium after a few years--military strength uranium was banned forever. But, why trust nuclear physicists when considering the deal? Listen to Stephens instead. NYT should do better editing.
8
Those who fault Bret Stephens for not also noting that Benjamin Netenyahu is bad for Israel are missing the point of his article. It is not directed to those who disapprove of Netenyahu or Israel's current right-wing government - they were already convinced Trump was bad for Israel. It is directed at right-wing pro-Israel partisans, in the US and in Israel itself, who happily embraced Trump as the antithesis of a supposedly anti-Israel Obama Administration and cheered his Jersualem embassy move, rejection of the Iran deal and anti-Muslim invective. Those people are now realizing - or should realize - that Trump has been pursuing, and keeps pursuing, a foreign policy that is profoundly dangerous for Israel no matter who is governing the country.
2
If reports are true that the latest unprovoked attack Israel flew against targets near Damascus was flown by F16 that were hiding in the radar shadow of a civilian airliner, then Mr. Stephens should not worry about the safety of Israel but consider understanding that only a terrorist regime would commit such atrocities.
In that case, it is time for massive sanctions against Israel regardless if Israel will profit from US support under Trump or not.
6
@Thomas
The 18 worst countries for human rights in 2017 were Syria, North Korea, South Sudan, Somalia, Central African Republic, Libya, Yemen, China, Burundi, DR Congo, Afghanistan, Burma, Pakistan, Lebanon, Mali, Nigeria, Ukraine & Mexico. Why is there no BDS against them?
5
20-20 hindsight, sir. Trump is only good for Trump. Did you not see that in 2016? Many people did. Now you are surprised. Hm. What does that tell us about you?
Israel is supposed to be a fair democracy where everyone is equal but that's hardly the case. The extreme religious people there have an outside influence and Mr. Net is hardly a warm and cozy leader. And for the USA to tout "human rights" when we are treating the people at our south border so badly is a joke. Two dead children says all you need to know. Shameful.
Obama was trying, probably unsuccessfully, to broker a truce between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Probably a fruitless cause. The equivocations come with trying to strike a balance of many conflicting factors. I doubt you could have done better.
Trump is not a leader, a statesman, a visionary, or a good administrator. Trump is arrogant and ignorant and thinks that's just fine. Israel is far less safe under such a man, as we all are.
People who insist on arguing and inflicting pain and suffering on each other when they are far more alike than different are fools. They enjoy the misery and will hold onto it vigorously to prove to themselves that their cause is righteous. There is no wisdom in that behavior. Nothing to celebrate or emulate. The people in the Middle East MUST learn to get along. The USA does little to nothing to help if all it does is support Israel and arm the Saudis.
6
The tone of this editorial might as well be that of an oration by a rabbi from a strictly Zionist sect. It seems to neglect the fact that the Zionist state sic., exists only through the graces of a rabid Congress, which continues to appropriate money for the defense of something which is indefensible, the expropriation of the Palestinians. Much of the conjecture expressed here has yet to happen, and until it does, it seems that this is an echo of the tactics used by the Zionist state government to extract money from the U.S.A. which could, of course, be used in many ways to benefit the citizenry. Such tactics also invite the fait accompli to the extent that it provides an occasion for the perpetrators, whomever they might be, to express prescient knowledge of the suffering which would likely ensue. "I told you so." In this, the President probably is quite in line with the Zionist powers, as well as the rabid supporters of them in Congress. So to say that he makes his predecessors look good is a gross exaggeration, likely designed to solicit more wasteful aid for these international outlaws, who ceaselessly invite the U.S. to join them in that status.
5
Stephens calls it an invidious myth that neocons are all about Israel and then proceeds to lend that "myth" credence. I suppose theoretically there could exist a neocon who's not "Israel first" - just as theoretically Danny Devito could play center in the NBA.
79
And I suppose theoretically there are Left progressives who could exist these days who aren't obsessed with Israel -- the only Jewish state, who pride themselves in their supposedly deeper understanding of the world than Trump's rubes and Deplorables, yet seem to draw a blank when it comes to the dysfunctional behavior of the Palestinians leading to an Israeli electorate that can't see any better alternative than Netanyahu. For a progressive these day, it takes two to tango ... unless it involves the only Jewish state. Then it's always Israel's fault. Yes?
9
I would no sooner buy a used car from Netanyahu than from Richard Nixon if he were still alive. There is some truth to Trump's "We're no longer the suckers" remark even though he didn't direct it at him (Netanyahu). And yet he is a sucker for Putin, Iran, and Erdogan.
50
@Rodrian Roadeye
Netanyahu of the 4 listed, probably never loaned Trump any money for one of his big projects. Putin owns him. Apparently MBS also owns a smaller piece of him. Humm, .. I dunno know about Erdogan. Maybe Turkey is about to re-align with Russia, so it's a present to Putin.
9
@Rodrian Roadeye: He is also a sucker for Netanyahu.
10
Trump is not good for any country or person. Netanyahu is not good for Israel. Shorter and quite a bit more accurate.....
6
“an America committed to defending the liberal-international order [is what israel needs most]. It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara.” ---- or whether it’s militant Zionism in Israel or elsewhere, RIGHT? “It means we should advocate human rights, civil liberties, and democratic institutions, in that order.” ----- the very same order that Israel as a self-proclaimed jewish state/society (vice a true democracy) advocates, RIGHT?
7
"It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara."
Why oppose one kind and not the other, namely 'Christian Evangelical fundamentalism' which is backbone of US support of illegal Israeli settlements?
Basically you like your own fundamentalists but not others!
7
Trump doesn't understand history, human nature, or the threat of religious zealots, except for the word ISIS; not sure he really understands the word or people behind ISIS, but he knows he doesn't like it. It is wrong to leave Syria, mostly because we have an obligation to the Kurds. But also because the region is unstable and will be taken by Russia. Obama wanted Assad out and his administration armed the Syrian rebels believing they had the right to defend themselves against Assad. However, he did not anticipate that the Arab Spring and all of the resulting chaos would mean instability rather than gains in humanitarian rights. Naive. Trump, more than naive; stupid?
3
The only person that can trust Trump is Vlad.
6
@Lawrence and that's only because Vlad has the tape, or, tapes.
3
Donald Trump is bad for everyone, including Donald J. Trump himself. Any ignoramus in a position of "authority" and power who thinks he know more than anyone else about everything is a danger to the world and a danger to himself as well.
7
Why does it always have to be american troops and treasure? Where are the French, Italians, Germans, British, Spanish, etc., etc., etc.,. Sorry, bring em home. Let Israel replace our troops.
3
If Trump were smart, he'd oppose Russia if only to allay suspicions of conspiracy with Russia. But he isn't doing that.
Trump cares only for money, particularly his own. If anyone else benefits, that is entirely accidental. Saying this is becoming trite, but it's still obviously true.
6
Not exactly, Bret.
Obama's constantly harping on settlements as the root cause of the conflict distracted friends and encouraged enemies.
(Before 1967, when there were no settlements, and Jordan controlled the West Bank, and Egypt controlled Gaza, there was no Palestinian state and peace did not break out. So if settlements are the root cause, why was there a 1967 war ?)
Yes, moving the embassy to Jerusalem was symbolic, but symbolism counts for a lot in the Middle East.
The Palestinians are playing the waiting game; they are thinking, if I allow my people to suffer enough for the next 200 or 300 years, eventually the Jews will all get killed and we can take over the whole land, from the river to the sea.
Trump's moving the embassy to Jerusalem is saying: the Jews aren't going anywhere, so Palestinians, you are better off trying to make peace now. It also encourages other countries to grow warmer ties to Israel, quite important as the BDS movement gets more knee-jerk support from liberals who lack any knowledge of the history of this conflict.
While some of the comments posted here talk about Truman, no one has commented on Johnson, and his unwillingness to sell weapons to Israel before the 1967 war, while the Soviets were happy to arm Egypt and Syria.
Comparing Trump to his predecessors is not as easy as you might think.
5
Donald Trump is bad for the world. Fire him now!
5
“It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara.”
Dare you mention the religious fundamentalists in Israel?
14
Bad for Israel, Donald Trump is bad for the world and the United States most of all!
4
You would have thought Netanyahu would have realized Trump was a con man all along since he is one himself.
5
Bret, you wrote this about JPCOA: "Donald Trump killed on Tuesday by refusing to again waive sanctions on the Islamic Republic. He was absolutely right to do so — assuming, that is, serious thought has been given to what comes next."
I guess you won't assume that ever again, will you? Trump rips stuff up with the best and he prematurely declares victory like no one in history, but he has put zero thought into what comes next and never has a plan for anything.
He's bad for Israel, he's bad for the USA and he's bad for the world. He lives in ten-minute spurts, doing what he feels he must in order to survive the next ten minutes and then beginning again. He's right to want to pull out of Syria. We should never have been there in the first place. But he needs to maximize every move and he fails to every time. He's not simply not strategic--he can't even formulate a clear objective.
Israel had a chance to be a better country. As it is, it's still a miracle. But there is always room for improvement. Bibi took them down the wrong path. A single state for both the Israelis and the Palestinians is the last thing anyone wants -- except the evangelical Christians and a few wealthy Jews who believe that the Palestinians can be shown to the door at the end of a bayonet -- yet that is where we are heading. Trump is a poliheuristic disaster. To rework his own metaphor, all he knows how to do is putt. No long game.
4
"Donald Trump Is Bad for Israel" not only Israel he is bad for whole world.
4
You just could not write this column without bad mouthing President Obama could you? Obama certainly does not need an idiot like Trump to make him look good. He was elected twice so many people respect and admire him.
9
So we can assume the NYT is fully on board with endless war and full spectrum domination. Just like all the rest. How disappointing.
7
I suggest you save time and write a generic column headlined "Donald Trump Is Bad for ______."
4
Can you spell Pittsburgh?
and anti Semetic attacks are way up
the American Jews who voted for and support Trump betray all Americans, not just Jewish ones
5
I beg to differ, Donald Trump is bad for everyone. For Israel specifically, Netanyahu is particularly harmful and toxic. They are both cut from the same soiled baby diaper cloth.
5
Trump is “good for Israel” for the precise reason he is good for the United States. He has alligned his Middle East policy around those nations that oppose Iran, mainly Arab nations, but which happens to also include Israel.
The deal cut by the Obama administration with Iran left the Middle East in shambles. The ink was no sooner dry on that deal, when Iran escalated its aggressive military activities in Syria and Yemen, as well as its build up of missiles in Lebanon. This was no accident but a side benefit of the deal, which also allowed Iran to develop long-range missiles.
The result? Near genocide, mass destruction and homelessness, and crimes against humanity in Syria. Death and destruction in Yemen.
Trump tore up that deal and reimposed sanctions at a time when Iran is most vulnerable. It’s people by-and-large hate the Iranian regime. The sanctions are working - crippling Iran’s economy. If the Iranian Mullahs are greatly weakened or even toppled, the the Middle East and the rest of the world will be free from Iran’s aggression.
So yes, all of this is “good for Israel.” But only because it is good for everyone else as well (except for Iran and it allies).
3
Futility's ugly feeling too often is reality.
I am interpreting the Middle East situations
being this way.
DJT is an impatient speculator, which is a euphemism for bust out gambler.
So he throws the basketball up, hoping players fail successfully in the usual futile ambiguous crazy mess.
Good Mozel, which could mean luck I was once informed, perhaps.
It is not a myth that many neocons put Israel first. Even though the "Christian" evangelicals have reasons for Jerulseum to be the capital of Israel, there are many Jews who also believe the ancient prophesies.
Israel is not much of a democracy, not under its current leadership. Even though I was born a Jew, I feel as much if not more for the Kurds.
The U.S. is in tatters, and the clueless man in the White House is responsible.
Latest news; after his latest trip to the troops, the Iraqis want us out, after Trump failed to meet any Iraqi officials. Good job CIC!
6
@alanore
Israel was ranked 30 out of 167 on The Economist's Democracy Index.
That's better than Belgium, Greece, Cyprus & at least a dozen other European countries.
Only Norway was better than Israel in political participation.
4
"These last few weeks haven’t exactly validated your faith in the man, have they?"
Au contraire. After the White House meeting, between DJT, Chuck and Nancy, the Democrat leadership was clear, there would be no money for the "wall".
DJT said he would own the shutdown. He would be proud of it. And, after much delay, the Democrats will submit. Any normal RINO president would have surrendered after the threat of a shutdown.
What scares the Democrats the most is, is anyone noticing the government is shut down?
1
Stephens is worried that Trump is ignoring the Kurds, meanwhile he ignores the Palestinians and their plight. He states his support for the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem without contextualizing how that support furthers a fifty year occupation. He compares US policies toward Israel and Kuwait at one point in the essay, which further highlights his blind spots. If the US were consistent, it would have used a "coalition of the willing" to expel foreign occupying [Israeli] forces from the West Bank and Gaza as it did in Kuwait in 1991. I, of course, would not expect him to see these comparisons clearly as the former editor in chief of the Jerusalem Post.
8
@Malaouna
The West Bank is occupied because Palestinians attacked Israel just as we occupied Japan after we were attacked by Japan. Israel has offered to end the occupation in return for a peace treaty, but so far Palestinians have said no.
Every time Israel offers to end the occupation, the Palestinians say “No!”
Even Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia (certainly not a Zionist) said that Arafat’s refusal to accept the January 2001 offer was a crime. Thousands of people would die because of Arafat’s decision & not one of those deaths could be justified.
As Bill Clinton later wrote in his memoir:
It was historic: an Israeli government had said that to get peace, there would be a Palestinian state in roughly 97 percent of the West Bank, counting the [land] swap, and all of Gaza, where Israel also had settlements. The ball was in Arafat’s court.
But Arafat would not, or could not, bring an end to the conflict. “I still didn’t believe Arafat would make such a colossal mistake,” Clinton wrote. “The deal was so good I couldn’t believe anyone would be foolish enough to let it go.” But the moment slipped away. “Arafat never said no; he just couldn’t bring himself to say yes.”
4
Israel may be safe in our "arms" no matter what. Israel is
our military base at the eastern end of the Med, bought
and paid for. They have money, planes and arms from us.
And they can deliver nukes if we don't do it for them.
Iran knows that Israel is now neurotic and musn't be played
with.
But Trump's move out of Syria, despite his claims of management from Iraq, our new/old base, shakes up
Israel's trust in us. Trump thrives on destroying trust in
himself, keeping everyone off balance, frought, chaotic,
with him at center. Any despot's methods.
3
I’m with our President. We are not a world police force. Israel’s issues are not our issues, as the Israelis would like the American public to believe.
5
I am shocked that President Flim-Flam has pulled a fast one on his good buddy Bibi. I thought they were as close as two crooks could ever be. Next thing we'll hear is that son-in-law Jared will be taking a fall, unless he turns first to save his skin. And to think that Sheldon has invested so much money in this crowd. Easy come, easy go.
4
Trump has always had a "666" painted across his forehead - people were just distracted by the big hair. The end is near!
3
At some point you will figure out that Netanyahu is not good for Israel either.
8
Although I'm not a fan of Trump, I do thank him at least for moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem where it belongs. However, I feel that it won't matter who the president is and what party they are as well as whoever the PM of Israel is. The reason is because the PA hardly ever changes and that's mainly due to rarely holding elections especially when any of those politicians' terms have expired years ago. As long as the Palestinians are stuck with the same politicians and terrorists that want to see Israel destroyed, there will never be peace. Keep in mind that every US president and Israeli PM of all different political views has tried to make peace with the Palestinians and that failed. Until the PA is truly reformed and more democratic, nothing will ever change. The only real way to free Palestine is to free them from both Hamas and Fatah, who are the real oppressors of the Palestinians as well as ending any form of an authoritarian government. I feel the only reason why the Palestinians aren't protesting against this is mainly because they know that they will get killed if they ever do. Then again, it's not like Hamas can kill everyone who stands up to them, though I do hope that some time in the near future there will be a group of Palestinians that will put an end to terrorism and will be willing to make peace with Israel.
8
Testifying again in front of Congress in 2002, Netanyahu claimed that Iraq’s nonexistent nuclear program was in fact so advanced that the country was now operating “centrifuges the size of washing machines.”
Netanyahu said in 2002, "If you take out Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region."
We see how well that worked out.
Why would anyone listen to Mr. Netanyahu?
Israel has had a nuclear bomb since the late 1960’s and probably has somewhere between 60 and 400 nuclear bombs.
England shipped restricted materials illegally to Israel to help its nuclear program.
Israel is with Pakistan, India, and North Korea in not participating in the non-proliferation agreement.
9
This is a sensible enough column since we can all agree that Trump's a fool. But lest any readers forget, Bret Stephens was a cheerleader from the get go for the Iraq war. In fact as late as 2013 he was still defending that catastrophe. Like many superficially intelligent sounding conservatives , the guy is a dangerous, misguided fool.
11
It doesn't matter in the slightest whether or not Trump is bad for Israel--the only thing that matters is that he's good for the US.
42
@Henry Miller
How?
19
@Henry Miller You are wrong even for US he is not good when the deficit balloon burst US will be deep recession.
27
@Henry Miller, please, if you can, give one point on how he is good for the U.S.
45
Netanyahu's attitude and behavior toward President Obama went beyond contempt. You'd have to go deep into the heart of darkness to understand it. (I have my suspicions.)
That dog and pony show in Congress sponsored by Tea Party radicals whose views on Israel were inspired by the Book of the Apocalypse went beyond policy differences and rational argumentation. Netanyahu's speech concerning the 6-party Iran denuclearization deal was designed to insult President Obama in Obama's own backyard.
Now that Iran is knocking on Israel's door due to the decisions of the Christian right's 'gift from God' sitting in the Oval Office, sympathy for Israel is not an emotion that I'm able to completely embrace; considering the fact that the religious fundamentalists in Israel are leading Netanyahu by the nose too. Isn't that some wicked piece of irony?
5
Sounds like Israel can join the long list of countries that Trump is bad for, including Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, UK, Japan, and.... America.
The only ones in the opposing 'good for' column seem to be Russia, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.
8
Why should I, as an American, care one jot about what is or isn’t good for Israel? Israel isn’t my country and I frankly don’t care if it survives or not, that kind of seems like their problem to me. Do I insist that Great Britain or Germany care about American interests or national security? No, that is our responsibility.
Also, Mr. Stephens says rhat neo-cons don’t just care about the interests of Israel and then goes on to spend the entire rest of the article talking in terms of what is or isn’t good for Israel. He never really makes an argument as to why it is in our interests to keep the Iranians or Russians out of Syria. He never explains why we should care at all about the Kurds. His only real argument is that pulling out is bad for Israel and never explains why I should care about that. Also, the Russians were invited into Syria by the Syrian government, so how are they the aggressors and we aren’t?
10
"Is any of this good for Israel?" I would add one important thing missing in the article, Bibi is not good for Israel. Moving away from a democratic republic and stifling a two state solution are not good for Israel. It seems to me Bret is becoming a Trumpian-in-denial and an apologist-propagandist for Bibi, this is not good for Israel!
2
No one who encourages white supremacy, as does Trump, should be considered good, in any true sense, for Israel. All that Trump has 'accomplished' is furthering Netanyahu's cynical, far right agenda.
122
Yes, better to support those who encourage BDS and shouting down and intimidate any speaker at any university that advocates who dares defend Israel on any point. All the while the defend against microaggressions and racial hostility of any sort ... unless it's directed against working class whites.
3
It is laughable how anyone can still think that the Trump Administration supports Israel. How can the man try to be friends with all the tyrants? Oh yeah, he has no idea what he is doing.
1
Dear Bret:
Please revise your sentence:
“It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara.”
To say:
“It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara, American Religious Fundamentalists promoting white nationalism in Charlottesville and NRA zealots forcing peaceful citizens of the United States to live under their tyranny.”
And I’m on your side.
Love,
Jews in America Concerned About Trump Inspired Anti-Semetism Everywhere
3
Mr. Stephens, If you are against empowering religious fundamentalism and for civil rights, how can you support Israel right now? Sometimes, the greatest tool is a mirror.
8
@Mike Allan
Israel is a secular, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-confessional, multi-lingual country.
Israel's commitment to gender equality can be traced back to its Declaration of Independence, which states that Israel “will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.” As the only democracy in the Middle East Israel’s legal guarantee of rights has meant that women play crucial roles in all aspects of Israeli society. It elected the first woman head of government in history—Golda Meir—who was not related to a male political leader.
Israel has long been a leader in promoting equality for gay people. While the United States military still had a “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, the Israeli army actively recruited openly gay and lesbian soldiers into its highest ranks, both as combat and intelligence officers. Tel Aviv’s Gay Pride Parade is world famous, and that city has been declared one of the most gay friendly cities in the world.
2
So far Donald Trump is only good for Donald Trump.
2
Donald Trump is bad for everyone except Donald Trump.
1
"It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara" You have left one very important group out of this and that is the Radical Chjristian Right, here in America. I don't want an ayatollah with either a Koran or a Bible.
4
Let Israel call its own shots. It has been oppressed by the USA for far too long.
2
Trump is not good for Israel. He's not good for the US. He's not good for the world. And he's a disaster for the planet.
3
I disagreed with pulling out of the Iran agreement and moving the embassy to Jerusalem. Both did nothing to enhance Israel’s security or further the prospect of a two state solution. The reverse, in fact. I totally agree with Bret that Trump’s impulsive bug out in Syria is beyond stupid and bordering on calamitous as far as the Israelis and Kurds (who’ve been stiffed before by GHB, and are arguably are our most reliable and effective allies in the region) are concerned. This is what you get with this bizarre and compromised and increasingly unhinged Commander in Chief. Did Bret really expect anything less? Hopefully, Bibi’s eyes open as well. This president is a serial disaster.
1
I feel sorry for the Kurds but the Israeli economy is great and Israel is very pro US and is probably the strongest power in the Middle East.Netanyahu and his wife are not very nice people but at least Bibi is very very bright.
2
Don't you get how wrong you are about Trump giving Israel its fantasy dream list? You dread the "peace plan" Kushner is developing! Do you really doubt that a rabid supporter and funder of illegal Israeli settlements will come up with a "peace plan" other than one fulfilling the fantasies of the most extremist Israelis? Just think about the chain:
1. Trump exits us from Syria to make Turkey happy, allowing it to do what it wants with Syrian Kurds.
2. A happy Turkey lets Trump/Kushner continue cozying up to the Saudi crown prince, free from interference like messy leaks on murders he ordered.
3. A Saudi crown prince saved from doom by Trump/Kushner, happily supports any "peace plan" they come up with.
4. Kushner's "peace plan" then can and will give Israel everything it wants, and with Saudi support, will be forced down Palestinian throats.
What do you mean Trump is "bad for Israel?"
He makes Nitnyahoo look like a moral sage (that's hard!).
Or do you mean he's "bad" for Israel in the sense that he allows infinite extension of Israel's moral bankruptcy in destroying the Palestinians as a people? If that, then we are in agreement.
5
@AJ
Racist Palestinians have been persecuting Jews for centuries. Before the Zionists arrived:
The Jews “walked with a shuffling, cringing step that told of blows received and blows expected. No one could mistake the difference between oppressor and oppressed—“between those poor creatures and the Arabs who jostled them in these crowded alleys, …. The Arabs stride along with a spring in every step.”
Meanwhile, for all their poverty, the Jews were more heavily taxed than their Christian neighbors. All non-Muslims had to pay a poll tax, as tribute and as the price of exemption from military service. But the Jews of the Holy Land also paid, both as a community and as individuals, a host of extortionate charges to local officials, Arab notables, and Arab neighbors—whatever could be squeezed from a very dry stone. In Jerusalem, for example, they paid £300 a year to the effendi whose house adjoined the Western Wall—what non-Jews contemptuously called the “wailing wall” or “wailing place”—for permission to pray there; £100 a year to the villagers of Siloam (just outside the city), not to disturb or profane the graves on the side of the Mount of Olives; £50 a year to the Ta’amra Arabs not to injure the Tomb of Rachel on the road to Bethlehem; and about £10 to Sheik Abu Gosh not to molest Jewish travelers on the road to Jerusalem, though he was already paid by the Turkish government to maintain order on that road.
3
Yes: Trump is bad for Israel, but Netanyahu and Stephens are far worse.
7
Shouldn't we also advocate for the human rights and civil liberties of Palestinians?
5
@Allison
There are no Israelis or Jews in Gaza. Jews did live in Gaza for centuries until racist Palestinians ethnically cleansed Gaza of its Jews in 1929. It’s Hamas that denies Gazans freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion & the vote. If Gazans want freedom, they need to overthrow Hamas.
2
What all the conservatives who happily used Obama as their bogeymen are just starting to realize is, the United States worked fine under Obama. Most of his mistakes came from a good place, like trying to please everyone in the Middle East instead of just Israel. As much as conservatives might hate it, a lasting Middle East peace is going to include making Muslims happy. The alternative is, like, genocide, you know?
I don't know where you get the idea that Israel will hate Jared Kushner's plan. They'll love the plan; the other side just won't agree to it. That's how Trump 'negotiation' works: the side Trump likes gets everything it wants, and the other side gets zilch.
3
"What Israel most needs from the U.S. today is what it needed at its birth in 1948: an America committed to defending the liberal-international order against totalitarian enemies, as opposed to one that conducts a purely transactional foreign policy based on the needs of the moment or the whims of a president.". No. What Israel needs is a country committed to supporting a jewish state, in atonement for its turning back of the ship St.Louis in 1939 and its not bombing the railway tracks going to the death camps in 1944 - of course, that's probably too much to ask of a nation that practiced its own genocide against the native american tribes it encountered as it expanded its territorial dominion (not to mention its endorsement and support of slavery).
3
No, you were completely wrong then in your critique of Obama's competence and now in your embrace of the current incompetence. You were so fearful of what a Clinton presidency would bring that you supported her opponent and now you get to live with the results of your short sighted, selfish politics. Enjoy.
2
Nice pointless shot at Obama. In character.
Bret, like Ross, is so reliable. They just cannot stick to the subject. Obama liberal Obama progressive Obama Vietnam. They piously say their respective right wing takes on their religions is beside the point while always touting their right wing takes on their religions.
