The Gift that Never Gives

Jeffery Goldberg doesn't like the trend he sees in Israel's foreign policy:

A pattern has emerged in recent weeks of an Israeli government that seems to go far out of its way to alienate countries it has no business alienating. First, there was the gross insult directed at the Turkish ambassador to Israel by the deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon. [...]

Then came the assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai. Israel hasn't claimed responsibility for the assassination, but evidence points to the Mossad. It is one thing to kill Hamas officials -- Hamas, after all, has declared a war of destruction on Israel -- but it is another to do so in the United Arab Emirates, the most open-minded country in the Gulf, especially on matters related to Israel, and a country that is obviously important to the formation of a broad, anti-Iran coalition. 

Then, of course, came the humiliation dealt to Vice President Biden on his visit to Israel, about which enough ink has been spilled. [...]

Then this week came a snub by Danny Ayalon's boss, Avigdor Lieberman, the foreign minister, who boycotted a speech to the Knesset by the president of Brazil because Lula apparently wouldn't pay a visit to the grave of Theodore Herzl, who is now spinning in said grave, because he was a pragmatist as well as a dreamer and he knew that the Jews, a small, embattled people, need friends to survive. [...]

Bibi Netanyahu is not in control of his government. He has brought into his coalition parties -- Lieberman's party, the Shas Party -- that are narrow-focused, excessively-rightist, stubborn and prideful, and now he's paying the price. The problem is that Israel is paying the price as well. America can afford stupid politicians. Israel can't.  

 Goldberg is well placed to make his criticism, but if a U.S. politician criticizes Israel then the response is  furious.  Obama's denunciation of the slight to Joe Biden - who Goldberg calls "emotionally, spiritually and politically a devoted Zionist" - prompted angry responses that the Obama administration was abandoning an ally.  The Wall Street Journal squinted to see this as a trend of the Obama administration: "Then again, this episode does fit Mr. Obama’s foreign policy pattern to date: Our enemies get courted; our friends get the squeeze."

This analysis is nonsensical.  Mr. Biden's mission was to reassure Israel of its importance to the U.S. so this diplomatic flap certainly wasn't of the Obama administration's choosing.  Given Mr. Obama's long advocacy of a settlement freeze, remotely competent Israeli diplomacy would not have picked such a pointless fight either.   One hopes that Israel will treat its most important ally less cavalierly going forward, but only Obama was bloodied by the scrap so what's the lesson?  That bad behavior provokes a reaction that forces the U.S. President to reiterate his unwavering support for Israel?

Daniel Larison makes an interesting point about the parallels between the U.S.-Israel patron-client relationship and the relationship between China, Russia and Iran.

The U.S.-Israel relationship is similar to the relationship between Russia and Iran or China and Iran. The major power patron doesn’t really believe that there is anything wrong with the client’s controversial policy, and will never bring itself to pressure the client to change the policy. Some elements within the major power’s political class may even seen the client’s policy as a desirable or useful thing. The client relies on support from the major power to shield it from the opprobrium and opposition of hostile and unsympathetic states, and the major power is invested enough in supporting the client that it isn’t really ever going to jeopardize the relationship over an issue that ultimately makes no real difference to the major power’s interests. 

 The difference is that Iran provides valuable natural resources to Russia and China, the relationship doesn't undermine their national security through blowback and they can bargain their support for international action against Iran for concessions in other areas.  In other words, Russia and China have a strategic relationship with Iran, while the United States has a love affair with Israel.  Love affairs are wonderful, but they aren't particularly good strategy.  Israel takes us for granted, because we can be taken for granted.