Sixteen years ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu engineered an invitation from the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives to address a joint session of Congress for the purpose of opposing the signature foreign policy initiative of a popular Democratic president. The move, which broke with US political norms, failed to derail the Obama administration’s nuclear accord with Iran but earned the Prime Minister the enduring resentment of the Democratic party. 

In the years since, Netanyahu has sought to build support for Israel on an ever-narrower political basis in the United States. He pursued policies that alienated the Democratic party and many of its American Jewish supporters while investing ever more in his standing among Republicans. As gaps in support for Israel between the parties widened, Israel’s US ambassador Ron Dermer provided a strategic rationale for the gambit. There are millions of evangelical Christians in the United States who vote Republican, Dermer explained, and they would ensure American support for Israel in the future. 

Under President Donald Trump, who demanded and mostly received obsequious loyalty and obedience from Republicans in Congress, Israel’s dependence increased, centering ever more on one man known for his mercurial character, impulsive policymaking, and unwillingness to confront realities he did not like. The strategy seemed to work, nevertheless. During the first Trump administration, the president moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, recognized the Golan Heights as a part of Israel, and helped cement the Abraham Accords that normalized Israel’s relationship with several Arab states. 

The apparent benefits of concentrating Israel’s bets on the Republican Party, and then on its singular leader, Donald Trump, seemed to........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)