Dull. Too.
7
Donald Trump is bad for the Planet and all living things.
There, fixed it for you.
4
Why would you expect Trump to be better for Israel than he is for his own country?
2
Bret, you had me at "Donald Trump is Bad."
1
Bibi is one of the biggest criminals on the planet, so Trump and he get along just fine. Neither actually care about their respective countries, just manipulating their bases to hold on to power. Israel has been feeding at the American taxpayer trough for decades, and directly influencing our foreign policy on every level, and we've been drawn into their wars as a result.
6
@JBK007
We give $3.8 billion foreign aid to Israel so that it can buy weapons from us to defend itself. However, we spend even more money to defend other countries, but it’s not called foreign aid. For example, 48,000 active-duty American personnel in Germany to defend Germany at a cost of $21 billion…In South Korea, 28,500 American troops to defend South Korea…at a cost of $16 billion
50,000 American troops in Japan to defend Japan. The cost is estimated at $29 billion.
2
“It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara.”
Or evangelicals in the U.S. What do you say Bret, too close to home?
3
Bret - you're mad because Trump has no interest in pushing Russia out of Syria. Really! Why aren't you mad about Trump not pushing Russia out of American elections?
3
It's heartening to see a thoughtful conservative like Bret Stephens so consistently upset about Donald Trump's lack of principled positions, no matter what the arena - Israel, Syria, whatever. But speaking of principles, why doesn't he, Bret, that is, include expropriating Israel settlers in his list of damnable "militant religious" folks? Maybe this is a small bone to pick but even a small bone can stick in one's craw, say, a Palestinian's.
7
''So much for the idea, common on the right, that this is the most pro-Israel administration ever...'' - THIS President (and republican administration) recognized Jerusalem as the sole Jewish capitol without consultation with anyone else.
This has let the Middle East ablaze. full stop.
Regardless of all of the other moves (which are solely financial based for the President and his family - to be disclosed in the Mueller inquiry), this administration still is allowing the Israeli administration (another right wing group) to unilaterally usurp land from Palestinians and commit war crimes without punishment.
Again, full stop.
6
@FunkyIrishman
Pardon? Moving the embassy to Jerusalem set the Middle East ablaze? How so? You do know that the region has been ablaze since at least 1947, right? The move of the US embassy, whether wrong or right, hardly started this thing. It didn't even make it flare.
2
@FunkyIrishman
When any other country takes private land, it's called the right of eminent domain, but if Israel takes private land, it's called usurping.
2
You lost me at the point where you admitted to writing an opinion piece supporting US withdrawal from the Iran-deal. If you have reasoned your way to that being a smart move I know there is no enlightenment to be found in anything that comes out of your pen.
5
It's time for Israel to give up its decades old dream of Greater Israel with a fully subjugated Palestinian population to provide cheap labor and resources to steal.
7
@Tony
Israel signed peace treaties with both Jordan & Egypt even though that meant giving up large areas of Biblical Israel. This shows that Israel is more interested in peace than in land. If the goal were Greater Israel, then Israel would never have given up any of that land.
2
Always a dig at Obama or the Clintons, but no mention of the Israeli prime minister and his wife being indicted for crimes? How about the fanatical evangelicals who are baying for the End Times which is supposed to start with the invasion of Israel from the north? Then, in steps a cynical, myopic man-child who believes only “he” can deliver us from our past and strike down every move the previous administration made, and do it by taking blood money for arms from a tyrannical Islamic government, while endangering a supposed ally by emboldening another determined and fanatic Islamic government which seeks lost glories-all the while ignoring any advice from people on the ground or experts who know the region and its problems. The only thing the move of our embassy to Jerusalem did was to anger enemies of Israel and the US, as it only satisfies the extreme right wing and serves as a symbol that we are forever clueless in our Mid East politics. What you don’t understand about the man-child is that he sees Israel as someone he has to pay money to instead of someone he gets money from, and that view is the only way he sees or comprehends the world. Is he trying to create a global conflict to stay in power? Or is he really just this stupid?
2
Trump is doing everything Bibi wants - How could this be Trump's fault?
BTW- We seem to forget Israel receives $3 billion a year in military aid and hundreds of millions more loan guarantees -my tax dollars- and they still have the audacity to cry, "It isn't enough!"
For 10 years Bibi has been making threats, "We can do this on our own if we have to.." Fine.. do it on your own and I want my money back!
6
@Aaron
America has FTAs with twenty countries. Through our exports to those countries, 17,638,294 American jobs were directly supported between 2009 and 2014, according to the Department of Commerce. Of that total, trade with Israel contributed 254,562, the eighth-largest contribution among the 20 trade partners
“exports to Israel generate the highest amount of export dollars per job.”
Another reason high-paying American jobs are tied to trade with Israel is the amount of foreign direct investment Israel sends to America, which is primarily concentrated in the human capital-heavy manufacturing sector. According the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Israel’s cumulative investments in the United States through 2013 are more than economic giants like China, India, Russia, Hong Kong, and Brazil, not to mention major oil producer Venezuela, mutual defense treaty partner Taiwan, and all of Africa’s individual countries.
2
As usual, Mr. Stephens is direct, to the point, and accurate. However, is there any potential candidate the Democrats would nominate in 2020 who will be any better toward Israel? Most of their possible nominees have been, I sense, even less supportive of Israel. And I'm still a registered Democrat, who feels more letdown and helpless by a party that used to be an unwavering supporter of the only country in the region that stands for freedom, pluralism, and the rights for all its citizens.
4
Trump's major flaw is that he's intellectually lazy. He does not read or think deeply and acts on fleeting impulses or gut ideas that come quickly. He is the apparently good-natured fellow who will acquiesce to the last thought whispered into his ear without any analysis of possible long-term problems. So Erdogan says the U.S.A. should leave Syria. Trump's gut thinks "why not?" So Trump says "yes." Does Trump discuss this with any thoughtful assistants? No, because he thinks of himself as a super genius whose sharp mind needs no assistance; he knows without analysis what is right and what is wrong. And besides in his Swamp Cabinet all he has are "yes--you're -right- and-you -are-so- so -wise" acolytes who surround him silently and can only shake their heads up and down yes, Too bad someone like Bret Stephens is not president. For that matter, too bad anyone who is smart enough to write opinion pieces---always thoughtful and reasoned well--for the NYTimes is not president. (Of course better than Trump is a very, very low bar.) So Israel will not be helped out of the quagmire in which it now finds itself ---a most dangerous situation in which surrounding enemies are growing stronger, more numerous, and closer geographically. And Netanyahu and his right-wing cabinet and close allies do not seem anxious to make peace but are preparing to rely on their own power and army to preserve itself.
2
I don't know if Israel will simply reject the as yet unrevealed peace plan by Kushner and Greenblatt, two people who deeply care about Israel's future. But, any momentous peace agreement in the Middle East requires a long term commitment to protect Israel's back, and that potential was firmly destroyed by Trump. Plus, the Palestinians can cynically, and correctly, now claim that if Trump doesn't even have Israel's back, it certainly won't be there to uphold the Palestinians, if needed, either.
I disagree that Trump is worse than the threats you listed, but he is unwittingly destroying his peace plan by inexplicably withdrawing from Syria.
BTW, perhaps an even bigger Middle East threat is Erdogan. Notice how quiet he has been since the Khashoggi murder. Obviously lots of behind the scenes maneuverings, which may also include this Syrian withdrawal. I do feel for the Kurds, who are being betrayed by the world.
4
“...consider the Trump presidency from a purely Israeli standpoint”.
Tell us, Bret, how you arrive at the 'pure Israeli standpoint'. If it is the Greater Israel of Netanyahu &Co., then, Trump is the best ever, i.e., letting our government do whatever it wants in the West Bank.
Besides, for keeping the 'Greater Israel First' in Israelis' minds, Netanyahu needs active and menacing enemies - internal and external alike. This is another reason, brilliantly outlined in your article, why Trump is the best for that Israel.
2
Things you legally can't say about some countries:
2200 new homes
18,000 intentionally wounded by snipers
200 dead.
These things may occur in some parts of the world, it is illegal to point out where they occur.
It's great that Jerusalem is capitol of Israel, and East Jerusalem is [redacted].
4
@4Average Joe
Countries, including Israel, have the right to defend themselves. I saw thousands of Gazans trying to invade Israel. I didn't see any Israelis trying to invade Gaza. Palestinians have set Israel on fire. Setting fire to crops is a war crime.
2
By far the greatest threat Israel faces is its continued occupation and subjugation of the Palestinian people. Israelis have become more intolerant and extreme in the past 20 years. Politicians like Benjamin Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett, and Avigdor Lieberman continue to build settlements deeper and deeper in the West Bank therefore forgoing any possibility of a two state solution. Palestinians are being squeezed into small Bantustans and the best farmland and water resources are reserved for Jewish settlers. The only solution short of outright apartheid is a one state solution.
6
@Murad
The occupation is necessary to prevent racist Palestinians from murdering Jews. If Palestinians were willing to live in peace with Israelis, the occupation wouldn't be necessary.
If Israel were to end the occupation of the West Bank today, Palestinians would fire rockets & mortars from the West Bank just as Palestinians fired rockets & mortars from Gaza after Israel pulled out of Gaza.
Israel is mostly desert. The rest in semi-arid. Yet Israel can give Israelis all the water they want because Israelis recycle water. If Israel gives water to the Palestinians, the water is gone because Palestinians refuse to recycle.
2
There's some good stuff here, though I don't hesitate to remind that US Syrian forces weren't doing more than place-marking for a force that could have been doing so much more good than it did. Trump truly is power-oriented in his values in a way no other president has been in a long time.
A better case perhaps can be made for a Trump-is-bad-for-Canada theme. When the Saudis attacked Canada earlier this year in a way out of all proportion to Canada's criticism, MBS acted knowing he'd get no push-back from Trump. The ongoing Canadian hostages in China situation doesn't appear to be a matter of US concern--because Canada is small potatoes when the US-China trade deal that might help Trump's image is being crafted.
2
My question is why does the world think America is the policeman of the world .The same countries that wants America to fight their battles waste no time criticizing America .Would these very same countries send their youth to be killed fighting on American to protect us ? No . It is time America remember every country is a foreign country and should stand on there own two feet .America’s primary obligation is to America - focus on fixing our problems let other countries deal with theirs . What has America’s allies done for America ? Take money and kill her sons . Time to say bye to all ,America first for all Americans .The rest of the world - you made your bed now sleep in it . Learn to live in peace together or die in war together but our sons are going to die for your arguments of land etc.
4
@aShould be- our sons are not going to die... (thank you for correcting )
@a also spell check - their own two feet (sorry , thank you )
@a
What does Hamas want to do after it defeats Israel?
When the rocket attacks first began against Israel, a senior Hamas leader, Dr. Yunis Al-Astal, published an article in the Hamas journal, Al-Risala, where he compared Hamas’ al-Qassam rockets to the Manjaniq catapult which the Prophet Muhammad used against the Jews of Khaybar. The fall of Khaybar, he explained, opened the gates of the Byzantine Empire to Muslim conquest and was the first step towards the fall of Constantinople. Now, the fall of Israel, he said, would open the gates of Europe to Islam and lead to the fall of Rome.
Hamas MP and cleric Al-Astal proclaimed in 2008, “We will conquer Rome, and from there continue to conquer the two Americas and even Eastern Europe” (Al-Aqsa TV, April 11, 2008,
It’s in our interest to have Israeli soldiers fighting Hamas over there rather than needing to have American soldiers fight Hamas over here. Giving weapons to Israel helps us, too.
2
I hope that the next opinion of Bret L Stephen will be about what to do? For exemple what will be a better deal with Iran? Beside the genial plan of the chicken hawk Bolton, bombing Iran, we do not see any solution from the Conservative politicians and pundits like Mr. Stephens. What could be a peace plan to solve the Israël-Palestine conflict? During the Obama Administration the Conservatives were very critical. After two years of Trump Administration they have nothing to show. Except the usual; support to the dictators of the Middle-East, and pandering to Israël.
3
Actually, Trump is good for Israel. He supports Israel strongly. No need to cite the facts. But, he also wants to end the endless US wars in the Mid East. So, the pullout begins. Yet, given the abject failures of US policies re Iraq , Libya, Afghanistan, and so on, is that bad for Israel? I think not. Israel will be supported strongly BUT Israel will have to adjust to fewer military engagements by the US. More stability could be the outcome if managed properly. This stability will include the continuing Shiite, Sunni spilt which benefits an Israel that knows how to play poker. It’s a new game, but need not be bad for Israel.
Let's face it, Trump through his son-in-law, Jarred Kushner, is committed to ME peace. He knows Israel's importance - the keystone - to Middle East peace. Don't y'all think he wants to become the First American President to achieve it? So, I believe Kushner will roll out his/administrations Plan. There habe been a lot of behind the scenes discussions that are taking place. He has Netenahu's support, now he seeks Palanstein agrgeement. Time and events will tell. I wouldn't bet against it.
1
Is this the definition of being smart: "Suppose you’re the type of smart conservative reluctantly inclined to give Donald Trump a pass for his boorish behavior and ideological heresies because you like the way the economy is going and appreciate the tough tone of his foreign policy, especially when it comes to Islamic fundamentalism."
To me it sounds like the definition of being high on mind altering drugs.
2
" Are Israelis better off now that the U.S. Embassy is in Jerusalem? Not materially. The move was mostly a matter of symbolism, albeit of an overdue and useful sort".
Useful? The Australien government just declared that they consider West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel - emphasis on West -, but would only move their embassy from Tel Aviv to West Jerusalem after an Israeli/Palestinian peace agreement.
Trump's move was neither "overdue" nor of the "useful sort", lightening another fuse of the powder barrel called the Middle East.
Yet all of a sudden, you are concerned about other foreign policies by the con-man and Mob-family boss, one who uses taxpayers' money as his own little piggy bank and upsets the international world order of about seven decades.
His very first trip to troops abroad, those fighting both in Iraq and Syria and endearingly calling them suckers was a disaster, including exposing not only the faces of a Seal Team in a photo-op, but cancelling his meeting with the Iraqi prime minister. Abdul-Mahdi. No head of state has ever touched down on foreign soil without meeting his/her counterpart.
The Pentagon brass should immediately recall the Seal Team having been exposed to grave danger in the theatre.
The reaction from the Iraqi government is that they will vote in the parliament about expelling the 5,200 troops still stationed in their country. The accused because President-Bonespur had broken their sovereignty and all normal diplomatic decorum.
3
Our Constitution reads that TREASON is "giving aid and comfort to the enemy." The number of times Trump has done this is beyond counting. He must be impeached.
2
Bret Stephens has worked at the Jerusalem Post, a daily notoriously biased towards Israel and against Palestinians, aligned with Likud ideology and actions. Trump has been bad for Israel for the same reasons he has been bad for many other countries—supporting dictators and autocrats and undermining progressive enlightened leaders. His unqualified support of a corrupt and sociopathic leader like Netanyahu is what’s bad for Israel. Obama tried as hard as he could to save Israel from itself; Trump does the opposite. Moving the embassy to Jerusalem and pushing Israel into bed with the Saudis is a case in point. Stephens has much to learn about the Israelis and the Palestinians.
7
Bret, you seem surprised and dismayed by Trump's actions and policies in the Middle East. You didn't see this coming? Trump behaves no differently than he did 30 years ago as a New York City real estate developer. The difference then was his antics didn't affect as many people. They just made for good Page 6 copy in the NYC tabloids.
Now, he's trying to govern the United States "by what my gut tells me" and ignores "good people" and "the generals" who have years of experience in foreign affairs and geopolitics, choosing instead to view the world in simplistic black and white terms.
His attraction to strong, dominant leaders who get what they want (and his craving to emulate them), plus his insistence on running the executive branch like the Trump Corporation is why you're writing today's column. Trump has never been about the big picture and nuances of diplomacy. He just wants to proclaim something (no matter how absurd) and have it happen - NOW! He wants to win - NOW! He wants to receive adulation - NOW!
This is no way to run a country or its foreign policy. 'Bout time you woke up and smelled the coffee...
3
As someone who believes that the Jewish people should have been awarded at "least" one-third of Germany to establish their own state following WW II, I still have a problem with the Palestinian people being forced out of their homeland due to claims of historic/biblical Jewish ownership. Indeed, should Native Americans now have the right to expel non-indigenous people due to the immoral theft of their land by Christians who justified their actions as "Manifest Destiny"? In any event, why is it incumbent on the U.S. to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to protect Isreal? The Isrealies and Palestinians need to resolve this seemingly endless conflict by themselves.
3
We should push Russia out of Syria? With 2000 troops?
Mr Stephen begins his article by taking note of the myth that neo-conservatives always put Israel first, then examines U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East entirely from the stand point of what is best for Israel.....
2
It is ironic that Stephens invokes the evils of religious fundamentalism while casually ignoring the evils brought about by Likud in Israel and the GOP in the US.
6
What will be good for Israel is to give the Palestinians their land back so we can all move on. Israel has made an industry out of making everyone else angry and stealing other people's territory. I don't feel sorry for them at all.
5
Donald Trump Is Bad for Israel, and Israel is bad for US--a huge liability, a world war waiting to happen.
2
@Hector
Let's all agree that Trump is awful, etc. But how does the US get *out* of a war zone, away from conflict with Russia, Iran, Assad, ISIS, Hezbollah, Al Queda and various other miltias move us *towards* a world war?
The question of what America's Middle East/Levant strategy must exist outside of whether we find Trump terrible. The arguments for being hip-deep in that sand pit must stand on their own.
Alas, even among Democrats and liberals, it seems the lesson of the catastrophic Iraq War is that we need to stay in permanent war...lest we get into a war!
It's as if we all have been co-opted by neo-cons.
There is no peace contingent any more.
@Hector
Former Supreme Commander of NATO and U.S. Secretary of State Gen. Alexander Haig described Israel as "the largest US aircraft carrier, which does not require even one US soldier, cannot be sunk, is the most cost-effective and battle-tested, located in a region which is critical to vital US interests. If there would not be an Israel, the US would have to deploy real aircraft carriers, along with tens of thousands of US soldiers, which would cost tens of billions of dollars annually"
2
The article's title "Donald Trump Is Bad for Israel" begs the question "For whom is he good?" I would suggest he's not even good for his base, they're just too clueless to get it. Sure he stokes their white rage, but he also poisons their air and water and destroys relationships that have kept the world "fairly safe" for decades. For them, it will be a hard reckoning, but the day of reckoning is coming!
4
In his very fertile imagination, Trump seems to think that befriending Putin will help him to put China on its knees, or any cute idea this narcissist man can have in his head for a few minutes.
2
Yes, we should oppose “militant religious fundamentalism” including those who bulldoze Palestinian homes in order to build settlements.
8
Sorry, Bret Stephens, anyone familiar with your work (editor of the Jerusalem Post, regular contributor to the neocon flagship Commentary, the Wall Street Journal editorial page) knows that your politics are entirely driven by your dedication to Israel and maintaining the post-'67 occupation. Yes, you are a conservative, but a NEO conservative which means "not really...but Israel."
Fine.
However you are right on Syria and Trump is wrong. His decision is bad for America and for Israel. If, however, it was good for Netanyahu, I have no doubt you'd be on the other side.
Nice to see you on the right side for once.
2
GWB started an illegal war that killed 500 000 civilians. Who is it who thinks that GWB was better?
1
“We should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabi in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara.” What about militant religious fundamentalism in Israel and the United Stares?
4
The title of this opinion piece is wrong. Sadly, it should be "Israel is bad for Israel".
Netanyahu is the single greatest threat the Israelis face. Coming in second third and fourth are his backers - Trump, Kushner and MBS.
Let's hope the Israelis figure it out before it's too late.
2
Israel, Mr. Stephens, is not part of the "liberal international order", it is a colonial power.
Every position you take in this column is deaf, dumb and blind to the history of the Mideast and its present posture.
Above all, our friend Mr. Neo-conservative Stephens, the Iran agreement was and will be central to maintaining some kind of balance in that every boiling region.
It will be restored by a Democratic president promptly after Jan. 20, 2021 and that restoration will be the highest foreign policy obligation and expectation of that new administration.
Oh and by the way, moving the American embassy to Jerusalem was beyond stupid. It was and is arrogant, imperial and deaf, dumb and blind to the demographics of the Mid-east.
You know what will destroy Israel on its present course? Israel.
8
American Presidents are it for or against Israel. Israel is on its own. We have to start taking care of Americans, not Israelis. Move to Israel if you are concerned about it. I’m not worried about England or France or Russia , why Israel?
4
@Bob Baskerville
Many of our major companies, especially high tech, have set up research facilities in Israel. Protecting Israel protects our companies.
Many Americans go to Israel as tourists, pilgrims or as students. Protecting Israel protects Americans.
1
Donald Trump is bad for everyone. Period.
2
my view may sound rather simplistic or not - is it not about time that israel takes on the responsibility for its own situation. you don't have to be an anti-Semite to see the one sided responses that are used to punish the palestinians. the kill rate of palestinians to israelis runs at thousands to one. this is what the outside world has to absorb. sometimes folks on the outside view these wars as stoneage warriors(stone throwers) versus a 21st american equipped modern army. you know it just does not make sense to the average person to be aware of this terrible discrepancy.
5
@tnbreilly
For every American killed by the Japanese, 18 Japanese died. Does that mean the we were the aggressors? Of course not!
2
Bret. It is not that Trump is bad for Israel. It is Netanyahu.
You say nothing about Netanyahu's reckless policies on the Settlement issue.
The Iran deal was always seen as anti Israel. It was not just an US initiative. Several other parties were signatories to the Agreement. At least, it served as a deterrent to whatever negative plans Iran was suspected of. The Agreement was meant to be monitored, and reviewed as needed. Today, we do not see a replacement to the Agreement.
Where is the Peace Deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians? Possibly dead.
Israel has every right for its existence, and receive that recognition. It is the leadership in Israel that makes things harder.
127
@citizen
You bet, well said.
8
@citizen
I always find it rich when Americans think they know what's best for Israel and what policies their government should pursue. It's very easy to sit in our safe homes and criticize Israel for defending its citizens from terrorists and governments that want to destroy Israel. Why is Israel, the only Jewish state in the world, also the only country on earth that has to justify its right to exist? What does Israel makes it harder to be recognized even mean? The people and countries that tried to destroy Israel from the day of its birth are the same ones who reject Israel's legitimacy today. The day Israel stops defending itself with every power it has, regardless of what Americans think, will be the day it ceases to exist.
12
@Steve The US and Israel are puppets of each other. They both are enemies of oil producing Arab countries. Israel is the US's "Ace in the Hole" and its means of keeping the pot stirred in the Oil Rich Arab world.
3
It may come as somewhat of a shock to a "smart conservative," like Mr. Stephens, but Israel's dilemma does not burn hot in the consciousness of most Americans. Once you get out of NYC, you might not even know Jews - and Israel - exist.
When I was growing up in California in the Bay Area - which is not exactly a fly-over community - we thought the Shapiros were Italian.
There exists a kind of myopia among conservatives - who seem much more like profligate insurgents at this point in history - and the most extreme form of that malady can be seen on Fox News or listened to on Rush Limbaugh.
Mr. Stephens, in his role as a smart conservative, perhaps one you could do lunch with at The Four Seasons or maybe even Katz's Delicatessen, appears to have a milder form of the same illness which does not appear to be time limited.
3
Being a bit humble and knowing what you don't know are important characteristics. And we need a President who can defuse hate within our own country as well. President Trump is falling down in these areas. A simple gander at some of the comments here show this clearly.
Israel itself overall is doing well, and its daily existence and advancements are in no way mirrored by what the media focuses on. Their only real threat is division from within, among the Jewish population itself.
It isn't likely that President Trump will get- re-elected, unless the democractic candidate is someone truly unacceptable to the center/independently minded voter. Any hint of hate parading as "democratic socialism" will not succeed. You see, we have our own internal threats as well.
I do wonder if President Trump actually wants to be President. I do not think he is enjoying the job very much. Maybe he should consider his own brave decision.
Donald Trump and his administration are not playing for the home team. They are firmly in the pocket of plutocrats as they dismantle our agencies and weaken our influence abroad. It should have been easy to see as no US bank invested with Trump as they knew him to be a fraud but they didn’t stop him- as there was money to be made-
3
"If you think that another grave threat to Israel is the inability to preserve at least a vision of a future Palestinian state — one that pursues good governance and peace with its neighbors while rejecting kleptocracy and terrorism — the answer is no."
I do think this is the most grave threat to Israel because if Israel was believably sincere about a Palestinian state (and it is now blatantly against one) this would pull much of the rug out from opposition. Or/and certainly this would give Israel a lot more support than it's present eroding support as it maintains a 50 years plus occupation. Obama was more in the right direction about using our leverage with Israel. But he retreated. Israel, increasingly, is seen as the main blockage to the decreasing, if not decreased possibility of "a two state solution". Ask John Kerry. Israel seems to have traded peace for more land instead of the original formula. As long as Israel's might and the Likud/Netanyau government prevails, this seems like it works. But now we are talking about the character of a de facto bi-national state.
3
@Potter
Bill Clinton: “I Killed Myself to Give the Palestinians a State,” but They Rejected It
1
Trump is bad for Israel because he has bought into the Netanyahu way of doing things. There will never be peace in the Middle East until the Palestinians have their own state. Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem has made this more difficult to negotiate. You may not have liked Obama's policies, but he gave the impression and hope to the Palestinians that the US would stand up for them, and that negotiations for a permanent peace would be fair; Trump has destroyed that, and undermined that process. I believe in the survival of the State of Israel, but not the Israel that exists now.
3
Ahh Erez Israel, the country that never existed and never will but still draws its marketing from the book by Theodor Herzl.
A vision that never came true.
Herzl would cry could he see what became of his dream.
Israel is just another Arab state that will wine you when they want something and whine at you when they don't get it for whatever reason.
Mr. Stephens is entirely wrong in his assertion about Israel being a liberal state.
