Archives Israel and the USA - New Eastern Outlook

Recent tensions between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have fueled speculation about a growing divide in U.S.-Israel relations. However, a closer examination suggests that these disagreements are shaped more by domestic political calculations, electoral considerations, and regional dynamics than by any fundamental strategic rupture. 

Reports that U.S. officials are increasingly concerned about Israeli intelligence activity inside the United States should not be dismissed as a minor diplomatic embarrassment. If accurate, they point to a deeper strategic problem: Israel’s security doctrine is now pressing so aggressively outward that it is beginning to step on the toes of nearly everyone around it, including Washington.

Netanyahu and Trump are conditioning the end of the war in Iran on the condition that all countries in the region sign the Abraham Accords, a tacit submission to Israel. Drawing on Daniel Levy, Omer Bartov, and the Pew Survey, I address the reasons, the urgency, and the limits of Netanyahu’s simultaneous battles on several fronts in the quest for a Greater Israel project.