It's Time to Rethink America's Relationship with Israel

I’ve never been too obsessed with the intricacies of Israel-Palestine conflict.

As a principled advocate of foreign policy restraint, my position has been of neutrality in international affairs. No economic or military aid to both sides, no picking of one side over the other when it comes to internal affairs, no slavish subservience to Israeli interests that clash with American interests (namely, trying to confront Israel’s geopolitical foes like Iran.)

The flare up that took place earlier this month between Israel and Palestinian

Islamist groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad had everyone and their dog commenting on the situation and taking sides in the conflict.

As I said before, I have no dog in this fight. As a matter of fact, I fully support cutting off all aid to Israel. We’re talking about a technologically advanced nation with a per capita GDP of nearly $42,000, when purchasing power parity is taken into account. Economic prosperity generally allows for nations to build mobilizable wealth that states can use to build a robust national defense infrastructure. Israel already possesses an indigenous defense industry that has allowed it to become less dependent on outside sources for its defense needs.

Sadly, these facts have never registered with America’s political establishment, which is beholden to the defense industry, and has resulted in the US providing Israel nearly $244 billion in total foreign aid since 1946, when adjusted for inflation. As a consequence of this special relation, US foreign policy has been misdirected to serve Israel’s national security objectives. Sure, a case could have been made for the US’s strategic partnership with Israel during the Cold War, when the Soviet Union posed a clear and present danger to American interests in theaters like the Middle East. But the geopolitical realities have dramatically changed since then.

Frankly, we have no idea how the Israel Palestine conflict will turn out in the long-term. Demographic trends portend a bleak future of conflict in the country. Israel’s growing modern Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews are beginning to demographically transform Israel in a way that overwhelmingly favors its political Right, thus making it less receptive to negotiating with the Palestinians through the use of land deals. Similarly, a harder Right in Israel will likely take a more aggressive settlement policy that will inevitably butt heads with Palestinians. No US government should want to be around when the next round of conflicts kicks off between the two groups.

If there is a time to recalibrate the US’s relationship with Israel and treat it like a normal country, without giving it any special benefits, it’s now. Because things could get very messy in the decades to come.