It may be so when compared to its next door neighbours, but is far from being a liberal state when compared to the lower ranks of liberal states like Hungary.
Under Netanyahu Israel has become a nationalistic totalitarian state that sees itself surrounded by real and imagined enemies only and that wants others to fight its own fights as a proxy.
No, Mr. Stephens, Iran and Russia are not "foreign aggressors" in Syria, they came and mostly solved the IS problem that in itself is a product of US intervention.
They have a right to be in Syria as they have been invited into Syria by its legitimate government, unlike the US which still runs a number of illegal military bases in Syria, which is still a sovereign country.
Unlike the US, which tried to forcefully topple the Syrian government just because the thought they could, while trashing the entire region with illegal wars, crimes against humanity and totalitarian dreams of a forced "Arab Spring".
Israel will simply have to learn to live with its neighbours, just like Herzl wanted it to.
6
@Thomas
Israel was ranked 30 out of 167 on The Economist's Democracy Index.
That's better than Belgium, Greece, Cyprus & at least a dozen other European countries.
The highest Arab state is Tunisia which is ranked 69. Palestine is 108.
2
He is bad for everything. Why even bother breaking it down into individual issues?
2
“the reasons for staying in Syria have everything to do with core U.S. interests..." ---- reasons which, interestingly enough, have everything to do with Israel’s core interests, as well, contrary to the “invidious myth” that neoconservatives DO NOT always put Israel first, i.e. preserve Israelis lives & treasure at the expense of american lives & treasure. Israel boasts a first-rate military and American defense subsidies to keep it that way, a sound economy, nuclear weapons, a new friend in Saudi-Arabia and an old one in Egypt. It can defeat any force, including ISIS, in the region. So why hasn’t it done more to fight its own battles, its own wars? IT SHOULD! And in that respect, I support donald trump.
@gordonlee
Israel has always fought its own battles.
How many American soldiers did we send to help Israel in the 1948 war? ZERO!
How many American soldiers did we send to help Israel in the 1956 war? ZERO!
How many American soldiers did we send to help Israel in the 1967 war? ZERO!
How many American soldiers did we send to help Israel in the 1973 war? ZERO!
...
2
Israelis preference for Trump, not unlike their acceptance of Netanyahu, is/was shortsighted. Grounded on their impression of Trump as a "strong man" whose inclinations were pro-Israel. His Jerusalem Embassy move only strengthened their impression. Having endured Obama's presidency which represented a not-so-subtle shift away from Israel, Trump was thought by many to be a marked improvement.
Israelis , like many Americans, did not fully appreciate the history of our 45th President. Transnational, amoral. narcissistic, self-aggrandizing, self-centered, and devoid of empathy, compassion, and patriotism were the character traits leading a majority of Americans to vote for his opponent.
With Trump's precipitous order to withdraw from Syria he leaves Israel in the lurch confronted by Hezbollah, Iran, and Russia. In so doing our President expects Israel to rebuff the Russian hegemony that he has permitted. With no American forces on the Syrian field, Russia has lost its only reason for caution in the Middle East.
Israelis have embraced an unfaithful ally, and buyers remorse is rampant here in the US.
2
Churchill had power as long as war lasted, and was removed when peace came.
Netanyahu understands he will win elections and stay as long as tension is high. Which is exactly why he hated Obama, he likes Trump, and he torpedoes anything that can bring calm or peace.
So Trump is bad for Israel, but he is certainly good for Netanyahu.
173
@Freedom Fry?
I don't understand your logic. Netanyahu likes tension. Trump causes tension. Therefore Trump is good for Israel?
Assuming Bebe is doing good job.
1
Interesting points that bear some consideration and reconsideration. What interests me, as an historian, is the re-emergence of regional rivalries in western Asia. In the Age of Gunpowder Empires there was a tricornered rivalry in western Asia between the Ottoman Empire, the Persian Empire, and the Russian Empire. The current American president has signaled to the Turks that the US, despite our vital interests in this part of the world, is no longer interested in being a player. Instead, we accede to Turkish influence, and perhaps encourage the rise of a new Ottomanism. We seek to prop up the various small states on the Arabian peninsula as a counterweight to Iran, probably a futile effort. The Russian involvement should be troubling to the US but is not because the current administration is not interested in preserving and protecting American interests, except in the narrowest sense. It refuses to understand, as previous generations did, that our peace and prosperity depends on the peace and prosperity of others in the world.
2
"... keeping faith with the Kurds, maintaining leverage in Syria and preventing Russia and Iran from consolidating their grip on the Levant."
So inserting a U.S. combat military presence into a foreign nation without an invitation and supporting an armed uprising against its government is merely "maintaining leverage", while aid and military assistance given for the purpose of defending that national government that is provided by countries who have been its allies for decades is evidence of imperialism and aggression.
Do I have that right?
3
All to say, Mr. Stephens, that the US should be engaged in never ending war pretty much all around the globe. No thanks.
Newsflash: the Iraq War already undermined our position as a reliable and competent ally. Our failure there is what gave Iran room to maneuver in the first place, and allows Russia to strengthen its 70 year relationship with Syria. We tore open a hornets' nest on legally specious grounds, with the underlying, Quixotic goal of Americanizing the Middle East. Now look at the state it's in: it's natural one.
Go ahead and let the Russians and Iranians control the Levant - and take on all of the miseries and headaches that entails. And don't worry about little nuclear-armed Israel one bit.
Pulling out of Syria and (possibly) Afghanistan is perhaps the only thing Trump has gotten right so far, regardless of how or why he came to that decision. Call it "isolationism," but I call knowing when to cut bait "realism," even "wisdom."
America is going to have to finally get over its World War II complex, the neurotic self-image that demands we can and should attempt to control every outcome everywhere, that without us playing such a role the world will spin off of its axis.
Yes, we will lose influence in certain places by not being the Indispensable Nation. But peace provides a lot of dividends, too.
5
@Livonian I would agree 1000 percent were it not for the Kurds...They helped us fight ISIS and we are thanking them by feeding them to Erdogan...the timing of this decision (right after T and E's phone call) tells me even Trump himself understands this, but does not care.
2
@Humanesque
That bothers me a great deal, too. I am hopeful that the remaining troops in Iraq will be able to safeguard the Kurds.
But the questions remain, "For how long?" "Until when?" "How long do we stay there?"
After 2 years of Trump, everything is as expected. Financial markets are unstable. Allies cannot trust the United States. Americans still have not seen Trump's tax returns. Influence appears to be for sale. Only Vladimir Putin's war against western democracy has benefited from Trump.
7
Trump has no motives in the game other than self-enrichment and applause. He treads very carefully with Putin because Russia has helped trump, follow the money.
In regard to Israel, trump only supports Israel because of Kushner, who is an Orthodox Jew. Although, Israel's "policies" are suspect, the Palestinians would be much better off with their own State. Israel is following the method of Apartheid or Jim Crow and I am deeply ashamed. Jews worldwide have suffered under these policies, why are we perpetuating them on others?
13
@Carol. Do tell us what money you are following.
1
@Jackson
In the 1990s trump owned 4 or 5 Casinos in NJ, they all went bankrupt. After this fiasco, no banks would loan them money.
By the 2000s they had cash. The Russians were buying overpriced properties and the trumps were gladly expanding to Russia. That cash materialize how and why?
1
I'm getting really tired of that old cliché question "Is this good for Israel?" I don't know where Brett Stephens got the idea that Israel was founded in 1948 to act as some sort of bulwark to protect this international order against tyranny but that is totally incorrect. Ever hear of the Holocaust Mr. Stephens? Israel was founded as a bulwark to protect embattled diaspora Jews from anti-Semitism where ever they lived abroad. For the first time since the Roman Empire Jews were secure in the knowledge that they could emigrate to a Jewish nation to escape persecution. In 1948 Harry Truman only agreed to recognize the new Jewish state of Israel but that's as far as it went.
It's unfortunate that from Truman to Trump Israel has had such an uneasy relationship with American presidents. Another thing I really wish would happen is for America to stop playing referee between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It's not working. Every single peace plan winds up a complete failure. It's time for America to admit defeat and stop trying to force it's latest peace plan that neither Israel nor the Palestinians want at them. The Nobel Peace Prize just isn't worth all that time and trouble,
4
@sharon5101: I don't disagree with your assertion that "Israel was founded as a bulwark to protect embattled diaspora Jews from anti-Semitism" but it's too darned bad that the fact that non-Jews were already living there wasn't (and still hasn't been) sufficiently acknowledged. Creating the conditions that allowed Jews to escape persecution shouldn't have enabled those Jews to persecute their Palestinian Arab neighbors by confiscating their property and denying their right to self-determination.
2
I beg to differ. What Israel needs most is an honest broker in the Middle East. One that stands by it's treaties. Even if you didn't like it, it had seven other nations who were cosigners and Iran has kept up it's part of the bargain. One that stands by it's allies and fighting partners, the Kurds, who have fought alongside Americans for the last twenty years with very little to show for it. One that doesn't change directions based on tweets, phone calls or advice from autocrats who are disbelieved one day (Kashoggi) and accommodated the next. One that reasons with it's brain and not it's gut. One that doesn't base life or death decisions on monetary gains alone. Israel was doing bad enough with it's apartheid government policies, she is not helped at all by America's dishonest, broken and venal presence in the desert. They not only lost a valuable "honest broker", they've lost a sane one.
2
@Rick Gage
Benjamin Pogrund
“…during 26 years as a journalist in South Africa I investigated and reported the evil that was apartheid. I saw Nelson Mandela secretly when he was underground, then popularly known as the Black Pimpernel, and I was the first non-family member to visit him in prison.
I have now lived in Israel for 17 years, doing what I can to promote dialogue across lines of division. To an extent that I believe is rare, I straddle both societies. I know Israel today – and I knew apartheid up close. And put simply, there is no comparison between Israel and apartheid…”
2
One of my biggest concerns is Israel moving away from liberal to illiberal democracy. Trump hasn’t helped there, either.
135
@Don
Israel is in the midst of starting an election that is an example of its liberal democracy.
The present situation that Trump has started probably will only cause a movement to the right in self defense.
Your point seems to be an expression of confusing Israel and its leader Netanyahu , as expressed in this newspaper, vs. the reality iof a really vibrant democracy with daily threats to its existence.
7
@Don
Why is that your biggest concern, after Trump already changed the US from a former liberal democracy to an illiberal one?
16
@Sarah. Nowadays the word "liberal" refers to the neoliberal economic agenda. A liberal democracy means limited democracy or, as you say illiberal, as designed by the Republican Congress and every President since Reagan. Today I use the term social democrat to replace what was previously referred to as liberal.
5
The siting of an embassy is not automatic; it's a diplomatic hot potato, and Israel deliberately confounds good will and diplomacy via the presence of neutral states, by claiming "all" of Jerusalem, whose eastern suburbs are being expropriated & developed as an annex. That's why the move was a provocation and a toss of red meat to Trump's fanatic, ultra-sectarian base -- JaredLand. Other than that, dream again of 1956, when Eisenhower pulled the plug on the French-Israeli-UK bombing of the Suez Canal (UK sovereignty over it had expired and the Egyptians said, Guess what: It happens to be in Egypt); bombings that had brought the world close to nuclear war. The people of the middle-east have long memories, not erratic hissy fits like Donald's.
3
@Carling
UN Resolution 181 (Partition) "The Statute elaborated by the Trusteeship Council on the aforementioned principles shall come into force not later than 1 October 1948. It shall remain in force in the first instance for a period of ten years, unless the Trusteeship Council finds it necessary to undertake a re-examination of these provisions at an earlier date. After the expiration of this period the whole scheme shall be subject to re-examination by the Trusteeship Council in the light of the experience acquired with its functioning. The residents of the City shall be then free to express by means of a referendum their wishes as to possible modifications of the regime of the City."
Because the majority of Jerusalem was Jewish, Jerusalem would have become part of Israel after 10 years. Jordan invaded Jerusalem, conquered the eastern part, expelled every Jew & forced Christian schools to teach the Koran.
1
Bad for Israel? Bad for democracy. Bad for world peace. The enormous self-importance of both Israel and Donald Trump - along with the Saudi regime - are having adverse affects throughout the world.
Founding Father, John Adams, wrote in 1806, "There has never yet been a democracy that did not commit suicide." Adams cited vanity as one major self-inflicted wound. From the arrogant egotism of Washington and Jefferson to the gross narcissism of Donald Trump, the American Dream of democracy never had a chance to become a reality.
3
Oh, No. Yet another diatribe against President Trump.
There are two kinds of US support for Israel.
The first kind is based on the righteous moral imperative of supporting a small sliver of democracy tucked away among theocratic, barbaric traditions that prevail in the Levant region.
The second level of support is based on what is good for the US and how Israel can politically and militarily complement US interests in the region.
Mr. Trump is unshakable in his commitment towards Israel based on the first category. Obama, on the other hand, favored his own Islamic roots. He had no organic or visceral commitment towards Israel. He had no compunctions about publicly humiliating Prime Minister Netanyahu while the media stood silently by his doings. Criticizing a black president for his vile ineptitude would have been politically incorrect.
Trump’s firm stand on what is good for the US does not detract from his total support of Israel. Keeping Turkey quiet is very important for US interests.
If the withdrawal from Syria softens the support for Kurds, so be it. Kurds are not reliable allies of either the US or Israel. Kurds too have shown their propensity for violence multiple times.
Supporting Kurds is not as essential for the US as keeping Turkey under control even when a person as despicable as President Erdoğan is at the helm.
We don't want him to carry out Erdoğan's public threat last year of breaking diplomatic relations with Israel. Do we?
3
Yeah keep US troops in Syria forever and ever right Bret?. I forgot did Syria invite the US like it invited the Russians?. I guess we can do whatever we please and now the ex Saddam Army known as ISIS can be our bogeyman justifying any intervention we like right Bret?. Now the Iraqis having zillion tanks and Jets from us can't defeat ISIS who they say has some 15K fighters spread in villages even though the Iraqi Army has some 350K troops. Now if that Army with all our 7 Trillion $$$ help can't defeat ISIS by itself I'd say its not our fight anymore.
1
Bret, many of us think that it's time for the US to get out of the Middle East altogether. Israel has been a country for 60 years and yet the United States contributes close to $4 billion each year towards their military aid. Israel is the world's eighth largest exporter of military arms worth $9 billion each year. On the surface none of this makes any sense. What does is for the United States to formulate a ten year exit strategy from Israel and deploy it.
8
You are judged by the company you keep, and having Trump as a friend is besmirching the image of Israel. the world looks upon Trump as a reactionary, dangerous,buffoon, who’s tenure as President is in doubt.It’s not too late for Israel to clean up it’s act.With the Election in Israel coming up,Israel’s future is on the line. do they follow the Hawkish Netanyahu, or do they elect a Herzog Liberal, and seek peace with their Palestinian neighbors & partition Israel & give the Palestinians their own State, or have a federation of Israel & Palestine.Seeking peace insures the peaceful future of Israel.
Occupying the Palestinians, will end in disaster.
2
@Joe Blow
In 1947, the scholars at Al-Azhar University (The highest authority in Sunni Islam.) declared holy war to return Palestine to Islamic rule. Therefore, as long as most Palestinians are devout Muslims (85% of Palestinian Muslims want sharia law.) and as long as the Jewish State controls even one square inch of land, peace is impossible.
1
It appears that Mr. Stephens is laboring here to please his new masters. This quote in particular shows what he's up against:
"During the eight years of the Obama presidency, I thought U.S. policy toward Israel — the hectoring, the incompetent diplomatic interventions, the moral equivocations, the Iran deal, the backstabbing at the U.N. — couldn’t get worse. As with so much else, Donald Trump succeeds in making his predecessors look good."
I think he would be hard-pressed to find an influential person in Israel who agrees with this. The analogy is perfectly ridiculous.
For an adult-look at this issue:
https://spectator.us/trumps-mideast-carve/
1
The ultimate long term threat to Israel is the expansion of settlements on lands that are identified as being part of a future Palestinian State. The Israeli expansion of these settlements is a deliberate policy to make a Palestinian State impossible, while playing lip service to a "Two State Solution".
The continued Israeli Occupation of the West Bank is a threat to the future of Israel, but even President Jimmy Carter recognized this when he said Israel has to chose between an eventual Apartheid State (which already exists) or Peace .
5
@skier 6
Settlements don't make a Palestinian State impossible. On the contrary, when settlements become part of the Palestinian State & settlers become Palestinian citizens, the greater wealth of the Jewish settlers would be good for the Palestinian economy.
1
And, if you think that the ultimate long-term threat to Israel isn't Israel itself -- the answer is emphatically no.
2
The best thing America could do for Israel now is to provide parity in the region. With American taxpayer financial support, Israel thinks they are a military might... defensive borders, unlimited budget for technology and an intelligence agency whose tentacles reach throughout the world, to rival the CIA in the latter half of the past century...
What Israel has never faced, is a well-armed opponent. She has never sacrificed hundreds or even thousands of her young people. No internal civil war, Jew v. Jew yet, it's simply the settlers foisting their religious state on everyone.
One day, Israel will learn to live free of the American taxpayer. Then, she will learn to compromise with her neighbors. That will be a good day for all, the first step to a lasting peace in the homeland. Living as an American-protected satellite will not be as long lasting.
3
@Midway
One percent of Israel's population was killed in the 1948 war. That would be the equivalent of 3.2 million Americans killed in one year. There were 416,000 Americans killed in world war 2 which lasted 4 years.
1
The author liked the U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem. Yet, as the author says, the embassy move signifies nothing.
The author is against extreme religious terrorists, but only if they're Muslim. Is it okay, in the author's view, to terrorize if you're Hebrew, Christian or atheist? Is the author on-board with white Christian mass shooters, or Israelis gunning down rock-throwing Palestinians and stealing their land? Or is it just the hatred of Islam?
Israel has been put in a tough position, with Trump's Syrian troop withdrawal. It leaves a clear route for Russia to enter and take over the Middle East. Respect for Islam or Judaism--doubtful.
The U.S. could try to protect Israel, and leave the rest of the M.E. and, via Turkey, Europe to the Russians. Trump doesn't care. He wants to isolate the U.S. from the world, like he isolates himself with his television and hides from people.
The author disapproved of the Iran nuclear accord. But he failed to note that Iran still adheres to it, and the other international signatories still support it. The U.S. reneged, but not the world.
The gravest threat to Israel is their continued killing of Palestinians and territory stealing. Israel's boundaries were set in 1946.
They haven't changed, even though their occupation far exceeds their boundaries. The U.N. reiterated these boundaries in 1988 and 2006, yet they refuse to budge.
They follows neither Torah nor International law--their grave downfall now. Russia next.
3
Why would anyone surmise Trump has goals in mind? Facts to the contrary, he’s wonderful; he’s on track; he’s a genius. He doesn’t need goals; he’s already there. He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum! What a good boy!!
1
The "reformed" Bret Stephens. Don't believe it.
1
Israel is fully capable of defending itself as numerous sorties in Syria, against Iranian arms for Hezbollah, have proven.
Trump did not throw Israel under the bus as Obama did when he okayed the nuclearization of Iran.
6
How could Trump’s foreign policy be detrimental to Israel’s interests? All “The Donald” has to do is remind the world:
"I'm flexible. . . very flexible foreign policy. . . take pride in my flexibility. My greatest strength. . . a great inspiration to my base and my fans throughout the world. I'm unpredictable . . . I feed on the hazy. I'm experienced in these matters. More experienced than anyone--than the generals. . . . the establishment pols. You name it.
"An unpredictable world I can deal with. Consistency? Overrated. Credibility? Overrated. Push emotional buttons. Throw the world a 180 degree curve ball. Focus their attention. Get adulation even.
"Some say I have no unified foreign policy . . . flexibility--greatest policy ever. Spring your responses on the chumps. Keep the world hanging. My base loves it. A bit of spice. A bit of suspense.
"Be flexible. Tell the foreign leaders whatever you want 'em to hear . . . . except Putin, gotta’be straight with Vlad. Otherwise it's repeat, delete, repeat. People get the message, unget it, get it again. Sells most of the people most of the time. Keep 'em off balance. The key to success. In real estate development! In politics! In diplomacy! Flexibility!
"Me and my smart brain--smartest--we know these things!"
1
"Is any of this good for Israel?"
Today I tried to think of anything that Israel has done in its 70 years of existence that has improved the world.
Laws? It has devolved into a kleptocracy.
Religion? It has become a de facto theocracy.
It has sealed itself away behind concrete walls.
Where are its scientists? Inventions?
Yes, I'm sure its MIC is happily creating more weapons of war.... but how does that improve the world?
Israel, Bret, is its own worst enemy.
Worse, our own president, who "loves the poorly educated", is indifferent about what Israel does with our 4 billion dollars a year we hand over to them.
What do they do with that money? For they certainly aren't using it for anything that I see.
I'll consider any creations that anyone cares to state.
1
Is Bret a Jeffersonian? Apparently not. Is he a Scoop Jackson man, sort of. Does he believe that the interests of of the U.S. & Israel are the same? Not sure. As a supporter of Israel the U.S serves my personal interests. As an American I don't believe supporting Israel is in our national interest.
1
“What Israel most needs from the U.S. today is what it needed at its birth in 1948: an America committed to defending the liberal-international order against totalitarian enemies...”
Please explain how Israel under Netanyahu is a member in good standing of the liberal-international order, and not totalitarian.
Also explain how good a friend to the US Israel has been under Netanyahu.
“It means we should advocate human rights, civil liberties, and democratic institutions, in that order.”
And while you’re at it, please explain how Israel under Netanyahu has been successful at advocating any of those things.
2
@Bob Bunsen
Israel has maintained democracy even though it's been under continual attack.
By contrast, we Americans locked American citizens of Japanese descent in concentration camps during world war 2 & we confiscated Joe DiMaggio's father's fishing boat because he was of Italian descent.
Israel was ranked #26 by Global Democracy Rating
http://democracyranking.org/wordpress/rank/democracy-ranking-2016/
Even Palestinians think that Israel is a democracy.
“57% say democracy in Israel is good or very good”
http://pcpsr.org/en/node/723
Israel was ranked 30 out of 167 on The Economist's Democracy Index.
That's better than Belgium, Greece, Cyprus & at least a dozen other European countries.
1
i am curious to know why bret stephens supported the move of the U.S.membassy — what purpose does he see it serving and how does he imagine jetusalem best served?
3
No one who genuinely believes in a two-state solution, the only option with some chance of defusing the Israeli-Arab conflict, can support the move of the American embassy to Jerusalem, a gratuitous empty gesture which inflames anger without solving anything.
As with so much of what you write, you are caught between your unconscious brutish ideological obligations to hard-right thinking, (which put you much closer to Trump than you realize) and your manners and cultural rules, at odds with the spirit of the times for most of your fellow conservatives, particularly your leader.
1
Unfortunately Bret, you simply can't have it both ways when it comes to Trump. Unlike previous presidents, you don't get a pass for supporting some of his policies while condemning others.
Simply put, Trump is bad for America, bad for the democracies around the world, and yes, bad for Israel too. Simply put, it is all bad.
Instead of pondering why just a few of his announcements this week are bad for Israel, which they are, since you supported the "headline" grabbing embassy move, which changed terribly little, perhaps you can enlighten us on the promised peace plan.
I am not saying that you don't write well or that you don't have good ideas. I am just saying I TOLD YOU SO. And that in my opinion, with this man as our commander in chief, you simply can't have it both ways.
1
Bret after having read your essay I am struck by how much you are like the very people and notions you decry. Your world view is either black or white and it is the same lack of nuance which has gotten us in the mess we are in now.
I don’t care if Trump is bad for Israel or not. I care about the US and the world in general and he’s a disaster for both.
3
I have faith that Donald "Caveat Emptor" Trump and Bibi "Bribe Taker" Netenyahu will do whatever is best for their countries and the alliance...right after they took their profits.
Both men are sleazy operators who care not a whit about their respective counties.
2
What Bret finds terrible about the Obama policies towards Israel --'the hectoring, the incompetent diplomatic interventions, the moral equivocations, the backstabbing at the U.N.' -- was simply the U.S. protecting the rights of the Palestinians against the Israeli land-grab. To make this comment after first urging that, 'we [the U.S.] should advocate human rights, civil liberties, and democratic institutions ...' is to be completely blind or disinterested in the rights and liberties of the Palestinians. Bret can and should do better.
3
Brett Stephens needs to learn introspection on how a militant blood and soil Likud Bloc is bad not only for Israel but for the US and Western democracies as well. It is no secret and a supreme irony that Netanyahu has made common cause with Neo-fascists like Orban in Hungary, Bolnosoro in Brazil, or the Austrian Freedom Party. Even more revealing is that the likes of Richard Spencer while promoting racism and anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim bigotry in the US genuinely admire Likud Israel and desire a militant blood and soil White-Christian ethno-state in the US. The Neo-Con promotion of "Clashes of Civilization" against the Muslim world have been the gateway for such racial and religious supremacism and attendant terrorism and refugee flows which have undermined democracy in the West as well not to mention the Israeli, Saudi, UAE alliance to subvert the Arab Spring.
4
It means we should oppose religious fundamentalism, whether it be Jerry Falwell, or Franklin Graham or Robert Jeffress. Stephens, perhaps rushing his OpEd, forgot to list Christian fundamentalists. I’m sure it was an oversight....
6
Once again, another terrible column by Bret Stephens. This guy claims that 'we should resist interloping foreign aggressors...[like] the Soviets in Egypt'. When did the Soviets invade Egypt? Or is Bret saying that America applied pressure against Egypt to push the Soviets out for the benefit of Israel and should continue to let Israel's interests, not America's, drive our foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa.
Bret should go back to the WSJ and take his terrible opinions with him.
3
...and The United States, Syria, Canada, Australia, Nigeria, Ghana, New Zealand, Montenegro, Croatia, Serbia, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Mexico, Cuba, South Africa, Kenya, Haiti, Brazil, Spain, Greece, Poland, Ethiopia, Iceland...pretty much everywhere but Russia. Trump is the worst for everywhere.
1
When faced with any criticism of any kind, Trump does not answer the question, take responsibility or act like a president. His response is always to change subject by blaming others, finding a subject that has nothing to do with the problem at hand or taking a trip either to play golf or making nice with troops he has ignored for two years. The investigation of his corruption and defection of his staff he handles by flooding the media with twaddle about the wall and a partial government shut down and of course to blame democrats.
When the Russians and Iran are on Israeli northern borders in Syria I am sure he will blame Hillary Clinton, President Obama and Jim Mattis or anything else that passes through his spider like mind. If he were a man much less a president he would see as the disaster of his own making. But he still has his base who believe it all like automatons and the Republican Senate who knowing the truth will not lift a finger to do anything about our Con Man in Chief and supporting him makes them all complicit.
The 2000 US troops in Syria not long ago engaged Russian troops (now referred to as mercenaries for the sake of face-saving and maybe to avoid a spiral to a nuclear showdown with Russia), to prevent Assad from reasserting authority over the oil producing region that appears to be Syria's only economic instrument for its existence as a nation state. http://www.translation.pk/interpreters.html
When it comes to Israel's national interest, Mr. Stephens does not speak for me.
In Trump Israel has got the president it deserves, and encouraged. The policies of Netanyahu's governments with respect to Palestinians and Israel's neighbors have always been conducted with the objective of short-term political gain with no end-game in sight, a headlong rush into a cul-de-sac with no exit. Now Israel gets to see how the same type of policy looks in America, and they get to deal with the blowback. Given the encouragement Netanyahu (and therefore Israel) has given to Republicans and exactly the stupid sort of foreign policy that Trump is practicing today, I can't think of a more deserving country to feel its ill effects.
1
President Obama sent in a team to Israel to rent an office and campaign against Netenyahu. Talk about election meddling. Trump moves the US embassy to Jerusalem and Bret thinks that Trump is bad for Israel. Where does the left dream up this silliness ?
2
You know, at this point, saying "well I was wrong about some of Trump's decisions" is not acceptable. Every thinking American knew what Trump was about, if only suspicious at the time. Highly placed NYT columnists do not get a pass. We turn to you for informed comment, not post analysis. Any fool can see what his has done, is doing and going to do.
"It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara. It means we should advocate human rights, civil liberties, and democratic institutions, in that order."
Does that include civil liberties for Palestinians?
4
A better title for this opinion piece may be "Israel is bad for Donald Trump", as no previous president nor Donald Trump have been successfully able to manage or extricate the USA from the quagmire known as the Middle East.
If we are to regard resistance to militant religious fundamentalism as an important component of Israeli well-being, how about adding Jewish fundamentalism's attempts to swerve Israel from secularism and scripturally based irrendtism to the list of Islamic offenders?
3
After all, it has been left for reader to guess why exactly President Trump is bad for Israel and he is even worse for Israel than President Obama. Without clear answer to this question this whole article is pointless, and in my humble opinion it indeed is.
1
Who is really delusional? This editorial is intended for a small percentage of conservatives who need a corrective talking to and therapeutic session to help them come to terms with why they made a slimy moral choice of supporting a lunatic who half promised to advance their interests.
1
It's not just Trump that is bad for Israel. Israel itself is bad for Israel. As long as Israel's policies are fashioned and executed by right wing fanatics, often using the tactics of overkill and 'collective reprisal', Israel will never find peace.
The Israeli policy since its inception has been to drive the Palestinians from their homeland through a combination of military pressure, economic terrorism, the establishment of the world's largest concentration camp and a general war of attrition. Trump is a buffoonish distraction from a historical held policy of Israeli aggression supported by successive U.S. presidents.
If Israel genuinely seeks peace (which I believe it won't, for demographic reasons) it should actually not just stop but reverse settlement expansion: If someone steals your land, would the courts simply say the thief cannot build any further on your property? Or would the court order the buildings destroyed and for the thief to pay you compensation?
Israel can only survive as a nation state if it becomes humanitarian and democratic towards not just its Palestinian neighbours but towards its own Arab-Israeli citizens.
3
What are we doing in Syria? We drew a red line in the sand and nothing happen. Do we want Assad out? I'm sure it can't be that hard to drop a bomb on his palace. Are the Kurds our friends or is Turkey? We seem to be supporting every faction in the area. Just keeping them equipped enough so they can shoot it out. What a waste. It's be 27 years of nonsense and counting.
This was the folly of getting in bed with Trump all along. Short term symbolic baubles, but long term association with a conman who has no loyalty to anyone.
Israel will suffer terrible consequences over this. Militarily and in the court of public opinions in America. When Trump is gone, Israel will be viewed as everything which Trump associated himself with. This was predictable and now, inevitable.
156
@Vizitei
Sorry this is really not true. Israel's politics are a direct result of the PA and Hamas never stopping their war against israel.
They are just trying to survive-in the meantime they continue to thrive and send help to every spot on earht needing assistance !!!
6
@Harvey
Harvey - you managed to address everything but the subject at hand - Trump's impact on Israel.
8
@Harvey
The classic self-justification of terrorists and left- or right-wing radicals is to provoke those in power into doing things that seem unfair and/or unjust to the body politic, thus causing a widespread revolt (by voting or other means) which unseats those in power in favor of the radicals.
It is possible to make a good case that the Netanyahu government is taking the bait of the Palestinian terrorists and taking actions which if continued to their likely conclusion will result in calamity for Israel. As long as the Palestinians see no hope for less oppression in their daily lives from the Israeli government, they will continue to support such dead-end paths as Hamas can conjure up.
12
Donald Trump is bad for EVERYONE, isn't that clear? I was brought up Jewish although I no longer practice and until the moment that Netanyahu came here and spoke before Congress WITHOUT the invitation of President Obama, I was foolishly too unquestioning in my support for Israel. Not anymore. Moreover, the fact that Trump is welcomed so warmly by the Likud Government sickens me! I care about Israel but NOT as much the wellbeing of everyone else and if Israel really can warm up to Trump then we have a serious problem, folks. The fact that it's even necessary to reiterate that "Trump is bad for Israel" sickens me. He's bad for the PLANET ~ clear enough, ladies and gentlemen?
1
Donald Trump is bad for EVERYONE, isn't that clear? I was brought up Jewish although I no longer practice and until the moment that Netanyahu came here and spoke before Congress WITHOUT the invitation of President Obama, I was foolishly too unquestioning in my support for Israel. Not anymore. Moreover, the fact that Trump is welcomed so warmly by the Likud Government sickens me! I care about Israel but NOT as much the wellbeing of everyone else and if Israel really can warm up to Trump then we have a serious problem, folks. The fact that it's even necessary to reiterate that "Trump is bad for Israel" sickens me. He's bad for the PLANET ~ clear enough, ladies and gentlemen?
Trump is not the president of Israel. Isn't the real question whether Netanyahu is good for Israel?
1
Let’s start with the headline.
He’s no good for us (America) or the world at large, so of course he’s no good for one particular country!
Except Russia? Saudi Arabia? Turkey? North Korea? Our allies, nowadays (in his deranged mind).
I cannot consider his presidency from a foreign country’s point of view. I do consider what he’s done to OUR values as a nation, OUR long-held ideals of compassion, equality, justice, regardless of skin color, religious beliefs, gender, or country of birth.
Sorry Bret. Try again.
2
Perhaps Mr. Stephens should care a little less for Israel and a lot more for the United States.
3
The tide is turning when I can send this article to more than one “friend” who has berated and peppered me with Pro Israel Trumo Articles for the past 2 years with no authoritative reply from me.
Finally a thought piece worth of a response to my “ political frenemies.”
Let them know we won’t stand silent.
As usual, the Israeli right makes more policies that worsen its status and for once they have a guileless apprentice.
I agree with you that "what Israel most needs from the U.S. today is what it needed at its birth in 1948: an America committed to defending the liberal-international order against totalitarian enemies." But do you see any evidence that Israel itself also agrees with you? I see Netanyahu building strategic alliances with a far-right in Europe and the US that is all too comfortable with both illiberalism and anti-Semitism.
It's rather hard to believe that someone who supported Trump's bull-headed call for an embassy in Jerusalem, know what it would likely do to peace initiatives, could now say Trump is bad for Israel. Though he may not, and probably isn't, good for Israel, he's certainly the president Israel deserves. I mean come on, the pigheadedness, lack of regard for decency and proper diplomatic decorum...he seems like Netanyahu's cosmic twin. Hey Bret Stephens, you can't willingly mud wrestle with a pig then complain for doing what the pig wanted you to do to your own peril. If you don't want to get muddy, steer clear of the pig - and the mud.
1
In the interests of fairness and objectivism, why not also discuss what might be good for Palestinians, whose land was stolen to create Israel?
4
History has shown time and again that wealthy powerful Jews have never produced actual freedom and peace for the Jewish world people.
Adelson, Trump, Kushner families, Russian Oligarchs, Putin and other self serving sociopaths are only interested in their own gains. Is it really that hard to do the simple math?
Embassy in Jerusalem? I remember walking with an Israeli soldier cousin who lost several close soldier friends who said, after the six day war “I would be quite content if that entire city with it’s violent religious wars throughout the centuries was leveled to the ground if I could bring to life just one dead soldier friend.”
Embassy in Jerusalem? Really? Another piece of historical rock to be excavated in the future to document who ruled brutally, and in what era.
That beloved soldier and poet died in the Sinai years later and his wife and family mourn every anniversary of his death. Tell this to all those sociopaths and those who debate which action serves the Jewish people.
Oh, me? I was born in a detention camp after WW II and lived in Israel and am an ardent unwavering supporter of the Israel of that era who put the interests of Jewish people first instead of corrupt pocketbooks.
2
By now, it's quite obvious that Trump is a Russophile, and so he ultimately cares as much about Israel as Putin does. Also, Trump is fond of "Hey, some of my best friends are Jewish." And he even takes it one step further, "Hey, even my grandchildren are Jewish." And we all know the code behind those phrases. Old Fred Trump was a pro at using the former.
On a related subject, when Stephen Miller, Steven Mnuchin, and Jared Kushner join Michael Cohen at Otisville, a part-time prison rabbi will be insufficient to serve their needs. Clearly, only greed could have motivated these idiots to support the son of Fred Trump.
1
But is Trump as bad for Israel as the corrupt Netanyahu government is?
To quote Pink Floyd: “Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.”
2
Bret Stephens never fails to completely ignore Israel’s flagrant disregard for international law and human decency. The use of military armaments against civilians, theft of land, destruction of homes and the use AIPAC etc to corrupt our lawmakers & foreign policy decisions. $4 BILLION per year in military aid for a wealthy nation which has 2 classes of
citizens ( Jewish and non Jewish) and is on track to becoming an apartheid state must end.
3
The only people endorsing this relationship are the religious right (Jewish and Christian).
This is a disaster for Jews, peace and stability.
178
"It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism..." Does that include the Israeli right wingers???? It'a been obvious that Israel has moved away form the liberalism of its founders. As a young man I read Mitchner's book, The Source. In it he uses a Jewish character to predict that the ultarconservatives / haredi would one day die off to be replace by "modern" Jews who accepted the concept of equality for all. Boy was he, and I, wrong.
You write:
"[W]e should advocate human rights, civil liberties, and democratic institutions, in that order."
In this good cause: How about secularizing the Israeli theocracy, freeing the two million captives in Gaza, and dismantling the settlements and Trump's Wall? Pardon me, Sharon's Walls.
6
Reads like you’ve gotten close to understanding that Trump is a marionette controlled by Putin.
2
(And please let's not have tunnel vision and consider only what's good for Israel; yes we thank Richard Nixon for Nickel Grass but let's look at the whole picture.)
2
If you ask me, the current government of Israel makes the Trump government look good.
1
America's unrestricted support for Israel's abuses in the Middle East has helped bring us 9/11, the Lebanon Towers bombing, the Cole bombing, etc., etc., and the waste of trillions over decades. It's also largely destroyed our reputation for integrity.
5
No Mr. Bret Stephens,
Only your previous columns make it worse. As with so much else comming out of Isreal. Pathethic. Would see from a differnt vantage point if you lived in the West Bank, Yemen or the 1/3 of Syria now controlled by US. We will not talk about 17 years in Afganistan. Am sure your children don't attend a broken down public school in US or that you drive over bridges about to fall down. $17T?
1
He’s bad for everything.
2
“ You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s GONE”. Many of us knew what we had, in President Obama. Apparently, most so-called conservatives are very slow learners. Just saying.
2
Thanks Trump........for your all-encompassing world view and ability to see the big picture.....uh,oh is that Fox that he is watching?
"What Israel most needs from the U.S. today is what it needed at its birth in 1948: an America committed to defending the liberal-international order against totalitarian enemies"
Really? Did Harry Truman send 2,000 troops (less than a brigade) to the region? Are our current 2,000 there to project force, to conquer the enemy (who is that now in your mind, Mr. Stephens)? Or are they sitting there, waiting to be killed like our forces in Korea, Germany, and now Afghanistan.
The thing of it is, Mr. Stephens, that in your long winded essay you couldn't spell out what "victory" for our troops would look like.
That's why our president did the right and the courageous thing: order our boys (and some girls) home.
1
To be fair, Israel is bad for Israel. Israel makes Israel look just terrible.
I look forward to being sued by Israel for this comment.
5
Why should Trump be good for Israel? He is the American not Israeli President. So it is bad when the American President is a Russian puppet, but it is OK when he is an Israeli puppet?
6
At ripe age of 73, the Grandson of a German barber should retire. Instead he is a laughing stock of the whole world and made America a BANANA REPUBLIC.
To Serban below --countries have been exasperated by Israel since its founding, when the US and England conspired to starve Jews of weapons to defend themselves against the Arab threat to exterminate them.
It's always difficult to see who or which country is worse for Israel since anti-Semitism and Arab accommodation dominates most Western policies towards it. The Palestinians are now 70 years from their use-by date. They have no real government, no civil society and raise generations of Jew-hating kids.
Obama however was worse than Trump because Russian intervention came on his watch and he passively watched Syria crumble. No need to focus on his red line fiasco, there is so much else to criticize. But the capstone of his catastrophic kumbaya worldview was the Iran deal, which gave them -- in the literal sense, planeloads of cash to arm Hezbollah and take over Syria (Russia is an overseer, not an active domestic player as is Iran).
So I think Stephens, despite is clear thoughtful credibility and heads above the other emotional Times op-ed people,, is wrong on this one. The problem with Trump is that his recklessness and impulsivity can even drive serious people like Stephens to be blinded from where Trump fits in the fraught Middle East.
2
The Palestinians’ “use-by date”? That’s disgusting and dehumanizing.
2
Trump is not only bad for Israel but bad for the entire Middle East, and the whole planet come to think of it. But Netanyahu is also bad for Israel, as is Jared Kushner, MBS, Erdogan and Putin. A pox on all their houses, including this White House.
1
''So much for the idea, common on the right, that this is the most pro-Israel administration ever...'' - THIS President (and republican administration) recognized Jerusalem as the sole Jewish capitol without consultation with anyone else.
This has let the Middle East ablaze. full stop.
Regardless of all of the other moves (which are solely financial based for the President and his family - to be disclosed in the Mueller inquiry), this administration still is allowing the Israeli administration (another right wing group) to unilaterally usurp land from Palestinians and commit war crimes without punishment.
Again, full stop !
2
You can just address this as a letter to Sheldon Adelson instead of publishing it for the rest of us. Everyone else gets this.
“Suppose you’re the type of smart conservative reluctantly inclined to give Donald Trump a pass for his boorish behavior and ideological heresies because you like the way the economy is going and appreciate the tough tone of his foreign policy, especially when it comes to Islamic fundamentalism.”
Bret - please volunteer to serve on our military along with your family. This way you can help defend Israel better. We give more than enough US taxpayer money to Israel and we don’t need anymore US military casualties to please neoconservatives and Bibi.
2
Bret has got it all wrong. Trump was never a friend to Israel. He pulled out of our Iran deal not because he considered it bad policy, but rather rather because of his vindictiveness towards Obama. So too with his having engineered the move of our embassy to Jerusalem: that was done to curry favor with the likes of Sheldon Adelson, a lucrative source of money for our mercenary-in-chief. Bret has it all backwards. Obama was the true friend of Israel, attempting to keep it from pursuing policies such as settlement expansion which have further alienated the world from the Israeli state. Do I even have to mention Trump’s appraisal of neo-Nazis as some very fine people?
5
Amazing that the GOP will pay for single payor healthcare and state of the art infrastructure for Israel but not for this country.
Then again our policy toward Israel isn’t rooted in logic or facts. Instead it’s based on a book of Bronze Age fairy tales and the need of Evangelical extremists to please their imaginary friend.
6
First, Bret, I do hope you read some of the comments of the astute and apparently really smart liberal NYT readers. Their anti-semitism is on full display. I know liberals wanted to parse being anti- Israeli vs anti -Semitic, but it is really hard to tell. Just a couple of facts, yes the Israel displaced an Arab population now know as Palestinians, in the late 30s to form the present state of Israel. They were, of course, being persecuted throughout enlightened Europe at the time as fascism rose. They have built the only democracy in the Middle East and have proposed peace treaties and resolution to the Palestinians and have been met with intifadas, rockets, bombings. Palestinian leadership has been corrupt from the start, wants destruction of the Israeli state, is rabidly anti-semitic and pays people and their families for suicide bombings. Guess what, all you geniuses that are against Israel, it is hard to have an open society with all that going on. But back to Bret, is the withdrawal of 2000 troops from Syria really that much of a crisis? The US remains in Iraq, has nearby bases in Europe, has armed allies in Israel and Saudi Arabia and isn’t Turkey part of NATO? Can’t we reduce our foot print a tad? My only concern is the Kurds, and there I am with you. We need to support this great ally in our fight against Islamic Extremism.
3
@Mark V... Wake up sir!. Israel is an apartheid nation currently governed by war criminals. The voting laws in Israel closely shadow those of the Jim Crow era in the USA. It's activities in the occupied territories is inexcusable and frankly borders genocide. This is a racist nation run by a corrupt and amoral government. This is not about the people of Israel or Jews across the world. It is about the behavior of a nation state that is operating outside the norms we expect of human interaction. Until that changes we should abandon them. Cutting aid would quickly change the course of this rogue nation. That's not anti-Jew, anti-Israeli citizen or Anti-semite. It's pro reality and it's time we woke up to that in this nation.
2
@Jack Hunter
Last year, 39,000 Syrians were killed, 96% by Assad’s forces, but no one called that genocide. So if Syria’s killing 39,000 Syrians isn’t genocide, then how can Israel’s killing 89 Palestinians last year, most of whom were attacking innocent Israelis, be called genocide?
1
Who could have guessed that a turn toward proto-fascism was not in Israel's best interests? (Of course I am referring to the current administrations in both the U.S. and Israel.)
3
"I write this as someone who supported Trump moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and who praised his decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal as courageous and correct."
I write this as someone who finds ideas like this remind me why the Times' hiring of you is so deeply regrettable.
8
As a former editor of The Jerusalem Post, you should tell all of this directly to Netanyahu and scold him for hanging his country and his rightwing politics on the tails of Trump.
2
If Donald Trump is bad for Israel, a big piece of the blame for Trump lands on Sheldon Adelson.
1
@Robert Henry Eller It also lands with people like @BretStephensNYT
1
What is it with you? No reasoned argument is complete without some Obama bashing? Everything you wish for in you column was implemented, if not personified, by Obama. And yet you just can't resist linking to all of your tires arguments from yesteryear.
Get over it. The current occupant falls short in so many ways. Too bad you couldn't see it back in 2016, like most Americans.
3
Sorry Mr Stephens - you've left a few things out in this section:
"It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara. "
We should oppose militant religious fundamentalism lots more places than just the mid-East - such as genocidal buddhism in Myannmar, murderously African boko haram, far-out right-wing evangelical christianity wherever, and (since Israel is your theme) radical zionist orthodoxy.
But I do agree that "we should advocate human rights, civil liberties, and democratic institutions, in that order" so long as that advocacy applies to ALL the above.
4
Well said.
"It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara."
Odd, no mention of the fundamentalists controlling Israel.
8
“But leave that aside and consider the Trump presidency from a purely Israeli standpoint.”
Bret Stephens all the way.
2
The buck starts and stops with Netanyahu - no one has done more harm to Israel's standing around the world, leading people to view it as an oppressor state. No one has done more to propel the rise of antisemitism in the 21st century.
7
Based on the enemy of my enemy being my friend doctrine, support from fundamentalists on both sides comes together to form one big ball of nutty.
On the subject of Israel, the rapture meets sovereign rights and these vile bedfellows let Trump be Trump. His most risky inclinations are fed in the U.S. by the Evangelicals, who can't wait for the Jews to return to Israel and then Kapowie!
Crafting peace in the Middle East region is a fine goal. Watching these lunatics flaunt their pro-Israel chutzpah while motivated by self-interested biblical pronouncements (rather than humanity) is painful.
3
Bret, can I call you Bret? You are STILL not getting are you? People do not support Trump because of Israel or Republican ideology or anything else except for ONE big thing. As long as Trump mouths his bigotry - towards Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, LGBT, women ... everyone who is not an old, white, christian male, then the base will support him. Nothing else matters to these people.
3
"It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism,
whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara."
But militant Jewish fundamentalism is okay on the West Bank ???
And militant Christian fundamentalism is fine in the United States ???
Seems more than a little inconsistent, doesn't it, Bret ???
4
The author writes:” It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara.”
He should add the ultraorthodox jewish fundamentalists who believe their god gave them the whole area where Arab populations have loved for millennia and who regularly try to subvert the Israeli government to convert the country in a theocracy
3
Donald Trump is bad for everyone !
6
Mr. Stephens thinks the US should "defend the liberal, international order". In that case, we would have to considerably reduce our support of Israel. That country no longer represents our values of freedom, equality and self determination, with its Jim Crow laws in Israel proper and apartheid system in the occupied lands.
2
Pleeeease. Our kids are tired of wars. They just want to live peacefully with others. Is that too much to ask? Israel refuses to live in peace and just because of that single reason, convoluted logic ensues as to who is an enemy and who is an ally. Such rubbish. Just go ahead and give your fellow human beings a hug.
1
Mr. Stephens:
How would you suggest that Trump remove Iran and Russia from Syria? Assad invited them there and as the leader has that right.
1
I think a “grave threat to Israel” is the fact that every inch of the land it occupies was stolen from others.
I think a grave threat to Israel is that it is one of the worlds worst bullies, protected because its big brother USA is the most powerful nation around — for now.
I think a grave threat to Israel is its increasingly theocratic nature and the worn-out practice of crying “anti-semitism” at the slightest criticism.
And I think that the gravest threat to Israel may be the American electorate, which doesn’t really care about Israel’s security or future, resents the vast sums of money we squander on it for nothing and the conspicuously heavy handed lobbying of our congress (including the prime ministers direct intervention in our elections), and will sooner or later wake up and demand objectivity and fairness from our elected officials.
Never mind the unbelievably rude snub of VP Biden when he arrived a few years ago, or the use of our own foreign aid to hire Pollard to spy on us. Israel’s gravest threat of all is Israel itself.
And before the howls begin — I am not anti Semitic, anti-Jewish, or against the entire nation of Israeli people. I wept and stood in silence to grieve at the murder of innocent Jews gathered to worship — a permanent stain on my city’s reputation. What Americans need to remember is that, despite the PR, the word “Israel” is not synonymous with “every Jewish person on Earth.”
4
Trump is bad for Israel?
Of course he is. He is bad for America too. He is bad for Western civilization, period. So why should Israel be any different?
2
Despite his protestations to the contrary, Stephens reinforces multiple times in his screed that he is, always has been, and always will be a Firster.
America's military deaths will always be a necessary sacrifice towards his ends.
When Mr Stephens advocates and American policy that opposes militant religious extremism, ought that not include Jewish religious extremism? Apartheid reigns in Israel to its own ultimate detriment.
1
Stephens wants "to preserve at least a vision of a future Palestinian state"?? No, he doesn't. That statement is totally dishonest. He just wants the US to continue giving lip service to a Palestinian state while everyone in Israel says there'll never be a Palestinian state and there's no such thing as Palestinians. And why is that lip service important? To prevent international discussion moving on to face the reality that settlement has gone so far as to be irreversible, that Judea and Samaria will remain part of Israel forever. Once that fact is admitted, the choices become (a) continuing the current apartheid state, or (b) ending Israel's racist policy of granting basic rights in Judea and Samaria to Jews only.
1
Israel is a huge problem for the USA. No, I'm not an antisemite so hold your fire. I'm just a realest.
The Netanyahu government is replete with war criminals. Setting aside the curtain of corruption of the current Israeli government, BB himself should have been thrown in prison long ago for his crimes against humanity. As should a large part of his cabinet.
We cannot and should not support a nation that for all intensive purposes is practicing apartheid and worse yet indiscriminately destroys the futures of Palestinians most of whom want nothing more that to go about their daily business, prosper and be able to provide a future for their children. I don't pretend that there aren't those that wish to inflict the worst on the jewish homeland but lets be clear. You reap what you sew. Israel has sewn a lot of hatred and destruction over the past decades. The USA should not tie it's cart to a nation that acts as Israel does. Our countless billions in support have brought us nothing but problems from Israel. For the life of me I cannot understand how a people so persecuted as Jewish people around the world have been for thousands of years including the horrors of WWI can so easily turn around and sanction the kind of behaviors we witness the Israeli government inflicting on Palestinians. Might makes right or an eye for an eye mentality will never solve this problem and as long as BB, a proven war criminal is in power in Israel we should not support them.
2
The Untied States of America has been an unswerving ally of the State of Israel since its inception in 1949. We have stood by the Jewish state's side through every war it has fought against belligerent Arab neighbors over the past seven decades. We have given them hundreds of billions of dollars in both military and economic aid during that time. Our support for Israel is founded in our bedrock Christian belief that Israel is built upon the land God Himself promised to the Jewish people. It is, in many ways, holy ground owed to the Jews of the world after centuries of discrimination and persecution, which culminated in the singular, unique horror called the Holocaust.
That being said, The United States is not a satellite of Israel. Bibi Netanyahu apparently believes that it is and felt the need to personally disrespect Barack Obama. The GOP was complicit in that gratuitous insult by inviting the Israeli prime minister to speak before a joint session of Congress. Bibi tried to rub Obama's nose in it, but the 44th president, classy and dignified as usual, refused to take the bait. All nations have a degree of self-interest in the making of foreign policy. The Israelis are no exception, Bret. What irked you and so many conservatives about Obama was that he did not take his marching orders from Jerusalem. Nor should any self-respecting American president for that matter. The U.S. will always defend Israel's right to exist. But we are not beholden to them.
Donald Trump Is Bad For_______
Fill in the blank.
3
Trump is bad for Israel ? Name something, if you can, that Trump is good for.
3
@Nick Adams
“Nothing”
Obama made mistakes aplenty but his equivocal support for an apartheid state doesn’t make my top ten.
Stephens signals that he is the right kind of conservative by continuing to bash the Obama administration. “Golly gee! Trump is even worse than Obama! Who woulda thunk it?”
Give us a break, Brett. 17 significant investigations and counting, a revolving door of crooked cronies, nepotism that would make George H.W. Bush blush, capitulation that makes Chamberlain look defiant, a ballooning debt, to name just a few of Trump’s disastrous if not criminal “policies.”
Lock ‘em up!
2
Remember on his way out the door when Obama gave Palestine $221,000,000? Or when he said Israel should go back to 1960s borders? NOT a friend of Israel. Trump? He moved the embassy like presidents have been promising for years. They love him! This author is clueless
4
Donald Trump is bad for the world, the US and Israel included.
That's obvious.
2
Trump is bad for Israel. Republicans are bad for Israel.
Religious right is bad for Israel. Neocons, ultimately, are bad for Israel's present and future (on account of gratuitously engendering de-skilling and dependency).
My guess is that my brethren know this.
I know. Playing ball with the religious right - who await enrapture - for the previous 20 years in with full vigor, snubbing Obama by addressing the congress, getting cozy with a stripes of lunatics who now go by neocons, is likely par for the course. Or in other words, politics. Let them think they are about to be enraptured, so they take care of the runway and the airport from whence it will occur.
One does get a bit of blood on one's lapels when one enters the slaughterhouse, Mr. Stephens. Specially when one rolls up the sleeve and sits around the table with neocons, nut-job philanthropists, republican cash grabbers, religious right theocrats and now a full spectrum of ethnic nationalists wearing MAGA hats, an ex-Nazis who affects an English, and a banker turned movie maker who wants a white Christian America.
One does, shall we say, lose one's right to complain about the sharp knives and dripping meat once one has sat at the table with a self-satisfied sense of smugness.
Don't you think?
1
In listing all the terrible things he supports to show his commitment to Israel, Bret forgot to mention his celebration of Israeli soldiers murdering and maiming unarmed Palestinians on the Gaza border. Particularly if those shot were unarmed kids.
7
Not buying the attacks on Obama and the dumber attack on the nukes deal with Iran, but otherwise, sure.
Is is good for USA to think about what is bad for Israel instead of what is good for USA ?
1
Just imagine what Israeli military command is doing. Iran is in Syria and America is leaving and Israel found this out on Twitter
2
Good morning Mr Stephens It’s about time you woke up to reality
Authoritarians pose simple solutions for complex problems
It took you this long to figure out that trump is either an authoritarian wanna be or stupid and lazy .....or both
The rest of us in the complex real world welcome you
2
The Zionist basically stole Palestinian land and continue to do so. They pushed an entire ethnic population out of their homes. In other situations we have called this ethnic cleansing. Making excuses for stealing a country is the basic issue that is always defended by historical documents. Call it what it is. Israel killed 2000 Palestinians in Gaza. Collective punishment is just immoral.
6
Wo den>? What is bad for the US is also bad for Israel. Why is this so hard for so many self-proclaimed friends of Israel to understand?
The gist of Stephen's article is that evaluating a US Presidency is dependent on its foreign policy towards Israel - basically. And what a low bar he sets. The instances of what he terms as hostility to the Zionist state — the hectoring, the incompetent diplomatic interventions, the moral equivocations, the Iran deal, the backstabbing at the U.N. — are nothing more than ultimately inconsequential diplomatic procedures intended to keep so called "stability" in the Middle East. Israel has not suffered an invasion by an overwhelming world power (like Iraq has, twice), has not been the victim of sanctions (like Iran has been), and certainly has not had its billions of dollars in welfare handouts reduced. Really, what Stephen's is concerned with is that Israel's moral reputation is battered and that the country is increasingly being perceived as what it truly is - a rogue, tribal state built on principles of racism and apartheid. Stephens forgets that Israel itself has supported undemocratic regimes; Apratheid South Africa, the current Saudi regime, among others.
8
“Donald Trump Is Bad for Israel.” You’ve got to be kidding. This unhinged megalomaniac is bad for the entire world, the entire universe.
6
So Bret finally gets around to his signature gripe. No US policy will ever be pro Israel enough to satisfy Stephens. Maybe that pesky Neo-Con Clinton would have come close.
2
This is the book that Stephens not so subtly is trying to trash by linking to neocon Jeffrey Goldberg's negative review of it. Read the book by John Mearsheimer (U. Chicago) and Stephen Walt (Harvard): "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy."
It is a must-read andserious piece of scholarship on how the Israeli lobby has hijacked America's foreign policy to the detriment of our own nation. Stephens himself is a perfect example of the problem highlighted in this book. He is a transparently Likudnik shill for a religious fundamentalist version of "Greater Israel" achieved by duping Americans that expending their blood and treasure is in our country's best interest. From Bernie to Trump, and mainstream America to college campuses, that dog won't hunt anymore. Israel, like Saudi Arabia, is a violent religiously fundamentalist country and as Americans support for these countries is wrong and against our nation's interest.
3
In 2014, David Brooks - before he went gaga for Christianity - revealed in an interview published in a Hebrew language publication that his son was in the IDF. The Times’ editor defended Brooks’ right to use the newspaper as a mouthpiece for opinions on Israeli government “defense” policy, stating that his son’s participation in the IDF was no more relevant than if his son had joined the US Air Force. The public editor (remember that quaint position?) defended Brooks’ right to write about Israel policies, but thought a ONE-TIME disclosure of a potential COI was in order. Troubling ethics on both counts.
The Times’ response?: Hire more opinion writers with undisclosed COI re Israeli government policies - including Bret Stephens, who uses his space to print columns like today’s that conflict with his recent columns (Trump’s “courageous” move re Jerusalem!), and that include hateful screeds about people like me who despise Netanyahu and Israeli government policies.
NY Times: Publish the citizenship(s) of your opinion piece writers. Every one. Each time a piece appears.
3
Blind loyalty regarding Israel is bad for the US. We underwrite their apartheid state and human rights abuses at a high cost and what do we really get for the money? Our support should come with requirements regarding human rights standards and progress in dealing with the issue of Palestine.
2
“So much for the idea, common on the right, that this is the most pro-Israel administration ever.”
It would certainly seem like you chicken hawks have overestimated your collective intelligence by quite a bit. This administration is ‘pro-Israel’ because Jared Kushner has an ego which is comparable to Donald Trump’s, minus the self-confidence.
Then there’s the matter of American (and Eastern Orthodox?) Christians trying to buy their way to the Second Coming, but I wouldn’t exactly want to spoil the surprise in regards to what they’ve actually served to accomplish.
Finally, and most crucially, the State of Israel is significantly less safe in a world without the JCPOA. The Likud Party will continue to act as warmongers towards Tehran, with or without Netanyahu at its helm. The difference now is that there is no incentive to prevent Iran from constructing a nuclear bomb - which they know how to do.
2
Funny...throughout Obama’s presidency, and the RW attacks on how he was dealing with Israel, there was always the occasional, quiet story, from behind the scenes in Israel that Obama was a reliable, predictable friend. No, he was not a toady like so many Republicans, and he did indeed disagree with them on much, but Israel knew exactly where they stood with him, and did not ultimately fear for their security. trump* is chaos, and Rs who stand with him for a return here or there while accepting/ignoring the rest of his toxic hysteria only make matters worse.
4
Trump seems to have ordered the pullout from Syria in time to fulfill a promise to Putin to do so by the year’s end. Why else would he focus on this small (but important) piece of our armed forces deployment now? Why don’t we pull forces out of Europe? Wouldn’t that save far more $$? Why don’t we stop patrolling the South Pacific Ocean? Putin wants this so badly that he couldn’t keep his mouth shut about how wonderful it is. Russia wants that port. Trump is giving it to him because he doesn’t even understand the consequences.
3
The question you ask "Is any of this good for Israel?" is not nearly as important as "Is any of this good for USA?"
Trump's policies have not exactly been great for the country that elected him president. They have not been good for NATO or many of our other allies, Israel being but one of them.
As for your statement "During the eight years of the Obama presidency, I thought U.S. policy toward Israel ... couldn’t get worse," that's not as clear as you think it is.
Friends don't let friends do stupid things. During Obama's last press conference when he was asked about US not vetoing the UN resolution on Israeli settlements. Obama said:
"...the settlements, the growth of the settlements, are creating a reality on the ground that increasingly will make a two-state solution impossible.
“I've said this directly to Prime Minister Netanyahu, I've said it inside of Israel, I've said it to Palestinians as well, I don't see how this issue gets resolved in a way that maintains Israel as both Jewish and a democracy. Because if you do not have two states, then in some form or fashion you are extending an occupation.”
Just because Obama said things that needed to be said does not make him "worse" for Israel.
8
With Trump the question, always, is whether his decisions are based on best US interests vs the best financial interests of Trump's extended crime family (e.g. Kushners). Even without the bribes and blackmail, his strong ideological preference for autocracies (Erdogan, MBS, Putin) puts all democracies (incl. Israel) at risk. Also, Israel now might have to put itself at risk to block Turkey's genocidal plans against the Kurds (a repeat of what the Turks did to the Armenians 100+ years ago).
2
So sharp and on target that it’s downright painful.
1
I am largely in agreement with your comments. I understand that you didn’t like Obama and his attitude toward Israel. Although, I believe the attitude was toward Netanyahu; not Israel. You left out the good things that occurred toward Israel during the Obama administration. The enhanced military and security relations between Israel and the USA had never been better.
2
Mr. Stephens, I am sympathetic. Yours is a tough row to hoe--supporting Trump in part, while disagreeing with him elsewhere. Unfortunately, that is a no-go. You either love him or not. And I am not talking about the rabid right that would never leave him. Rather, I am talking about people like you who want to ignore the fact that the thinking that moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, and withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal, is the same one that is "transactional". Trump is a package deal. You are either a "transactionalist" or not. When Trump said "Make America Great" he left little room for nuance.
1
@ Edwin Israel does not have military goals in Syria, other than to prevent an attack by forces in Syria, it seems to me. Maybe also to facilitate humanitarian aid to suffering children, such as providing them with critically- needed medical care in Israel.
And you might consider the sacrifices of the Israeli people as they have been positioned as proxy for America in America's competition and conflicts with, you got it: Russia. And Russia-backed Iran (the folks who murdered and held hostage numbers of Americans, if you recall).
1
On point as always. But what is the alternative? If voters who care about Israel can choose between Trump, who supports Israel but is mercurial, and someone who doesn't really support them at all, how should they vote?
I have four grandchildren and I don’t want any of them to die in a military conflict in the Middle East or other countries that pose no threat to the U. S. No more blood and treasure in support of Israel. Solve the two state problems and get on with other issues like climate change.
1
DONALD TRUMP IS BAD FOR ISRAEL according to Mr.Stephens but for some reason he is so much more popular there than his predecessor, no comparison.
Perhaps the Israelis do not know what's good for them or perhaps the writer is completely wrong..
2
And? The last thing I care about is whether a US president is good or bad for some self-serving, unreciprocating country whose leader came here a few years ago, stood at the podium in our Congress, and at the request of one party, bashed the president of the other party.
Netanyahu and Israel can worry about themselves.
7
Bret Stephens supported Trump's two worst moves in the middle east, and now he comes along to say that "Trump isn't good for Israel".
Give us a break.
In addition to that, when was it the American president's responsibility to "be good for Israel", especially the Israel you have in mind, which is not the Israel many other people have in mind, your Israel being in perpetual occupation of the West Bank, refusing to adhere by United Nations Security Council Resolutions pushed by the United States, and perpetually in a phony war with Iran, a nation that has never attacked Israel.
What a show.
3
Before Netanyahu and Trump, Israeli mainly survived because of the bravery of its citizens and general friendly relations with the rest of the world with the exception of the arab countries and the USSR or Russia when it wanted to play politics.
Now that it is getting down to the level to some of its arab neighbors, proactive wars, land grabs, favorable kill ratios, terrorism, discrimination etc. with Netanyahu and Trump money, Israel has lost many friends around the world and in the USA.
Learn from history or be prepared to repeat its worst mistakes.
PS: Trump will sell out Israeli if money is involved.
3
"Suppose you’re the type of smart conservative reluctantly inclined to give Donald Trump a pass for his boorish behavior and ideological heresies because you like the way the economy is going and appreciate the tough tone of his foreign policy, especially when it comes to Islamic fundamentalism."
Oh now that wouldn't seal the deal for a SMART conservative would it? A smart conservative would have known that the sugar high from Trump's economic policies would wear off. A smart conservative who listened to any five minutes of anything Trump has ever said would have known that his "tough tone" masks a profound void of ignorance.
No, in order to "give Trump a pass," I think that smart conservative would have to be a racist, thrilled by racist statements and policies, and using most of their smarts to make it appear otherwise.
3
But of course, nobody who respected the “liberal-International order”, would have withdrawn,from the Iran Deal or have moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem an important point of which one hopes the author is aware.
1
Brett, just one question: when was the last time you worried about Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon?
Maybe _Israel_ is being bad for Israel. Turning from democracy to theocracy, putting all it's bets on the Republican party for short term gains in policy, associating with a pariah President--how many of these things will come back to bite Israel's relationship with the United States when Trump is gone?
1
No, Bret, the greatest long term threat (& maybe even medium term) is demographics. In the not so distant future, the Arabs and ultra-orthodox will form a majority in Israel. Just tell me how that will work out.
3
A recipe for perpetual war.
2
The U.S. acting as a proxy for Israel was put on hold under Obama and that's really why the Neocons disliked about Obama and do so vehemently to this day. With General Mattis gone it's really now the Jared/Bebe show. Is there a difference in what Jared says and does and what Bebe wants? No..none whatsoever. So in the future Mr. Stephens address your readers the courtesy of identifying who in the Trump administration is really setting Mid-East policy. It certainly isn't Donald Trump he's just the publicist.
5
President Obama's treatment of Israeli leadership couldn't get much worse? Oh please.
Why, because he, like most of the world, opposed settlements? Because he, in concert with other nations, contained Iran?
And the Obama administration back-stabbed Israel? Gee, who was it that came to the White House and, with the cameras rolling, discredited Obama's peace outline? Who addressed Congress, as if he were an American official, to undermine the Iran deal? Who complained about the size of historically large aid from the US? Who went on American shows speaking glowingly of then-candidate Romney? Netanyahu, of course.
President Obama did not suffer him gladly, no. But he would not have been doing the nation of Israel any favors by furthering Bibi's far right agenda. Most important, Obama truly put America first. More than can be said of Trump.
6
If we "advocate human rights, civil liberties, and democratic institutions" as Stephens suggests, we should be unrelentingly critical of Israel for its systematic surpression of those rights for Palestinians.
Juan Cole, in a far more enlightening essay than this one (https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/12/26/biggest-stories-2018-israel-announced-apartheid-shot-thousands-civilians), has pointed out that Israel "was founded on a formal racial supremacist principle that Jews must rule the state", which was recently reinforced in "a new Nationality Law formally vesting sovereignty solely in the hands of the 75-80% of the population of Israel that is Jewish". In a real democracy, all people have sovereignty, even the 5 million Palestinians kept stateless and rightless by Israel since 1948 in the illegally Occupied Territories, as well as the 21% of citizens who are not Jewish- or those self-identified Jews not considered Jewish by the fundamentalist rabbis who control religious matters in Israel - a fundamentalism whose influence in Islamist states he denounces.
2
The new axiom of foreign policy--if Trump is on your side, you are on the wrong side.
3
Seriously, who can threaten Israel? They have the champ military and security service in the region, the only first world economy to back them up, nearly unqualified support of a superpower, and a nuclear failsafe if all that doesn’t work. A militia in Lebanon may destroy them? Or a couple of far away dictatorships? All the despots in the ME are primarily concerned with survival, not beating Israel. I’m sorry, this is paranoia.
1
@Thollian
Hezbollah has 150,000 missiles.
1
Bret, you wanted trump. He's yours. Those of us who voted against trump foresaw all this and more. You broke it, now you own it. And, you know how to fix it.
3
Being Jewish means having a soul. It means being human. It means art, literature, curiosity, science, compassion, an ability to admit mistakes, friendship, humor,...Trump stands for none of those things.
3
In the first act he offers you something he thinks you crave - how about an Embassy in Jerusalem? you’re tempted even though you know this is the wrong way to go about it. But to finally have the acknowledgment! you say yes. Then in act two he does something that puts you in a situation so terrifying you freeze, pretend it didn’t happen, hope he wasn’t serious. But he is. In act three, eyes framed by wrinkles of worry and bags from sleepless nights you fight your cause or slink away, either way he will blame you for whatever it is and continue onward with his basket of poison apples. This is and has been his M.O. from the beginning. We as a nation know better, we should have done better, but no, we are led by lesser leaders and now we begin to pay the frightening price.
3
I agree the Syria withdrawal decision undoes any good Trump did for Israel. I agree it is a big shiny gift to Iran and Russia which is worse for Israel than the Iran Deal was good for Iran, but Trump is a long way from making Obama look good.
Obama's conceit and disdain for Israel was appalling. His standard speech that it was his responsibility to tell Israel reality, as if Israelis don't know their situation a little better than he does, was as lacking in humility as it was destructive to Israel's defense. He humiliated the democratically elected leader of Israel at the same time he paid homage to tyrants in Cuba. He gave away Israel's negotiating positions one by one, in the vain hope of getting an unelected tyrant, Abbas, to negotiate. When Americans like Taylor Force were murdered in Israel he said nothing.
By contrast, the Trump administration has gone to the homes of terror victims in Israel, making the very important point that terror is terror and there's no exceptions for victims who are Israelis, Jews, or "settlers" (however that's defined). Nikki Hayley's performance in the UN has to be compared to Obama's decision to let UN Resolution 2334, once again blaming "settlements", pass.
Worst was Obama's decision to abrogate the results of a democratic election in 2014 because he didn't like the results. Calling Bibi a racist, because he said his opponents were driving voters to the polls in droves, was hypocrisy.
I despise Trump but he's better than Obama.
2
" It means we should advocate human rights, civil liberties, and democratic institutions, in that order."
Apparently not Brett; not if you don't want to be labeled an anti-Semite and find yourself in violation of some obscure clause in your employment contract, that are suddenly ubiquitous throughout the country and apparently the result of a very orchestrated attempt to limit those same rights in our country.
1
You write this extensive piece and make sure to once again pillory President Obama when he was unquestionably pro-Israel in every single way which mattered, except for the very "symbolism" you suddenly now claim worthless. You thought that symbolism wonderful just last year, praising Trump in the Times for moving America's embassy. Further, you never once mention Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu despite never missing an opportunity to slavishly praise him.
Many, including former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, hardly agree. He wrote in the Times in 2017: "Our country now finds its very future, identity and security severely threatened by the whims and illusions of the ultranationalist government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu." (If he was American, all would rightly think he was writing about Trump).
I spoke with a group of people after Trump's electing and asked if they thought Trump would betray our allies, including Israel. The consensus was that it was just a matter of time, yet you and others supposedly principled conservatives thought Trump's total contempt for everyone would somehow not extend to Israel.
Trump just betrayed Israel, our incredibly faithful Kurdish allies, and left the Syrians already brutalized by Assad and by ISIS to the tender mercies of Russia, Turkey, and Iran. Blame yourself and your G.O.P. for so undermining Obama and HRC that we wound of with the inherently corrupt and amoral Trump, with Putin holding his leash thanks to kompromat.
5
There is always this sense that we waste money giving it to countries with corrupt governments that never use the money for the intended purposes. They are the sinners. Countries like the U.S. and Israel are the saints of the world. Perhaps the first order of business to clean up the mess would be to hold corruption trials of Donald and Bibi jointly at the world court after they are dealt with in America and Israel. Set an example for the world. In both their cases they view themselves as they view MBS. Ignore our corruption because there are worse actors somewhere else. And we (you) are getting something in exchange for enabling terrible behavior. This is very much in line with sexual abuse. Ignore Trump because Clinton did the same thing. Ignore Kavanaugh. Ignore the priests. You are benefiting from excusing the bad behavior. Like sexual abuse in business and religion and sports, corruption is ingrained into politics and governing. Did you ever notice how the best ethical and moral people are looked at as failures because they tried to live and govern by a higher standard. Think Carter and Obama and Ford and McCain. We simply can't have that. The race really isn't to the top of the moral mountain. It's to the bottom. To see who can get away with more. And that is the embraced standard. The great leaders all exhibit it, don't they. And they all absolutely love each other.
1
I say we ship Mr. Stevens off to Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, and let him write his columns in an above ground location, unprotected from the rain of Saudi launched American missiles.
Maybe then we'll see some improvement in his analysis of the Middle Eastern situation and the need for peace.
2
“It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara.”
Or Christian fundamentalism in the US? Amazing to me our blindness with respect to our own homegrown religious radicals. Are our own religious fundamentalists militant? Well they aren’t armed and killing people (except for a deranged few), but their outsized influence in our politics since the 1980’s has caused much suffering, and yes, indirect death, for so many who don’t believe as they do.
1
"Are Israelis better off now that the U.S. Embassy is in Jerusalem? Not materially. The move was mostly a matter of symbolism, albeit of an overdue and useful sort"
And what sort of intelligent remark could be this??
What constitues, then, the fact that many nations, since the Vatican, are recognizing the Palestinian as a State? Nothing.... materially? This is beyond cynicism, it's blindness
You can't disjoint one information from the other. And as much is important to have the Palestinian state recognized (as first step for a peaceful division), so is the moving to Jerusalem (into Israel) of foreign embassies.
With the first comes the second.
Please be more thoughtfully in your comments, mr. Stephens.
1
Of course Trump stabbed Netanyahu in the back. He does that to everyone who trusts him. But don’t forget Netanyahu has burned his other bridges by making the Israeli government into a subsidiary of the Republican Party, clearly showing he favored Romney over Obama and Trump over Clinton. In doing so he crossed a red line that every previous Prime Minister understood was essential to maintain. Now a whole new generation of democrats are coming into power, including a generation of Jews, who don’t quite understand why a extreme right wing, ultra orthodox dominated government should get a blank check from the US to do whatever it wants. The special relationship between America and Israel is dead. It was killed by Trump and Netanyahu.
3
Before Donald Trump alienated the US from the community of nations, Benjamin Netanyahu did the same for Israel. Israel is far more powerful, and far more isolated, than it has been in my lifetime. When we see Netanyahu paling around with leaders like Vladimir Putin, Mohammad bin Salman, and Erdogan, we know that Israel is in trouble. America's biggest mistake has been enabling Netanyahu.
2
Slow learner, Bret, but better late than never.
You supported Trump's foolish other plans, because you, too had blinders on, ignoring what he is for what you thought you were getting. You were grifted by a life-long grifter. You even knew he was a grifter, yet you let yourself be grifted for judges, tax cuts, recognizing Jerusalem, and breaking the Iran deal.
But those of us who knew Trump would ALWAYS be on the grift weren't fooled, yet we're hip-deep, too, in the mess he created.
If you don't know who the mark at the table is, it's you.
He knew it was you (the general "you", not specifically Bret Stephens). We knew it was you, too, and tried to tell you but you wouldn't listen.
35% of the nation still isn't listening as they continue to be grifted, in the greatest scam ever pulled off in the USA.
The good news is you figured it out. Now we need 20 GOP senators to realize they have been grifted and to get mad, really mad about it. Mad enough to do something to stop it.
But I doubt they will.
1
While I would personally prefer keeping US troops in Syria if only to protect the Kurds, Bretts Stephen's tirade seems to be motivated by his consistent hatred of Trump and his NYT role as the designated conservative Trump hater.
The crippling sanctions against Iran are indeed a strategy that unravels the horrible damage causes by Obama and his team of appeasers and is clearly bringing the regime of the mullahs to it economic knees, with the rest to follow.
There can be no belittling Trump's justifiably confrontational attitude toward the EU and its fleecing of America both in trade and in NATO financing. At the same time he has forged a new and better NAFTA both south and north of America's borders while cracking the ice with North Korea, something no other administration has ever attempted. And his China posture will prove itself sooner rather than later, because China needs the American market much more than America needs the Chinese.
As for Israel, there has never ben a better friend. A single glitch does not alter that fact. Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital is a major move, now being followed by Australia and probably Brazil, not to mention lesser countries.
Apparently Brett Stephen chose to make a Faustian career move when he joined the Times. And the results are tragic to behold.
1
When last seen, Mr. Stephens was applauding trump moving the embassy and tearing up the agreement that President Obama made with Iran. He wrote columns in this newspaper saying so.
Another republican who changes his opinion depending upon how he feels in the moment.
Why can't republicans be honest instead of duplicitous and untrustworthy? What opinion do you change in your next column, Bret? I do know enough about republicans to know that you won't be applauding a Democrat any time soon. Perhaps you will lead the trump 2020 parade for the RNC. You can then tell us that you have "evolved".
1
I have always felt that Donald Trump is not fit to be President of the United Stated nor is he “good for Israel” ...
The move of the American embassy to WEST Jerusalem was a political “carrot” and did not, I feel, change US policy toward a United Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty ...
In fact, I feel, that the so called Trump’s Peace Plan ( whenever it gets off the ground ) will severely disappoint Israelis ...
In addition, I feel that the impending withdrawal of American troops from Syria is a Disaster of strategic proportions ( and akin to the previous Obama “red line” fiasco in Syria ) - not only because it will cede the Middle East to Russia and Iran ... but because its implications will be felt all over the World and particularly in East Asia and Western Europe....
When America shows weakness.. the World suffers ...
1
Nice going, Jared.
In the real world, when nothing works," do nothing" is the best solution. Leave the mess to itself, go fishing or read a book, until it wears itself out. The MIdeast, like the muddling EU/UN is now served notice to grow up. Both are little more than sullen reservations reduced to servitude by their colonial master--the US. Time for these freeloaders to earn their own keep. They've all had their hands in the US Treasury for too long, and why they all long desperately for a Democrat to get them back in.
I could have told you that 3 years ago but welcome to this realization.
My second thing is using the world "Levant" it is derogatory and show that you are still biased.
I hope that people in Israel will realize soon the damage that this administration is causing them but I doubt it. Good luck to all of us we need it.
Why should any conservative think that America has to support Israel and that Israel's interests always comport with our owns. There are A LOT of people in America who do not care about Israel - which is an artificial state creaed a mere 70 years ago - and I dare say that most never did. Putting Israel issues on the table, or trying to cite some remote concerns - such as beating some Arab terrorists half a world away - as a reason why America should sacrifice its diplomatic autonomy for Israel is a grave affront to the American people.
Its hard to take anyone seriously who still thinks the Iran deal was bad. Stopped reading after that paragraph.
2
A patently absurd overreaction Bret.
President Trump can't disclose peace plans for Israel and the Palestinians because he hasn't any. He delegated bringing lasting peace to the Middle East to Jared Kushner earlier on in his presidency, and evidently wonder boy has not delivered yet, other than urging his father-in-law not to be too unkind to Saudi Arabia over such a trifle as butchering a dissident Washington Post journalist in their embassy in Ankara.
Many of us who truly support Israel saw all this before the election,. Blinded by largely unjustified criticism of Obama's policy toward that nation, Stephens, and other so-called "conservatives," rejected Clinton in favor of an incompetent and dangerous megalomaniac..
Don't you get it? On how wrong you are about Trump giving Israel its fantasy dream list? Just think about the chain:
1. Trump exits us from Syria to make Turkey happy, allowing it to do what it wants with Syrian Kurds.
2. A happy Turkey lets Trump/Kushner continue cozying up to the Saudi crown prince, without any interference like messy leaks on murders he ordered.
3. A Saudi crown prince saved from doom by Trump/Kushner, happily supports any "peace plan" they come up with.
4. Kushner's "peace plan" will give Israel everything it wants, and with Saudi support, will be forced down Palestinian throats.
What do you mean Trump is "bad for Israel?"
He makes Nitnyahoo look like a moral sage (that's hard!).
Or do you mean he's "bad" for Israel in the sense that he allows infinite extension of Israel's moral bankruptcy in destroying the Palestinians as a people? If that, then we are in agreement.
3
So much of this reads like it has been through a Zionism reality distortion device; Nethanyahu was being ‘hectored’ for his all but abandonment of a two state solution.
Perhaps such an outlook is late to the party in it’s reflection that a thoughtless, destabilizing reactionary is bad for stability, but as with so much American politics of late, ‘better late than never’ would seem to be the ethos of the day.
The rub with Israel however, and arguably the too little too late adjustment in the Democratic Party to treating the state like our own personal spoilt child, is that the ‘never’ outcome to peace and stability looks increasingly more likely than the ‘late’ one.
"It means we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara."
Or "Liberty" [sic] "University" [sic] program to save America?
" It means we should advocate human rights, civil liberties, and democratic institutions, in that order."
Including a woman's right to choose? Including minority population's right to be free of stop-and-frisk and worse?
Including right to vote without deliberate, planned, targeted obstruction by a fearful shrinking majority?
Well, son, why didn't you say so sooner?
1
Why should the treatment of Israel be any metric for US policy? There is no other country on Earth that puts Israel's well being ahead of their own except for the US. The amount of military funding the US grants to Israel undermines any hope for a peaceful settling of differences in the Mideast. The Israel lobby has successfully done their job. What a disgrace.
1
Everything Trump does is bad for everybody.
No need to break it down.
Mr. Stephens: Your dislike of all things Trump is getting in the way of your judgment, big time.
You know that Obama would have folded (see his Syrian redline, by way of but one example) if Iran had made an attack on Israel. And you also know that Trump would rain serious firepower on Iran if it ever tried such an attack.
Ask the Israelis whether they would prefer Trump or Obama/Hillary/Sanders/whatever Progressive gets the 2020 nomination. The Israelis would answer with a resounding "Make American (and Israel) Great Again."
It is hard to imagine what prompted Trump to pull out of Syria, though to me, a connecting of the dots would suggest that Putin had something to do with it as it plays directly into his hands.
Trump's position on Israel has always struck me as one of convenience. Perhaps he wanted to curry favor with Ivanka and Jared Kushner. Perhaps he loved the attention Netanyahu showered on him while he was there and saw dollar signs for when he is no longer president.
Whatever his motives, Putin trumps all in the Trump playbook as far as I can see.
1
Very right on trump, although it really should have been obvious before he became potus. Very wrong, reflexively wrong on Obama, a real potus.
Syria, Iran, Iraq, Egypt and Afghanistan are located in Russia's neighbourhood. The US isn't. Various regimes in the region at various times have invited in the Russians to help their development.
Russia has legitimate business in the region. Can the US say the same?
The idea should occur to Americans their government's religious obsession with strengthening Israel at all costs and endless military intervention fiascos, are doing undue harm to Israel, the stability of the region, America's reputation in the world, and global peace.
The trillions of dollars spent would be more wisely used at home.
2
“. . . It means we should opposed religious fundamentalists, . .” says Mr. Stephens, and then he cites the Wahabists, the Khomeinists, and the Muslim Brotherhood. But he fails to mention or deliberately ignores the religious fundamentalists in Israel who hold much more power in Israel than these other fundamentalists do in their own countries or regions. The Israeli fundamentalists through their instrument Netanyahu have created the ongoing crisis not only for the Palestinians and Israel but also for the region. Religious fundamentalists everywhere create mischief. As we see here with President Trump, who Is both a tool of the evangelicals as well as a master manipulator of them.
2
Brett Stephens loses credibility when he refers to U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as mostly “symbolic,” with little value to Israel.
That recognition was long in coming and, when it finally arrived, it meant that the United States finally accepted Israel’s sovereignty, without the huge question mark assigned to Israel by Donald Trump’s predecessors.
It is sad to think how long it took for the United States to finally take Israel’s sovereignty seriously. President Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital 70 years after Israel was established with West Jerusalem as its capital; 70 years after Jordan expelled all Jews from East Jerusalem; and 51 years after Israel captured East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War.
Why did prior administrations wait so long? Because Israel’s sovereign status was always considered to be in limbo. Yes, the UN recognized it as a sovereign nation, but the world always applied a double standard to it, holding out for full recognition. Hence the “Zionism is racism” resolution later passed by the same U.N.
Still think the Jerusalem embassy move is purely symbolic Mr. Stephens?
1
I am so glad to see Bret Stephens writing again. He has the knowledge and the perspective I need to understand the Middle East.
There were two reason we went into Syria. During the years before Trump the previous administration stood by and Let ISIS take over at least half of Iraq d much of Syria. In the process tens of thousands were beheaded, crucified, buried alive and burnt to death. Women and girls were sold into sex slavery. The Russians moved in after Obama refused Putin’s offer to work together. Then the Iranians. If ISIS had been stopped we had no reason to go there. ISIS had to be stopped so we went in. After Trump was elected, he let the military fight a war, Even the NYT gave Trump the credit for defeating the ISIS Islamic State. So now we have 2000 troupes there. What exactly does Mr. Stevens think they should do? One half take on the Russians and Iranians and kick them out. The other half barricade the Turks from entering Syria. It's absurd. Trump is right. Pull out of Syria and protect Iraq so its nation can succeed. Let Russia take care of any remaining ISIS followers and pay for the repairs of a war-torn country. If we are attack from any faction in Syria, respond with meaning. The only thing that those 2000 can do there now, is be a target.
"But leave that aside and consider the Trump presidency from a purely Israeli standpoint"
I'm happy to do this, but why should I? What about the Lebanese standpoint? Or the Jordanian standpoint?
Why should Donald Trump be good for Israel? He is not its president.
There is no NYT Op-Ed asking me to judge whether or not American policy in Asia is good based on its impact on Malaysia. I would argue this is desirable: However much I may like Malaysia, I do not expect that the US's foreign policy is formed by Malaysia's requirements and imperatives. Why should American Middle Eastern policy be viewed through the lens of a different nation-state? No one is making that case.
3
Israeli's have embraced their Donald Netanyahu for the last decade. They have a leader who is on the verge of being indicted, they have a wall, they cut deals with Saudi and other dictators for peace, the marginalize those with limited voices, they cater to the least tolerant parts of society, they pursue an Israel first and other's be damned policy, and surprise, surprise, their moral authority in low and they respond without self-reflection but with accusation. Israel is getting the foreign policy it wants and Donald Trump is merely a reflection of Israeli leadership not the other way around
4
Israel made a deal with the devil.....I see them as part of the trump party now
2
Mr. Stephens, alas someone who speaks with clarity.
As with many these days, and its asking a lot, while analyzing the situation your analysis needs to go a little higher to get an even a more encompassing view.
The earth is a big but finite space ship. It can only hold so many people. At the end of the day it is the ever growing populations that launch most of the problems .. causing one side to push up against another.
It is a challenge as “as critical as terrorism”.
Focus in on Egypt for butt a moment.
To quote from authors Karaspan and Shah
The numbers are certainly daunting. In 2000, the United Nations estimated that Egypt’s population would hit 96 million in 2026. They were off by about 10 years. In 2017, there were some 104.5 million Egyptians …
comes at a time of unprecedented challenges on the climate front with serious implications for loss of arable land (also under pressure from housing), rising sea levels, and depletion of scarce water resources. The Nile faces upstream challenges as Ethiopia builds Africa’s largest dam and pollution eats away at the river’s usability for agriculture and other needs.
The Palestinians have the highest population growth rate in the world.
2
While not stated explicitly, Obama did two things strategic moves that dramatically helped both the Iranians and the Russians to step up their involvement in Syria.
First, not stated, as part of the nuclear agreement, Obama released an estimated $50 to $100 billion in funds which have been used by Iran to invade Syria and to arm Hezbollah.
Second, Obama responded to special interests that worked against American foreign policy to limit the amount of oil and gas produced by the US. If Obama had appropriate energy policy there would be a lot more oil and gas produced by the US which would have ensured that the Russians and the Iranians would have dramatically less money to use for incursions into Syria and Yemen (Iran) and Ukraine (Russia).
Thankfully, Trump is selling oil leases on both coasts, is allowing drilling in Alaska, is building the Keystone pipeline, and instituting other policies that ensure that the US has energy dominance to help to lower the price of oil and thus helping to stop incursions by Iran and Russia.
It is hardly Trump's fault that Obama placed special interests ahead of our national interest of lowering gas and oil prices.
Instead of needlessly risking American lives for Israel, we should use US energy dominance to drive down the prices of oil and gas. That is the smart move.
I might think differently, however, if Mr. Stephens became a combat soldier and volunteered to be in Syria *risking his life*.
1
Who says that those conservatives you describe in your first paragraph are smart?
1
Are we still planning on naming that high-speed rail station in Jerusalem after Bibi's BFF?
1
“Suppose you’re the type of smart conservative reluctantly inclined to give Donald Trump a pass...”
You can be a “smart conservative” or you can give Donald Trump a pass. You cannot do both.
4
No mention of the needs of Palestinians, trapped in walled off enclaves that shrink every year. I guess the only people who really count are the non Muslims. Who cares about the aspirations of the losers in the 1948 wars?
7
By next year, when Trump announces a military action against Iran,you'll be praising him for his firm stance protecting Israel.As for the nuclear deal,tearing it up was just stupid,stupid,stupid!How convoluted does your logic have to get in order to think that slowing Iran down from getting a nuclear bomb was in any way harmful to Israel? I think you are unwittingly being pulled into Trump's fantasyland.I strongly support the safety of Israel.But, must every action in the middle east be evaluated only as it might effect that country?Is there any other metric that matters?
6
Israel is the new Sparta . Their treatment of Palestinians smacks of the abuses of Apartheid in South Africa and has earned them the disdain of almost all Western Europeans . And yet, the US gives more money (per citizen) to Israel than any other country. Why?
7
Trump is bad for Israel? Heck, ISRAEL is bad for Israel. Worst public relations in the history of mankind.
4
Donald Trump Is Bad for *Insert Word Here*
3
Amazing how often I find myself in agreement with Brad Stephens- EXCEPT when his op/ed pieces revolve around Israel. Sorry to say it but that "invidious myth that neoconservatives always put Israel first" just happens to be demonstrably factual, and people like Kristol, Wolfowitz and Stephens might just as well be on the payroll of Mossad as pontificating about U.S. foreign policy in The Times or on the talk shows. I'm the last person on the planet who'd defend The Donald on this issue or any other (he's just plain never right, not even inadvertently) but this president's inclination to quit the Middle East is disastrous only because it doesn't include an aggressively Zionist state whose ulterior motives with respect to its Arab inhabitants are now as pronounced as those of China towards its Tibetan and Uighur citizens. The truth is that we need to clear out of this whole useless region (although without turning our backs on our Kurdish comrades-in-arms) and to stop worrying about what's good for our armed-to-the-teeth erstwhile allies in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
3
What else do you expect from a draft dodging, degree purchasing sycophant who has been bankrupt four times and can only get a shady German bank knee deep in laundering money for the Russian Oligarchs to loan him money?
There is more to come as this flim-flam orange clown king sinks deeper into delusions of grandeur in his journey from reality.
3
Whoa! This column is flawed from the git-go: "Suppose you're the type of SMART conservative..." (emphasis added). If you find one, they will be riding a unicorn.
Next problem, is why would I want to consider Trump from a purely Israeli standpoint? Next, Israel can hardly be thought of as "...defending the liberal-international order...", just ask any Palestinian. Next, Bret forgot to include the Orthodox sect in his list of "... militant religious fundamentalists...". Lastly, the "...gravest immediate threat to Israel..." is Israel's South African policies of apartheid.
4
For those who hold there is ample proof of significant Israel-right-or-wrong hypocrisy among neo-conservatist riddle us this: Why was ultra-right Wing Orthodox Jews left off your laundry list of Middle-East religious bugbears?
1
How about a new shorter masthead for this opinion piece.
Donald Trump Is Bad
1
Sadly Bret, you came late to the party, and worse you were under-dressed and had the address wrong. Now suddenly you have an epiphany, Trump's policy is bad for Israel. Well wowie, you figured that out. Next will you work on Trump's slobbering love of dictators and inability to distinguish Russians from friends? You see Bret, Israel shares American democratic values, and because of that Trump's policy has been bad for Israel since day 1.....it didn't just recently happen with the Syrian withdrawal announcement. Glad you finally "woke up," but from here it looks more like you "came to."
Trump is bad for Israel? Good.
1
No one with any political consciousness and morality should support the Neo Apartheid State of Israel. Whether the monster Trump supports Israel or not is irrelevant.
Clearly he supports Bibi & Company. Trump and Bibi are oligarchs with Fascist pretensions. A pox on both their houses.
M
3
Trump and Obama actions matter little. What matters in the long run, is for Israel to stop treating Palestinians like as apartheid. Bad for world order, especially with 1.5 billion muslims; bad for human consciousness.
4
"But leave that aside and consider the Trump presidency from a purely Israeli standpoint. Are Israelis better off now that the U.S. Embassy is in Jerusalem?"
I can think of no other ethic group in America that thinks more in terms of their own ethnic group and foreign country, than some "American" Jews. As a goyim, this "what's good for the Jews" viewpoint is both xenophobic and un American.
2
Oh well, all this hand wringing is a little too late. We told you he was not really a supporter of Isreal. He just pays back favors. There is no reason to how he does it.
2
Anyone who starts with the premise that Obama was bad news for Israel shows their cards so overtly that you don’t feel like playing the rest of the game. Boring, you say.
Of course, unless you are a member of the dogmatic paranoiac literati sponging the media’s need for glamorous OpEd writers, you say that the previous paragraph is obvious.
You will be surprised that it is not.
You should be even more surprised if this comment is published and you get a chance to read it.
2
Iraqi lawmakers are reportedly getting ready to debate the issue of demanding that the US withdrawal all forces from Iraq. Apparently this demand has wide support in the Iraqi parliament. This seems to be a reaction to Trump's three hour visit which they viewed as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. Seems like withdrawing from the JCPOA may not have been such a good idea If the US is forced to withdraw all troops from Iraq.
1
Russia and its pals in Iran are laughing out loud at what incredible suckers right-wing Jews in America and Israel have been about Putin's hand-puppet, Trump. First, Putin gets Adelson, AIPAC, and the rest to actually pay to get Putin's puppet elected. Then, they throw the chumps the worthless "prize" of moving the American embassy to Jerusalem. Suddenly, Likud and AIPAC are declaring Trump the next best thing to the Messiah. Too bad the plot all along was to lull the conservative Jews into a stupor while Putin and Trump were plotting to pull our troops out of Syria, turning the country over to Russia and Iran, and giving the Republican Guards a superhighway to the Golan Heights. As a bonus, with the help of Trump's puppet master, Iran gets a straight shot to Hezbollah in Lebanon, not to mention plenty of mischief in Jordan. Then, for dessert, Adelson, AIPAC, and all the other "brilliant" right-wing Jewish fat cats behind Trump have put into power the greatest encourager of white nationalism, racism, and anti-Semitism since the glory days of segregationist Southern governors during the Civil Rights Movement. Did these rich Jewish supporters of Trump have the slightest second thoughts after the massacre in Pittsburgh? Or were the slaughtered Jews just necessary collateral damage for getting an American embassy in Jerusalem, and Jared Kushner's upcoming "genius" plan for imposing "peace" on the Palestinians? With friends like Trump, Russia, and Iran, Jews need no enemies.
3
As an American Jew my great fear is that Israel will collapse and two million religious fanatics will be given immigration preference by this regime.
1
Surely you kid.
If you think for a moment that a duplicitous T is anti-Israel, you could not be more wrong.
Think Sheldon Adelson money and his recently lauded wife Miriam. Think 2020. Think Ivanka. Think Kushners. Now reread your composition and edit it with some sense of reality.
Do you seriously believe that it is a coincidence that the withdrawal of American troops signaled the start of Israel's invasion of Syrian air space.
1
When Israel slighted Obama after he showered them with American treasure, they became no better than Republicans to me. No second chances for Likud. Maybe send your best next time.
1
Wonder what Dershowitz and Adelson think of Trump now.
2
I believe in Israel but not the Israel of Netanyahu. When you listed destructive religious fundamentalists you forgot Jewish fundamentalists who insist all of the holy lands belong only to them, the Biblical Chosen people. So they push and push building settlement after settlement. What they are really accomplishing is opening the floodgates to a new round of anti-semitism disguised as concerns for Palestinians. They are becoming, or already are, a pariah nation. No one looks at Israel as the only stable, successful democracy in the Middle East. In my opinion America keeps voting in the wrong people as do the Israelis. The other day I was parked next to a car with this bumper sticker: "Boycott Israeli goods, don't support murder". This is not good for Israelis or Jews anywhere.
3
And yet Israelis approve of Trump with something like 70% expressing confidence in his support for the Jewish state. I also don't agree with pulling out of Syria, but our staying certainly would not change things insofar as dislodging Russia or Assad, both of which were encouraged by Obama's passive foreign policies and his extremely generous gift to Iran in the form of the nuclear agreement that provided incentives and direct relief only to strengthen the mullahs' regime while preparing for their inevitable nuclear breakout in the near future when no penalties would be imposed. Time will tell in Syria, but while it threatens the Kurds, certainly, our pullout does little to change the security threat Israel faces from Hizballah and Iran.
Mr. Stephens says the U.S. "should advocate human rights, civil liberties, and democratic institutions, in that order."
With that in mind, here's Human Rights Watch's assessment of Israel:
"Israel maintains entrenched discriminatory systems that treat Palestinians unequally. Its 50-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza involves systematic rights abuses, including collective punishment, routine use of excessive lethal force, and prolonged administrative detention without charge or trial for hundreds. It builds and supports illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, expropriating Palestinian land and imposing burdens on Palestinians but not on settlers, restricting their access to basic services and making it nearly impossible for them to build in much of the West Bank without risking demolition. Israel’s decade-long closure of Gaza, supported by Egypt, severely restricts the movement of people and goods, with devastating humanitarian impact. "
Mr. Stephens is correct in saying human rights are paramount. And that means we can't turn a blind eye to abuses, even by our allies.
18
The fact that the Kurds are in grave danger while Israel, with a country, advanced military and US support is ... inconsistent. Either we support both or neither.
3
With all the issues globally, its still amazing that all America's policies and decisions should be ultimately assessed in relation to how it affects Israel. What exactly does Israel do in return? Yes, they are a democracy and a successful nation. But how does that merit the disproportional consideration its given. No one wants Israel to fail, but foreign policy should take into account America's interests also.
10
@dsbarclay
Occupied Palestine is not a democracy. It is a colonial artifact (just like South Africa util some time ago), living off American largess
1
@dsbarclay
The point of Stephen's column is that Trump is wrong from point of view of USA.
And, by the way, also wrong for us here in Israel.
Why should we care? Why should US policy be evaluated by its impact on the Israeli regime, which is by all accounts the worst human rights offender in the region (that is, if we accept that Palestinians are human)? Why shouldn't anything that hurts that regime be considered a moral victory?
11
the worst in the region? is that serious? Among all the others, Syria, on its border, is still headed by the Assad regime which has reached genocidal proportions in its slaughter of roughly 600K of its own citizens.
1
Donald Trump is bad for Israel, and water is wet.
Who or what isn't he bad for except himself?
But let's for a second indulge the preposterous notion that he was actually "trying" to do something positive.
"He shows no interest in pushing Russia out of Syria. He has neither articulated nor pursued any coherent strategy for pushing Iran out of Syria. He has all but invited Turkey to interfere in Syria. He has done nothing to prevent Iran from continuing to arm Hezbollah. He shows no regard for the Kurds."
How can anybody read the above paragraph and not burst out laughing at the absurdity of the thought of Trump formulating even one cogent idea that addresses any element of that, or the he would even care enough to try?
However, it's not like there are a gusher of good ideas to solve any of those problems from our perspective. A few weeks ago, we had 2,000 troops in Syria which I'm guessing was to "scare" Iran?
No doubt they were shaking in their turbans in Tehran until Trump "impulsively" removed them.
Focusing on Israel with all of the other insanity going on in the middle east right now is missing the point. We need a major rethink on how to address the situation, and it surely isn't going to come on this administration's watch.
9
So in other words, keep American money and might in the region and use it to stop other nations from developing as they will.
No.
Israel has to be allowed to grow up or they will become even more spoiled than they are now. The Trump Admin is treating Israel like a young adult, according them respect by moving the embassy and opening doors, like a good parent by getting out of that dumb Iran deal. The military is still hanging around in Iraq in case anyone needs them, but for now everybody local, including Israel need to find their way in the world.
And why not? Nothing else has worked.
1
There is a difference between Israeli security and Israeli policy. Unfortunately Stephen's very intentionally conflates the two.
America has committed itself to Israeli security for the last 50 years. We have unprecedented exchanges between our militaries, even when Israel was spying on us.
Israel has receives more direct foreign aid than any other nation including military equipment and favored trade status. Very real tangible support for Israel is greater than any other nation enjoys. And we provide Israel with complete diplomatic cover, even when they engage in policies that are not in our interests. And therein lies the problem.
While bemoaning Trump's failures, Stephens reminds readers that although all of the above was provided by the Obama administration, even that wasn't enough.
Why? Because Obama tepidly asked Israel to engage in good faith efforts to end the occupation of the West Bank and allow a small non-threatening Palestinian state to emerge. This would improve our standing in the region and remove the excuse that some nations have offered for not cooperating with us.
But despite our guarantee of Israeli security, Obama's request was denied. Now Stephen's argues that we return to a policy of confrontation in the name of liberal values. In reality he argues that US policy be an extension of Israeli policy. And that we shouldn't do.
Allies and friends yes. Security guarantees, yes. But a subordinate to the policy of annexation, no thank you.
10
How could any sane person look at Trump’s business history and be at all surprised by the decisions he has made as president?
7
The base reality is that the current U.S. - Israeli relationship is not a country to country relationship. It's a relationship of two wannabe "strongmen" ... i.e. it's a Trump to Netanyahu relationship.
And since Netanyahu is bad for Israel (as Trump is for the U.S.), the Trump relationship is bad for Israel -- including such things as backing out of the Iran Nuclear Agreement, moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, the ongoing mistreatment of Palestinians, etc., etc.
6
Nothing good in this article. Writer does not understand the rise of religious extremism in Israel and the total endorsement of Trump of religious zealots both Jewish and Christian in his policy towards Israel.Netanyahu 's base is right wing fanatics in the US and in Israel. Obama appealed to the moderates in Israel while showing strength in military aide and covert operations against Iran to sabotage its nuclear ambitions. all that Trump has done is satisfy his base by appearing to be a hawk on Israel while Israel drifts closer to economic ties with countries like China and India.US influence appears waning.
Very Telling is the billions spent by Israel to expand the port in Israel so the US Navy has a secure port in the region. which country got the contract? China. Same for massive infrastructure projects in Israel that all are being built by Chinese contractors. So what is US getting out of its moving the embassy and renewed sanctions against Iran? Just more possibilities of a large scale war that will give Trump a chance at reelection?Will that please his pro Israel base?
4
Brett says America should "defend the liberal-international order against totalitarian enemies by advocating human rights, civil liberties, and democratic institutions"?
Let's see how that's working out on the ground!
Iran and Saudi Arabia are flying high with their own brands of social and religious oppression. Iraq is no bastion of human rights and civil liberties after barely surviving $3 trillion of American intervention. Syria has been dismembered and
destroyed by civil strife and foreign interference that began with an "Arab Spring" uprising. Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinian Arabs, which was a major trigger of Arab awakening and unrest in the Middle East, continues unabated as Israel occupies Palestinian lands without regard for the legal and humanitarian responsibilities of an occupying power.
Think it over, Bret! Maybe stability must come first, liberalization later. Let Russia, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel stabilize the Middle East. America has nothing but high-minded notions and sporadic, pointless military missions to contribute.
@AynRant
America is bilking Iraq of 4 billion dollars annually. This is why America does not want to leave Iraq. Syria and Afghanistan were only TROPHY PROJECTS, macho feeling for America, not REVENUE generating projects, Kurds were hired hands.
Israel is bad for Israel. Trump is more popular in Israel than in any other country in the world (Russia is a close second). That popularity says something: Israelis find Trump appealing not in spite of his embrace of illiberal dictatorships and his abandonment of human rights but because of it. Israel itself is an illiberal, ethnocratic state; Trump's embrace of it is consistent with his embrace of other, similar states around the world. Similarly, the far right in the US and elsewhere supports and defends Israel for exactly the same reason. Israel started down this path towards becoming an illiberal democracy since its creation, but it accelerated on this course with the rise of Likud and the far right. It has been obvious for decades that this is where Israel was heading; the fact that it has arrived at that destination should not surprise anyone. Trump may be "bad" for Israel, but so was every other American administration that indulged Israel's worst tendencies and allowed it to continue building illegal settlements on Palestinian land. American foreign policy in the ME has always been a disaster. It has often been distorted because it pursues Israeli interests. (And, yes, neocons did put "Israel first" as a matter of ideology).Trump's decision to destroy the Iran deal is a prime example. Complaining about the one time an incompetent President doesn't do what Israel wants him to do just underlines how badly that distortion effect continues to affect American actions.
6
I may sound naive be isn't just HAVING American personnel in Syria important? Even just a few thousand boots can report on subtle movements, undercurrents, attitudes, etc., on a daily basis. Whether engaged in combat or not, 2,000 sets of eyes and hears seems extremely valuable. Pardon me for being a Doubting Thomas but I don't believe our spies and secret agents (assuming they even exist) could achieve what an on-the-table presence can.
2
Stephens can not help but take a swipe at Obama however he did not mention Clinton's emails. The column is irresponsible in its failure to mention Bush and the invasion of Iraq. The convenient amnesia of the conservatives is appalling.
7
The Obama administration, despite handing over $38 billion to Israel, is still being called "bad for Israel." The Trump administration, despite handing over Jerusalem without anything in return, is now being called "bad for Israel." As a student of political science, this is fascinating; as a US citizen and tax-payer, this is baffling.
2
Before Donald Trump was bad for Israel, our own Jewish oligarchs were far worse and for far longer. Immediately behind Trump's policies stand Jared Kushner and Sheldon Adelson at the front of a long line of wealthy and influential Jews who have not only taken control of Israel's politics with money, but have so changed the nation, it is unrecognizable. Ask any Sabra who left in the last 30 years how the country has changed. They'll tell you.
The same rot that has damaged the relatively democratic nation we once were has done the same thing to Israel, making it the opposite of what it was founded to become.
That isn't Trump's doing, but those who behind the scenes. It doesn't make him any less guilty of giving Netanyahu the shot in the arm to be even bolder in his colonial endeavors, but we must recognize the provenance of Trumpian policy.
As for Syria, the first concern should be what is good for its people. They are still trapped in the nightmare that is Bashar Al Assad's cruelty and remnants of ISIL. The Kurds are the victims here. The winners are Putin, Erdogan, and Iran.
Trump is bad, first, because he fell into Putin's Kompromat. Trump is bad next, because he lied to the nation as a candidate and then, as president, sold our nation to the wealthiest bidders.
Israel made the choice of sticking with Bibi, as corrupt as he obviously is. If it elects him again, it'll be worse than even Trump.
---
Being A Jew In The Age of Trump
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-2Id
---
711
@Rima Regas Yes, and here another nasty suspicion that's not too improbable: Netanyahu almost desperately needs a security crisis of some sort to have a chance to get re-elected despite his many corruption scandals. Trump just manufactured one for him, just in time for the elections. The sudden withdrawal of US forces from Syria now guarantees the presence of Iranian forces right next to the border with Israel. That might just frighten enough voters in Israel to close their eyes, clench their fists, and vote for Netanyahu one more time.
114
@Rima Regas
I read your essay “Being A Jew in the Age of Trump”.
I thought it was brilliant. I am so hoping that your analysis
can be published somewhere so that a much broader audience can read it.
Thank you.
Michael
41
@Pete in Downtown
The biggest irony are the parallels between Trump and Netanyahu. Both need to get reelected to evade justice.
@Michael Bresnahan
Thank you so much!
79
I do not like Trump and I am not fond of Netanyahu either. Obama was a far better and more elegant person but his foreign policy especially toward Israel was not good.
However as a recent Israeli oleh I have noted with horror how many of my classmates in Ulpan (Hebrew lessons) are from France and Russia. Not particularly surprised about the Russians ( I marched and wrote to get them out long ago) but to hear of the fear etc that causes people to leave France is beyond awful. I also know people who were at the antisemitism shooting spree in Pittsburgh. Is that who the world is retreating to?
As for Israel- yes there is not perfection but all signs are also in Arabic. Arabs also get medical care. Women in headscarves walk the same streets as everyone else. Which Arab country treats Jews and Christians as well?
84
@Wandering
I am confident that nearly all Westerners who take the side of Palestinians against Israel would rather live in Israel than in any Arab country in the world.
18
@Wandering A well written letter with interesting points about how Arabs are protected by law in Israel, or that most immigrants to Israel are from France and Russia. However, there was no elaboration on two other points. The first is your not liking Trump. The second is Obama's foreign policy toward Israel not being "good."
Stephens makes a good point about Trump abandoning Syria to Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, and Turkey: Obama's policies regarding Israel were not ideal. However, Trump allowing Erdogan, a rabid anti-Semitic totalitarian, to enter Syria and show the world never to trust alliances with the US (ask the Kurds) is a lot worse. Iran on Israel's doorstep and it's future ability to freely arm Hezbollah is a bigger deal than anything Obama ever did. Leaving ISIS in Syria to declare victory, with a possibility of it gaining strength is a big deal as well.
To all those religious friends of mine who condemned Obama for leaving Iraq--which they felt allowed ISIS to form--How do y'all feel about not Trump not completing the job in Syria?
If you choose to answer this question, please don't bring up Hillary's emails. Instead, try to focus-- explain to us the difference between Obama leaving Iraq and Trump leaving Syria with regards to ISIS. Please top it off by letting us know if you made a mistake supporting Trump now that his pullout will allow Iran to take over Syria, Erdogan to bash Jews and kill Kurds, or that it will be easier for Hezbollah to obtain missiles.
17
@Wandering
I agree most Arabs might live better in Israel than in an Arab country. - especially woman, Gays and non-religious.
But is that really what the early Zionists wanted - to be better than the worst countries in the world?
And what of the future - will Israel remain a Jewish State or a democratic state. Demographics will make it impossible to be both.
Netanyahu is as beholden to the religious far-right in Israel as Trump is to the same group here. As a non-religious Conservative (not Orthodox) Jew, I feel less welcome in Israel than ever. Good luck to you in your new home.
21
It looks like Bret is kidding when he says that Donald Trump succeeds in making his predecessors look good to Israel. This is all because Trump wants to withdraw American soldiers from Syria to prevent another entanglement in a tribal war in that area. America achieved what we wanted to achieve in Syria, the elimination of ISIS Caliphate. ISIS Caliphate was established during Obama's time due to his actions. Syria got under the grip of Russia and Iran not due to Trump's actions. Eight years of the Obama presidency was really harmful to Israel, Middle East, Syria and Europe. This was one of the reasons why Trump got elected against all odds. Never Trumpers and people with TDS will never understand this.
6
@Alex E and yet all of our best and brightest intelligence and military personnel say that ISIS is far from defeated. They all mist be lying, and Trump, the coryphaeus of foreign policy and Middle East analysis, must know better, right?
No matter the the moment in history, we always seem to be debating this middle east thing.
And we keep ignoring the basis for the dispute, which has lasted for most of my lifetime and that is, at it's core, the entire situation is driven by religion.
Which religion owns the right to call it its "Holy Land."
There is no answer to the question and I doubt there will ever be an answer.
Trump has certainly raised the temperature there, but there is some sense in what he says in letting others deal with it, no matter the power structure.
We don't need their oil; Israel can defend itself because of all of our help, and there is no real upside to having to constantly wonder which Emir is going to rule or kill people in furtherance of his own interest or whether that is good or bad for our economy, which, long ago, was turned over to the conglomerates that really run the country.
Like everything else, Trump wants us to believe it doesn't matter. He could be right in this instance.
@Joseph Tierno Good points, although there is hypocrisy regarding the right's continued bashing of Obama for leaving Iraq prematurely--allowing ISIS to form--vs. their support of Trump leaving Syria, which many experts think could allow ISIS to declare victory and expand its influence.
Does Donald Trump do anything that is good for anyone other than Donald Trump? That should be the question. That leads right to Putin and the Russians who appear to be the only other targets of his affection other than himself. What's good for Putin is good for me.
3
Permanently keeping 3,000 troops exposed in a corner of Syria was bad US policy. And Brett should note: we did not abandon any country in doing this - a mix of Syrian Kurds, Arabs and Islamists in a corner of a destroyed country does not constitute a nation.
2
The idea that evangelical conservatives and their president have the best interests of Israel at heart has always been a fallacy. The Israeli conservatives made their deal with one segment of America for political power and because that segment would be indifferent at best to the expansion of settlements and the continued oppression of Palestinians. Now the chickens have come home to roost with insecurity and chaos extending from Syria to Egypt, Hisbollah is stronger and Iran will continue to assist Assad in consolidating his hold on power. For the Palestinians nothing has changed and their marginal existence continues without a serious effort to resolve that ongoing tragedy. But hey the embassy is in Jerusalem, the Russians are pleased, ISIS & the Taliban gets some breathing room and all is right in Trump world. (Sarcasm intended) for the rest of us, not so much.
5
Why do we judge american politicians on the basis of how good they are for Israel? Israel is one of dozens of countries that are our allies, and frequently does things that are against our interest. It's a tiny country in terms of population, has none of what usually interests us in middle eastern nations (oil), and has a borderline view on human rights like most of the other countries we deal with in that region.
I say this as an American Jew, who has no interest or desire to visit or live in Israel. Whether politicians are good for OTHER countries should be just about the least relevant question when we judge their performance. Imagine if the title of this article were "Donald Trump is bad for Russia" or "Donald Trump is bad for Iran." Would would rightly mock it.
2
@Ben
What does Hamas want to do after it defeats Israel?
When the rocket attacks first began against Israel, a senior Hamas leader, Dr. Yunis Al-Astal, published an article in the Hamas journal, Al-Risala, where he compared Hamas’ al-Qassam rockets to the Manjaniq catapult which the Prophet Muhammad used against the Jews of Khaybar. The fall of Khaybar, he explained, opened the gates of the Byzantine Empire to Muslim conquest and was the first step towards the fall of Constantinople. Now, the fall of Israel, he said, would open the gates of Europe to Islam and lead to the fall of Rome.
Hamas MP and cleric Al-Astal proclaimed in 2008, “We will conquer Rome, and from there continue to conquer the two Americas and even Eastern Europe” (Al-Aqsa TV, April 11, 2008)
It’s in our interest to have Israeli soldiers fighting Hamas over there rather than needing to have American soldiers fight Hamas over here.
1
Mr. Stephens writes that Israel does not need a US that "conducts a purely transactional foreign policy based on the needs of the moment or the whims of a president."
Trump may act impulsively, but regarding Israel, rash pronouncements and actions began in 1948. The same day of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, President Harry S Truman recognized Israel—eleven minutes after the Declaration was to go into effect.
While presidential counsel Clark Clifford supported recognition, his famous election memo for 1948 noted divided American Jewish support for nationhood. They were an important bloc, especially in electorally vital New York, but Clifford wrote that the "group is still torn with conflicting views and dissension” about Palestine.
Truman was also opposed by his own Secretary of State George Marshall. (Yes, the Marshall of the Plan.) Marshall was not alone in his opposition. The entire US delegation to the UN was preparing to resign over Truman's recognition. Ever the good soldier, Marshall had to send an official from Foggy Bottom to stop the mass resignations.
Truman’s action poured the cement that hardened into the concrete of US policy regarding Israel. Trump just scrawled his graffiti on the pavement by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.
Palestine is a mess that requires more than a janitor. At best, we are generations away from peace there because achieving that involves justice—a term that Trump fears.
1
Who benefits the most? Unless you believe Trump is more subtle than he appears the most likely the motive for his actions must be the most obvious one. Taking 2000 of our top troops our of this critical area clearly diminishes American power and influence, and most importantly intelligence capabilities critical to American security and long term global stablility.
1
Mr. Stephens starts with support for Trump moving the embassy and pulling out of the Iran deal, but quickly rebucks him for his Syrian withdrawl. Eventually weaving a Iran and Hezzbola threat to Israel while suggesting that the U.S.'s real interest in the Jewish state has been as a strategic base in the Middle East. He correctly describes the damaging results of Obama's policies towards Israel. Though, not mentioning the animosity between Netenhau and Obama.
While in Iraq yesterday,Trump expanded on the rationale for his Syria withdrawl. He apparently has a deal with Erdogon that Turkey will clean up the remnants of ISIS in Syria. They are reported to be massing on the border. If they as the AP has indicated, along with SDF trained in Turkey, replace the Kurds in North Eastern Syria, and do what Erdogon promised Trump - and clean up ISIS - then this would be a good strategy. The AP reported that the Kurds would withdraw from the small desert enclave that ISIS controls.
The key, as many here have indicated, is that Turkey DOESN'T mount a campaign to eliminate the Kurds who control about 30% of Syria, including the rich oil fields. This delicate balance is what Trump is counting on. And as a back-up he indicated US forces in Iraq can handle any unplanned contingencies.
Geopolitically, the Russians and Iranians don't have the same strategic objectives in Syria. The threat to Israel depends on this resolution. Although, I think Kushner will soon roll out his ME Peace Plan.
I’ve been thinking about it. Here’s a scenario...Defeating ISIS brought together strange bedfellows — the US, Russia and Iran. With that effort now largely complete, Russia and Iran have competing interests. Russia wants a place at the Middle East table by supporting Assad, while Iran wants to spread it's influence as it has in Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen by undermining Assad. Russia (with help from Israel) is going to make life difficult for Iran in Syria, and this would place our 2000 troops (vs ~ 50k - 75k troops for each of them) increasingly vulnerable to attack. And the last thing that the US (or Israel) needs is an attack on our troops.
“Vlad and Bibi, this is Don. If we take our troops out of Syria, will you guys get rid of Iran?”
Win, win, win: Russia gains influence, US goes home, Israel gets rid of Iran.
1
Power and strength can be projected without troops on the ground. The pullout of U.S. forces out of Syria does not define what "...is bad for Israel". What is bad for Israel is Trump's lack of strength across the world stage. Trump's cowering to Putin has placed the U.S. in a position of weakness throughout the middle eastern region and as a result we will face an emboldened Iran with Russia in full support.
2
Couldn’t it also be said that Trump has proven all your previous positions on Obama policy toward Israel to be wrong. Things could always be worse than the Iran deal. And many of us have still not gotten over Bibi’s disrespect toward a sitting US president. Maybe Bibi has gotten what he deserves in Trump policy.
2
The US (and international) policy on Israel from the beginning seemed to be motivated by guilt and NEVER accounted for the dignity of Palestinians. I am not sure there has ever been any genuine efforts of the part of the US to create a peaceful and just solution between Israel and Palestine. With Trump the prospects are worse.
Bret...why are you so concerned about maintaining an ineffectual presence of 2,000 American troops stationed in Syria, a country of 18 million, which has over 50,000 embedded Russian soldiers, 6,500 Turkish soldiers, 15,000 Iranian soldiers, 20,000 Iraqi Shia militiamen, 10,000 Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, 5,000 to 7,000 Pakistani and Palestinian militiamen...and God knows how many paid mercenaries? It's obviously NOT our war! We're only there as a token proxy for Saudi Arabian troops, a country that's been manipulating the United States for way too long.
If Israel feels threatened by warring that's occurring so close to their borders, why not move our troops to that locality, away from the crossfire of the land grab to build pipelines through Syria, from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, into Turkey, and then into Europe...a proposition that Russia and Iran are strategically trying to thwart.
1
The Middle East is the gift that keeps on giving for every American president regardless of political party, wanting to obfuscate & distract from longstanding social & economic issues at home. Then again, there are many who want this nation to become a theocracy.
1
So, in other words, Stephens’ prescription is to continue endless war ad infinitum. This is nothing other than subscribing to Israel’s wish to fight its enemies up to and including the last American. As far as “interloping foreign aggressors” are concerned, the U.S. is chief among them.
2
Is Stephens column suppose to shock us into reality by naming Isreal in peril because of Trump? Trump has shown the only thing he is not bad for was rich people. With his tweets recently causing stocks to tank, he has put his real base in panic mode.In truth, Trump is bad for almost everything that the country and the world holds dear.
2
None of it matters an awful lot because the basic mathematics are simply not in Israel's favor.
Israel can be majority-Jewish, a democracy or militarily defensible but it can't be all of these things at the same time.
If it surrenders the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza strip in order to remain majority-Jewish and democratic, it becomes militarily indefensible. Even if it somehow manages to hold on to the Golan Heights.
If it doesn't surrender any territory, it must either grant Palestinians greater rights (at which point it ceases to be majority-Jewish) or run an Apartheid-style regime (at which point it ceases to be a proper democracy).
Netanyahu is pretending he doesn't need to make any of these hard choices, but sooner or later Israel's leaders will have to.
The address of the US embassy is immaterial.
The question today is the same one that was asked - but never answered - in 1947: is a small independent Jewish state in that part of the world a feasible and sustainable idea?
Much as I regret saying it, I don't think it is.
1
Bret, you write, that what Israel needs from the U.S. is what was most needed in 1948: "an America committed to defending the liberal-international order against totalitarian enemies . . ."
But we cannot overlook what actually happened in 1948. The twin failures in 1948 were the refusal of the US and the UN to commit to elections on the ground of Palestine followed by a failure to refer the dispute to an international tribunal as required under the rules of the UN. But Truman needed campaign funds and US Zionists promised that so he recognized Israel without the required representation election or any other mechanism to protect the Palestinian population from forced eviction. War ensued. Three more wars ensued plus countless incursions by militant Israel into neighboring countries.
What is the solution today? A Representation Election by all the people of Palestine including Palestinians evicted at gunpoint from their homes. That was the solution seventy years ago. A representation election is the solution today. Everything else is verbage leading to oppression and bloodshed.
1
Miraculously, Stephens managed to avoid mentioning Netanyahu's support for Trump.
And glosses over Trump's popularity in Israel (70% of non-Arab Israelis support Trump), including naming train stations and soccer clubs after him.
Also avoiding mention is the current Israeli government's all-in partisan support of the GOP (and the GOP is Trump), despite Trump's unleashing of virulent racist and anti-Semitic elements in the US. And downplaying the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting because addressing its roots would be perilously close to criticizing Trumpist nationalism. Or buying into dog-whistle anti-Semitic Soros bashing.
In Trump, Israel is getting what it wants, good and hard.
It means we should advocate human rights, civil liberties, and democratic institutions, in that order.
I assume the author forgets about the wretched treatment of the Palestinians by the government of Israel. I also think the US has historically bent over backwards to accommodate any Israeli activity or want. Good for Trump to try to call a halt to this charade.
Why is Israel a state founded on the principle of religious nationalism as opposed to America's separation of church and state considered such a close ally of America. Israel's system has more in common with today's Iran than America.
1
Stephens has to excoriate the Obama Administration, which tried to steer American policy to a supportive middle ground because they understood that Netanyahu's rightwing rule in Israel is itself a threat to its own long term peace and prosperity. This must be some kind of genetic Republican flaw---one way or another, Barack Obama is always a problem. And as usual Stephens takes no responsibility for creating the monster now called the Trump Party. A more honest reckoning with the pathology called "conservatism" just can't happen, can it? Sigh.
Stephens's defense of the international liberal order is questionable since, at least as far as the E.U. countries are concerned, it has been a disaster. Were it not for the E.U.'s decisions regarding ability of anyone to pass from 1 country to another w/o so much as a by-your leave, WE WOULD NOT HAVE SEEN the recrudescence of terrorism, attentats in countries such as Belgium and France. Why does the author think that Brexit was initiated, for no other reason than to limit immigration which until now citizens of Old Blighty had no control of.?Suggest author read Enoch Powell's "Rivers of Blood " speech for edification."We want our country back,"made clear by Brexiteers in a loud roar! Recall, Mr. Stephens, that AM did not schedule a referendum to let German people decide on the acceptance of a million Syrian immigrants, entitled to generous, lifetime welfare benefits!Author lives in a bubble, no offense!
Yes, but by moving the Embassy to Jerusalem, evangelicals are one step closer to the rapture. And it's all about the rapture my friend, and all of the political support that entails. So c'mon Brett, get your priorities straight!
4
Ay, ya, ya! This will not end well.
Of course, the Middle East has long been a tinderbox with a history of near-ignition but this time there are so many thugs (who are actual political/military leaders) lurking about that I shudder to think what might happen next.
And now, in walks Donald, the naive newbie, who also happens to control a sizable arsenal AND has an assortment of "issues," the least of which is a desire to be one of the big, bad guys he admires so much. He really wants to be in their club, not to mention that he probably owes a bunch of money to most of them. (Personally I think they're waving big checks at him to do some of these things. )
Kicking that hornet's nest at this party, in one of the world's most volatile neighborhoods, is definitely going to be his biggest distraction yet! I have to give it to him: while everyone else is playing chess, he's got a game all his own, Demolition Donnie.
I guess we'll see where the chips fall when all is said and done. Did I say chips? I meant dust.
Even if Trump were to back off from his decision to remove U.S. forces from Israel, ultimately he is not good for Israel. So many voters loathe Trump and everything he stands for that when he is no longer in the White House, there is likely to be a strong backlash against Israel, when those who opposed Trump unfortunately take the position that the friend of my enemy, is my enemy as well.
2
"He has done nothing to prevent Iran from continuing to arm Hezbollah."
I guess it is righteous for the U.S. to supply Israel with the finest weapons American money can buy, but Iran has no right to arm their surrogates.
After all, both parties have committed many extreme acts of terrorism against their enemies.
Stephens writes "we should oppose militant religious fundamentalism, whether it is Wahhabis in Riyadh or Khomeinists in Tehran or Muslim Brothers in Cairo and Ankara." He should have added "Orthodox Jews in Israel who support settlements on the West Bank and go so far as to advocate a greater Israel including the West Bank, while, incidentally, denying rights to their non-orthodox fellow Jews." And, if he hadn't been writing about the Middle East he might have mentioned Evangelicals in the United States who seek to roll back the founding fathers' separation between church and state."
4
It's just not the case that Israel is a "liberal" political order where the Palestinian people are concerned. On the contrary. Trump's son-in-law is just doing what too many Zionists in this country (of all stripes) wish to do, which is destroy the political and cultural integrity of the Palestinian people. The true burning issue for the American people is not whether there any truth to this absurd lie that we and Israel are the "chosen" people of world history. The truly burning issue is whether Israel's enormously powerful political lobby in this country is going to permanently destroy the reputation of the American people for fairness and truth in the eyes of 1.5 billion Muslims--and in the eyes of the rest of the world,too. Mr. Stephens seems to comprehend nothing of this.
4
It needs to be kept in mind that the US president is a criminal who is under investigation for many crimes in many jurisdictions, and is also subservient to Russia. Therefore, his policies are generally in no one's interests other than Russia's, and given the evil nature of Russia any other country that thinks Trump is acting in their interest ought to be skeptical.
3
Well, Bret, elections have consequences. Bibi wanted Trump. He all but hit the campaign trail for him. No internet ruse for him -- direct interference with "boots on the ground." Now, he'll have to endure his decision to support a mad man.
1
Trump makes deals. Now the deal is with Turkey. We leave Syria and the Kurds to Turkey in exchange for Turkey leaving the Crowned Prince be about murder. Turkey gets the Kurds and trump gets his money spending buddy Off the hook.
Principles at work.
3
For trump (sic), long term strategy does not last more than three months.
1
Another anti-Trump editorial, which however merited is bereft of historical context. Syria has been a Russian client state for decades - why be schocked that this continues?, Obama destroyed Syria and brought on untold human suffering and somehow this is all Trump’s failure? The man is clearly unfit to be President, but there is no credible neo-con salvation that Mr. Stephens can offer -Saudi citizens during Bush and Cheney carried out 9-11 - is Trump really worse?
Yes, because he does not have even a speck of a moral thought. All he craves is more money from anybody and it doesn't matter if it is dripping in blood.There is no hope for anybody left in Syria probably for the next 50 years. Trump is a mafia chief who thrives on blackmail and extortion. His brain cannot think beyond that--his father trained him well.
Journalists like Mr. Stephens get it right, whereas right wing Jewish journalists like Jonathan Tobin (JNS chief editor, formerly of Commentary) get it wrong. The move to Jerusalem in the vacuum of doing nothing else to encourage even negotiations between Israel and its adversaries is a band aid for a major hemorrhage. It feels good, is the right thing to do historically, but does nothing to solve the dilemma of a long lasting settlement.
The only reason Trump did it was because of his transactional nature--he made a promise to uber right winger and financial supporter Sheldon Adelson and the far right Evangelicals in exchange for their support. So he did it. (The Embassy should never have been anywhere else anyway, but that's beside the point...once it was, moving it should have had some process involved IMO).
Now? Trump continues to execute foreign policy with his ahistorical and unstrategic whims, with no end game in place. I think that's horrid for Israel because Israel at some point will have its point of reckoning where an endless occupation will take its toll. But I expect nothing more from Trump who has no understanding of anything, and of Bibi who has no interest in releasing control of any of Israel's captured territories.
50
Why is "being good for Israel" even an American political issue---let alone as important as it is? Do Israelis elect our government? Isn't this importance collusion by a foreign power? Trump is bad for Germany, for Mexico, for the planet, but why should Israel be such a specifically important issue? Very bizarre that the interests of a foreign power are so openly defended as a fundamental criterion of our foreign policy. Not what the founding fathers had in mind.
14
The biggest long term risk to Israel is that the US abrogates its security guarantee due to a confluence of populist neo-isolationism and rising left wing antipathy towards Israel.
6
“It means we should advocate human rights, civil liberties, and democratic institutions, in that order.” ... sounds like you are now a fan of jimmy carter, who was - and continues to be - ridiculed by the neocon and realist establishment for daring to let human rights enter the foreign policy equation.
Carter - and Obama - realized that Mideast peace comes from a focus on values and small steps. Amid this, the Iran deal was an extraordinary leap forward ... otherwise the US AND Israel would be dealing with both a nuclear armed Iran and N Korea as I write.
This would have dramatically changed the Mideast dynamic in unimaginable ways, including an Iran with greater leverage and a nuclear arms race involving not just Israel but also Saudi Arabia... I guess in your view that really would have been in Israel’s interest, no?
1
Carter and Obama are the only two decent, wise, and moral American leaders still alive.
Israel has a lot of enemies (Bret listed most of them) and others, like the EU, who are, at best, grudging friends. Not to mention the fact that the EU is chock full of barely-closeted Anti-Semites like Corbyn and the Labor crowd in Britain.
But putting all that aside, despite his (self-proclaimed) reputation as a great negotiator, Trump has given up much to Israel without getting anything in return. The Jerusalem embassy announcement was such a huge gift to Israel, but he got zero for it--no commitments to halt new settlements, no agreement to take any steps toward peace, nothing.
This was just a giant kiss on the lips to his evangelical base, because Trump loves to be loved more than he likes to be strategically right for our country. Or even worse, he views being loved by his base as the same as what's right for our country.
5
The Netanyahu line was that Obama was bad for Israel because of the Iran deal and the condemnation of continued settlements in the West Bank. And that line seems to have been swallowed whole by Mr. Stephens, never mind that those policies had the approval of all Western countries who have long become exasperated with Netnayahu's policies using settlements to undermine any possibility of a two state solution and his yapping about anti-semitism whenever his policies are criticized. Obama was not an enemy of Israel, no aid to Israel was cut and any condemnation was never followed by actions that would weaken it or its relationship with the US. The Iran deal quite possibly prevented a disastrous Israeli-Iran war and was very much in Israel's interest no matter what Netanyahu thought. Netanyahu's embrace of Trump shows what a poor statesman he is and how limited his view is of the future of his country. Trump's incompetence makes him dangerous, and to expect that Israel could benefit from somebody like him as US president is foolish in the extreme.
962
@serban
Thank you, Serban, I totally agree with your analysis of what's good for Israel as opposed to Bret... and it's not Netanyahu and Trump.
Trump's lack of knowledge (history, trade, culture, and even geography) has made the US an unreliable ally and a dangerous geopolitical bully. The unintended consequence of his actions is creating a US influence vacuum that our adversaries are filling.
I underestimated Trump's ability to upset the world order established after WWII; and I doubt the genie can be coaxed back into the bottle when he's gone.
157
@serban
Agreed. And Stephens is a lousy amateur propagandist for Bibi, as he cannot even explain why the Iran deal was so 'bad' for Israel. Stephans yaps cliches about dangers but is a poor scholar of history-the most telling example is that he doesn't or will not name the names of all the military and intelligence brass of Israel who felt that the Iran deal might not be perfect but was worth keeping...he doesn't even remember Trump's non-deal with N. Korea...'remember the Maine'? Stephans does not. Some idiot (whether Bibi, Trump, Erdogan, a hothead amongst the betrayed Kurds, or an Iranian mullah) will manufacture an 'incident', tensions will rise, and Trump will threaten someone with obliteration. It changes nothing. Only sustained aggressive diplomacy will... and neither Trump nor an amateur observer like Stephans has the moral will or the intelligence to advocate such. In the meantime, our tax dollars go to such idiocies as the Yemen war, and 85,000 dead children. Such are the actual realities of war, but Stephans would rather deal with cliche and abstraction.
74
@serban
Obama was very good to Israel , his only problem is that he did not implement the Likud agenda .That makes him an enemy of Israel according to Israel first ( actually Likud first ) parts of America such as AIPAC and parts of the mainstream media that dares not challenge the powerful of America. Adelson , Saban ,AIPAC and others have too much power in our country .
I actually like Trump's decision to get us out of Syria and hope he gets us out of the quagmire/failed area known as the middle-east. Let the Likud-run Israel ( a very rich country with a powerful military ) take care of itself & while we spend our taxpayer's money here. More importantly we will spare our soldier's lives .
46
“Are Israelis safer from Iran now that the U.S. is no longer in the Iran deal and sanctions are back in force? Only marginally.”
The multilateral Iranian deal prevented Iran from developing nuclear weapons. It was working. Iran was complying. Now, that is in danger with Trump pulling the United States out for no reason, and unilaterally imposing sanctions on Iran, despite their compliance. There is no way this helps Israel (or the United States).
42
That embassy move never should have happened. Israel is another county run by far right fundamentalists, yet we bow and scrape.
1
Shia v Sunni is 1500 years old. The borders of Syria are lines in the sand drawn by Sykes-Picot in 1919. Overthrowing dictators sometimes leads to unintended consequences. See, e.g. Libya.
On the other hand, it is obviously bad to abandon the Kurds. The withdrawal does call US reliability into question. And Trump should certainly have consulted our allies.
As for Israel? They have nukes on missiles. Everybody knows it. Every Moslem city, and maybe some others, is targeted. Everybody knows that too. If ISR goes down, it is going to be Samson destroying the Temple, not a gallant last stand.
Everybody knows that, or ought to.
12
While Putin is at home announcing a missile system invulnerable to US defenses, Trump is in Iraq signing MAGA hats, and telling lies about how great and right he is.
That says it all.
And a conservative who tolerates Trump's boorishness--which is not just a character flaw but a policy position--cannot be said to be smart.
44
Trump’s withdrawal from Syria is a serious mistake, and will force the IDF to pick up the slack, which creates instability in the region.
But America is still Iran’s enemy, unlike the previous administration which gave Iran the green light to wreak havoc throughout the Middle East as part of the Iran deal. Now the United States will back Israel in defending itself - rather than threaten Israel as the Obama administration did.
3
@Robert F.
Dream on.
Single issue voters are like simple solutions to complex problems:
Unreliable and doomed to fail
"Are Israelis better off now that the U.S. Embassy is in Jerusalem? Not materially. The move was mostly a matter of symbolism.... Are Israelis safer from Iran now that the U.S. is no longer in the Iran deal and sanctions are back in force? Only marginally."
It is no surprise that these moves weren't successful. These actions were not in the service of a larger philosophy or plan. Instead of being "courageous," they were done for the same reasons Trump does everything---to get applause from his base, to pay back Democrats, and to get attention.
If people are in favor of these two actions, and advocated for them, then it is they, not just Trump, who has to show us that somehow they have created a better foreign policy, a safer US, and a more sane world.
To be in favor of these moves, without proof of these outcomes, is as vacuous as is Trump.
27
Truth be told, Trump has always betrayed his business associates and clients, his creditors and investors, and anyone else who has gotten involved with him. What's to make us think he will change this behavior now that he's president? Surely his betrayal of the Kurds should give Israelis pause, because they are just the latest in a long series of allies betrayed.
37
No matter how involved the U.S. is involved in geopolitical matters in the Middle East - our presence in Syria, how many troops are in Afghanistan and Iraq, removing Israel from the matter entirely would on redirect the anger/violence.
It's an untenable situation.
2
A less than marginal column. I was unable to find anything substantive to support Stevens' assertion that withdrawing from the JCPOA deal made anyone marginally safer; I found only assertions with no substance.
25
Hyperbole. Stephens’ reaction to Trump’s consideration of removing US troops from Syria is excessive.
First, Syria under the Asads have shown one consistency—caution when dealing with Israel. Only when aligned with Egypt, did Syria join in an attack on Israel. Since the conclusion of the 1973 war, the border has been quiet.
Second, Russia has acted as a restraint upon its Arab allies, not an agitator. Moscow opposed Sadat’s desire to attack Israel, as well as opposing Syrian intervention in Lebanon’s civil war. Even now, Russia has tried to find some accommodation with Israel over Syria.
Third, the litany of Israeli strikes on Syria have met with little or futile resistance. A short list of attacks on Syria include January 2013 attack on SAM sites, May 2013 attack on depots and aircraft, January 2015 attack on Golan Heights killing Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general, killing of Samir Kantar, etc.
Fourth, even if Syria regains all of its pre-2011 territory, the devastation of the nation has weakened it. Its leadership, military, and people are not going to take on Israel—not even an Hezbollah-Iranian-Syrian force could do it. Russia is not going to risk its position by taking part in a war with Israel—bringing in US participation.
Hyberpole. Syria is not an existential threat to Israel. However, the promotion of FEAR does provide Israeli hawks and US hawks with an excuse to continue interventions and violence.
18
Brett Stephens thinks Trump should defend the liberal international order while advancing the notion that stomping on Palestinian rights in Jerusalem via the embassy move and withdrawing from the Iran deal are apparently well within the orbit of liberal democratic interests. If you believe that, I have some dry land on the Florida coast that is a great investment.
12
@Tim. Over 25 yrs ago, an OSS officer of the US Army told me that Israel was one of the worst violators of human rights. Seems it hasn't changed much. FYI, I am not anti-Semitic. I am critical of the policies of the state.
Very blasé general article with subjective negative analysis about former President Obama who decided to give Israel a record amount of funds to finance its defense nearing the end of his administration and this was never mentioned. Second the money that was partially returned to Iran was tied to nuclear inspections in Iran and supported by majority of Western countries. Trump has caused huge conflict in the Middle East with his unilateral approach to solving the historical crisis in Israel between Israel and the Palestinians. A one sided approach with Kushner and the orthodox superiority philosophy being supported. What are the results after two years? Iran destroyed the insurgency in Syria with moderate Putin support while Trump backed down even though the military advised against isolationism. Saudi Arabia has showed itself to tag along Trump while committing atrocities. Putin is loading sophisticated missiles into Syria. Us is selling advanced weapons systems to Saufi Arabia. Israel is currently in a much more dangerous position with Kushner and Trump.
26
Bret Stephens should review whether his allegiance is to the flag of the United States or Israel.
The truth is that Israel has had multiple chances to pursue peace with the current Palestinian leadership under Abbas, which was willing to let go of the right of return of Palestinian refugees and accept an inferior sovereignty status but with the only condition that they keep a small part of Jerusalem, yet Israel refused to budge an inch.
If Israel is unwilling to accept a peace deal so favorable to it and which would improve its own security, why should the US further risk its interests for it? The US already provides billions of dollars from US tax payer money in cash and military subsidies to Israel, with no no benefit to the US and to the detriment of the US's relations in the Middle East. What more could an ally ask for?
23
This is baloney! Abbas never agreed to eliminate the right of return and it was Barack who agreed to share Jerusalem only to get spurned by Arafat. You need to get your info from less biased sources.
1
@Fakkir
Major Gen George Keegan, Jr., former head of USAF Intelligence, said, "Between 1974 and 1990, Israel received $18.3 billion in US military grants. During the same period Israel provided the US with $50 - 80 billion in intelligence, research and development, and Soviet weapons systems captured and transferred to the US."
1
@Fakkir. Your description of the “deal” that Israel refused is one that has legs among the Palestinians but the thing about it is that it bears little relationship to a factual deal that was ever actually available. The proof of that is that no anti-Israel media outlet ever made it the subject of real news. You can bet your life that if it had a glimmer of truth to it some media outlet would have done a story on it. What we actually have in the West is crickets.
2
In President Obama’s last days in office he failed to veto a Security Counsel (non-binding) resolution, that didn’t just condemn the settlements, it equated the occupied territory and the Palestinian territory.
That was it’s real harm. No prior resolution, treaty or agreement did that. And historically, the Palestinians never had sovereignty over the West Bank. (Before Israel, it was the British, and before the British, it was the Ottoman Empire.)
By equating the Palestinian territory and occupied territory the Security Counsel came down squarely in favor of the Palestinians on borders, which strangely was inconsistent with Secretary Kerry’s speech that same day arguing that borders can only be decided by agreement between the parties.
That’s what made Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel so important. It pushed back any notion that the entire world decided that all of the West Bank is Palestine (including East Jerusalem and the Old City of Jerusalem) - which Israel can never allow and which the Palestinian negotiators know they will never get.
9
@Steven Roth
You distinguish between 'occupied' and 'Palestinian' territory to claim that the 'harm' of Obama-era policy was to conflate the two. But if they are not the same, what then is being occupied? If they are Israeli territory, they cannot be 'occupied'. There is a contiguous, albeit contested, area of land populated by individuals who self-identify as Palestinian and who have a viable, if pernicious, state apparatus. Surely the territory they live in is 'Palestinian'? If not, what is it?
I am not sure what you mean when you say those territories have never been recognised before, but that is not the case. The WHO, UNESCO, 137 UN member state, and multilateral treaties from the 2010s with the UK, Switzerland, Russia, and the UN all recognise a sovereign Palestine.
Furthermore, it has never been the case that a people's prior sovereignty dictates their right to a state. Bahrain and Ukraine would not be legitimate countries if you applied that principle uniformly. What legitimate claim to exercise military power or build settlements in the West Bank does Israel exercise which does not rely on religious texts from 1,000 BC?
There is no obligation for the SC to be consistent with Secretary Kerry; it is not a mouthpiece for American foreign policy.
Either Palestine is an external occupied territory or it's an apartheid Bantustan within Israel; neither is acceptable, the status quo must change.
The conclusion of Bret Stephens is that the words and whims of Donald Trump – which are what his administration uses instead of policy – are bad for Israel. Stephens is right, but his criticism of all previous American positions is wrong.
The Iran nuclear deal was a brilliant way to control Iran’s nuclear ambitions in contrast to what occurred in Pakistan. Getting Kurds fighting to liberate Syria was a good move for the U.S. and Israel, and yet Donald Trump now abandons the Kurds on the order of the Turkish autocrat, Erdogan.
There is nothing in the Iran deal to prevent fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, and Donald Trump’s recent moves – attempting to blame everything on Barack Obama – do not hold water. If Iran continues to arm Hezbollah, we should attack Hezbollah.
We also cannot abandon logic and decency by giving support to the murderous Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Yemen and elsewhere, nor should we bow to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and North Africa and Sudan.
If Bret Stephens is critical of Obama for being vague on policy, the silence and secrecy of Trump is far worse. How can Trump loyalists foolishly say that blind support for the belligerant and Arab-baiting Benjamin Netanyahu will solve the Israeli-Palestinian impasse?
How can Trump’s blank check for Vladimir Putin – which puts us in direct opposition to human rights and in favor of autocratic rule – improve American standing in the Middle East or around in the world?
18
Deserting the Kurds is a fine Western tradition that lives on no matter who is in power!
Do not blame Trump or pretend that he is unprecedented in his moves. The only interest in that part of the world for the West is Oil and Gas and Money, no matter what the ethnic mix de-jour that they side with.
Remember when Persians were cool? What about the when Turks were?
3
I have friends who also argue that O was terrible for Israel. I always thought he was good. I've never been there regrettably but I think the live in a bubble. Not that they think they're safe - not at all- but that the electoral majority (which I don't think is actually majority of Israelis) think that they are all good, that the other side(s) are all bad, - to oversimplify- but if O "hectored" them by not always buying their selfdealing, while sending more aid than any previous, while forcing them to stand down while steps are taken to try to open Iran- that's what real friends do. With trump & bibi I fear Israel is hastening to its own destruction.
13
I always felt that underlying our commitment to Israel was the principle of respect for liberal, pluralistic democracies. Trumps ‘commitment’ to Israel has nothing to do with principle, but has everything to do with pleasing his base and furthering his own political ambitions. He is in awe of dictators and maligns democratic leaders. Obama and Kerry understood this principle, even if Trump (and Netanyahu) don’t. In difficult times, who will be the better friend to Israel?
28
The subject of the article was how Trump is messing up the Middle East with a particular focus on Israel. Israel is the object (being acting upon) and not the subject (doing the action). So, while I understand it elicits anti-Israel feelings, the government of Israel--however dysfunctional or "nasty" it is-- has little to do with Trump's misguided governing. The sole criterion for evaluating Trump is, are his actions (actually) good for America and her interests?
Moving the Embassy to Jerusalem may have played well in Israel, however, it bombed in the rest of the world including its neighborhood, who you might have thought the US was interested in cultivating them to make peace with Israel. Trump behaves the same way with other countries, who were long term allies (Canada, UK, Germany, France …).
Withdrawing troops—even if it was a small contingent of 2,000—from Syria wasn't (IMO) good for anyone, except maybe Trump's ego. It cedes the area to the Turks, Iran, and Russia, does nothing to observe Syria and backstabs the Kurds who have assisted in the operation. Not sure if it's good for Israel either. That all of this was done in direct opposition of the experts—US military, intelligence services and his on the ground liaison—makes a mockery of America and its foreign policy.
He's made an already messy situation a total mess. Hopefully, it can be repaired.
13
The U. S. support of Israel was never based in the desire to insure the right of it to exist as a jewish state, a Zionist state or a refuge for Jews as a people who have suffered unending persecutions and genocide. All those played a role in providing domestic political cover but were never the reason for the policies. A close reading of Mr. Stephen's column makes those points clearly. It was, in fact, always a geopolitical power move to assure an American base in the middle east, supported by our domestic politics and regional interests in military budgets. Indeed it began as a cold war strategy to place missiles targeted at the U.S.S.R. and counter Arab state alliances with it. Mr. Trump's policies follow those of Presidents since Carter who have increasingly seen the policy's geopolitical role decrease in value as the Soviet Union declined and Arab nationalism merged with Islamism. Trump is doing no more than accelerating American withdrawal from a geopolitical strategy that many believe has become obsolete, more of a burden than a benefit.
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@Dan
US national interests are not obsolete. What you describe as a geopolitical strategic “burden” has provided Americans over many decades a higher standard of living and greater security most countries have never experienced. National interests were not and will not be not served by reemergence of early 20th century isolationist thinking. The US must respond as an active participant in the world or lose all leverage. While such isolationism might serve the purposefully ignorant, it will certainly fulfill the designs of America’s adversaries. Which are you?
Trump, with his callous disregard for the Kurds, and limited understanding of Middle East politics, has blundered onto an idea (withdrawing troops from Syria) that I actually think would prove to be a good decision. Which is why I think it can’t possibly happen. File it under “Things Mexico will definitely pay for.”
Soon we will be asked to give Trump the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing 2,000 troops home and ending the war in Syria, but of course we will leave 2,000 or so people there for security, because the conflict is ongoing. Probably the same guys, but this time they’ll be called “advisers.” My prediction for 2019 is that we send some troops to Syria to provide security for the advisers.
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What will be the loss of Kurd life once Turkey has a free hand to organize unexpected casualties on the same group fighting Assad's regime.
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@East Coaster in the Heartland
To be clear, my prediction of more troops in Syria in 2019 assumes that first, Trump withdraws, causing a catastrophe for the Kurds, and then, after it's too late, makes matters worse by re-engaging.
A withdrawl done right is too much to hope for, but I do think that fundamentally the idea of getting US troops out of places like Syria and Afghanistan is a good idea. I wish Obama had thought of it.
I hope you are wrong . The USA has no role in Syria , except to embolden Israel toward more atrocious behavior.
Trump is about Trump...his image, his winning and most of all his power/money. Once we can follow his money, these odd, seemingly inconsistent responses will become clearer.
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Core U.S. interests?: "Keeping ISIS beaten, keeping faith with the Kurds, maintaining leverage in Syria and preventing Russia and Iran from consolidating their grip on the Levant."
Others will take care of ISIS. The Kurds need to make peace with their neighbors. As for someone wanting a grip on the Levant, has Brett never heard of the "Greater Israel" plan?
Russia does not need more land, but does want stability in places like Syria.
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Mr. Stephens feels that Israel is not really safer from Iran now that the U.S. is no longer in the Iran deal. What he doesn't ask is if Israel is safer now that Iran is free to restart its nuclear program, the other part of the treaty.
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This is more ugly non sense. Sheldon Adelson would love it. A country in the midst of a vicious proxy in Syria which John Bolton hoped would turn into a war against Iran. This is Israel's dearest hope. While Israel continues to flout international law with their wretched treatment of the Palestinians this article continues to fawn on the mythic origins of Israel. The US has become what M L King stated so clearly "the greatest purveyors of violence in the world". The Israelis has conquered the US Congress and tried to sell the idea that being against Israel's schemes is anti Semitism.
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@c harris
You nailed it concisely and adroitly.
Well done!
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What does “conquered the US Congress” reflect? Anti Israel that’s not antisemitism? You have undone your argument with your argument?
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@c harris And what do you think Israel should do vis-à-vis the Palestinians? Israel pulled out of Gaza and Hamas, internationally recognized as a terrorist organization, responded by firing rockets into Israel, building tunnels into Israel to attack Israelis, and sending incendiary balloons into Israel. And Hamas does nothing to improve the infrastructure in Gaza or improve life for people living there. They're only interested in attacking Israel
And every time there's been a proposal for a two-state solution, the Palestinians, instead of accepting it, have gone to war with Israel. The latest time was after the negotiations of 2000-2001 when they launched a series of horrendous terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, including having a suicide bomber attack a Passover seder in Netanya, killing 30 people, including a 90 year-old U.S. citizen and a Jewish tourist from Sweden, and injuring around 140 people.
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Netanyahu is bad for the Middle East including Israel too. Without him, President Obama could have made the moderates of all stakeholders give peace a chance. With Trump, it is like adding fentanyl to heroin...
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US has rarely been concerned with promoting democracy. They installed dictators in South Korea in 1948 ( Singman Rhee, and followed by military dictators until the late 'eighties and while all the time and even now the senior US general in the country is commander in chief of the South Korean armed forces ), in Iran in 1953, in Guatemala en South Vietnam in 1954, in Chile in 1973, just mentioning some of the more notorious ones.
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Sadly, too many of my US Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox friends (yes, even though I am a Conservative Jew, I actually have have managed to stay on good terms with the families) were only interested in Trump moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, and his continuing to supply arms to Israel. Nothing else seems to matter. They will support him as long as things keep going that way.
Palestinian state? Not if they have anything to do with it. They want Israel to be Eretz Yisroel with the boundaries as described in the Tanach.
The saddest thing of all? When I suggest that they move to Israel since their primary loyalty lies there (something they don't disagree with), they look at me as if I am crazy. Even if virtually all of their family (Including children and grandchildren) made aliyah years ago, all it takes is one child/grandchild in North America and "of course they can't leave while so-and-so still lives here" which sounds like an excuse for "We're comfortable and safe here and we're not giving that up."
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@vacciniumovatum
Good luck with those friends and family
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@vacciniumovatum
Ouch!
Well stated.
@vacciniumovatum
No not Biblical borders...borders Israeli solders died for over many wars fought for survival. Why is Israel the only country not permitted to keep land won in battle?
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The name that is conspicuously missing from this piece is Netanyahu.
Although I sympathize with the difficult position he is in -- not being in a position to directly challenge Trump who in some ways has done things that have been good for Israel -- I hope that behind the scenes he is preparing his country for the inevitable day when Trump will no longer be around to fraudulently pose as Israel’s devoted protector.
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@A. Stanton
“Sympathize” and “Netanyahu” should not share ink. He’s a corrupt murdering monster.
@A. Stanton
Ha- funny-
I hope USA USA is preparing for the day when bibi' s gone...
"purely Israeli standpoint. Are Israelis better off now that the U.S. Embassy is in Jerusalem? Not materially. The move was mostly a matter of symbolism, albeit of an overdue and useful sort."
Classic example of pocket the gift, say it wasn't that much, and ask for more.
"Are Israelis safer from Iran now that the U.S. is no longer in the Iran deal and sanctions are back in force?"
Destroy the Iran deal? Who wanted that, and how badly? But now it isn't much, and Stephens asks for more. He wants Forever War in Syria too.
But then, what would he want next? Attack Iran.
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@Mark Thomason
This is why there will never be peace in Israel,it is worth a lot of money to keep the fighting going.
It is time for Israel to stand on its feet.
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@Mark Thomason
Stephens is an internationalist, man.
His loyalties are not to nation states.
"Contrary to the invidious myth that neoconservatives always put Israel first, the reasons for staying in Syria have everything to do with core U.S. interests. Among them: Keeping ISIS beaten, keeping faith with the Kurds, maintaining leverage in Syria and preventing Russia and Iran from consolidating their grip on the Levant."
Nonsense. These "reasons" are transparent proof of that for Stephens, this is for Israel.
"Keeping ISIS beaten" would not have been an issue if we had not supported jihadi crazies destabilizing Syria. That created ISIS. They became ISIS. Why did we do that? For Israel.
"keeping faith with the Kurds" would not have been an issue if we had not had to recruit them to leave their hoped for Kurdistan and go out into the ISIS-controlled desert to clean up the mess we made. They had a deal with Assad for autonomy, a deal in which he protected them from Turkey. Assad made a deal with Erdogan to that effect for them.
"maintaining leverage in Syria" to do what? To keep the Golan Heights in Israeli hands, and to make Syria more Israel-friendly no matter what they do to Lebanon or the Palestinians.
"preventing Russia and Iran from consolidating their grip" is fake. Russia was in Syria exactly this way since well before 1967, by which time they'd armed it against Israel. This is about tossing out Russia from the place they've been for 70 years now.
As for Iran, this admits we must fight in Syria in order to fight Iran. Why? Who demands that? Only Netanyahu.
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